NOT SO SAFE???

Man. Talk about a shock to my system. Today I had to pay my online bills. Which of course is something I normally do when Bonnie is here to help me, but alas, I am not having her come during this stay at home directive. This is one chore I HATE doing… and when it comes to anything about money, I totally need someone to hold my hand. 

Enter: Bonnie, who has come every Monday for years thus, I can then pretty much handle the bill paying, medical insurance calls, fighting with AT&T, etc. etc. We have the system down pat. She opens all the bills that arrived that week, I print out any copies that arrive in email and then... Bonnie tells me the amounts to enter for paying my bills online, which are in addition to the ones I have already set up for reoccurring amounts. In addition... when needed... I let her fight over the phone with all the companies should there be any discrepancies. Bonnie also then files away all the statements and bingo. I have records of all my financial dealings for each year. Basically, we work pretty well together. 

Well… that's the way we USED to do it, anyway. 

Now… because of the coronavirus... I have to do it all on my own. Which is what I began doing this morning. I sat down in front of the TV, opened the bills, came to the computer to issue payments online and logged into Wells Fargo to accomplish my mission. All was going smoothly until I got to my pharmacy’s bill, where I have an in-store credit account. I could see right off the bat that it was way too high so I checked my payment history for the drug store and sure enough, I had in fact, paid the bill. Sort of.

I called the pharmacy to see what the deal was on my personal account and was told that oops. They never received their check. So boom. I rechecked the documentation from Wells Fargo saying the check HAD been issued and mailed out. Which then meant… for whatever reason, the pharmacy never received it. Okay. So I call my local branch, which I love dearly, and what a surprise… no one ever answered. I then called the 800 number for Wells Fargo, and after going through all the hoops of their phone tree, I was told they were not answering phone calls. WTF?? NO ONE IS HOME?? HOW DO I GET THE HELP I NEEDED? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??

So at this point, I was basically screwed, and figured I would have to put everything on hold and actually GO to my local branch to speak to someone. Damnit. Talk about having high hopes. Turns out… I drove to the bank, saw some signs on the doors which I couldn’t even read given they were so far away and I was way too lazy to get out the car to actually go read them. Okay. So I went around to the drive through window. 

THOSE SIGNS I READ. 

Bottom line: bank is CLOSED. Kaput. No idea when they’ll reopen. No one inside. No lights on. NOTHING. It was like a ghost town building right smack in the middle of the little shopping center. Better yet... NO ONE EVER TOLD THE CUSTOMERS THEY HAD CLOSED DOWN.

Immediately, I freaked. Not because I couldn’t speak to someone about my drug store bill. That became secondary all of sudden and at this point, I was becoming pretty nervous. Instead of the drug store payment bit, I was now freaked about something way bigger. As in:

What about my safe deposit boxes?? How do I get into them?? What if this branch never re-opens?? What happens to my contents? I was kinda like saying to myself: GIVE ME MY ITEMS BACK! LET ME INTO MY BOXES! And, btw… F YOU.

So shit. I now had to drive to the main branch, not far away but still, a major hassle. Thank goodness THAT was opened. Sort of. I had to get in line at the drive through and while I was waiting my turn, a bank employee, Jose, or Tony or someone, came up to my window and I explained my situation of needing to speak to the manager, immediately. Bingo. Jose/Tony/whoever, told me where to park and ushered me into the locked main lobby. YIPPEE. FINALLY. HUMAN HELP.

Bottom line: YAY. I was smiling again! 

Mainly because the manager said no problem and boom. Drove back over to my closed bank branch, opened it up and let me clear my deposit boxes of all it’s contents! Wow. Was I ever happy to know I had my items in the safety of my very own little hands once again, not having to worry about whether or not the bank would ever re-open. I feel terrible for Angie and Heidi, who ARE my all time favorite tellers, but at least they haven’t lost their jobs. Instead they’ve been transferred to a very nearby city but man. Am I ever going to miss them. In the meantime…

Home apparently is now my new found safety depository of sorts. But… don’t bother to come rob me of valuables for 1.) I use my wired security system ALL the time and 2.) I have a locked safe. Besides… nothing I have here is really all that valuable anyway, so basically robbers would be sort of wasting their time. Better they should go to my neighbors’ homes. The haul there will be WAY better than mine. And that, you can totally take to the bank!