A Bank of America Story I Love

It is no secret that I really have a dislike/hate relationship with Bank of America. When this story appeared it warmed the cockles of my heart. Somehow it happened months ago, but it is only getting real coverage now.

Bank of American foreclose on a Florida couple's home. No surprise there, right? Well, the couple did not have a mortgage. They paid for their house cash. They could not get anyone at the bank to listen to them, so they sued and won.

In all of its arrogance, the bank refused to pay the settlement. The couple's lawyer had the sheriff foreclose on the bank.

Read the article here. See the news below.

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Make a Offer

This is the place we have decided to try buying (post below). You have to imagine it without the bassinet and changing table. We will hardly need those.  Of course according to the realtor, their asking price is far out of range for the prices that places are selling for in this economy or have sold for in the last 6 months. We don't expect them to accept our bid as we really went low-ball, but it is a starting point. An advantage for us is that they are anxious to move as the wife is due in April, so they want to have moved long before she gets close to that time. There is another apartment we are interested in if this falls through.

The chore now is getting the money from Bank of America to here. When I online chatted with a customer service rep, she gave me 6 pages of instructions of what I would need to do since we were not about to return to California to transfer the money in person. They have a "SafePass" program now, which though cumbersome at first is much more convenient than the horror they put us through when we first bought this place. We had to send thousands of dollars to my best friend, who in turn wired it to us. I had set up the SafePass, but had not tried using it yet. The exchange rate from the bank on either end is not anywhere close to the exchange booths, so I am still thinking of a work around. 

At noon, we met with Peter who filled out the paperwork bilingually, so we knew what we were signing. After giving him a small chunk of change, he put the wheels in motion to place our offer. We need to get the money here by the middle of December; I was chewing my nails worrying. 

Once home, I tried doing the transfer. For security reasons, I had to put in all of the info on my ATM card. Easy-peasy. Next step, register your mobile phone number, which has to be US based. There was the hitch. We ran down the list of those we thought may have a mobile phone, plus one that could accept text messages. Don't laugh, but we know a number of Luddites, so this was no easy task. Targeting the youngest generation for whom we had phone numbers, of course none of them answered. I called our friend Laszlo who has taken off to NJ. He gave me his number; I entered it. Number accepted, send code now. Once the code is sent to the mobile phone, you only have ten minutes to use it or lose it. Laszlo gave me the 6 digits that appeared on his phone. I put them in. Code accepted. Make transfer. "Sorry, we cannot complete that action at this time."

I called the bank. I explained the whole process. She had no clue why it did not go through, but could tell it didn't. She referred me to the technical unit. I called them. The guy said I would need to remain logged into the error screen while at the same time calling him and having my friend with the mobile phone on the line also. It sounded like a bizarre juggling act. I don't want to play this game. We spoke further. Eureka! The first call and code is only to register the phone. Then you send the code again to complete the transfer. Viola! I didn't want to bother Laszlo again, so I called my friend Daphnee. Great, she was home. I sent and received the code to validate her phone followed by another go around to get the transfer code. Done, accepted, congratulations you have money. 

I was allowed to rest easy for an hour when I was checking my mail. There was a notice from the Bank of America fraud unit telling me if I did not call them immediately, they would put the kabash on the transfer. There were concerns about fraud and money laundering. Of for love of cold hard cash, not again. 

I called in immediately so we could play twenty questions. One was the number on my driver's license. I did not want to tell her it expired 7 years ago, but I still know it by heart. After answering all of the routine questions, she wanted to know why I was transferring so much money. The only reason I gave was to buy a property. What I did not say was that Bank of America was the corporate form of Satan in all of his guises, which made us want to distance ourselves to the fullest extent possible at the moment. 

We were one step closer. The next step was to contact the company that administered the stocks that my father gave us twelve years ago. They have been stable all of these years, but never earning any more than they lost. Time to cash in the chips, but I don't want to pay taxes on it in 2012. The broker and I arranged for me to sell them on my birthday, January 5th. That seemed like a lucky day, here is hoping.

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Bank of America Reaches New Low

If you are a regular reader, you will know I have a long history with hating Bank of America. Before someone shouts out the usual U.S. response "Love It or Leave It", let me say I have tried. It is impossible to try to open a bank account with a concrete bank, not a virtual one without doing it in person. 

This is my latest B of A ragtime blues. I wanted to switch our savings account from regular savings to a Certificate of Deposit. We had a CD before buying the Florida condo, but I closed it then not knowing how much access we would need to quick cash. Now they don't have that type of CD any longer. That CD only had a 3 month roll around. Every 3 months you had 7 days to add or withdraw. Options now are relegated to 12 months, however, they do have a savings maximizer. 

Here are the clinchers. B of A now owns half of America, but when I call, I can only speak to a California representative, because that is where my account was opened originally. Californians must be so haughty or naughty they need their own representatives to handle their accounts. However, California offices do not open until 3 hours later than the general call center for the rest of the country, which means "don't even dare think about calling until after 6pm Budapest time."

