Pleasant Eve Chat

Just a little fun with the kids on Eve.

Sad, Sad Bank of America

The bank I used to love. I still do want to love you Bank of America. I really do. I still have my accounts with you.

I love my online banking and bill pay. I use you all the time. You are fast most of the time. Bill pay is practically foolproof.

In spite of your flaws I recognize that all people and corporations have flaws and I forgive you your flaws because I understand them. I understand them because I worked there for almost four years and feel your pain.

However today I saw three agents in the call center who didn't know how to solve my problem flat out lie to me to get me off the phone with them. To their credit two of them submitted a service request to have their back office people who know what they’re doing and can't be bothered answering the phones fix my issue. That's fine if you want to do it that way but tell me you're going to do it that way. Don't tell me "I fixed it and it will show up in one business day."

I guess they missed the part where I told them I used to work there. The third agent I spoke to tried the same thing with me but I really wanted it fixed now so I corrected her and walked her through how to fix my problem since you know...I used to work there.

Here is the rant I put on my Facebook page. I want to say again that I hold no grudge against Bank of America. However people need to understand that they need to verify things that people say they did because it's very possible they did not do what they said they would resulting in more fees and aggravation and possible other serious consequences. The rant is verbatim with a link;

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000563779593

I just had to call Bank of America 3 times to get an account type changed. When I left they should have converted my Money Market Savings account to Regular savings account. They didn't so I ended up being charged a $12 monthly maintenance fee. I called today to have the account changed to the correct account type.

The first gentleman clicked around a bit and told me I’m all set, I'll see the change in 1 business day. I happen to know that's not true since the account type change shows up instantly when done correctly. Therefore I know he had a problem he didn't know how to fix so he decided to bullshit his way out and hope I didn't notice.

Well I worked there for almost four years so of course I noticed. I told him I'm an ex-employee too. He still went for the bluff. It failed. I called back. Amazing enough I got another guy who tried the same thing. I accepted his answer and hung up. I called back a third time and was told the same thing again. This time…

I politely corrected her and told her how to make the change and why it wasn't working when she tried to do it. I could see her embarrassment through the phone line and I tried to do it gently because I know it's hard dealing with customer service. Sure enough following my step by step instructions she changed the account type and corrected the issue that didn't allow the change to begin with. I thanked her and got her first name so I can make sure she gets credit when I get the email survey, which I will definitely be filling out on all three of them. They get bonus of up to $500 a month for good surveys so this will likely cost two of them their monthly bonus. I also asked nicely to have the $12 fee taken off my savings account since I did what I was supposed to do and overall it took four phone calls for Bank of America to get it right. She was very professional and kind and removed the fee as she rightly should have since it shouldn't have been charged to begin with.

The lesson here is check and double check what people say they are going to do. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

My Daughter Rumer

My Daughter Rumer

 My daughter is Rumer and just turned 19. We’ve almost made it through the teen years without killing each other. She’s really growing into a fine young woman.

I know that the years ahead will hold many challenges for her but I know she is strong enough to face them and to do the right thing for herself.

She has just put a major chapter of her life behind her and begun a new one. I’m very proud of the strength she showed in getting through that.

 Now we are learning to put up with each other again after a years of her being semi on her own. By semi I mean she was allowed to have far more “sleepovers” than some might consider normal. This gave her a chance to grow on her own and learn to make her own choices.

I was there all the time when she needed me to offer guidance through school and other things that come up but for the most part she took what I said and made it work for her own life. She’s very smart and practical.

Now all we need to do is work on the little things again. Such as don’t use my brush and then fill it up with water. Yes, I know you were rinsing your pink dye out of the brush and I appreciate you trying to do the right thing but what I really want is for you to use your own damn brush.

And boundaries. I’ve asked that you use your stuff and I’ll use mine. After all you have a job and need to know how to spend your money wisely. I won’t always be here for you to fall back on and trust me, your “friends” won’t be your friends for long when you need help or money. Use your money wisely. You work hard and should be able to spend it on some things you want but not at the expense of the things that you need. That’s why I’ve drawn that line between mine and yours because mine won’t be there forever.

Your future now rests in your hands. You can choose to live your life barely surviving or you can sacrifice some of the good times and use your education to get into a job that you can really make a career out of. Remember that learning and education are lifelong things as well. As happy as you are to be out of school you will always need to learn new things to survive. The economy will change over time. In ten years you won’t recognize this world anymore. I promise you that. Be prepared. Prepare by learning a little each year. Learn things that will make your job better and earn you more money. And most of all, get that degree. You know what it is and how to get it and you will not regret it. You will have a life of plenty and independence like you only dream of now. Once that’s done, you can do a lot of things in your free time that you do now. It’s  just a pause.

No matter what you decide to do, know this, you are the joy of my life and always have been and always will be. I love you more than anything and always will no matter how much we irritate each other. We’ll always find a way to work around it.

Keep being who you are Rumer because you’re the best!

Love always,

Your Dad

Duel Me Jonanthan Jackel

Right now... My puny 2010 character against your powerful 2007 character!

The Turing Test

No online chat bot has come even close to making me think it's human. They are super easy to trip up. Just ask them to solve a problem. You don't even have to give them a problem to solve. Just ask them if they can. They can't even give a logical answer to that simple yes or no question.

http://testing.turinghub.com/

Grade: Fail