catalogue of ineptitude

you said it, sam.

sam is the personal banking assistant i just spoke to at barclay's bank. he described the problems i've had with my bank account this year as a "catalogue of ineptitude". i would say that is fairly accurate.

like today. before i went in to see sam, i had phoned the number they tell you to phone when you lose your debit card, have a question about an entry on your bank statement, or are changing your address. my issue concerns that last of these, so i phoned. i had to be re-routed TWICE because i had "reached the customer service department, and we don't deal with that request". then don't tell me in a letter accompanying my debit card that you do! just common sense, i'd say.

so when i finally got through to someone who could "deal with my request", not only could he not "deal with my request", but i apparently do not exist in his system. "uh...i can't see you in the system here. you're going to have to pop into your branch". what?! for the love...

(note: in the process of looking through my banking files, i noted that the address of my bank is different everywhere that it appears. and not the whole address, just the postal code and post office box. brrrrriiilllllllll. so when they say "make sure your bank in Canada has the correct address details" they must mean "don't even try to wire money from another bank, because we've given you a false address". oh, for godsakes.)

so gawd knows if i will ever get a bank statement again. haven't gotten one since may, inexplicably. oh wait, that's because some genius re-set my statement to arrive once YEARLY. v. helpful. sigh.

and i can't use online banking. at least not until i spoke to sam. but honestly, i'm not getting excited until i have the online banking information IN MY HANDS. last time i tried to set it up, i got a letter saying that the bank requires you to hold an account with them to be eligible for online banking. now THAT is a slap in that face. how in the hell has this bank survived this long? customer dis-service, more like.