THE AGE OF THE GOOF-OFF

Friday, June 16, 2006

Many weeks ago my wife and I got the “smart idea” that we would have our pictures put on our Bank of America credit cards. It seems like a simple thing to do. It doesn’t take a lot of experience and she had done it before. We went to our local bank and had our pictures taken, filled out the necessary papers and in just a few minutes the task was completed. We were told we would receive the new cards in about a week to ten days. The cards came and we were happy to receive them UNTIL we discovered our pictures had been switched. Her picture was on the card reading Clifton L. Ditmore and mine was on the card reading Charlotte J. Ditmore.

No big deal. They just made a simple mistake.

When we called, the lady at Bank of America was appalled. She didn’t see how it could have happened. She apologized over and over and promised to make the correction. We were to receive the cards in a week to ten days. We received the cards and were happy to have them UNTIL we discovered they were just like the first ones. My ugly face was still on Charlotte’s card and her pretty face was on mine.

No big deal. They just made another simple mistake.

The lady at the Bank of America was appalled. She didn’t see how it could have happened. She apologized over and over and promised to make the correction. We were to receive the new corrected cards in a week to ten days. We waited ten day and then two weeks and then a few more days and finally we called Bank of America. The lady at Bank of America was appalled and promised to get the cards out as soon as possible. They had no records of us ever calling.

We waited and waited and waited and finally yesterday I called again. You guessed it—no record of us calling. They apologized and promised to get it corrected. Will they? Your guess is as good as mine but with the way things have been going I would say, “No way, Jose”—it’s not going to happen! Nope, it just can’t be done.

I am resolved to the fact that this is the age of the goof-off. I can live with it. I don’t really even need a Bank of America card.