Email from 7/24/2015

Good evening everyone!

Sorry for the late delivery.  I spent the better part of the day Friday driving to Virginia.  Apparently I still haven't shaken loose the driving bug. 

So this week’s update has to filed under the “this can only happen to me” category.  So everyone knows Maureen and I are in escrow to purchase our dream home in Weaverville, just north of Asheville, NC.  Without getting into too much detail, Maureen’s and my credit is stellar.  Little or no debt to speak of, money in the bank, and credit scores above any threshold that might be of any consequence.  And, we are only borrowing about a third of the home’s value.  Getting a home loan is a slam dunk, right?  Not so much..... We closed our credit union account just before we sold our house in California and deposited that money in our regular savings.  The Department of Homeland Security or some similar obscure federal agency that keeps track of financial transactions in an effort to discourage money laundering or financing of terrorist activity requires a complete paper trail for transactions over a specified dollar amount.  As it turns out, we always relied on electronic statements (save a tree and all that) so we don’t have any credit union statements in our files.  Further, we closed the account so even though we can still log into the credit union’s system, we no longer have access to the statements.  Just to lend some perspective, this is not money that we will be using purchase, paint, remodel, or in any other way have any impact on the purchase of this house.

On to our adventure......

Bureaucracy Number 1 (the credit union (CU)):  I call the credit union to get the last two months statements.  As it turns out I’m no longer a customer so there is not even a fleeting attempt to provide any semblance of customer service.  I mean, that’s for customers, right?  I’m told that if I want a statement I have to submit a request in writing with a check for the service fee and the statements will be mailed to me.  I can’t pay for them with a credit card and there is nothing I can do except follow their procedures.  I receive no sympathy for the fact that I’m in escrow for the purchase of a home and time is of the essence.  Of course, if I’m in a hurry, the supervisor does give me the option of walking into a branch (in CA) and requesting the copies in person.  Thank you for giving me more than one option.....

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good:  I don’t even remember why, but after I hung up with the CU I logged on to our account one more time.  The customer service (and I use that term generously) staff and supervisor must have had to flip a switch on my account so they could see my statements which I could now also see.  I started saving .pdf statements going back month by month.  Before I got kicked out of the system (and I was) I managed to save statements all the way back to January 2014.  Problem solved, right?  Not so much.....

Bureaucracy Number 2 (the lender):  I love my lender to death.  He’s been very helpful and understanding, but he’s killing me!  I sent him my last three months statements from the closed CU account.  My last CU statement ended May 31, 2015.  I closed the account on June 1, 2015.  When I closed the account I received a disbursement for the full amount in the account that was shown on my May 2015 statement.  However, there is no June statement that shows a withdrawal because the account technically did not exist in June.  And I technically did not make a withdrawal, it was a disbursement of the funds of a closed account.  And even though I have the receipt for the disbursement of the funds in the account at the time of its closure and it is exactly the same dollar amount shown on the statement ending May 31st, it is not a “statement” of the account that shows the activity of a “withdrawal.”  Back to the drawing board......

Bureaucracy Number 1 (back to the CU):  “You’re killing me!”  I actually said that I think about three times to the poor girl who was “trying to help me” (and I say that generously as well).  The customer service people must check their common sense at the door when they go to work.  After an hour of intermittently arguing that they can’t withhold my account information because I had not updated my address on file, which changed after I closed the account and being on hold while they discussed what they couldn’t do for me, the solution they presented was for me to write a letter to Member Services, which apparently they aren’t, although that’s who I thought I called.  I wrote the letter requesting all of the account history right then and there, included my address update request, and sent the letter priority mail the same day.  We’ll see what happens.  They did offer me a glimmer of hope.  The customer service person I spoke with indicated that an “Account Ending Statement” was sent out to us.  I know for a fact that I have a batch of mail being forwarded from my old address sent by Cathy.  Cross your fingers, I may have that statement within a couple of days with any luck at all, right?  Except, I’m having an issue with my mail.....

