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| so um, my camera is broken so there won't be any pictures that I've taken shown for a while..... |
I have been battling over skype with Citi Bank Japan these past couple days to try and figure out how to set up a transfer from my account to my host families account (JASSO - the scholarship I was getting while over there-- ended up paying out March's portion even though I 1. didn't sign for it and 2. am no longer there. But now I can pay back my host family so I'm not really complaining).
After going through all the menu options in both Japanese and English until I hear the one that sounds remotely like the problem I am having:
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| Today our computerized phone receptionist will be played by Lady Gaga |
Me: grumbles while tears through bag to find card; enters number.
Woman's voice: "now enter your telephone pin number"
Me: "my what?"
Woman's voice: "please enter your telephone pin number"
Me: enters pin number
Woman's voice: "we're sorry, that number you've entered is incorrect. Please enter your telephone pin number"
Me: "stupid computerized piece of..." enters number in again.
Woman's voice: "We're sorry, that number you've..."
Me: hangs up.
I called back and did it all over again, entering what I thought was my PIN number but turned out to be the wrong pin number and I was transfered to a human.
I get talking with this guy (who's English is so-so but I can manage). He tells me that in order to transfer the money I have to apply for something called a "one time pin". What does it take to do that?
Citi bank man: "I'm going to transfer you back to the computer system where you'll have to enter in your telephone pin number".
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| OH I'LL GIVE YOU A PIN NUMBER!!!!! (me played by Beyonce) |
I hang up and call back.
I get someone different. We go through the explanations and just before he's about the switch me to computer woman from hell I tell him that I don't know what my "telephone pin" is.
Citi Bank man: "oh well, if you've signed up for banking online then you should know it".
Me: "looks like I forgot it".
Citi Bank Man: " you should have gotten it in the mail on a little post card when you first opened your account".
Me: "yeah that's gone".
Citi Bank Man: "oh..."
Me: "Is there any way you can just look me up in your system and go from there"
Citi Bank Man: "no, we need that PIN number, we can't look up anything without it".
Which is complete BS because I called them a couple weeks ago about closing down the account and the guy just looked me up with my name and date of birth. But this man could not be convinced otherwise.
Solution?
He told me to download this registration form and send it in by mail then they'll manually register the account that I want to transfer to. Should take about forever to complete.
I understand that companies have certain laid out ways of processing things, but sometimes you got to break the rules a little bit. Just sometimes. Why couldn't they just look me up with name and my account number? Who knows.
Thank you for calling Citi Bank, have a nice day.
Jerks.
--In other news--
I've been working my butt off lately (not complaining seeing as how I'll be able to pay my rent and car insurance on time~). In addition to my current job at OIA (office of international affairs) I have picked up a student to tutor in English! The Middle Eastern Studies advisor heard that teaching English was kind of my thing and hunted me down and introduced me to a student from Qatar who is having some difficulties with his English studies. Very nice guy and eager to learn, but at the very most beginning level right now.
I don't know this for a fact but I don't think that they require you to learn English in the Middle Eastern countries. Most the students from the Middle Eastern countries are all in the Intensive English Language Program (and a good portion of them fail their classes on a regular basis for more reasons than just not being able to understand what's going on). My new student has been here since winter term this year and is still mastering his ABC's (but he's moving through them like a trooper!). I helped him with his English HW and could tell that he gets it, it's just being able to remember things without needing something to prompt him.
I charge him $10/hr and we're scheduled to meet twice a week (although he's very relaxed about time and was at first saying "oh, whenever you're free is fine". To which I was like "no, I need structure, when are you free"?). Canaan (the middle eastern advisor) said that he'd be shooting more students my way in the future so. bring on the tutoring~
$10/hr is less than I was charging in Japan but the way people think about money over here is way different than in Japan. If I had been asking for 1000 yen/hr over there then I wouldn't have gotten any students because they all would have been wondering why I was so cheap! Whereas here, if I had gone above $12 no one would even consider me! So why did I go with 10? Because I don't have any fancy qualifications other than what I can tell them I've done in Japan and that i'm a Linguistics student. Whereas in Japan all I had to be was a native speaker and I was in! Funny how that works out.
Oh and one interesting linguistics thing that I found out from my first lesson: Arabic doesn't distinguish between "p" and "b" sounds. "put" and "but" sounded the same to him. IT'S INTERESTING TO ME.
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| For those of you who don't know where Qatar is; here you go. |
PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie
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