Monday, August 13, 2007

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Well, it seems like I can’t get through this life without some annoying problem every week. I feel like I am in a sitcom but I am never really able to find the comic relief.

Last week, following our continued electrical problems, I found that my bank card was not working. My problems were not due to a lack of money, but rather would come up with a message of ‘Restricted Card Use’ I figured I was just over my withdrawal limit for the day/week, however the card continued to not work.

When I called the eight hundred number to inquire about my card, the lady on the phone insisted that I go down to my branch as soon as possible to “discuss” this problem. I made my way down to the branch at lunch to clear up this problem. The teller pulled up my account and then whispered to the teller next to her and asked me to produce my Visa, Drivers Licence and Social Insurance Card, and then led me to a small room behind the tellers.

No one explained anything, and I sat room, alone, for quite a while. A lady came in with a list of all of my banking transactions from the beginning of the month, and requested that I verify my spending.

However the difficult part came when reviewing all of my ‘Point of Sale’ (A.K.A Interac) transactions as none of the store names were on the list. I was interrogated about the $5.53 I spent on August 2, and the $27.80 on August 7 and when I came up blank as to what I bought, the lady said to me very seriously, “Miss Garner, your card has been reported as stolen, and we believe there has been fraudulent activity on your card unless you can prove otherwise.”

I produced every card I had in my wallet that had my name on it, and told her that my card stopped working on Wednesday, but had been in my possession the whole time. She produced a list of all the places I had tried to use my “restricted” card and I agreed that I had tried to use my card a couple of time before I came into the branch to have this matter cleared up.

The lady looked me up and down, studied all of my information and left the room to make a phone call. When she came back, she handed all of my information to me and thanked me for my business. I sat there for a minute in shock. I had just spent an hour being grilled by this lady, and that was it? She said the restriction had been removed and I was free to go. I left the small room, vowing to only pay cash from now on.

Wondering:

Where are we? What the #$%@ is going on?

Hoping:

For more than just Tim Horton’s

Wishing:

Things could just be normal.

Good Luck. God Speed.

No comments: