Foundations

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of switching all of my automatic bill pay accounts from Bank of America (boo!) to JP Morgan Chase (yay!). We are leaving random fees and poor customer service for the promised land of drive-through tellers and personal bankers that cater to the little guys.

Since I have used automatic bill pay for over 5 years, I don't have any paperwork anymore for any of the accounts. So I had to call each one of my institutions to get all of my information. Yuck.

PGE wait time: 18 minutes after automated answer

US Post office wait time: 16 minutes after automated answer

ADT alarm company: 7 minutes after automated answer

Bakersfield Californian: 13 minutes after automated answer

Barron's Financial Newspaper wait time: 47 minutes total after automated answer! I called three separate times and got hung up on by the system twice.

Oooooooooh. I stomp my feet in frustration.

Yes, I have learned my lesson to file all account information, no matter how much time has passed.

And that is just a sampling of the day. During the wait time, I got to input all of my new account information into my computer, set up the new budget, bake 6 dozen sugar cookies, make lunch, and get a new mattress delivered.

I was a little grumpy at the end of the day.

So when I went to go iron Beau's two new work shirts from Land's End at 9:45, I saw that the company had embroidered his initials on the pocket instead of the cuff. (I am not sure anyone wants to walk around with their initials put forth first thing.) So I gave up, packed the shirts away, and got ready for bed.

I dreaded making another customer service call this morning. I called Land's End after breakfast. To my great delight, the phone was answered by a real person after the first ring. The nice lady transferred me immediately to a nice man, who claimed the mistake was the company's fault (!) and told me they would immediately embroider and ship two new shirts. I could return the old ones at no cost to me.

Wow. If I wasn't before, I am a dedicated Land's End customer for life. I feel refreshed.