So this morning was hectic, my wife needed a $300.00 gift card for a life-long friend who is retiring this years after 35 years of teaching! She told me to check with our bank but that she would call me later. When it got to be after 10 o’clock and she hadn’t called yet, I called she asked, “Why I hadn’t gone yet and that I needed to be back to pick her up at school at 10:45 fearing that I didn’t have enough time to look around I went on-line and typed in Visa gift card location and up popped Bank of America, hum, what better place to get a Visa gift card than Bank of America. So I hopped in the car and frantically drove to BOA, only to be told that they don’t do gift cards!! Well then who does I asked…. “You can try Shop-Rite” But I said “I want one $300.00 card do any banks do that??” She said that “TD Bank may do it”
So I got back in the car and called TD Bank, I was told that, yes we do gift cards! So I checked my watch for the time, yes, I can still make it! When I got to TD Bank, I was told that customer service would help me, so I headed over to the women who was engrossed in what ever was on her computer screen but finally looked up and asked if she could help me. I told her what I wanted and plopped down my $300.00 in cash! Oh, we only do cards for customers or through your debit card…. I said two things one I had a car loan with TD Bank and second, I could use my debit card. FShe told me that the car loan wouldn’t work, but the girl at the next desk said that it would…I in turn said how about I put it on my debit card…. oh, no that won’t work it has to be our debit card…. All the while, I am saying to myself….”I AM GIVING YOU $300.00 CASH!!
Finally, she says ok and takes my money, but she advises me that people who pay cash sometimes have problems with the money not appearing on the card and to call before I give the gift!! While all this is happening my wife calls… I tell her what’s happening, I have the card and that I will check the balance when I leave the bank….. When I finished the call, the service rep said, “oh no you can’t call today, it has to go through our system give it 24 hours!!!” If I needed to give it to today, I should write down the card number and the number of check the amount tomorrow!!!! ARRGHH!
The more I think about it the more frustrated I get… here I am giving you cash and you are giving me a card with the TD Bank logo on it…. hum, seems to me you’re getting some free publicity and you should be glad to do it for anyone, not just your customers!!!! And maybe, just maybe, the person answering questions on the phone should say, “Yes, we do gift cards, but only for TD Bank account holders!!!!”
When I picked my wife up she said that I should not have thought about it and just called our bank….. in hindsight she is probably right, thinking too much always screws me up, but I bet I still would have ended up at TD Bank! At least that’s what I think– oops!!
Anyway I need some relaxing afternoon music, how about some Paul Adams, who I discovered on the Root Zone Music Reporter’s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart for April.His latest album Sleep: The Dreaming Flute is now number 34 on the chart! There were no videos that I found for Sleep – so here is “Water Prayers” from a previous release! Aha…. I feel better already!!