Am I an idiot or are other people idiots?

Yesterday I went to pick up a share pack cash card. I had briefly written about this a week or so ago. It is marketed by Wal*Mart and administered by GE Financial. What I have been looking for is a cash card I could reload remotely, that truck drivers could take on the road to make fuel purchases.

For the most part, truck drivers are O.K., but some of them are poor money managers and if you give them cash, it blends with their own money and all the sudden they need fuel and have no money! Add to this, the possibility that a weeks worth of fuel is over a thousand dollars and you can be talking a major miscue if a wallet is lost or the driver is mugged.

With the cash card, if it is lost, the funds can be recovered. You can get a paper statement for card use, and it can be used any where you can use a Visa debit card.

When I went to purchase the card, I stood in line for about twenty minutes. During this time, I read both covers of the closed package. You can put up to a $1500 on the card and balance can be checked and more money loaded from countless locations around the nation.

I decided I would load $1000 on the card. When it was my turn the girl rang the card up. $6. "How much would you like to load on the card?", she asked. "$1000", I replied. She punched in the numbers and told me, "You can only put $500 paying cash, you can put $1000 if you are cashing a check."

I said, "I didn't see that anywhere on the card packet." The customer service representative, grabbed my packet, broke the seal and said, "It says it right here on page one!"

"Excuse me, but I don't usually open something before I buy it", I said. I gave her the $500 cash and she completed the transaction. As I turned away from the register I took one parting shot! "You know Wal*Mart might want to rethink their packaging of these cards because that is false advertising!" I walked away as she was relieving the next person of their money!

I may do so more checking on prepaid cards, but for the mean time, I will use this one.

I got home and tried to go online. I prefer seeing a form rather than listening on the phone. I really wanted to put the cards in the company name. After numerous attempts, I decided to make the dreaded call.

What I got was an automated phone system. "Key in or speak each letter of your name", the computer said. We went through name, address, identification, cell phone, pins, passwords and a bunch of other baloney. Finally the primary card was completed. It asked if I wanted a second card at no charge? (Duh, I paid double price for a share pack because I had $6 instead of $3). "Yes" I responded. "What name do you want on the second card?", the computer asked. I used the company name. "Please spell the first name", the computer asked. I did. It read the name back. "Is this correct?", it asked. "Correct", I responded. I could tell the "correct" answer confused the computer. After a moment, it asked me to please answer yes or no. Heh, heh. I answered "Yes.". Please spell the second name. I did, and the computer said, "Please repeat it". I did, and it asked me to repeat it again and again. Finally the computer said, "I'm sorry, I am having a problem understanding your spelling. You need to go to our website to get your second card."

I went on line, but couldn't open any links, so I got a number for customer service and called it. At first it was the same irritating voice of the computer, but I short circuited it and it passed me to a customer service representative. All I can tell you is they were in a foreign country. Probably India. Horrible English. Poor skills. She told me I would have to go on line to do the second card. I told her their website sucked. She told me I couldn't do it by phone for 48 hours because I had concluded the first call. I told her, "Only because your system told me to!"

Finally I asked her, "Is it going to be a pain every time I load or use this card?" She assured me it wasn't, but then what does she know! You have no idea how tempting it was to use the computer line and say "I'm sorry, I am having trouble understanding you!"

I hope President Obama tries to reward companies that keep jobs in the U.S..

I think I am going to try to figure out what companies I do business with that are asking for bailout, that have foreign service centers. Then I am going to decide how vital it is to do business with them.

While I was in Wal*Mart I picked up squash, mushrooms, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes and a couple of other items. Krl and I had discussed what we were cooking for supper most of the day. We finally agreed on chicken in a bag. We put two chicken breasts, sliced bell pepper, sliced onion, sliced yellow squash, a tub of cherry tomatoes, and a tub of sliced mushrooms into a foil bag. Krl seasoned it while I mixed a concoction of picante, soy, terriaki, Worcestershire, corn starch, a little sugar and just a touch of butter. I poured the sauce over the contents of the bag and folded the bag shut, repeatedly. I took it out and placed it on the grill. I did thirty minutes and turned it over, then thirty minutes and turned it over, then sixteen and sixteen. Krl had prepared rice pilaf and egg rolls. It was very different. The chicken was so tender it would shred as you stirred your vegetables!

I know I said yesterday if I was re-incarnated I wanted to be Hispanic. Today I might prefer to be oriental! (Then I would be extremely smart and could cook oriental cuisine.)

We did meet with the guy who sold I.D. #2 (idiot daughter number 2) the car. He was a very nice guy. He had his wife and two friends with him. We spent a little time with him, and he told us of his experience with I.D.#2. He told us she had a hard luck story (of course) and that he did what he did as a favor, that he really wasn't supposed to do it, but felt if it would help I.D. #2 out. He said when she called him to tell him she got the insurance money from me, she asked him if he could spot her a couple hundred dollars. He said he told her yes, and when she came by she gave him $1700. He said "Huh?" He knew she was getting $2219, and $200 from that was $2019. What I.D. #2 had done was spot herself $519.

Not what she told me, and not what she had told him. This man told me that when this situation stretched on for a month, it put him in a situation that he couldn't pay all his bills. Actually what had happened was I.D. #2 had promised to pay him the original outstanding balance on the car which was $281 when she got her insurance check for the value over what she owed me on the Honda she wrecked. She was expecting a windfall of six to eight hundred dollars. So, what she owed this salesman was $800 after she had helped herself to the $519 dollar loan. She still contends to Krl and me and the salesman that she never got her check. Baloney!

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that she does what she does with total disregard for what it does to others.

Krl tells me she can already hear if she talks with I.D. #2's mother. "It's not her fault, she can't help it, it is an illness. She is suicidal! Out of her medications." (We got the bill yesterday for I.D. #2's last months meds which is the last month we will ever pay for).

I am to the point I might donate a bullet!

One thing for sure, it makes our estate planning a lot easier. Three out already, leaving only one contestant!

I am fixing to get my bath and drive the cash card and some cash to my truck driver in Lamesa. He could route through here and make things simpler, but he is being a pain. I promised Leonard if I got close I would stop by and visit, so I guess I will go by there.

There went my Sunday!

Part of my weekend work got moved to Monday. Drivers were mailing their paperwork to me, cut it didn't make it here, so I guess that will be a Monday project. Already I am picking up some parts from the parts store to deliver tomorrow and Chris will need to call in some more oil. I already have a couple of cases to drop off at the parts store.

Have a day!

FATHER, I lift YOUR name in praise. I thank YOU for all the blessing we enjoy. I pray for safe travel. YOURS is the glory!