Saturday, August 30, 2008

Not a happy weekend here


All it takes is one person not doing their job to make the dominoes fall.

Our son should have closed on his house yesterday. Actually, he should have closed on it last Friday, but the underwriter wanted a second appraisal. That went through just fine and we thought oh well, next weekend is a long weekend. We'll have plenty of time and assistance moving his things into his new house.

He was supposed to hear what the final amount he would need to take to the closing Thursday night. Nothing came. He'll hear by Friday at 9:00 am. That time came and went. So did noon. This wasn't without many calls on his part. The closing was scheduled for 3:00. That time came and went. Finally he heard at 3:45. He went to the bank to get a certified check. He called me en route to the closing. I packed my car. My husband came home and packed his truck. Our son came home as I came out with a camera to take a picture of the new home owner. He held up a hand and told us to stop packing.

After signing beaucoup papers at the closing, someone stepped in and said the wire transfer from Chase never came through. It was now past 5:00 on a Friday of a holiday weekend. That division of the bank was closed and merrily on their way to an enjoyable weekend. A phone call, or most likely a few key strokes, was all it would have taken for the closing to be completed and keys to be handed over.

We know this isn't the worst thing that can happen to someone, but it didn't help last night. Today we are just drained and living among boxes that are waiting to be packed into vehicles again. We'll be ok again soon, and good once this deal is done. Until then I am amusing myself with thoughts of what to do the person responsible for this. Imaginary gratuitous violence is a mother's prerogative.

2 comments:

Nettie said...

We experienced something similiar when our youngest daughter & her boyfriend were to move into their new apartment they'd bought last year. Everything they owned was packed into cars, vans etc All they needed to do was collect the keys from the Real Estate. However, the seller of the apartment supposedly hadn't received the contract to sign the week before. My daughter saw her Solicitor & after many hours of waiting & wondering what on earth we were going to do with all the packed up vehicles, finally they got the approval to get their keys from the Real Estate.
It's not quite as bad as your son is having but still it should never have happened. It put quite a bad taste in everyones mouth on that day & put the moving back several hours.
NettieP

Knitty said...

I am hearing all sorts of horror stories, and from all over.
There is an ugly irony that in this day of everyone being continuously connected/available by internet, cell phone, etc. it is often more difficult to complete a transaction or get advice or service than in the old days of 9-5 hours, M-F with one late night for some businesses. If Mary Smith was handling your account, you would speak to her each time you called. If Mary was out, there was an actual file with notes in it along with business and legal forms and correspondence.
I've already had the experience with another bank of telling a cashier to look in the "notes" section of her program to read that employees of my husband's company were NOT to be charged a fee for check cashing if they did not have a personal account at that bank. The cashier wasn't aware that there was a notes column because it didn't show on her monitor. If that was a one time occurrence, I would chalk it up to her inexperience, but it happens everywhere, and way too often.
I'm not suggesting we turn back the clocks and calendars as I like the convenience of what we now have. I just wish the continuance of dealing with the same people and the old fashioned work ethic was still around.