Taking Care of Business

Posted on July 30, 2015 by TJ

This has been a week of taking care of business. It has given me a headache.

Tuesday morning EJ contacted realtors downstate to sell our house. His sister , who was once a realtor, advised us to call three realtors and to reject the one who wants to list the house for the highest price because he (or she) probably isn’t concerned whether it will sell or not, and she said to also reject the one who wants to list it for the lowest price because he probably just wants it gone, and to choose the one who wants to list it for the middle price because he (or she) is probably the most realistic and will work hard for us. So we contacted three realtors and only one bothered to call us back. We plan to meet with her tomorrow. I’m really praying our house sells FAST. I’m tired of having to make the long journey south. I want to enjoy life up here.

JJ got his new computer put together in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. He was briefly discouraged that the mega-special graphics card didn’t work, but he contacted the company and they told him how to package it and return it to them. It had to be packaged just right or the company said it wouldn’t replace it, so Wednesday morning we drove to a UPS store in the Emerald City and paid UPS to both package it and ship it. Other than that, JJ’s computer works well and is super powerful and fast. It amazes me that he was able to build a computer that actually works. I mean, I’m not amazed that HE could do it, but I’m amazed that anyone could, and that JJ had so few problems getting it to work when he’s never built a computer before. I told JJ he ought to be proud of himself because it’s quite an accomplishment.

Before we stopped at UPS on Wednesday morning, we first stopped at a PNC bank to close our account. When EJ was hired at his company in the Emerald City, we thought it was a good idea to open an account at a bank that had branches in both areas, north and south, so we could both access our funds. It was a great idea in theory but not in reality. I had a bad feeling about the bank when we walked in, but we were super busy and pressed for time so we opened the accounts anyway. The friendliness of the employees felt gushy and fake, and they put a lot of pressure on us to sign up for various services. (These, by the way, are INFJ characteristics: We have deep intuition but don’t always listen to it and we know when people are being fake.) As soon as we bought our new house, we opened an account at a nearby friendly small-town bank, which reminds us of the friendly small-town bank we had in our village downstate before we switched to PNC. Anyway, PNC charged us several fees without notifying us, which took our balance below zero. They also charged us $25 for closing our account. I read reviews of PNC after we opened our account and I saw very few reviews above one star (out of five). I very, very, extremely rarely (like maybe one or twice in my life) write negative reviews about companies, but when we got home, I wrote a negative one-star review of our experiences with PNC because it left such a bad taste.

When JJ got a job in the Emerald City, he also opened an account at PNC for the same reasons as us. However, he was told he could only have a Virtual Wallet account, which means he could only use the ATMs. If he went to a teller at the counter, he was charged a fee. I think its ridiculous that a customer can’t do transactions with tellers inside the bank–especially since the bank was pretty much empty every time I went there.

And then there is the continuing saga of the insurance company. An agent at the new insurance company called this morning to ask if we had called the old agency because none of our insurance had been transferred to them yet. Since we are remaining with the same company but just switching agencies, we were told that it’s usually a simple matter that’s completed minutes after a client requests a transfer. So EJ called the old agency AGAIN to tell them we wanted our insurance policies transferred to the northern agency. The agent he talked to told us again that SB, the senior agent/owner, was not in the office but he wanted to talk to us first. This is the THIRD time this week EJ has told the southern agency to transfer our policies, and SB is never in the office–we were told he would be gone all day Wednesday and now he’s not going to be in the office all day tomorrow. The only time SB has tried to contact us was at a time when EJ specifically told the agency he could NOT take calls. EJ called the new agency back to update them on the situation and they said that they can initiate the transfer themselves. Usually they don’t like to do it this way because it’s sort of like forcibly yanking a client away. However, SB is not listening to us or complying with our wishes so we are doing it the hard way. Grrrrr.

Although I very, very, extremely rarely write negative reviews about companies, when we got home, I found myself writing another negative one-star review–my second in two days.

JJ’s car has been shifting hard so EJ and I left the house early this morning to take it to the shop in the larger town that we have nicknamed Eureka. It’s not as quirky as the town in the science fiction series, but the name fits for other reasons. Anyway, I think the problem with JJ’s car is not real major–but they did some preventative maintenance stuff–and they have offered to do the recall work on it as soon as the parts they will order come in. We will have to pick up the car early tomorrow morning before heading south.

I’m also busy contacting Cancer Services at the Emerald City hospital to find JJ a support group. He wants to find a group with younger people in it, but it’s difficult to find such a group. Most groups are for women with breast cancer or has parents or grandparents in it.

The fictional town of Haven. Photo from Flickr.com

Yesterday afternoon JJ and I drove to a library we have just discovered in a picturesque little town not far away on the coast. We have nicknamed the town “Haven” after a coastal town in a science fiction TV series. Our town doesn’t have the strange Troubles (that we know of) that the town in the series has, but it’s just as pretty. We seem to be collecting library cards: We have a card for the library in the Emerald City. That library is huge and very beautiful, but it’s quite far away, and we have only limited services because we aren’t in their county. We have a card for the library in Eureka, which is a medium-sized library that is closer and in our county so we have full use of all their services. And we are trying to get a card for the library in Haven, which has a nice little library which is even closer–just around the corner and down the road a bit. It’s actually in a different county, but we can still use all it’s services without cost. JJ and I were not able to get the library card yesterday because their computers were down but we talked to the friendly librarian and explored the library a bit. I drove to the library this morning but there was a sign on the door that said the computers were still down. I will not give up!