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I see turkey…

I’m excited about this week. Mostly because I may (should) be able to take Thursday and Friday off. Technically, I can do as I please because those days are mandated paid holidays. Besides, I even came in on Sunday to do some work in order not to feel guilty. I think I should just tell my supervisor my plans and see what she says. At least, I’ll stop torturing myself with the “what ifs”. Anyhow, something happened at work today that may been good. It was pretty much a situation that had to come to a head. To make the long story short, my work (not necessarily on the scientific end of things) has been noticed and I felt good that coming early and generally busting my butt hadn’t been in vain. I just need to not relax on my oars and I will be fine. *nods head*

In more annoying news, I finally got a reason from Wachovia as to the check from Bank of America was rejected. Apparently, they present the checks electronically and it was “illegible” to the machine. They don’t have humans checking so it was an automatic thing. Well, I’m the wronged party here. I don’t care which bank takes the responsibility. What I do want is for one of them to take some sort of charge here. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for. Bank of America has always been bad-good to me. I swore I’d cancel my account sometime earlier in the year and I didn’t. Now, I have even more reason. Some of their representatives are exceedingly rude. Up to the extent of even hanging up on the customer! I kid you not. After learning the reason the check was rejected, I was understandably upset. I spoke with a black lady from the Credit Card Department, but she was hellbent on making me hear that it wasn’t Bank of America’s fault that she wasn’t listening to what I wanted anymore. So, I played hardball with her too. The best part was that I wasn’t yelling. Hell, they say I’m soft spoken no?! But she was seriously trying to out-talk me. When she saw that she wasn’t about to do that, she hung up on me. Then, I called back and spoke to a nicer young man who in less than 30 minutes, allayed my fears. He laid out a clear strategy as to what BoA would do to rectify this and I could have kissed this man. Here’s my position:

1. BoA’s check bounced (through no fault of mine) sending me into the red 
2. Wachovia accordingly charged me overdraft and bounced check fees. If not for timely action on M & I’s part, I would’ve been hit with other big time fees for items that were coming in. You do know that banks will actually hold pending payments in favor of a large lump payment so that your account will be zero or in the red in order to levy more charges against you. E.g. you have $20 in your account. Earlier in the day, you bought a $1 sandwich and $2 drink. Later, you sprung for a $8 meal. These charges will be viewable in your Wachovia online acct as pending charges. However, make the regrettable mistake of purchasing something like gas for $20, they’ll post that charge first and then, gleefully hit you with $35 for the former 3 charges that were pending. It’s complicated. The best way to avoid it: always be in the black and have an alert system set up.
3. Send me some sort of letter explaining that this was an honest-to-goodness mistake and asking Wachovia to return the $20 in charges that they have hit me with.
4. Making out the check tomorrow and this time, I’ll make sure to cash it at their branch.