Perspectives...
Topic: thought provoking
How's this for perspective...

A woman calls to make a transfer on her account. She tells me (and I quote) "I need to make a transfer. Boy these holidays are killing me!"

I pull up her account...between a savings, checking, and money market account she has over $145,000 in her accounts. She has a Visa with less than $300 due and (considering she's 88 yrs old and has so much money) I'm sure she doesn't have a mortgage to worry about. I'd be curious to see what it takes for her not to be "killed" by the holidays...

Feelin' crappy...
Mood:  down
Topic: ramblings
Well...let me start out by saying I need to start looking for another job now more than ever...

...and secondly, I hope what happened last Wednesday doesn't get me fired.

I'm assuming you want an explanation now? lol

Well...last Wednesday I was tellering. A shared branch member (shared branch = other credit unions around the country who can come to our branches to perform transactions) came in to deposit a check and get cash back. I can remember the guy like it was yesterday...faces I'm not too good with but I definitely remember him. He handed me a check for $4185 and some change...he told me a good story (I know now it was just a story) about getting into a car accident months ago and finally getting his settlement check. The bottom of the check even listed "Memo: Insurance claim pay-out" or something along those lines...I hadn't noticed that the issuer was a doctor's clinic and put two and two together: a doctor wouldn't pay out an insurance claim, that's what insurance companies are for. So, the issuer of the check should have been an insurance company.

As if that oversight wasn't enough, Shared Branching rules usually state if the check isn't guaranteed funds (i.e. cashier's check) or payroll (next best thing to guaranteed) that a hold is to be placed on the check. Well...this guy told me a good story about needing the money desperately because he's been without a car and he's found a good deal on a new car (also a complete fabrication I'm sure). I made the deposit and asked if he would like any cash back. "Oh...well...I was wondering if I could get $4,000 of it?" he asked. The answer should have been no. The mere fact I gave him so much cash in and of itself could get me into big trouble...regardless of the fact that he was a shared branch member.

Well, I gave him the $4,000 left the other $185+ in his account and left it at that. He had a good story and he didn't want the whole thing cashed out so I figured it was a good check. Well, needless to say, it turns out the check is counterfeit. And it turns out that a teller at our other branch deposited a check in his account for just under $4,000 that turned out to be counterfeit. But what's the big difference? When I went into the shared branching system I accidentally pulled up the wrong members' account. As if the day wasn't bad enough, I come to find out that our credit union might have to eat the $4k loss because I put it in the wrong account! Needless to say, I feel pretty crappy right now.

And, to top it all off...the same guy who deposited two bogus checks with us and got $4k in cash back came into our other branch and cashed a payroll check. Normally not a big deal, but for a guy who owes us $4k and is known to conterfeit checks, those funds should have been held regardless of any permission that his branch (Barksdale CU in Louisiana) gave (and they did give permission believe it or not).

So yeah, it's 3:15pm...and I wanna go home...

Spoke too soon...
Mood:  blue
Topic: ramblings
Well now the phone calls have been just flying in...at least they have been low key though (yeah I probably jinxed it again). Sometimes you get the really crazy time consuming kinds (fraud, disputes, members wanting detailed explanations for things, etc) but today has been mostly easy (balances, transfers, check withdrawals, etc). So gotta love that at least lol

Monday morning...
Mood:  blue
Topic: ramblings
Well here it is Monday morning...last Monday at this time I swear I had taken 3 times as many calls! It totally sucked! So I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that today I've had a fairly slow day and the calls have been simple...

But I also feel pretty crummy because my girlfriend's mom had to go to the hospital today to have a procedure done to make sure there aren't any blood clots or anything since a preliminary check showed a blurry spot which may or may not be something serious. So I've been keeping my gf's mom and the family in my prayers lately. I'm sure everything will be just fine though.

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures

A Picture Share!
Mood:  happy
Topic: pictures

Carolan's Irish Cream

Weapons of Mass Destruction
Topic: funny stuff
Ok so I think this is kinda mean towards GWB and his party, but I must admit whoever made this website is pretty clever: it's centered around the "Page Cannot Be Displayed" error message that we all know too well. It used to be the first website to pop up when you searched "Weapons of Mass Destruction" into google's search...

Now it is on the bottom of page 3 *shrugs*

Antiphishing
Topic: informative
Well I suppose there's always good reason to warn everyone about "phishing" - that is, when others attempt to "phish" information from you, usually in the form of a falsified website. It can come in the form of emails or even telephone calls where someone impersonates another person or company in order to try to convince you that they are legitimate and attempt to collect sensitive information such as account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc...

For more information, please go to: http://www.antiphishing.org/

Fast food...
Mood:  happy
Topic: funny stuff
A guy I work with, Jason, mentioned fast food today at work. Him and I both work in a call center where we, basically, sit and answer incoming calls all day. Whenever the phones aren't busy the 6 of us in the call center tend to chat...

"Isn't it kinda scary when you go to Taco Bell and when you hand them your money to pay for it, they already have your food ready?" he asked.

I mentioned how, when I worked at Burger King, management would instruct us to prepare the more popular burgers (i.e. Whoppers) and have two or three of them in the warm bins so that we could serve customers faster.

He mentioned that he had worked at Carl's Jr a little bit in high school and they would cook the meat, then place it in warming bins until the burger was ordered, so burgers weren't "technically" fresh. It reminded me of the same thing at Burger King, and I asked, "did you guys also use microwaves to heat the foods?"

"Oh yeah," he said. Then, just seconds before his phone rang he said, "I guess I've eaten worse stuff at home..."

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures

Acura NSX - Jan 2005 in Vancouver, WA