10-2-13 Wednesday (Antique Systems)

Recently we’ve been getting messages on our home number stating it’s from Bank of America and they have important info regarding our mortgage.  I Googled the number they said to call and the number on Caller ID.  I got various websites saying it was a scam, etc, etc.  Some said it was a collection.  I called both numbers and got a greeting identifying them as Bank of America Collections.  High tech automated stuff, key in the loan number or SS, etc but I refuse to not knowing who they are.  I hit 0 and/or yell “customer service” at the phone and eventually get someone.  It all sounds legit but I will not be a victim of fraud by my own doing so I won’t give the phone operator any info other than the phone number they call me on.  Naturally, he can’t identify me and won’t give me any info.

A few days go by and every other day, there’s another automated message.  We call BOA mortgage using a number off the website.  Ms. Operator confirms that the number we were left on the machine is a valid BOA number.  BUT our account looks fine and is paid on time.  What’s the deal?  It occurs to me that our phone number may be linked to “Larry Toliver”, a man that we used to get many a collection call for and collection notices in the mail for.  Unfortunately, it would appear we have his old number and he’s recently misbehaved again.  Sometimes I suspect that he still gives out “our” number on spite to commit fraud but who knows.  We’ve had this number for several years, we’ve earned it, it’s ours.  Quit using it.  Ms. Operator confirms via grunts, sighs, humming or whatever that someone else has our number on their file.  For privacy, she can’t say who.  She “takes care of it”.

I’m not upset with BOA up to this point.  They really can’t help it.

Days later we receive 2 more calls.  Jim calls BOA again, less nice, and goes through the scenario that they are calling for someone else and had better find a way to stop it.  So far, it has ceased. 

Now I’m upset that we had to call twice.  Why is everything in the customer service world a 2 stage process when clearly it should be a one stage process? 

<end rant>

Work has been getting a little busier for me.  I’ve had new loans to underwrite plus work my existing pipeline.  The day goes by so much faster when I actually have work to do!

Jim is out of training and has moved into a different building.  The underwriting system he’s usually is “DOS/UNIX-Looking”.  I’m picturing something like this:

The bank I work for has several basic systems like this, we’ll call it Ted.  When I was a phone banker, we used a windows, pretty system that reads/writes retrieved info to/from Ted.  Now while underwriting, I use a windows based system that reads/writes to a Ted-like system.  Unfortunately for some tasks, I still have to use a system like this that consists of codes to navigate screens.  Awful.

I started this post like a week and a half ago.  It’s not so much that I lost interest in blogging, well maybe a little, but more so, nothing exciting has been happening. 

I’ve been trying to limit my Facebook time but it hasn’t worked much.  I’m obsessed with making sure I haven’t missed anything.  Most of what people post is crap.  I wish Facebook was more about someone’s life than posting funny videos, those over used Bluntcards, news clippings, recipes, Tweets etc.  There’s so many websites out there that specialize in this stuff, but I guess Facebook has become a mashup of these services.  Why post a recipe if you haven’t even tried it?  Why use Hashtags when there’s Twitter?  Why tell me what’s happening in the world when clearly we have tons of news sites?  Videos?  How about youtube?  I do post videos every once in a while but that’s the key.  Moderation.   How about the “forward this to your friends and someone will be cancer-free” or “share and you’ll get a free something”.  People, use snopes.com to check a validity of this crap.  There’s more gripes but I’ll refrain since I might offend a friend or 2 or 3.  How do you feel about Facebook?  What irks you about it? 

Jim has been decorating for Halloween.  He enjoys doing it, I don’t.  I enjoy looking at it but not the work that goes along with it. 

Last year we bought a black Christmas tree on clearance.  We thought we’d like to have a black/white/silver tree theme at point.  Jim is using it for Halloween right now.  He spend a bunch of money at DollarTree and decorated the tree with white skeletons, skulls, eye balls, insects, etc.  It came out cool looking!

The next post will have more photos…