oh yeah and the angry

stupid walk-all-over-ya. or wachovia, take your pic. it's all better now, but still.

last thursday my payment was due for my card. I paid the remaining statement balance of $685. I was nineteen cents short in my checking, and keep $5 in my savings with wachovia for just such an occasion. and I have overdraft protection.

for some reason, that did not kick in, my payment was returned and I got hit with $22 from my bank, $35 from discover AND an $82 finance charge. I don't have a revolving balance on that card and I pay it off every month, but there was $1400 in tuition and $1000ish in rug purchases hanging out there, so the balance was big.

Well, I go to the bank. They can't tell me why, blah blah blah. But they remove the $22 and get discover to waive the $35. D is unable to remove the $82 though. So I turn to the wachovia dude and say "so, y'all owe me $82 then."

this is when it got ugly.

first he tried to tell me he only owed me finance charges on the $685. I said no, if they system hadn't messed up I would owe ZERO in finance charges, ergo, you owe me $82. Then he tried to question me--the man STARED ME DOWN, people. "You have a very high balance, that $82 isn't all our fault...." "that must be a revolving amount, which is why your finance charge is so high." "You must have like a 40% interest rate." "There's no way that can be the case." "How can just one class cost that much?" "Your finance charge is not our problem."

It was awful. Talking about money is always uncomfy. But having a banking professional question your spending habits, your ethics and your character WHEN THEY MADE THE ERROR is quite simply atrocious! I was FUMING when I left. He ended up giving me the $82 and made it sound like he was doing me a favor, and I shouldn't forget it, and in the meantime I should stop telling lies. Except I wasn't. AND what my balance is should be beside the point--THEIR SYSTEM SCREWED UP! ugh.

Well, so I got back to work, looked at my new statement to confirm that, indeed, I had paid off the statement balance. I had. So then I called and spoke to a receptionist and left a message. This was all on Wednesday. Telling her I appreciated him fixing the error but that this man's behavior was out of line and accusatory and unprofessional. She said he'd call me back by the end of the day. He didn't.

Yesterday I called again. He knew who I was, he remembered. He had a note to call me. So I was all ready to tell him what I thought and he said thank you for calling, that that gave him the opportunity to review things in his mind, and he agrees a)he was very rude and inappropriate and inconsiderate and b)the specifics of my financial situation had NOTHING to do with the issue--the problem is that their system did not work correctly and he's having that looked into. He apologized and took all of the blame and said he knows he did not provide their standard of customer service. I still told him what I thought, that he had accused me, that I agreed my balance was irrelvant, but I didn't appreciate him questioning my character. Maybe I should have just stopped when he apologized, but I feel it is important to make sure he got it.

he thanked me for calling and for my feedback. And I have all of my money back, essentially. Well, except 22 cents but whatever. I still may write a letter to let them know and of course include that I received a very sincere apology from him, because this overdraft protection crap has happened to me twice (though not as severe last time) and because their employees should never act like that!

one thing in his defense however--apparently my occupation was listed as a full time student. which I am not. so that meant that reasonably there was no way I was paying off that amount on a student's income. still doesn't excuse, however...anyway.

I was super angry about this. But I'm not angry anymore. hence the "no longer angry" in the previous post. :)