She's Back; or, Capitalism Sucks

Well, it sure has been a while since I've updated this blog. I admit, it was due to my annoyance and lack of patience for Blogger's new Google thing, and I actually couldn't get into the site. I seemed to have it figured out now.

I don't have much to report, other than I'm still at SBLB and it is still dull and I still get customers every day like the ones described in the most recent post, and I'm not promoted yet because I haven't bothered looking for anything else. You know, exactly how I would have predicted.

So, the other day, I got to take 4 or so hours off the phone to attend a class called "Keys To Success," which I didn't rememebr signing up for but was thrilled about being scheduled for nonetheless. You see, even 5 unscheduled minutes off the phone is like a summer vacation, so imagine my joy after seeing 4 hours of something that claimed to help me be successful!

Turns out the class was just a deceptively named training on how to give good customer service, unfortunately taught by... Karen.

Sigh.

Whatever, though, I was still off of the phone, so I was having a good time.

However, during one point in our downtime where we managed to get Karen off track somehow, she was talking about how she takes calls every so often and once got a call from a man who had hundreds of thousands of dollars with SBLB in several accounts. The gentleman had accidently used the wrong check card and overdrew one of his smaller accounts and received 5 NSF fees. He called to see if he could get them reversed. Karen said that she could see the error, and it was too bad, and he obviously had more than enough money to cover his charges. Oops!

I asked her if she was able to reverse any of the fees. She proudly said yes, she was able to reverse all but one. She was missing my point, though. To be able to reverse all but one of 5 fees would require getting approval to go above and beyond what was already considered the exception. My response, which fell on deaf ears with the exception of one guy in the class, was, "I wish we could do that for our poor customers."

I mean, honestly. Oh, you poor rich guy, you goofed up and used the wrong card. Let me make a special exception and give you some money. You, terrible poor person who is on Social Security, you have 5 overdraft fees because someone you trusted wrote you a bad check and it bounced and your other checks posted afterward and we not only didn't pay them, but also charged you $34 per item. No, sorry, I can't reverse anything for you because we already reversed $17 in fees for you 5 and a half months ago. Pay us back before 30 days passes or your account is closed. Yeah, that does suck that you can't feed your kids or pay rent. Anything else I can help you with today?

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that we are a corporation, a business, and not a non-profit organization. Banks need to make money. Banks do operate under ethically questionable practices, but either way, we spell it out loud and clear. Ever read your bank account's terms and conditions? I recommend it. It's utterly fascinating. However, I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the mentality that we should be punishing poor people and being sympathetic to and rewarding rich people.

But hey, the rich people would never be able to make money if it weren't for the oppressed poor. I sure hope I can do that someday.

I hope the sarcasm of the last sentence was apparent.

I think I'll go home and drink enough boxed wine to put me to sleep so I can come back and do this again tomorrow.