And another thing...

Inbreeding in the banking industry.

So, I finally get Mr. Asshole on the phone this morning. Here is his story. He put the freeze on the bank account in case any money was there. He didn't know that I was indeed actually working and that my entire pay check would be in the bank. WTF?

"What do you mean, you didn't know I was working? You had to find me from my Social Insurance Number, you know the same number you use to take a portion of my pay check every single week for the past year?" Why did I think that the people who work in payroll deductions would know that I was working?

"Ok, fine, so what are you going to do about it? You can't take every cent I have. How do you expect me to live?"

"That was every cent you have?"

"Duh, how many bank accounts do you think I have?" Maybe I am in the wrong business. "How much do you make?"

"Well you do owe the money." This guy is asking for it.

"Fine, but if I get evicted and lose my car, how am I supposed to get to work? Oh, I know, I will quit my job and go on welfare, and not only will you not get your money, but you will end up paying me. How does that sound?"

"Perhaps we can work things out." Ya think?

So, he says he will fax a cancellation of the order to my bank and have them unfreeze the money. Sounds good.

An hour later I go to see if the funds are freed up. Not only are the NOT freed up, but they have now been removed from my account. WTF?

I call Mr. Asshole back, he sent the fax this morning. So I trudge down to the bank in person, ready to wage war against bureaucracy. I get there and the bank manager is on her lunch, so I have to come back in an hour. After an hour, I go back.

She says, they didn?t get a fax. "Can you check the machine?"

She rolls her eyes, "I can see it from here, there are no faxes in the tray."

"Can you check the memory? Just for badness sake?"

Look at that, a fax, in the memory but not printed off. Apparently I have to do her job too. After giving her instructions in my sweetest Saturday morning children's show host voice on how to proceed, (I almost ask her if she needs me to show her how to work the fax machine) I leave the bank.

With any luck I might get the money back in a week. I am being kind, that moron probably got lost on the way back to the fax machine.