Well, I called to switch over the savings from one to the other. Forty-five minutes on the phone and presumably it was done according to Karen who helped me. Two weeks later, I receive a letter stating it was not possible. Karen is a dirty rotten liar and should not have told me it would be that easy. Tough patoots on you mister. But in all fairness, we did give Karen a promotion, because she really has great phone skills.

Call number 2 - Well, the reason they could not open the account is because a MAXIMIZER savings is linked to a checking account, so to open an account of that type, they need to create an entirely new checking/savings account combo. Okay, fine. Do it. They are so sorry, but even if I have been a client (no longer do they use customer) since the early days of evolution, they still need me to stand on my head and spit nickels while clapping both feet to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Well, God knows I am really out of practice, but I managed, had it videotaped for their archives, but not YouTube and we culminated the call close to an hour later. Again, it was collect, so they paid the phone bill. The new account was to appear online when I signed in after an anticipation period of 3 business days. Computers can do things instantly, but people need three days to make you really appreciative.

A week later, call number 3 was to Justin, a California rep right from the start when our online account looked the same as usual. I hate the shade of blue they use on their site. I wish I could decorate it myself, just enough to give it more appeal. Justin had me feeling like 3 IS the charm. Justin confides in me that our record is clean. There are no records of my having called in the past and is wondering if I am delusional or just called a wrong international collect number only to have provided all of my financial information to a stranger. 

Justin was so empathetic, I knew he had my welfare both financial and mental in his best interest, because he shared that if he had not gone into banking, he assuredly had a secondary option of having sex reassignment surgery specifically so he could join Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Just one more week of waiting and we would see the difference in our online account.

A week plus has passed. Nothing has changed with the account. If I ever run into Justin, he will be able to join the good sisters of the Missionaries of Charity without worrying about surgery.

Though I have a box of checks we will never need, every deposit slip has been used. Originally, I had asked someone at the bank if I could just scan and print out the last slips I had, but was told it was impossible. A package arrived; it was a box of deposit slips.  

Today, the paper statement is in the mail. I am rather compulsive about balancing the checkbook and more so living abroad. Damn if B of A did not add salt to a festering wound. Those %##$)(& charged us $61.84 for the printing, shipping, and taxes for one lousy box of deposit slips. There oughta be a law...

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Wasted Time Never to Receive Again

I like the fact that credit card companies are being stringent with their security, but it can get so aggravating when they block my card every other month. In the last six weeks, I have had to call MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. The strangest thing with some of the cards is that I did not even use them, but no one else tried to either. 


"Hey, let's play around and block this guy's card for the fun of it. He have been a member for twenty-one years, but we work here and cannot get credit."


Tonight, it was a call to Chase Visa. This was prompted by a message from Bank of America stating they could no longer access my account; hence, they would not make automatic payments until I fixed the problem. I tried logging on the Chase website; "Sorry, we cannot find your account." Well you certainly can find it when I send you money. After four attempts, I gave up and called. They answered right away with NO phone tree to go through. I spoke immediately with a live person. 


When she heard the problem, it meant being transferred to the technical issues department. Oh, boy! Surprise, the call was answered immediately. BUT wait, we cannot help you, because your card has been blocked for fraud. Transfer over to security. 


Security answers just as quickly. I go through the problem yet again. She said to me "I cannot access your account." I said neither could I which is why I am calling you. If you can't access it, who do we call?


Then she is muttering that her computer is stuck, but what she verbalizes is "I can't move! I can't move! Nothing is moving." I wanted to ask if she wanted me to call 911 in her area code, but I was certain she meant the computer. 


Finally, it was fixed, but it will take 5 business days to be able to troll around the account online, though I can use the card immediately. 


Tomorrow night will be my 4th call to Bank of America about a savings account that was supposed to be transferred over a month ago. Each time the rep tells me the last one did not do it correctly. 


All wasted time that will never be retrievable.

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Customer Service Stupidity - Bank of America

When friends tell me who great customers services are in the US, I wonder which planet they are really living on.When we were in CA, I spent at least 3 hours a week on the line with some customer service agent and that was only for personal reasons. For work, you could multiple that number by 3 again.

Even here, I am not immune to the stupidity of customer services in the US. This is an actual transcript of my latest attempt to get information from Bank of America. Just in case, this s real live person, I changed his name. However, I have suspicions that is a computer program that finds key words to send canned responses. I had to give my full name to sign in and then again I was asked for my last name, but notice that he addresses me as James, not Mr. James. Later, he asks again what my last name is and I type in James, but he still refers to me as James.

Chat Information Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. Thank you for your patience.

Chat Information Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

NK: Hello! Thank you for being a valued Bank of America customer! My name is N.

NK: Welcome to online Chat. How may I assist you with Personal Checking and Savings accounts?

You: My account is in CA, but we are buying a condo in FL that will be run by a property manager. How can they make deposits by mail?

