Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Lost in space

Well...yesterday, I missed my train and had to take a later one. Which got off late. Which had no Wifi. Which then got entangled in rail-freight issues so had to stop several times. Which finally arrived in Buffalo at 1:45 am...two hours late. I didn't get to bed till after 3am and had to get up at 8...only I didn't really have to, it turned out; there was a lack of communication and I didn't need to be anywhere until 2pm. Grr.

I should never have said I prefer the train to air travel. Amtrak is going out of its way to make me reconsider. I'm also finding that I have to triple check plans I make with some of the people I work for, because they change them and assume I know.

I missed the train because my packing job got added to at the last minute and everything needed to get completed. What didn't help was, a couple of the people I'm doing this for also came down to "discuss" how things could go better, next time. Like...could I tell them what size boxes I needed so I wouldn't have to make do with the ones they had? Completely forgetting I'd done that very thing. I even had a printout of it in my file. Irritating.

Tomorrow I'm driving down to DC and spending a week packing a collection that's being donated to a university. My rental van is packed with boxes and materials, and I'm not looking forward to it. By the time August comes, I'll need the time off, even if it is unpaid.

Oh, today I also had fun with TD Bank. I have a Visa Card through them and use it for business. A couple months ago, they offered a deal where, if I transferred some of what I owed to another credit card over to them, I'd get 12 months at no interest; just pay the service charge. So I did in order to free up some credit on my Mastercard.

Since I use the Visa for business, I pay off the balance of purchases every month, once my expenses are reimbursed. Usually within a couple of days of getting the statement. According to their rules and regulations, so long as I pay off the purchases within 25 days, there is no interest charged on them.

So today I look at my statement so I'll know what I need to pay off...and the MFSOBs charged me interest. When I called to ask why, I was told it's because I carried an "average balance." I pointed out to them that I'd complied with both rules and regulations as regards the balance transfer and purchases, and they said that didn't matter. Because I had a balance on the card thanks to the transfer offer, I was getting charged interest. And even talking to a supervisor did no good.

That pisses me off. I feel like I was tricked with the balance transfer offer, and I'm retaliating. It's only $7.00...but when a company pulls this sort of duplicity, you know they're going to make things even worse down the road. I can't do anything till I'm back from DC, but then I'm hitting them hard.

What's interesting is, this is a Jake attitude -- a sort of "scorched earth" policy -- i.e., destroy everything in your wake; leave nothing for your enemy to make use of. Sherman used it on his march through Georgia. Jake is planning to use it against the people he's having problems with over Uncle Owen's disappearance. Well, TD Bank's about to find out what that means, too.

I'm finally learning -- sometimes you have to be an asshole to keep from being taken advantage of.

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