March 16--Follow the light

[zyzyly]

Today was test day. Everybody did pretty well. I only had 15 questions on the test, which less than normal, but most of my content is still to be taught. Next week is spring break and then I will really dive in. I'm looking forward to spring break. I'll have to do a lot of stuff for my project, but I will have the time to do it. No sitting on the beach, or whatever people do.

After work I went to the bank to send money to Thailand for my mother-in-law. I do it every other month. Up until this visit, there was a woman at the bank who would be able to set up an international wire transfer for me in about 10 minutes. She had it down. Last time I was there, she told me she was getting ready to quit, and that I should budget a little extra time next time I came in.

This time it took 3 tellers 55 minutes to do it. None of them had done it before, and had to call a bunch of people to walk them through it. The good thing is that they eventually figured it out. I had put an hour on the parking meter, and when I got back to my car, there were 2 minutes left. One of them called me later this afternoon telling me that they went through the whole thing again, and wrote it down step by step, so all of them will be able to do it the next time I come in. I appreciate their sincere efforts.



Ten years ago I was taking pictures of spoons.

Comments

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine who does the same money thing now uses bitcoin. He says it's awesome.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Bitcoin would likely baffle my mother in law. I did find, though, that Bangkok bank has a US branch that I can transfer money into and it will show up in her account, and it only costs $3, so I will look into that.

[anita-margarita.livejournal.com]

As you know, wire transfers are virtually unheard of here in the US, so you're fortunate to have a bank willing to go the extra mile to figure this out.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Not here! Many convenience stores in ethnic neighborhoods can do it (I learned that's what the word envios means in Spanish).

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Yeah there are lots of remittance places for Mexico and Philippines here, but not for Thailand.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Ah, I kind of stupidly assumed if they had the ability to do it, they could send it anywhere.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

It used to be a simple thing, but then the govt. imposed some additional reporting requirements, etc, and made it complex.

[howeird]

Bank of America had no problem wire transferring $$ to Israel when I was distributing my parents' legacy to the siblings. It was the same form as the two for Maryland and Washington State, the only difference was the format of the Israeli bank wire address. I did most of the work, the form took about 5 minutes to fill out, and all the bank staff had to do was enter the info and give me a receipt. Kind of puzzled that your bank played it by ear.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

This is a little credit union, and apparently I am the only regular wire transfer customer at this branch. I could go to the main branch, but it is farther away, and I have been going here for close to 25 years.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

One of them called me later this afternoon telling me that they went through the whole thing again, and wrote it down step by step, so all of them will be able to do it the next time I come in.

As I was reading the paragraph above, I was thinking "Will any of them retain this for the next time?" so that level of attention, and the idea that they called you, is impressive.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Yeah I appreciated that. I have been using this credit union for more than 25 years, so I guess I am a loyal customer.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

Cool photo of the spoon and shadow. It irritates me when banks do not know how to do things. We have had several problems. They are supposed to be professionals!

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Well, they eventually figured it out, so I will give them credit for that.