NK: I completely understand your concern regarding the deposit by mail.

NK: I will surely provide you all the information.

NK: To begin with, may I please have your complete name and account last four digits?

You: Last name is James, but you will have to wait for me to get my check book for the digits.

NK: Sure.

You: XXXX

NK: Thank you, James.

You: or maybe is it

You: never mind, that is the check number

NK: Its correct last four digits.

You: It is 9709

NK: James, deposit can be make through Bank by mail.

NK: Bank by mail is the service that helps deposit checks to be deposited in the accounts when the customer is not in U.S or from other state.

NK: Let me provide your Bank by mail address.

You: What about deposit slips?

NK: Let me check this information.

NK: James, if deposit make through Bank by mail is not mandatory.

NK: Your Bank by Mail address is: PO Box 29966, Phoenix, AZ 85038-0966

NK: The customer can endorse the back of the item with their signature and account number .

You: Do you mean if it is done by bank by mail a deposit slip in not needed?

NK: Yes, you are right.

You: The issue is that I don't live in CA any longer. I live in Europe. I want them to be able to send the check directly to my CA account. I will not be around to sign the check. If I were there, I could deposit it myself.

NK: James, there is one more alternative for you.

NK: You may utilize Bill Pay to make a payment to an individual.

NK: The individual payee will receive a check at the address that you have entered for that payee.

You: That does not make sense. I am not trying to pay a bill. I want to deposit money.

NK: Sorry for the confusion.

NK: From out of us Deposit can be make through Bank by mail.

NK: Deposit slip is not required you can endorse the back of the item with the signature and account number .

You: We are back to the issue of my NOT being able to sign the check since I live in Europe.

Last text message received

NK: Please tell the depositor to make the deposit in any of the nearest bank branch in any state.

You: That works. Thanks, but I will call the bank to speak to a live thinking person, if they still hire them.

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If You Are Persistent, You Condo It

Did you notice the pun in the title? Fantasy is starting to turn into reality. After more than a few false starts with underachiever real estate people, I finally found one who was willing to do some work. Wow, you would have thought the Florida economy was busting at the seams the way they reacted (or not) to my inquiries, but since things there have all but imploded, they should be courting me. 

The first referred Realtor was from a blog reader. This was like playing the old TV show The Dating Game.  It first aired in 1965 and is in its umpteenth incarnation still on TV.

Realtor #1, if I were a home, what type of home would I be? I am sorry, Realtor #1, but I cannot hear your answer. Oh, I see, you are ignoring me. 

The second referral, a woman Realtor, was from the same source as #1.

Realtor #2, if we have X amount of cash to spend, where do you see us buying a property?

"Hello! My name is Christine. Thank you for contacting me. I hope to assist you in all of your real estate needs. What can I do for you today?"

Um, Realtor #2, if I were a condo, what would I be seeing out of my windows? 

"The real estate market in the Fort Lauderdale area is booming with opportunities. How can I assist you in getting your dream home?"

After writing to a couple of social groups in the area, two different people were courteous enough to suggest other Realtors. 

Realtor #3, we live in Hungary and plan to stay here, but we are anxious to see what you have to offer. How can you entice us with your goods?

"When do you plan on moving here?"

Realtor #3, we are looking for investment property, not to move there.

"When you move here, I will be happy to take you around to see what is available. Until you move here, it is impossible to say what will be on the market."

Realtor #4, you were referred to us by a Budapest, Hungarian who has only relocated to Florida five years ago. If we were spacious living space, how many rooms would we have?

"Oh, you would have hundreds of rooms. In fact more rooms than you have cash for. You really should get a mortgage. Here is the name of a Bank of America Loan Officer."

Realtor #4, we have done our thing with your friend the loan officer and he has given high approval ratings. Can we all get it together now and see where it leads us?

Realtor #4, are you there? Realtor #4?

Finally, after browsing through dozens of real estate "alerts" from three different real estate agencies including Multiple Listing Services, I came across the property we are buying. I contacted the selling agent directly. She turned out to be the ONE! It was worth the wait for the incredible help she has been.  

Linda Martignetti

Century 21 Tenace Realty, Inc.

1835 University Drive

Coral Springs, FL  33071

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And the Real Estate Beat Goes On

In this educational journey of buying property over the Internet, there have been many twists and turns. The Realtor that Mike had referred me to was very pleasant and accommodating for about a week, but then turned. He changed personalities so fast, a schizophrenic would be impressed. Suddenly, he felt we should come live there and rent for a few years before buying anything. Standard reasoning should be clear that if you are paying rent, you are not saving money for your down payment. That aside, he totally by-passed the fact that I said we were looking for an investment until we were ready to move back to the States sometime in the future. This felt like a brush-off because it was just that. Time to move on to Istvan's referral.

