Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I still just need a stupid bank account....

Back on Feb 6th I wrote about this stupid bank account that I'm trying to open.( Story starts here.) I feel like I need a witness or something about how asinine this whole thing is getting.  When I last left off I had gotten a call after business hours that I needed to bring my passport back (for the third time!!)
2/11 I went in with copies of my passport. He took them and assured me it would be very soon now. I asked "which day should I come back?" and was assured "Monday."
2/15 Monday mid-day I arrive at the bank to get my account numbers. Waited more than an hour because there were many people waiting. At least this time I had the presence of mind to bring my kindle with me. The manager brought me to his desk and said "I'm glad you came. We found you are still missing two things." I almost flew off the handle. First, why didn't you call me and tell me two days ago?! I would have brought them instead of just waiting for you to not actually do anything for two days! Second, what more could you possibly need from me?!" Turns out there was a "critical" typo on the letter from CLIDE. And he also needed a copy of the stamp in my passport that immigration gave me. The immigration documents were not enough. I had waited so long already that patients out in Obulle were waiting on me so I didn't want to spend time getting the copies and I knew Moses wasn't in the office to fix the letter anyway. So I told him I'd be back first thing in the morning. Mr Manager said that would be perfect and he promided he would then begin working on it straight away.
2/16 Went to the CLIDE office first thing to get the letter fixed. Office devos are supposed to start at 8am or 8:15 and be done no later than nine but at 9:45 were still going strong. I know this shouldn't really be frustrating but it really was. Finally finished and waited while Moses printed, signed and stamped a new letter. Turns out that even after all this I would not be getting the accounts today. Seems that back on the 11th, the 16th was turned into a national holiday. I guess I had four days to learn of this so that should have been enough. (Don't believe me that this country would create a national holiday four days before said holiday? Here is the newspaper article that ran AFTER the event. Link.) So even though Robert promised, his word actually meant nothing as the bank was really closed and I would not be getting anything.
2/17 Went back again today and started off telling them I was done, they could cancel my application and I would stop bothering them. That at least jumped me to the front of a line that was six deep. Robert (Mr. Manager and I are on first name basis now) tried to reassure me.  He again promised. I told him I didn't believe him anymore. He said it would only be a few more days. I pointed out that tomorrow is election day (banks will be closed) and Friday is only a half day of work.  He seemed surprised that I knew this.  I also told him I was very tired of hearing only a "few more days". He just couldn't seem to understand why I would be so frustrated which actually makes it more frustrating.

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