OK…I’ve been talking about how great and lovely the culture is over here…I haven’t complained about the negative in awhile. So here goes. What an amazingly frustrating day. I drove over to the Romanian’s house early today to give her the money so she could buy my ticket to Greece next week. Im only going for two days so I don’t have to miss teaching my acting classes. Oh before I get to that let me tell you that I also have difficulty paying my rent, that is in the mode of payment. Rent is very high here and I don’t have a checking account. If I were to open a checking account it would take about a month, and I’d have to produce two blood samples and sample from my children…well its not the difficult but hopefully you get the point. To open up just a credit card account, I had to go through two –in person- interviews they came to my office, had to provide paycheck stubs from the last three months and whole bunch of other nitpick stuff. But I digress like always. So my flat didn’t want to take cash. I could pay by check or credit card. I didn’t have a checking account so I chose credit card. They were going to charge me an additional 3% interest…when you are paying as much as im paying (think luxury San Francisco flat rates) 3% is significant. So I decided to pay cash. They didn’t accept cash. What!!!! Who doesn’t accept cash? So they gave me the option of check or depositing it into their bank and bringing the deposit slip back to them. Now here’s where I defied them based on the principle. I told Ali, the manager, who is a nice guy and loves the fact that I teach acting, I said, Ali…I’m paying a lot of money to live here. Im paying you by cash. If that won’t work for you…I’ll find a new place to live. He took the cash.
Ok…so Im driving to work and I get a call from HSBC Bank. The bank I just opened the credit card with. I should backtrack and tell you why I opened it. I like to see movies. When you pay for your movies with an HSBC bank card you get free popcorn and soda. Im such a sucker for a deal. So I got my card and started using it instead of my US bank credit card. Over here because of the international thing and potential fraud, sometimes the card gets declined. On the internet especially. So my HSBC card works. So I opened this about a month ago and I was wondering…Why I hadn’t gotten a bill yet. So collections calls me and says where is their money? I explain Im waiting on a bill…they sent it…I didn’t get it…its not our fault you didn’t get it…its not my fault either…we sent it…I get every other piece of mail I didn’t get that one…its not our fault…send me another bill…we can’t we’re collections, call customer service…im too busy to sort out this mistake of yours you call customer service for me send me a new bill I’ll pay it…that’s not our department…Let me talk to your supervisor…Ok…the same run around with him, but he said he would note my complaint in the account but I need to call customer service. He would not have anyone else call me, and do nothing to the card. So later in the day, I finally had a chance to call customer service. I’m on hold for 20 minutes…and then they cut me off…redial 20 minutes again…cut off…redial finally I get someone and explain my situation and they agree to email me the bill within the next couple of hours. Ok..good… So I decide to go to a movie. I try to pay with my HSBC card for the free popcorn and soda…its declined…I try the card again. Its declined. What???? Can you please give me the coupon for the free popcorn and drink…you don’t know what I went through…she said no. So I can pay cash, and buy the popcorn and soda…or I can call the bank and sort it out. I still had 10 minutes before the movie started. So I call customer service explain my situation…and then get really mad. They want me to call collections. I talked to them this morning…they started this…sorry sir we can’t do anything. So the number they gave me for collections is wrong….so I call customer service back, am on hold for 10 minutes and get cut off. Are you kidding me? So I call back and they say we can’t help you, you have to call collections…I tried that number it doesn’t work…are they not answering?…no it doesn’t work. So finally I talk to a supervisor and he patches me through to customer service. I explain that Im leaving for Dubai in the morning and need the card activated immediately. At this point I give up on the movie. He says, I need to pay the bill…I know! I haven’t received the bill…ahhhhhhhh. So he says you need to pay it and in 24 hours your card will be reactivated. I don’t have 24 hours, Im going to dubai tomorrow and need it now…sorry sir…OK…can I pay now over the phone…yes sir…OK here’s my other credit card number….oh no you can’t pay with another credit card…How can I pay…online…if I can pay online with a credit card why can’t I pay you? Im sorry sir…I cannot accept it…you can pay for it in one of our branches…Its 6:45 how am I going to find a branch at this….(I pass by a branch) OK…here’s one. Let me go inside and pay. Sir, I’m having computer difficulties can you call back in five minutes…no way, I spent three hours on this today, I already got cut off four times while on hold and I want you there until I make this payment so you can activate my card. So I go up to the bank. Normally banking hours are 9-1 and 4-7 they are closed 1-4. So I get there at 6:50 and wouldn’t you know it…closed. So I get back on the phone and the collections rep hung up. Arggghhhhh God what are you trying to teach me here?…. They had an online computer..but I figured I could do the online thing from home. So I get home (I had to stop by for more pork kebabs first) Im so addicted already…Woo-hoo for pigs. So I eat and get online and I try to register…but I need my pin code to register…my pin code is at the office. I gave up. I’m going to have to use cash. I know my father must be pained by that…he hates paying with cash. So what’s the moral of the story. Appreciate what you have America. Customer service sucks everywhere. But in places where logic is sometimes not really a priority…it sucks even worse. I still love this place though. With all the good days I’ve been having, I’m bound to have a bad day. And even a bad day here for me lately is still better than a great day most every where else. At the end of the day…Im lucky blessed and fortunate. This entire blog has been one giant run-on sentence. Its indicative of my day. Im sooooo excited about my trip to Dubai and all the work im going to get done. Im very lucky and blessed at the end of the day.
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