You Know Vacation's Over When...

OK, so today I had two weeks' worth of mail, bills, etc. piled up, plus I had to begin to sort through my sister's affairs. This is never a pleasant task, as you can imagine, and here's a little story about one of the roadblocks I ran into today.

Ann had a checking account and a CD at a local bank. In order to get access to the funds, to pay off some of her bills, I brought in the necessary documentation to the bank.

First thing the rep says: "You need letters of office." Well, no, sir, I don't, because the estate is under a certain amount, it doesn't go to probate, and I don't need those. It says so right on the form I brought in -- guess he didn't read it. Then he wanted the vice-president to look at it. Talked to her, faxed her the forms. He called her no less than four separate times. EACH time, he had to look up her extension on his computer screen.

I asked if this was going to take a while, since I had other errands. He said he'd work on it and I figured I'd come back in a couple hours. 20 minutes later he called and said it was all set. So I go back, and it wasn't. I had to sit there while he filled out more forms and wrestled with his computer. Oh, and he had to subtract a number from the amount he was going to write the check for. He did this by hand. On paper. And he got it wrong. Twice. I finally had to ask him if he had a calculator.

Well, eventually the accounts were closed, and the checks written for the proper amounts, but frankly, I wouldn't trust this bank with the loose coins under the couch pillows, much less my life savings.

In case you're interested in avoiding this place, it's Bank Financial, a Chicago-area small chain, based in the south suburbs (Chicago Ridge), with 16 locations -- they picked up several when merging with Success National Bank a couple of years ago.

In baseball news, I listened to yesterday's game via the Internet, with predictable results -- a loss.