[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Mirkwood

OK, I'm all done bitching. This is for fun now.

Can I use a bank?

Well I thought I could so today I went to one to pay my credit card.

Here is a blow by blow account of what happened.

Drove car to Changwattana Road. My bank has a large branch there. I do not trust the small sub branches and have experienced nightmares nearly everytime I have used them.

Anyway, traffic was so so and I arrived after about 30 minutes in car.

Strike one.

I put my ATM card in the machine to check the balance.
It was all going fine and I got the please wait message. The balance didn't come up. I waited and waited. After what seemed an age my card came out with a timed out message on the screen. I had a confused look on my face.

I tried again.

The same.

Now in UK I can just take my ATM card inside the bank and they transfer funds. I could pay my card off like this. However this is Thailand. I have been told on numerous occasions that payment must be in cash even though my credit card is with the same bank. I have to draw cash out then pay it back in same bank.

OK, I give up on the ATM card. I go back to my car and get my bank book. My plan is to update that in the machine next to the ATM one.

When I get back all 3 machines are out of order.

I go inside the bank and get told the computor has gone down and I have to go to another branch. Nearest one is about 20 minutes further up Changwattana in Central shopping mall.

OK, I'm still calm and decide that's good for me as I want to go in Marks and Sparks for some Tea bags anyway.

I drive to Cental and have a nightmare parking. For some reason they have blocked off all the lower levels and I end up on the top level. Great.

I walk down to the mall then take 4 different escalators until I reach my bank.

I put my book in. It spits it out. I try again. Bingo.

I'm feeling all happy until I check the balance.

My salary hasn't gone in.

Yes, it's finally got me. I'm a broken man. All that for nothing. I'm miles away from home as well.

I ring up the Bangkok branch of my works and get told in a giggling voice ' Oh sorry, we have new trainee she make mistake because you know Songkran have holiday?'

I just drive home......

Yeah, cos that'd never happen in the UK or Europe or anywhere.....

Tried booking our rail tickets for the holiday last night. Booked the first 2 fine, tried to book the 3rd, card declined. I'd kind of expected it as foreign payments within a day or so of a domestic transaction tend to freak out most UK banks these days.

Called the bank, spoke to 3 different people and eventually got them to lift the block on the card. Tried booking again, nothing. And again. And again. Rang the bank a second time, only took 2 people this time to assure me that the block had been lifted and everything should be ok with my card, maybe it's the website I'm using to book that's having a problem. Gave up in the end as it was gone 11:30 and I needed to get to sleep.

Straight onto the website this morning and tried running through the booking again....Internal server error...Please close your browser and try again...fair enough, frustrating but these things happen, started it all again. Got throughh to the clicksafe stuff to verify the payment....payment rejected...tried again, payment rejected, 3rd time, same outcome.

Right, on the phone to the bank again, card isn't blocked, checked the payments and the first one had gone through - I presume the failures after that were to prevent double bookings as I was booking the same train at the same time for the same named passengers. Nothing the bank could do, payment was accepted so contact the supplier. Great, my bank account over £200 lighter and no ticket so it's a phonecall to Amsterdam.

Spoke to a lady there, couldn't find anything for the amount I'd quoted going through in my name, could I check with the bank and get some further details.

Got the bank on speed dial by now so straight through the automated system barking out the numbers to be connected to different areas as I know the lot off the top of my head. Passed from pillar to post in the bank until someone can give me the details I need.

Back on the phone to Holland and after 20 minutes digging around in the system it's all sorted out and I get the tickets emailed to me.......over 13 hours after I started trying to book.

Pain in the arse? Yes.
Do I hold the whole of the UK in contempt because I had a problem with a financial transaction? No.
Do I think the Dutch are all out to wind me up and piss me off? Of course not.
Do I blame the gobal banking system even? No. People take modern conveniences for granted, modern banking is an incredibly complex system and most forget this was all paper-based 30 odd years ago and it'd take 2 weeks and a letter in writing just to check what had gone out of your account for a given week!

Another thing to note, the whole of this saga went a lot easier by being polite and courteous to the people in the bank I spoke to and the people at the rail office in Holland. If I'd gone in with the attitude that they were all lazy idiots out to stitch me up I'd have been pissing into the wind from the get-go. This seems to hold moreso in Thailand than anywhere else. I've queued behind some bloke shouting the odds and ranting at staff only to see him pretty much igored and then I've politely asked for something or pointed out something wasn't working and had the staff falling over themselves to help. I've also had it the other way around when I've lost my rag and been banging the counter and yelling an it's done me no good at all.

I reckon a good 90% of your problems with Thais is of your own making and comes from your attitude towards them. Even if you're keeping your cool when things aren't woking out for you if your demeanor and attitude is that the whole country are out to get you then that's going to show through and colour the treatment you recieve.