The Laughing Wolf

The Joys Of Bureaucracy

It’s not just limited to government, now is it? It can infect corporate and semi-corporate America as well. It can also be dealt with by individuals acting in good faith.

The check that came in Saturday was duly deposited and a small portion already spent on the I-Pod mentioned below. Imagine my thoughts a few minutes ago when I did my check of my account and discovered that while it was listed as being in my account, none of those funds were “available.”

I called the credit onion and after making it through the Skinner voice-mail maze, finally talk with a real human who informed me that since the deposit had been made at an ATM – because the credit onion had already closed – that it could not be made available for two business days. The reason being that they don’t service the ATMs everyday, even those in the drive-up lanes. This notice is supposed to be on the ATMs, but I sure did not see it and did see where bored or simply destructive people had peeled off a lot of labels and such. General attitude was too bad, so sad, nothing he or his supervisor could do. Oh, and any check written against the deposit would be bounced. Too bad, so sad, nothing anyone can do.

The irony is that I had started to put the check in the night depository, but the onion has been encouraging people to use the ATMs instead, both directly and indirectly. The latest redesign of the branch I use most often makes it less than easy, and less than safe, to use the night depository, in my not so humble opinion. Had I done so, the check would be available right now.

Needless to say, I was less than happy. The customer service representative finally promised to see what he could do, which is mainly to try and let me know when and if the onion ever gets around to servicing the machine. With luck, it might be by this afternoon, but even if they could do * anything * it will really be tomorrow morning. They will, as a courtesy, refund any fee they charge me for a returned check. How gracious of them. This does not appear to cover any fees I may be charged by vendor, however. Thank goodness I only wrote one check against this payment.

Not being the type to sit back and wait, I called up the main office of the credit onion and actually was put through to the executive offices. I apprised them of the situation, briefly, and asked if the apparent effort to move things to the ATM was deliberate or not. To my surprise, I was put through to the president. And, yes, the encouragement of the use of the ATMS was deliberate. He took the time to explain the reasons for the two-day hold (fraud) and what they were doing to improve the situation all around. He then also agreed to deal with my situation in person. As a result, I should have my funds available shortly.

For all the people out there who say that a single individual can do nothing, can change nothing, especially if it involves a bureaucracy: THHHHHHHPPPPPPPPPPPPPTTTTT! Yes, an individual can if they remain calm, deal in a (fairly) rational manner, and go find the person who can make things work. If that person is an individual of honor and good faith, things can be changed. It doesn’t hurt to mention you are writing a story about the experience, but I honestly feel that this did not factor into the president’s decision too much.

He knew that there was a problem, and that my problem was a part of it. He had the courage and integrity, and the good business sense, to do something about it. Finding such people, and rewarding them, is good for business and for each and every one of us.

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