Bureaucracy Number 3 (the United States Postal Service (USPS)):  I received an email from the gentleman I sold my Corona house to describing snail mail he was receiving addressed to me in “Weaverville, CA.”  We put in our mail forwarding request on-line with our new P.O. Box in Weaverville, NC.  Whoever processed the request apparently was familiar with the only other Weaverville in the country, Weaverville, CA.  And, I’m sure in an effort to be helpful, that individual “corrected” our request by altering the state and zip fields.  Now our mail is all over the place.  Our mail appears to be traveling up north to Weaverville, CA, and then back to my house on Citron Street, in Corona, where the gentleman who purchased my house carries my mail to our (now his) neighbor, Cathy.  Cathy then bundles up all our mail in a big envelope and forwards it to us.  I don’t know what I’d be doing without her.  I put in a “corrected forwarding address” request at the Weaverville post office today but I’ve been told that it will take a while to clean up the mess.  The staff at the Weaverville, NC post office have been a delight to work with.  They solved the problem of our getting a P.O. Box in their office while we were still in CA when the Corona post office was bogged down in their bureaucracy.  And the lady that helped me with my address forwarding problem only hesitated long enough to recall which form I required when I presented my dilemma.  In the meantime, I’m still waiting for that “Account Ending Statement.”  On the bright side, the seller we are purchasing from just requested we extend the closing out until September 1st, so we have a little extra time to work things out.  I have faith (and patience, which I'm sure I'll need in abundance before this is over)!

Apparently, God loves the Lions Clubs.  It has rained out here on average every other day.  And I'm tickled pink about it.  I left all of my sprinkler supplies, tools, glue, pipe, sprinkler heads, with the house when I left.  I hope to never have to fix repair, replace another sprinkler part for the rest of my days!  But back to my Lions story.  Last Saturday’s weather forecast was 60% chance of thunderstorms.  The Weaverville Lions had their big 2nd Annual Car Show Fundraiser scheduled and they were sweating it big time, and not just because of the humidity.  And as Keith will attest, if there is any chance of rain the classic cars stay home in the garage.  As it turned out, the sun came out early and it was a beautiful day all day.  The club had almost twice as many cars register as last year.  I haven’t seen an accounting but I’m sure it was a successful fundraiser for the group. 

Maureen is busy picking out paint colors for the house.  I would hate to be the painter that has to keep her color palate straight.  I think there might be eight rooms upstairs and she has sixteen colors picked out.  I’m exaggerating of course (but it doesn’t seem by much).

Last Saturday we attended our first “Shindig on the Green” (translation:  Concert in the Park).  It’s a weekly event and is not always Bluegrass.  As it happens, it was Bluegrass this week.  During our visit in February we found Pack’s Tavern which is right beside the Roger McGuire Green at Pack Square Park in front of City Hall.  What we didn’t notice was that Pack’s Tavern has a nice patio out the back door looking out over Pack Square Park.  I think we can be forgiven for not noticing in February because about 20 degrees and windy that night and even Maureen wouldn’t have been interested in sitting outside under those conditions (JOD knows what I’m talking about).  Anyway, it looks like Pack’s Tavern’s patio might be our semi permanent venue on Saturday nights for the foreseeable future, at least during the summer months.  Our Thursday outing (I was missing choir practice) landed us at Jack of the Wood in downtown Asheville.  We headed out to the baseball game to see the Asheville Tourists but it was raining off and on and we knew they wouldn't be playing in that weather, so we headed downtown to look for a pub.  By the way, Hickory won that game 8-6.  Anyway, Jack of the Wood is an interesting mix of hippy, redneck and Irish genres.  We'll probably fit right in somewhere.  Just a side note, the Asheville Tourists have been around since the turn of the last century.  They are coming up on the 100th anniversary of the name "Asheville Tourists".  It is said that Asheville was built on the 4-Ts.  Timber, Tobacco, Tourism and Tuberculosis!  Apparently the air quality is something to brag about as well, not to rub it in California. 

For the weekend anyway, we're here in Virginia visiting my side of the family.  Mom says hi!  I'll be back in Asheville next week looking forward to my next bureaucratic adventure!

  

Until then, take care!

Rick