I e-mailed this Realtor Larry. gave him the lowdown on what we wanted, where we were at mentally and geographically, and asked if he could/would assist. He immediately arranged for a phone call to discuss things further. We spoke, he said he could help and signed us up for e-mail alerts on properties that came in through his agencies listing services. I was feeling heard and helped. I told Larry how much money we had in cash to buy a place. There were dozens and dozens of places within our range, but he suggested we still try to pre-qualify for a mortgage so that we don't use up all of our cash. He put me in touch with a loan officer at Bank of America. B of A is my secret nemesis, but we do have our checking, savings, and money market accounts with the CA B of A and we had our CA mortgage through them, making this a logical way to go.

The officer Larry referred us to, Peter, is a Platinum Member of B of A's corp of loan officers, the top 5% of the entire corporation. Shiny objects distract me and gain my attention, so Platinum was shiny enough to get me excited about working with Peter. After e-mailing Peter, he responded within a couple of hours. He immediately brushed me off, misreading my e-mail thinking we had no US income at all. Trying to keep my B of A contempt under control, I politely wrote back pointing out the error of his reading. Now understand, we only want a mortgage up to $30,000. It is not like we want to finance 75% of a property. We are just looking for a bit of cushion in case a really hot property comes along that is over our cash threshold. 

First Peter did not know if he could underwrite a loan for Americans living abroad. This took a couple of days and he found he could if we had sufficient US income. Well, I have no US income and our foreign income is not acceptable for US banking standards. Then we found out that the rules for giving loans to US citizens who are living abroad has changed in September 2009, not in our favor, of course. 

After Peter did much investigating, I had to scan and send off Ron's last two tax returns and copies of his 1099s for his retirement and Social Security as well as the evaporating pension fund. I included copies of our B of A bank statements, because I thought they were pretty damned impressive, but obviously not so. Peter wrote back stating that he could not run my credit report without any US income making it totally dependent on Ron. Now here is the glitch. Ron needs to have three open lines of credit to fully qualify. The problem here is that before we left the States, I paid off all of our credit cards and cut up most of them to avoid having debt. Ron still has a B of A Mastercard that he has not used in years and a Diners Club card. Ron's two cards are not enough according to Peter. After some pushing, he agreed to run a credit check anyway. We had a mortgage with B of A up until just five years ago. Ron had his truck loan through B of A. This idea that you have to be in hock up to your neck in order to borrow money is why our economy is in the shape it is in. 

We are waiting for the verdict, but it is not going to ruin my day either way. I can go either way. A mortgage will help Ron's Federal taxes, but being able to pay cash for a place and not having any big debt is are dream come true also.

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Credit Card Fees When Traveling

At one time, it was a cost saving measure for travelers to use their credit cards when out of the country. Credit card companies receive discount rates for currency conversions, which when calculated, a credit card purchase was less expensive than say converting cash or the now blurred memory of a traveler's check. Times change, companies get greedy and new fees are imposed. As ex-pats, each credit card purchase or ATM transaction is considered a foreign transaction with American Express, Diners Club, Visa, and Bank of America. However, have you checked your statement carefully lately? I just happened to notice on my Citibank Visa card that the annual percentage rate is 89.4%. Is this possible? I will never know since I have online banking set-up to pay the bill in full as soon as the bank is notified a statement has been issued. Credit card companies also have instituted other hidden fees. Diners Club for instance has to be paid in full each month, however, each month that I have used it, the statements shows a "finance charge". How can this be when it is paid off in full each month? When I called the company, they said "It is really a foreign currency transaction fee". As ex-pats, we are plagued with these fees for as long as we stay out of the country, so why continue using them? Well, for one reason, Ron is traveling to the US on frequent flier miles. In December, the two of us are going to Ethiopia on frequent flier miles. Why don't we get credit cards issued here in Hungary? Have you ever looked for hen's teeth? Yes, they do exist, but are much less ubiquitous here than in the US. Add to this the fact that Bank of America gouges us twice. They charge a $5.00 ATM withdrawal fee and add a 3% currency transaction fee on top of it. They do have cooperating banks in some countries where the $5. fee is waived, but Hungary is not one of them. Connecting to this point, I just read in Christopher Elliot's column that Congress is trying to close some of these fees, yet, there are still gaps that allow leakage. For example, the currency in Ecuador is the US dollar, but if you use your credit card in Ecuador, the credit card companies can still charge you a currency transaction fee for a foreign purchase. For Christopher's article and to learn what Congress is not doing to assist travelers go here. http://www.elliott.org/blog/credit-card-bill-has-an-enormous-loophole-that-could-hurt-travelers/

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The Generic Customer Service Line

A friend of mine sent me this link. He obviously doesn't know I am without my main computer. Good thing I have a laptop or I may not have received the laugh for days. I am sure this is the Bank of America customer service training video.
http://automatedphonehell.com

Perhaps all corporations are getting on the bandwagon and using the same thing. It really makes me laugh when my students come back from a short stay in the US and say they are so impressed with how efficiently everything works there as opposed to here. Sure if you live in a dorm or with a host family, you are insulated from most of the daily issues the rest of the population has to negotiate.

