TGIF – and I don’t mean Friday! Fun at the Bank

I haven’t used this acronym since school days! But boy, do I mean it today?

Why?

Because it’s the last day of January! I want to believe February is going to be a better month!

It seemed as if every day of January brought with it a new crisis or problem! If you haven’t read about our run into 2020, read New Year here we come! And thanks for angels.

We’ve gone from alarming to scary to urgent to what-do-we-do-now . . . right down to the ridiculous situation of my bank card. Last week, I received a friendly notification from Amazon that my bank card is due to expire in February. I knew that, but when Amazon was getting concerned, I decided to take action. First, I attempted to renew my card online, but I received the response that it was “unable to renew this card – contact your nearest bank.”

I hit the support button and explained my dilemma. The very polite person on the end responded by sending me detailed instructions to follow that would definitely help me renew it online.

A few minutes later, I stared at my screen. “unable to renew this card – contact your nearest bank.”

Sigh.

Down the road to the bank

I trotted down the road to my bank. A friendly receptionist assured me I could definitely do this online and wrote down the instructions for me. When I said I’d already tried twice, she assured me I was doing it wrong. “Just follow these instructions,” she assured me.

Back up the road . . .

Onto my computer.

Followed instructions.

You’ve guessed it. “unable to renew this card – contact your nearest bank.”

Another sigh!

Down the road to the bank again . . . 

Back down the road again. Did I mention this was in the baking heat of an African summer?

This time I had to “wait over an hour to see a teller, did I want to go shopping?”

I didn’t . . . but I did (go shopping!)

An hour later, I was seated in front of a very nice gentleman who took one look at my card, fiddled on his computer, and said, “Oh no. You can’t renew this type of card online. It has to be done in the bank.”

!!!

“Okay then. Please can I renew it now I’m here?”

“No.”

“NO?”

“Well, you can if you pay us R150 for a replacement card. But if you are just patient and wait until mid-February, you can come in and we’ll give you one immediately for free. This one isn’t in its expiration month yet.”

There was no way I was parting with my hard-earned cash for an early card which I didn’t need. So back up the road. Hot. Very hot. (Outside and inside! Couldn’t someone have told me that in the first place? Or the second?)

Up the road from the bank . . . again

Back home, I returned to my pc and downloaded e-mail. One of the top messages contained a polite warning from the security firm that helps keep my website safe. “Please note! Your bank card is about to expire. Kindly renew it urgently and notify us accordingly.”

AAARRRGGHH!!!

[stextbox id=’alert’]TGIF! And this time the F stands for February![/stextbox]

I honestly don’t know how people cope with a month like we’ve just had without the Lord! At least we always knew the latest event was not a surprise to Him even if it knocked us sideways!