Why I hate banks

I seem to have a love-hate relationaship with banks. I love their business model but hate their client relationship or lack thereof. Colleen did get the money order out on time to Purolator who subsequently put it on the wrong truck.  Just goes to show what happens when a good company gets bought by the government.  Purolator is now run by the same folks who gave us our postal system! We eventually got someone to admit they messed up and the delivery would not happen until Monday (we fly back to Ottawa Saturday) even though we paid for next day delivery (Friday).  Fedex and UPS are much better than Purolator in my experience.  Shelley eventually arranged for the wayward envelope to arrive back at the Purolator depot and we drove to Burnaby to pick it up.

Success at last we thought.  The money order was payable to Jordan so off we went to deposit it into his RBC account and ask for another draft payable to the person that Jordan is buying the truck from.  However when the teller (who was most helpful) went off to the next person up the ladder, she came back saying she would have to freeze the funds for up to 5 days.  I questioned why they thought the credit union money order was not good and she said it could be a fake. At that point I almost lost it but the responsible idiot was out of sight by that time. I asked the teller if Jordan and I were not good clients of good standing and she said yes we were.  I then asked if we looked the type to come in with a fake credit union money order.  We were going nowhere with this.  Well it turned out Jordan had $4500 in his chequing account and I had $6,300 in my chequing account so  we used that money for the new $10,000 draft for the truck and they charged me $6.30 for the new draft. 

At this point it was too good to pass up so I asked why the big charge and the teller said because the bank was guaranteeing the funds :-) Just for fun I said, "Can the seller take this guaranteed draft and deposit it into his bank account and access it right away?" and she said probably not, they would have to call that branch and verify the draft was good (i.e. not a fake).  If this sounds kind of cyclical then you are thinking the way I am.  Drafts are a waste of time and money.  I then asked if my 20 year old son asked for $10,000 cash if that would create a problem with a money laundering question the teller stated they would not feel comfortable handing out $10,000 in cash to him. You have to love the business model.

I was a branch administration officer with the Royal Bank early on in my professional career and that 60 minute discourse reminded me why I quit.

So now we are back in our hotel room, mission almost accomplished.  We came to Vancouver to put Jordan's life back together.  His body is healing.  He needs a car to get to his two part-time jobs and that transaction should happen about 8 pm tonight.  Get this, once we get the papers in exchange for the draft we go over to the "London Drugs" store to pay for his insurance and get his license plates.  Go figure, in Quebec you can buy beer and wine in corner stores and in B.C. you can buy auto insurance and plates in a drug store.  Ontario get with the program!

We have to get ready for dinner as we are going out for supper with Lauren's family (Jordan's girlfriend) to say thank you for the loving care he received from them over the past week. It was much appreciated!!!!

Jim