Again, I am fighting with Bank of America for a $6.50 service charge for our checking account when our balance fell below their standards, yet it is was significantly above. What this brought to mind were the fees that those less fortunate have to pay because they are low income. It is not just banking, but the rewards for those who have more and get more run across the spectrum. I really don't care about $6.50, I just don't want B of A to have it. I would rather make the decision myself of how it is spent.

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The Fight Is On Again

Why is it necessary to fight for your rights all of the time with major corporations? The David and Goliath story over and over again gets draining. We flew to Istanbul in March purchasing our tickets on Lufthansa and giving them our frequent flier numbers for United Airlines, both being part of the Star Alliance. We flew from Budapest to Munich and from there on to Istanbul. The latter leg was a code share with Turkish Airlines, but with a Lufthansa code and flight. Our return was the same in reverse. When I checked our miles on United.com, they had given each of us 500 miles for the first leg of the journey, but nothing for the Munich to Istanbul portion. I checked the list of United's partners and sure enough Turkish Airlines was listed as a full fledged partner. Checking on the Star Alliance web site, I found that Turkish Airlines is listed there also as full fledged partner also. Thinking that both Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines both being partners, we should have received miles regardless of whose plane we flew on. I submitted the form for missing credits. A day later, I received an e-mail from United stating that our flight did not qualify for miles. No explanation was given, no apology for our misunderstanding, but best of all, no "Thank you for contacting us. We value you as a customer." I would rather nothing at all than a phony apology. I was 20,000 miles short of getting both of us tickets to Australia, but have enough for another trip to Africa assuming they don't go out of business or raise their mileage rates before December of 2009. I want those miles! I try to book flights that will garner us miles. I wrote to Christopher Elliot, the travel ombudsman about this. He suggested I write to the higher ups and gave me the addresses for various airlines. I have yet to write, but will as soon as school is out this next week. Issue two is Bank of America yet again. I keep saying I hate this bank, but the more I hear about other banks, the problems with others are similar. I was looking at our statement online. They charged us $6.50 service fees last month. We have not been charged service fees for over a year. I wrote to Customer Service an oxymoron if there ever was one. Although polite, I said there must have been a mistake and would like it rectified. They responded within 12 hours stating it was due to our "linked" accounts falling below the minimum balances for the month, but I should be happy to know that since we have direct deposits, we did save $2.00. Well I had to admit that our checking account did run with about $500. as a balance, but our regular savings account has over $5,000. in it, but if that is still not enough, we have a CD account with a hell of a lot of money in it that is well over their minimum standards. I wrote back explaining all of this, but in return received yet another emotionally inflaming e-mail stating this could not be handled over e-mail and I would have to call customer service. That would mean waiting 6 hours later than normal for their office to be open due to the time differences, then pray I reached one of their numbers that accepted collect calls, and finally found someone with enough brains to overcome their scripted training to tell me there is nothing they can do. All of their e-mails end in "We value you as a customer and appreciate your business." Well they have a hell of a way of showing it. I know, I just know that when I call, they will tell me that the CD account was never "linked" to the other accounts and therefore we incurred the charge. "Linked" is a magical way for banks to carve more fees from their customers' hard earned money. Hey, I did not send you my house keys because I could not pay my mortgage, so don't try to make up the losses by screwing with me. I know full well this "linked" trick and I made sure I had all of our accounts linked when we opened this new account. Thanks to a comment posted to this blog on a previous rant about Bank of America, I have the address for the president. Excuse me now, I have a long list of letters to write.

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Shop Until We Drop For a Cause

No temples, no tuk-tuks waiting, we wandered over to the Blue Pumpkin for breakfast and to finish our Internet work. We were lucky enough to find a table on the patio right next to an electric outlet. Strangely, I checked our Bank of America account and there was no record of the $299.48 being deducted that they sent me the alert on. Maybe this is one battle I will not have to battle when we return. The other interesting thing was that when Ron used his ATM card, even though he put in he wanted to deduct the money from our checking account, the money actually was taken from his B of A credit card as a cash advance. I was able to pay the bill immediately so they could not get any interest charges tacked on. We will have to fix this matter when we return. There is something about knowing you have to go back to fight bank battles that puts a crimp in a vacation. Perhaps the Internet is not the blessing we believe it is.

We set today aside as a day for shopping and possibly a massage. There was absolutely nothing we wanted to buy in Malaysia and we do love to add trinkets from our trips to our apartment. Not only do we love being surrounded by the memories, but each and every bed and breakfast guest loves seeing the things we have acquired from various trips. Sometimes, it is creates an opportunity to share travel ideas for them and for us, too.

