It's a Little Bit Funny...

My favorite quote from the financial idiocy going on:

Stocks climb on news that rich people are fine with socialism when the money is going to them.

From Fark, of course.

And One to Grow On

My sister, Roselle, just got a few of her photos published by 91.3 KBCS from her story on the protest against public surveillance called Watching the Watchers.

I couldn't get any of her photos to show up here, for some reason, so bear with me and click the link.

I had a good weekend, mostly laid back. Worked on Saturday, but I got to do crafts, so it was all good. I made a house book during one of our programs. Those who know me shouldn't be too surprised to get one for xmas--with something special inside, of course.

The Boy went to play his three on three tournament on Saturday, too. He lost both of his games, but had a good time.

The garden is growing out of control. Mostly it is the pumpkin and squash that have become monsters. I have had a couple of the yellow squash and I have to say that I like them much better than zucchini and you can do the same things with them. The tomatoes have tons of fruit on them, but they are all still small and green. Pics to come.

Oh, and I have to thank BoA (see previous post) for the lovely gas card and thank you letter. It would be great if they also posted the refund of the overdrafts that they promised me, but $50 free gas is always welcome. Feels like they actually saw me as a valued customer that always pays her bills on time.

The Incredible Invisible Customer

Do you ever feel like you are invisible? That the fact that you have an account with a company doesn't matter? I banked with WAMU for over 18 years and they didn't even bat an eyelash when I complained then switched to a credit union.

While switching between bank accounts, I had a snaffu with my line of credit payment for another bank. This is my only account with them, they bought my account from MBNA and in the past they have denied me a lower intrest rate, even though MBNA had promised they could lower it after a certain amount of time.

This time, as I was updating all of my bank information for the online payment, there was a mishap. It was the day before the bill was due and I looked to make sure the payment was set. Well, it didn't appear to be--it said that there was no payer information even though I had updated it all a couple of weeks before. So I paid it. And it came out twice. $500x2=$1000 I don't usually have that much extra in my account.

So I called them and they guy I talked to said they would reverse the second payment and that it would be a day or two, which sounded about right since it only takes a day for the payment to come out--if even that.

Nope, that was a week ago. I have talked to them again since then, and while the representatives are always nice and sympathetic, they can't do anything for me. The second time I talked to someone, they told me that it takes 8 days to put the money in. Unless you have a checking account with them. So I have been broke for a week, having to use my credit card to buy groceries and waiting anxiously for the money to come back.

When I talk to the managers at this company, they make me feel ineffectual. They put on a nice front, but since I don't bank with them otherwise, they are unwilling to help me. It is their policy. I can't wait to pay them off and say goodbye forever. Funnily enough, the last manager I talked to congratulated me on my good credit and told me to call back when I was ready to buy my first house.

Right.

I called them again today, because the money still wasn't back. The first guy I talked to wouldn't let me talk and he was a jerk. He wouldn't let me speak to a manager and ended up hanging up on me. The only information that he imparted to me was that it could be up to 30 days before the credit showed up!

The second woman listened to me and put me through to a manager. He also listened to me, credited my account for the 2 overdraft fees that I got due to this fiasco. There is nothing they could do for me in the mean time, but I asked that he make sure that his staff were better educated and the website looked into. That first payment never did show up on there, although my balance reflected both.

Their initials are BoA, but I doubt they are all that different from the other big banks out there. I am just tired.

Nice Weekend w/ Bro + Other Random Stuff

My brother Skeejers came to town this weekend. On Saturday we sang Karaoke at Venus in the International District with my Dad's brood--I like mixing family--even The Boy sang! I am hoping to get some pics of that soon. Yesterday we visited the Mac's, then went to my Dad's choir concert and out to Stellar Pizza in Georgetown. Today I showed him a few of my favorite haunts. We went to King's Hardware for dinner tonight, hit Cupcake Royal and wandered around Ballard before I had to take him to the airport. I had the cupcake on their homepage--peppermint vanilla, yum!

I have been working in my p-patch. Pictures in my next post.

There are enough posts about Byersebooks that I will let you search it yourself. It seems to be a front for some criminals that make money by skimming accounts, then making bigger charges later if the first ones aren't noticed. I just got my confirmation from the bank that the charge was fraudulent and they are refunding my money. Yay.

I am switching to a credit union. I am tired of WAMU, they really bug me. Whoohoo! It doesn't have anything to do with this fraud thing. It is mostly because I tried one night to make a transfer so that a charge would be covered, but the site wasn't working. I got an overdraft and I let them know what happened and they said...too bad. I don't mind paying them when I get them on my own, but I hate paying $34 when I tried to have it covered. The credit union only charges $24. Really this was just the nail in the coffin. That Whoohoo campaign makes me sick.

I am losing my children's librarian. She is going to greener pastures and I am going to miss working with her. :'(