I'm supposed to transfer one whole sum of fees to Yon Sei in KRW - and the first bank I went to said: sure, fill up the form. And then the next thing that made me blew my top was that when I was home, I received a call that said: sorry, there's an issue with the processing--- we do not transfer money in KRW, especially KRW. You'll have to do it in SGD or USD.
Me: Oh, so does that mean I have to convert the currency myself? Or do I have to base it on the transaction date's exchange rate, what should I do?
***(WTH would I know the exchange rate on the date of your transaction if you can only process it 3-4days later???)
Staff: Actually, we have no idea...we do not know the exchange rate, you'll have to convert it yourself in SGD and maybe check with your friends? You are attending the university there right? The bank will take 3-4 days to process the money and then the bank in Korean will decide whether the amount is adequate or not.
Me: Okay, I have no idea either, (there's not much transparency in the whole process in the first place on both institution's part) I'll check with my friends. May I have your number? I'll get back to you as soon as possible, sorry about that.
Staff: Oh, I'll call you back later, or do you want tomorrow? We're closing at 4.30pm. (Time of call, approximately 3plus pm)
Me: Erm, maybe I'll take down your number and contact you asap?
*silence*
Staff: For that you'll have to call the contact center- request for your call to be transferred to this branch and direct the call to me.
***(Well, she didn't even bothered to introduced herself - I caught her name when her colleague spoke to her 'discreetly' about the issue with KRW)
Me: It's okay, you can call me tomorrow then.
What kind of service is that - I mean, it wasn't all about the service, it was the whole bureaucratic-sticky thing that irks me to the core and make my flesh crawl. Do I seem that I know the exchange rate 3-4 days later? If I do, I'll be somewhere ripping bucks off the stock market for goodness sake. And---did really she think that I had the bank's central office number stored in my speed dial? GEEEZ, she put down the phone with such expert quickness I had to wait till the next day to tell her cancel the transaction. (I'm going to another bank)
Yeah, so this is the story of why I had to make a second trip to another bank today - and hopefully things will work out since they can only process the telegraphic transfer next monday.
The moral of the story is?
Just make sure you get things done right the first time, go to the right bank and make sure they answer your inquiries sincerely. If you have a deadline to meet, then do so way before the deadline, perhaps 4-5 days earlier since there'll probably be mysterious and confidential glitches here and there. There are no mysterious glitches nor are there confidential glitches, just a total lack of transparency and the power of bureaucracy.
(I'm keeping the bank names confidential due to certain mysterious reasons - respecting their privacy? Probably not, I'm safeguarding myself.)
Anyway, have a great summer ahead! It's getting real hot in Singapore now even though it's summer all year round? Haha, time to get the quill moving - my ink's all dried up when I should be revising my half-written novel.
0 comments:
Post a Comment