Being both of us were former social workers, we were drawn to the craft centers that had a social justice underlying theme. We found a craft training center where children are tested for talents and then are given apprenticeships in various cultural crafts such as silk weaving and wood or stone carving. We did a tour of the school annex here in Siem Reap; the main school is in Phnom Penh. We were able to see students carving, sanding, creating lithographs, and so on. There is a gift shop on the premises.

Another shop we found was run for the Cambodian disabled who had learned crafts. This shop sold their goods. We found a coconut teapot to add to our teapot collection. Along the way, we found some fun t-shirts with the Khmer language on it, not one I would like to try learning. We picked up some pillow covers to replace some old ones we have. Then of course, we found some small gifts for friends.

Neither the disabled nor elderly receive any governmental funds, making life difficult for them to survive. One of the schools started with the craft training programs is one dedicated to deaf children. As the sign said, they are ostracized here and this is a way for them to fend for themselves economically.

We had read about the Butterfly Café that is surrounded by mesh and there are varieties of butterflies flitting all around. There is a double door to keep them from getting out. We went for a drink after finding it across the river and off of the beaten track. For the hour we sat there, we saw three butterflies. Guess it is not the season and the workers did not speak enough English to question them. It was disappointing, but an interesting concept.

Ron had read about a massage service offered by blind massage therapists. They have been specially trained in order to support themselves. We found a couple of places advertising this service, but went to the one in the guide. Ron opted for a massage, while I waited outside. They do have seeing people taking the money. He said it was a lot of acupressure type massage where she seemed to be checking for auras. He could ‘feel’ her hand gliding over his body until she felt something and then stopped and massaged that area. For $7.00 for an hour, you cannot beat it and it is helping those trying to help themselves.

We have been in and out of the hotel room all day, dropping off things and then taking off yet again. It has been a fun day with little bags of goodies piling up, but finding space for it in the luggage and then the weight concern will be another story. As Scarlett O’Hara said “I will worry about that tomorrow.”

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Christmas Day

I have been reading the book We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. In spite of the author’s name, it is a woman. The book won the Orange Award for Literature in 2005. We picked up the book in South Africa last year, but I never got around to reading it. Ron had and strongly urged me to read it soon. Well I finished last night before going trying to find the Sandman. However, my mind was in a tidal wave of thoughts about ATM cards, credit cards, worrying about cash if the hotel could not get our card to work, running out of money before our trip is over, which is really quite ironic. For the first time ever, we have enough cash in our accounts to cover this trip in its entirety without having to use credit cards at all. However, with Bank of America putting a stop on my ATM card and our Hungarian bank’s ATM not working, we are having to struggle with the cash on hand. Ron’s card has worked once. As a last resort, we will try his again, but the sadist/masochist duality in me does not want to draw money from that account. After all, we have over 3,000 Euros sitting in a bank in Hungary waiting to be drawn on for this trip, so I really don’t see the reason we should pay Bank of America $5.00 for every withdrawal PLUS their currency conversion fee on top of it. With these boil, boil, toil, and trouble thoughts, sleep was elusive. When it finally arrived, my slumbering nightmares were about school shootings and watching someone prepare for the next one. This is Kevin’s fault or rather Ms. Shriver’s. She is solely responsible for these transmissions into my subconscious, because for certain if they were mine, I would be lining up bankers, not innocent school children.

Knowing that Santa did not find us, there was no real motivation to crawl out of bed when the alarm went off other than knowing Ron rested well and had his heart set on more explorations. He was sweet enough to go the Italy for coffee and pastries while I showered and dragged myself together.

As soon as we reached the lobby, we told the desk we wanted to pay our bill. If we had to arrange for money, we wanted to know if they were going to have issues with our card also. It went through like a charm, averting one cardiac arrest. When I explained to the desk clerk our problem with the restaurant last night, she explained they had a chip reader also, but were trained in the other method also for instances like this. She claims there is no reason why the restaurant should not have been able to run our card. We are having to leave here at 3:30 am to take a taxi to the airport in KL for an Air Asia flight at 7:00 am. If I did not have enough material to produce a trilogy of full length nightmare movies, here is an added bonus. Air Asia has a luggage weight limit of 15 kg. When we left Vienna, my carry on, which did have the bulk of our clothes and six books was weighing in at 42 kg. We have dumped things, have not purchased a thing that has not been consumable, and hopefully they will know how to run a credit card machine to charge us for the excess baggage. There is nothing left to leave behind.

Being conscientious, we went straight to a money changer and converted more Euros and then on to Libra, the restaurant we owed the money to clearing ourselves of debt. It was 11:30 am, but they were not open for the lunch trade. Ringing the bell and pounding on the door did not produce any results either. We knew there was a historic mosque in the area, so we hunted it down and found it on Harmony Road. This road is so aptly named because there is a mosque, a Buddhist temple and a Hindu shrine with two blocks. When we were in Thailand, the Buddhist temples really spoke to my soul, but there is something about a Hindu temple that speaks to my imagination. This one in particular was dedicated to Ganesh, the elephant headed god. When I started to take a picture of a small Ganesh statue, a monk ran up to me waving his hands. I said “No pictures”, but without responding he placed a lei of flowers around Ganesh’s adequate neck and then signaled that now he was ready for his close-up.

