Saturday, June 04, 2005
Big, Expensive - - - (mistake)
I nearly had kittens last night at the ATM. I put in my ATM card because I wanted to see if my house payment was made automatically. So, I went looking through their very informal GUI for something that said "mini statement" or words to that effect. I couldn't find any such menu item, so I decided that I might be able to calculate the event by checking my current balance. I clicked on "current balance", but the amount that appeared on the screen was *WAY* lower than the amount I was sure I had in the bank whose ATM I was attached.
I printed the receipt and looked carefully. I counted the digits and looked at the dollar sign to see if I could be missing something between the "$" and the first digit. I payed attention to the commas (err, comma), but I was sure there was a digit missing. A big digit! Not like a "house payment" digit - more like a "luxury car" digit.
I raced home to check my bank statements. The most recent one I had was over a month old, so I took a chance and dashed off to the mailbox. My new statement was sitting there along with my spider waiting to be picked up (and fed). I riped it open right there. Well, as of last week, I had the amount I thought I had, so how do I explain missing this much money over the course of a week? I can't! It was like I got crazy at Vegas over the last week or something.
My mind started racing - how did this happen? Is it identity theft? Or perhaps the home loan people messed up and took the extra digit. Or maybe some charity check was misdirected into bad hands. I really had no idea, but I was going to get to the bottom of this.
First thing this morning I took all my paperwork along with the ATM receipt to the bank. The line was long and I became concerned that this transaction would take a long time and upset all the other people behind me in line.
"I can help you, sir", waved an arm from behind the counter. "Hi", I started, "This one might take a manager's help to figure out."
"Well, you're in luck - I'm the manager", she said.
"Well, I got this bank statement in the mail recently and the amount on hand is *very* different from what this ATM receipt says."
"Wow, hmmmm", she offered. I didn't have a warm fuzzy feeling all of the sudden. The keyboard under her hands clicked and the mouse got poked for a while. "Well, you're balance as of today corresponds with the monthly statement. Could this be someone elses ATM receipt? "Well, that's the one that came out, and...", I started, "I don't think it's anyone elses, because the last four digits on the ATM card are . . . Um, the last four digits are... the last four digits are the last four digits for my daily account at another bank. I had put the wrong ATM card into the ATM. Oops. Hi, I'm an idiot. Have a nice day."
We both gave out a sigh of relief. I thanked her and apologized for taking her time.
I printed the receipt and looked carefully. I counted the digits and looked at the dollar sign to see if I could be missing something between the "$" and the first digit. I payed attention to the commas (err, comma), but I was sure there was a digit missing. A big digit! Not like a "house payment" digit - more like a "luxury car" digit.
I raced home to check my bank statements. The most recent one I had was over a month old, so I took a chance and dashed off to the mailbox. My new statement was sitting there along with my spider waiting to be picked up (and fed). I riped it open right there. Well, as of last week, I had the amount I thought I had, so how do I explain missing this much money over the course of a week? I can't! It was like I got crazy at Vegas over the last week or something.
My mind started racing - how did this happen? Is it identity theft? Or perhaps the home loan people messed up and took the extra digit. Or maybe some charity check was misdirected into bad hands. I really had no idea, but I was going to get to the bottom of this.
First thing this morning I took all my paperwork along with the ATM receipt to the bank. The line was long and I became concerned that this transaction would take a long time and upset all the other people behind me in line.
"I can help you, sir", waved an arm from behind the counter. "Hi", I started, "This one might take a manager's help to figure out."
"Well, you're in luck - I'm the manager", she said.
"Well, I got this bank statement in the mail recently and the amount on hand is *very* different from what this ATM receipt says."
"Wow, hmmmm", she offered. I didn't have a warm fuzzy feeling all of the sudden. The keyboard under her hands clicked and the mouse got poked for a while. "Well, you're balance as of today corresponds with the monthly statement. Could this be someone elses ATM receipt? "Well, that's the one that came out, and...", I started, "I don't think it's anyone elses, because the last four digits on the ATM card are . . . Um, the last four digits are... the last four digits are the last four digits for my daily account at another bank. I had put the wrong ATM card into the ATM. Oops. Hi, I'm an idiot. Have a nice day."
We both gave out a sigh of relief. I thanked her and apologized for taking her time.
