The 'B' Word
The excitement of moving to a new city is always short lived, you learn to ignore the minor differences and blame it on the culture change especially when you’ve been waiting for a bus for 20 minutes and people that have been waiting 2 minutes get on it first, seconds later ‘bus full’ sign appears and you have to wait another 20 minutes. If you do end up waiting for great lengths of time, people tend to be quite friendly and will find any reason so accommodate you to the next wait; even the way you sigh to yourself people seem to know that you’re British. Canadians do love the British however what’s astonishing is that any word I utter sounds ‘lush’ I thought ‘lush’ was an English slang word? Who could think that monotone standard English was worthy of such a compliment.
It takes a lot for a tourist to get frustrated especially when there are too many reasons to be happy, being surrounded by nature and beauty is one of them.But something I guess never changes wherever you go is access to money. It wasn’t reckless of me to do so but every coffee break with my colleagues I would tuck my bankcard inside my phone so that it was easy to pick up and go, allowing a hand spare for the coffee. It seems that by doing this I have actually disabled the magnetic strip on my card. I called the card company and they advised a new emergency card would be sent to me within 3 working days and that I can pick up emergency funds at my nearest Western Union. Astonished at the prospect of being able to pick up money straight away I went to pick up the funds as advised but the Western Union was only able to give me a maximum of $200 and not the $500 the bank had sent, I said that’s fine you can give me anything, I didn’t mind nor was I going to be fussy, I just needed some cash for the next few days until my card arrived. I rarely carry cash and I know I shouldn’t be but I am heavily reliant on cards. I was so joyful at how quickly the card company had been willing to help me, however this didn’t last long. Something that did come as a surprise was that Western Union refused to give me any money. They could only give me the amount in one go and to make the situation better they only had $60 in their till. This is Western Union we’re talking about, a company that prides themselves in international money transfer.
The next day I spent the whole morning at another Western Union branch, for them only to tell me that for them to release funds the money has to be sent from an individual and not a company. I was furious; I had been there 2 hours. Why would they accept the funds and then tell me they can’t give it to me. Why not tell the card company this. After another hour getting through to the right person, the funds were sent back to my card and transferred to a Money Gram. Guess what? Money Gram only had $80 in their till and couldn’t help me. I went to another store; the lady was very helpful and willing to listen to my bad experiences. She advised that she can only give me $100 and prepared a cheque for me to pick up the rest at a bank. I was very grateful that the lady helped me but I remained frustrated at how much I had been passed around. When I visited the bank, I was greeted by a trainee member of staff, he was very willing to help but had no idea what the cheque I had in my hand was for, once a manger became available I was told that yes they can help me. The bank manager spent an hour waiting on the phone confirming my cheque with Money Gram was legit, I had my passport, ID, Receipt with reference number and cheque from Money Gram what an earth was he verifying? I waited irritated and upset at how much I had been passed around. I am just a young girl wanting to access money because my card is broken, why does everything have to be triple checked when I have a pile of documents in front of me. The security guard at the bank assumed I was loitering and came over to me to ask what I was doing, I didn’t know whether to be polite or have a mental breakdown in front of him. Why was he questioning me, yes I have been in the bank for two hours now, had he observed properly he would have realised that I actually needed someone to approach me and ask if I was ok and not be interrogated.
It has now been seven days and no sign of my card, rent is due soon so I have to find an alternative method of paying. Did I mention I have had to use my English card everywhere I go and I am being swamped by charges! Majority of places don’t even recognize English cards which I can’t comprehend. Maybe my card is sitting with customs; I’m not expecting it for another week. I was reassured 3 days, I was reassured I could pick up money anywhere. I am done with being reassured. Nobody actually cares.
