It's not people I hate so much...

Kris commented to me once, "You don't like people much." I readily agreed at the time, but I'm not so sure anymore. As near as I can tell, it's not the people I don't like, it's the stupidity, disdain and laziness that people in aggregate show. It's the lack of personal responsibility and the lack of a desire to make things better in most people that I completely and utterly detest so much.

Take today's incident, for example.

I had been dragging my feet for the last few days on running some errands. The errands weren't ones that I could just go on my merry way, interacting with people not at all, avoiding cars and carts alike. No, these were errands that required interacting with people whom I needed to actually do their job, which was to help me resolve a problem. Knowing that I was 99% likely to leave frustrated, I went 100% out of my way to try for a happy solution.

I smiled.

And I went in pretending the person behind the counter was my best friend. Think about it: why wouldn't my best friend try to help me solve my problem? Seriously, she'd bend over backwards and do a front flip to help me, just as I'd do the same for her.

So, into Bank of America I went to deal with some banking issues. For the record, Bank of America sucks ass. They are the worst bank I have ever dealt with, starting back when I was in college and they stole $100 from my account (that $100 being a large sum of money when you make only $2000 a year). When I asked for proof of a withdrawal I didn't make (and couldn't have, as the withdrawal was made local and I was out of town at the time of the withdrawal), they refused to show me the video surveillance of the ATM. They stonewalled me and jerked me around then, knowing that a 20 year old college student couldn't make much noise.

So (yeah, I like that transition word), I went in, and was called over to a woman behind a desk. I explained that I tried to make a wire transfer to an international account. Bank of America refuses to allow you to make wire transfers in person, you have to make the transfer online. Except that the wire transfer part of their site is convoluted: you have to ADD the foreign account as an external account in your online account, permanently storing that account as part of your account, even for a one time transfer. Worse, the final destination account I wanted the money to go to was declared "invalid" each time I tried to enter it. The new online form doesn't correspond to the old paper STANDARDIZED ACROSS ALL BANKS form, not even with helpful hints like 'This is the same as field 70 "Details of payment".' No, THAT would have been too helpful.

My funds ended up going into the superaccount above the final destination account. It's somewhere at my vendor's bank, they just haven't received it yet. I've spent the money, it's out of my account. They haven't been paid, though.

The woman behind the desk listened to me, took my documentation, came back a few minutes later and said, "You transferred the money to the wrong account. There's nothing I can do."

Well, no shit, it's in the wrong account, lady, I JUST TOLD YOU THAT. I explained to her, AGAIN, that I knew it was in the wrong account, the Bank of America website wouldn't let me send the funds to the CORRECT account (all of this with a smile on my face), that I sent it to the closest I could send it. How could she help me fix this problem?

Once again, she basically said, "Not my problem. There's nothing I can do."

Not, "I'm unable to help you at this moment. I can leave a message with the department that can, and on Monday they'll call you to help you out."

Not, "I'm unable to help you at this moment. Here's the number you'll need to call on Monday when someone else is able to help you."

Not, "I'm unable to help you at this moment because this isn't my area of authority. I can have my manager call you on Monday when he's back in the bank."

Not, "I'm unable to help you at this moment. Here's how to cancel the transfer, and here's a number to call for a refund on the transfer, and another number to call so that a new transfer will get to the correct account."

No, she fucking said, "You transferred the money to the wrong account. I can't help you."

Yeah, I was trying not to curse there.

And Kris wonders why I hate people. I like my friends. I'd go to the end of the world and back to help my friends. This bitch, however, can go suck the wrong end of a running tailpipe and make the world a better place.

Worse, she probably gets raises for helping the most number of customers in an hour by abdicating any kind of professional ownership of her job. Here's the part that totally and completely frustrates me: there's nothing I can do about it. Talk about something that will send someone into either a furious rage or a deep depression: there's nothing I can do about the complete lack of helpfulness from the person who is BEING PAID TO HELP ME. The banks fucking screw up, starting with the fuck-up in customer service.

And that was just the first errand of the day.

It didn't get any better.