19062019

In the picture is a vital part of returning from the sand to the boardwalks: getting rid of the sand!

Today I have another story for you about Life in Spain. This time we visit bank.

We have changed our branch office to our village. We were in the bank and signed the papers. We don't need to drive 1 hour to Orihuela and 1 h back anymore to deal with more complicated issues.... or so we thought.

We won a beach bag from our bank and got a text message that we have 10 days to get it from our branch office. So today we visit them and try to deal with my passport issue at the same time. (I have tried to get my new passport info for them once before, but because so many people were on vacation they could not do it then. Yeah, right.)

I start with the passport issue as it seems simpler than the price issue. I said in advance that if we get 1/2 done with this visit, it's pretty good. Again they say that they can not scan the passport as they have people on vacation. Would I want to make an appointment for that for next week. I reply that this is the second time I'm trying to deal with this and no one said I'll need to book a time to do this. So the teller starts trying to do this. (She succeeded on her third try!).

While we wait for her to scan, next to us is an old couple trying to close their account in the bank. It's their 3rd try and they are leaving the country next week. They had received an email telling that they could come with the papers and get the account closed today. But of course the same story, people on vacation and they have to wait a week for insurance money to return to the account... I got so angry on their behalf. We talked a little with them and I do hope they get their fairs in order next week for their return to their home country. They had sold their house and just desperately trying to close all affairs in Spain.

Then comes the next customer after this couple leaves. He wants to pay a tax. He had arrived last night and came to pay the tax. But he couldn't as the due date was yesterday! They told him he has to go to City Hall and pay it there after they print out a new invoice. I have never ever heard of such. Not being able to pay after due date.

So finally we continue and ask for the price we won (the waterproof beach bag) we were supposed to be able to collect. Of course they can not help us. In the text there's a code for our branch. Which we assumed was our branch in our village for which we signed the papers. No, apparently we belong to an online branch. So how do you collect the price from online branch? How do you know which code is which branch? But how do you go collect from ONLINE bank at all???

Well, I wrote to the banks twitter account to ask. (Online, right?) And you'd think that would go smoothly, right? Guess again.  I write them and tell them what is the situation. They ask me to direct message them. I try twice and can't succeed. We need to follow each other before we can DM each other. So finally we are that far after 3 hours. Then I write them for the 3rd time and explain ALL. They reply and ask to which number the text was sent to. I tell them AGAIN. Then they ask me what was the message. I send that to them AGAIN! Finally they reply to me that they will arrange the bag for us to be picked up from our branch office in our village like it should have been in the first place. They'll let us know.

We still have to wait for them to make this happen. Go to the bank again and get the f:n bag. I don't really care about the bag. But after our morning in the bank with all these mistreated customers, it's now personal. I want them to hand me the f:n price bag.

So this was my day basically. Well, some swimming and reading and visit to Jen too...