Ron being the ever optimist, we went back to try out the other hop-on hop-off bus to see if we could get to the Portuguese neighborhood, though I reminded him that most likely they were all Catholic and nothing would be open. We entered the bus for two Ringgits for an all day ticket. We did the full circuit taking close to two hours of our time, touring neighborhoods reminding me of the time I lost my way in NYC and ended up in Harlem, back in the early 70s. We never did get close to the area of the city Ron wanted to see, so we let it go and returned to our starting point.

Again, we tried Libra to pay our outstanding bill, but still at 3:30 the place was closed tight. The neighboring business was open and when I questioned him, he said they would open at 5:30. He then asked if he could help and when I told him why we were insistent on finding someone, he called the manager for us. We arranged to leave the money with the neighbor. Cynically, I will now have to monitor Ron’s charge card to make sure that charge did not actually go through. We stopped at the Geographer’s Café for a beer where Christmas carols were BLASTING. I really cannot take it seriously hearing “I Am Dreaming of a White Christmas” when Ron and I are the whitest things around. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” are unnerving also in this environment. Perhaps they don’t play “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” because of moral issues; hmmm…I wonder.

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Someday We Will See the Sights

We have to be out of our room by noon, breakfast options are few and far between. We were warned that many things would be closed today since it was a public holiday. This is the day when the Muslims slaughter the sacrificial animals: cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep. Thankfully, it is a family event and not a public one, but all government offices, banks, and many shops are closed. This did not stop the street vendors in our China town area from breaking open for business this morning. Even women who were obviously Muslim by their dress were out shopping around for bargains. As a last resort, we went to the great market in search of coffee. It is difficult to find here in restaurants. The only place there serving java is the White Coffee Company. As it turned out, this is more of a coffee enhanced creamy white drink served hot, rather than real honest to goodness down to earth Arabica bean coffee.

We took a long walk to the old colonial train station. The design was interesting, but it is used for a limited number of passenger trains now. By the time we returned, it was time to get our gear and get out of our hotel, but we had two hours to kill before we could check into the new place. Starbucks offers free WiFi Internet access in all of their stores and without a time limit. We hunkered down there and downloaded e-mail, mostly spam with 732 messages caught in the spam filter. One message I wish were spam was a notice from Bank of America. They cut off my ATM card due to suspicious activity; country unknown; if this is an error, please call this 800 number immediately. Well if anyone there had a modicum of critical thinking when they developed that message, it would have occurred to them that if the country were “unspecified” their 800 number was not going to work to call them. It went on to say that $299.49 was withdrawn from the account. Remember the airport fiasco? All I received were messages saying the PIN was invalid or the system could not complete the transaction at this time. So I sent off a secure e-mail through online banking to tell them where I was and what happened. I am positive I will receive a form e-mail telling me they cannot handle this through e-mail as secure as it is and I will need to call their toll-free number. I am planning on being out the $299.49 and never seeing it again. Bank of America is the 2^nd largest RIP OFF bank there is. Even the locals have not figured out how to use the phone cards here for make calls from pay phones, my chances are nil. Add that to the fact that the time difference is a major one and I know from experience though they say they have a 24 hour service, it is really only 9-5 PST. I went that route the last time from Hungary. It took seven phone calls and a dozen e-mails. I am just hoping that they have not cut off Ron’s card. If they did, we could very well be in trouble at some point in the vacation. I cannot remember if I have PIN numbers for my credit cards or not.

We checked into the new hotel. Ron went to check out the room, said it was okay and I paid for three nights. I am hoping that the stains on the sheets and pillow cases are only ones that years of washing were not able to remove. I intend to sleep in my clothes and with a towel over the pillow.

We took in Little India today. Definitely not as lively as China Town, but we did get a good meal at an authentic little place. Our seatmate across from us told us that this was a special menu today since “they” are celebrating a holiday. We were not sure if “they” were the Muslims or the Hindus and did not ask. While we were eating the skies opened and a torrential rain started. It was coming down so hard; the restaurant had to close the doors that normally would have made it open to the street. We were fortunate to have found seats inside or we would have been soaked within seconds.

By 8:30, Ron could not last any longer and wanted to return to the hotel. I pleaded otherwise and lost the battle. When I opened the wardrobe, I found a creature and shut it with rapid fire dexterity. I would rather have slept in the coffin room than one with visitors. Tomorrow may just include another move. I am sleeping with my clothes on, the sheets are not the cleanest and Ron has to have the a/c on all night. I am freezing. It sounds like the Malaysian Speedway outside and some Indian singer is crooning next door until the wee hours.

