Commonwealth Bank

Today I did something that I'm not proud off. But first let me give you a little bit of background.

Yesterday, after many days of deliberation, we decided on an internet company and plan to go with. This is incredibly hard because here you pay per GB instead of buffet internet like at home where you can just get as much as you want... bless our north american culture...So Colin and I decided to do a whopping 6GB a month which will cost us $40/month. But we signed up for a 2 month contract which gives us the wireless modem ($250 value) for free, and the first 6 months of our contract are only $19.97. We were excited to get it since we haven't had internet in several days and wanted to be connected. To our disappointment though, the guy at the counter said we needed our passports so they could run a credit check, so we hung our heads and said we'd try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow came. We went to a different mall and brought our trusty passports with us. This was happening! I went up to the counter, threw our ID down and asked for our internet please! Nope, we needed something with our address on it. DAMMIT! Why didn't we think of that. "That's okay," I said, "We'll just run to the bank and get them to print something out for us to verify our address, nooooo problem."

The banks here on Saturdays are INSANE. We waited 20 minutes in line to get to a teller who told us that there is no way that she could give that to us because we haven't actually put any money in our account yet (oops). We offered to put some money in and she said it wouldn't make a difference because the system wouldn't process the money until Tuesday. Crap. Well, since I was there, I decided to sign up for a superannuation account because I'll need a % of any future job money go into that account anyways. She tells me, "Nooo problem, I'll just take you to this line up over here."

Several minutes later, Emily is helping me set up my very own superannuation account. I had already filled out the forms the day before and I was rearing to go. I also asked again about getting a piece of paper with my address on it, she tells me that they can do it for me but it would cost $15. Ouch. I wouldn't spend $15 on 100 pieces of paper! Emily continues to set up my account. It wasn't supposed to take very long but 20 minutes later I'm still standing there because she can't quite figure out why the paper I need to sign isn't printing. She finally turns to her coworker and asks: "Can you set up a superannuation account on the weekend?"

I am shocked. I have just wasted 45 minutes at this bank. I can't get my stupid paper that'll let me get my sweet sweet internet and I can't get my stupidannuation account set up. I wait for Emily to apologize for her error and she stares back at me blankly. I felt my pulse quicken. I needed some remorse. The last two hours of my life flashed before my eyes: the hot bus and train ride to the mall, the "no" guy from the internet store, the fact that Colin would have to spend an hour going home to get a piece of paper with our address, the bank line up, and Emily. I had one more option and I knew I would get my way but it wasn't going to be dignified. I asked for her manager. A lovely woman came over after being prepped with the history. My eyes welled up, my lip quivered, I told her about my hour at the bank, my superannuation account, I gave Emily undeserved props for her helpfulness, and then I told her that all I wanted was that little piece of paper with my address on it.

AND I GOT IT! Colin returned from his 15 minute trip to the bathroom and I stood there victorious with our address on a piece of paper. Then we went and got us some internet!

The moral of the story is, Australia sucks and customer service caters to the whiners.

The End.