how hard can it be?

2 days ago I tried to transfer some money from my account to the account of a friend in san diego. Online banking makes it easy and only charges you 10$ for a next day processing.

so I say ok transfer money, 20 minutes later I get a comformation that the funds are being transfered.

2 days later my online banking doesn't work anymore and the money is still in my account...

So I try to call the help line to figure out what's going on.

Great a voice activated system... Since I'm in no mood spell my name for the next 45 minutes I go to the bank to let them sort out this stuff...

Theoretically...

practically:

me: hi I have an issue with online banking
teller: please call the help line
me: the help line does not accept my accent
teller: please wait, we get somebody to make the call for you
me: thanks

assistant: how can i help you?
me: this is my prolem
assistant: no problem

45 minutes later. Assistane was transfered from customer service to online service to general service to wire service and back to customer service...

So I have a comfirmation for a transaction which never happened. At this time I just order a secoond coffee and think glad that I don't have to do these calls...

75 minutes later she tells me she can't do anything about the transfer and she can't help me with online banking.

So I'm back at calling the customer service....

Which repeatatly hangs up on me. 30 minutes later, I'm trying the online chat system, Which seems to be a stupid robot. Which does not get the message.

Example of the chat log:



Faith: Do you remember your passcode? Please do not disclose it to me.
You: yes
You: but the passcode is not the problem
Faith: Wonderful!
You: the error message I get since 3 days is: ' * We're temporarily unable to process this request. Please try again.'
Faith: http://www.bankofamerica.com
Faith: Please click on the above link to sign in.
You: i still get the same error message
You: ' * We're temporarily unable to process this request. Please try again.'
Faith: For security of your account we never store your passcode or have acess to them, I apologize, however, I will be glad to provide you a new temporary passcode immediately which allows you to change it to a permanent one, once you access the site. Will that be alright?
You: yes, sure
Faith: Sure, one moment please.


Surprisingly it worked. Only wasted 2 hours of my live and now running late with baking my cake...

update: just got an email that the none existing transfer was canceled...