What a morning. Wanna hear about it? If you do, keep reading, if you don't, why are you even here anyway? JK. It's because I'm awesome, I know.
I woke up to a message from my Girl Friday that one of the companies I manage was locked out of online banking. It was just after 7AM, so I knew any call to the bank manager would go unanswered. I called the number suggested on the login screen.
After verifying who I was with a series of 20 questions (Are you inanimate? - Fairly. - Are you purple? - No. Etcetera.) I was asked "Do you have an account manager?" Yes, yes I do, but he's probably sleeping right now, so you'll have to answer my questions for me.
No dice. Apparently, according to this customer service representative, I was going to need to go in-branch to fix the issue that was plaguing my account, because, he said, not only was my online banking locked, the entire account was restricted.
Wunderbar.
After thanking the representative, I hung up and immediately emailed and left a voicemail for the bank manager. "It's me, you know it's bad when I'm phoning you." And then I tried to calm down.
I had to remember that no matter what way the dice rolled, God would be right there by my side walking with me all the way. It's a tough thing to remember when you're being hounded by your anxiety, and you have no idea what's going on. But it helped when my daughter came in to show me a funny video she'd made - she was completely oblivious to what was happening, knowing full well that I was going to take care of her. And that's how I'm supposed to be with God. But I'm too much of a control freak for that most of the time.
So, I waited. I poured myself a cup of coffee. I worked on my bullet journal. I prayed.
Then, an email came in from my associate bank manager. She was on hold with the fraud department and she wanted to make sure I recognized all the transactions on the account. "How am I supposed to answer that when I'm locked out and can't see them?" She hung up with the fraud department and we had a three-way call with herself and the other bank manager. We went over every transaction that happened since Friday and I confirmed them all. So, it was back to the fraud department she went.
More waiting.
Finally, she called me back. There was an issue with an autodeposit e-transfer that we'd RECEIVED from a customer. The customer's bank was claiming it was a scam. So, here's where the rage began.
This company has been enrolled in the Interac e-Transfer (an email service where people can email payments directly from their bank into your bank) autodeposit program for years. We registered as soon as it was available, because, unlike most retail companies, we accept Interac e-Transfer as a form of payment from our customers. We receive 10s of thousands of dollars via Interac e-Transfer WEEKLY. I keep track of all this information in spreadsheets, even, to keep track of how much is coming in. I can list thousands of transactions that we've received. But apparently, all it takes is ONE to completely shut down our account.
It's one thing to recognize funds going out of an account and flag that for an account restriction, it's quite another thing to flag an INBOUND payment, accept another bank's determination that it was fraud (especially when the fraud claim is NOT initiated by the customer themselves), and shut down all access to the account. Everyone on the bank account has an email address and phone number, it's not as though they couldn't just call one of us and say "This is what has been determined, can you please confirm this?" And again, we have gotten THOUSANDS of these payments, and after the first claim of fraud, we get our account shut down? Absolutely ridiculous.
I emailed both our bank managers and put in a complaint against the fraud department for going way above and beyond what would be reasonable in a situation like that. I also forwarded the e-mails from the customer himself stating that he did not report the payment as fraud - further confirming that his bank was acting on his behalf, rather than on his request.
After confirming that we would be refunding the payment, the bank removed the restriction and we are back in our account once more.
Adrenaline is still pulsing through my veins, and I know it shouldn't be, and I know I shouldn't be raging, but I am me and it's hard to let go of what I've allowed myself to become accustomed to.
Side note: I know I haven't talked much about my faith, least of all on my work blog. I have not been the best of Christian over the last few years, but recently I made the decision to do better, to rely on God more, to spend more time in His Word, and to not hide my lamp under a bushel basket. If talk of my faith bothers you, I understand. Not everyone will agree with my faith. Not everyone will understand my decision. Some might even take offense. I'm not here to be offensive. I'm just here (trying) to be a light.
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