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Bank of America Collect

After my experience with the Bank of America collect phone numbers a few days ago, I went right to Jajah to make the call to find out why my PIN is not working. Not only can you not make toll-free calls from Europe, Jajah would not accept them either. Call the regular number, get through, get put on hold, wait, wait, wait, "Your call is important to us, please stay on the line." If my call is so important, why don't you have someone answering it sooner? Even if Jajah is cheap, I don't like using all of my credit on one call while on hold. Just as I am about to hang up, I get a person asking for my credit card number. I am not calling about a credit card, but an ATM card. "Which bank?" Duh!! I called the number on the back of my Bank of America card, that should be a no brainer. Bank of America!! "I will have to transfer you to someone in the ATM division. Click, music, hold. Wait, wait, wait. Ten minutes pass. Getting ready to hang up again, "Hello, my name is Sherry, how can I help you?" I tell Sherry about the new card, the assurances that nothing has changed and now I cannot access my money. "I am so sorry to hear that, we will fix that right away." Well Sherry, I sorry to make you sorry. I hope you are not going to lose sleep over this tonight. Sherry is working away and I can hear her typing, then beep, beep, beep. I lost Sherry and her sympathy; we were disconnected. I call back, the same hold time, I get a person who is in credit, not ATMs. I am wondering whatever happened to cross-training. Does one need separate degrees in credit cards and ATMs where they cannot all do the same job? She transfers me, the wait time is shorter, but I get a phone tree. "If you want to know your account balance, press one. For other options, press two." Press two. "If you want to know the last check that has cleared your account, press three...." No choices for a live person. "For more options, press nine." Press nine. No good, no live person. I press 0, hoping to get an operator. "I am sorry, that function is not operational." Hang up on mechanical Joe. I call again. Tell the first person I am calling from Europe, I am paying for the call, and I don't want a phone tree that is not going to offer me the option I want without wasting my time and money. "I am so sorry for your inconvenience." Really, well then reimburse me for these calls. Transfer. Phone tree, mechanical Joe again. Hang up. I try once more. Get the credit division, tell her calmly that I am going to close our accounts due to the poor service; I get the same scripted sympathy yet again and then transferred. I speak with a live person. I tell her the whole story, unabridged. I want serious concern now, not the phony crap I had been getting. She sounded like she really wanted to take me for a drink to make up for the hassles and share her own customer service nightmares. We hit it off; she is going to help me. At last I have had success. She is asking me questions, I am answering them. She tells me this can be resolved over the beep, beep, beep. We get disconnected. I scream, pull out a few hairs, rant, rave, cry for a few minutes and then log onto Bank of America's web site. Contact us. Lost or stolen cards, call us collect at ##### 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call collect. The AT&T robot does not recognize the B of A robot that is stating clearly how much they love collect calls and will accept the charges. AT&T robot says "Your party is not answering, please try your call again later." Click. Call the AT&T operator who always sound pleasant when you reach the recorded voice, but when they answer for real, they sound disgusted that you could not place this call without annoying them. She places the call and connects me. "Welcome to Bank of America. Our hours are Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm and weekends from 10am-5pm. Our office is closed now. Please call back again between office hours." So I guess if you lose or have your card stolen, it should only be within their office hours or you are out of luck. Make sure you check the time zone differences too, so plan your loss or thefts accordingly.

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F**king ATM

I went to use my new ATM for the first time since calling in and verifying the information. I have had the same PIN code for 15 years. I punch it in. This pin number is not correct, try again. ****, this number is not correct, try again. ****, this number is not correct, you are pressing your luck of ever seeing this card again. Cancel transaction. Insert card again. Select language. German. Do I speak German? No, but perhaps I will be luckier. ****, I am guessing the message was the same since I didn't get currency choices. Cancel. Go home. Fume.

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I HATE Bank of America

We received two new ATM cards in the mail from Bank of America. As with credit cards, you have to call the toll free number to confirm your details and get it activated. The toll free number does not work from Europe, so I called the International collect number. It would not go through. I called another International collect number and the same thing. After trying four different numbers provided by the bank's web site, I finally called the AT&T operator. I gave her each number one by one and was told they had all been blocked for collect calls. BUT they all say call collect when outside of the U.S. or Canada. I went to Jajah and called from that to save money since I was now footing the phone bill. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes, I was connected with a live person. My first complaint was the collect calls. She said she would report it to management. It is irritating when they say, "your business is important to us", when you know damn well they don't mean it otherwise they would not keep you on hold for long periods of time, have long voice menus where you can punch numbers for days without finding one for your needs, and then after celebrating your next birthday, you finally get connected to a real person. After my rant, I verified the information and was told that my card was good to go. I asked if this changed anything for my online log on or my PIN. No, sir, nothing has changed. Great, here is my partner, he just received a new card also. Yes, this is Ron, blah, blah, blah, yes, that is correct. Oh, and I don't have a PIN number for the card or rather, I have not used it in so long, I don't remember it. Yes, if you could send me another one that would be great. Thank you, good-bye. That is how we left it.

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