a defunct saga - thankfully!

it all started with the wishful thinking that people or rather institutions understand what they are expected to do.

as you know by now, it was not the case. funny story, all i wanted was a sum of $10K transferred from my bank in Bangalore to my university account towards my fees. sounds simple doesn't it, turns out nothing is simple anymore.

the process of requesting was very easy, i was to transfer the margin money to bangalore and they add that to the loan and transfer back to my university. Still sounds simple? well, read on

as expected, i transferred the margin money on the 11th of may (remember this date). which also reached bangalore by 12th of may. Now starts all the fun. I mailed the bank giving the details, and they confirmed the transfer. I was all happy that my beliefs in the system and efficiency and effectiveness of my banks were reinforced.

But then the waiting game started. After I came back from camping (as explained in the previous blog, before latha's pic) i called my university, but they said it will take 2 weeks for a wire transfer. My question was, why will anything that is supposed to take place in a flash or instantaneously take 2 weeks. But then they informed me that the account number has changed. Now this is getting all fun, my bank has transferred to an account that is not university's account. so i go back to my bank asking what happened. My bank in B'lore promptly told me that the router number was a llittle confusing so they parked it in a suspense account. This is too much for a person to take, that much fun is said to be a crime. when i ask them how come they were sleeping over it and never even bothered to inform me or my parents, they did not have any answer. so i get back to my university (where they gave me the wrong account) and ask them what the F#$% is happening, they said that this account (supposedly wrong) is available only till 20th of June. This gave me a ray of light. So i go back to my bank (in b'lore) and give the same details again and they confirm (Again) that its transferred.

This gets even more fun, i request for a confirmation that the account number, router number and swift codes are proper i get a mail which says "We refer to your mail of 1/6/05. An amount of USD 10000 has been remitted on 4.6.05 as per request" This is really funny, because i was frustrated by the june 4th and wrote a mail asking them to cancel the transaction and i would ask my parents to make a DD and courier it. Now i am not sure if they transferred it or cancelled it.

There's only one thing to do now, i call the bank b'lore every night my time and i call the Bank of america (my university's bank) by day. After a week of persistent calling i get a answer from my bank in B'lore that the money is stuck with the intermediary bank, Deautsch Bank and its pending their action. This is beautiful, because as it turns out Deautsch Bank does not have a commercial banking division in New york. So i have to call Europe, but their site is not all that user friendly, so i just call my Bank, Bank of america and my university everyday religiously chekcing if they have received the money. In these times i realize that because my bank in B'lore screwed up, i have to bear the penalty of some $50 and yes the late payment fees from university for $100 (beside the transactoin fees at both transfers)

By this time, everyone is completely pissed at me, frankly i dont give a rats ass, coz if i dont have that money by the end of this month, i can't register for CPA. finally one day at my routine calls i get the message that money is transferred. so i call again just to check. At this time i am delighted and entrhalled even. So i call my university quoting the transaction number, the tracking number, the amount and everything. there is no answer for 2 days, then i get a mail that it has been recorded.

And all it took was a couple of hundred calls all over the world, a $300 of fines and fees and a constant reminder with a hopeful heart :) (not to mention one month for transfer)

i am thankful that it is concluded, as much fun as it was i dont want to do it again, i will rely on old fashioned demand draft over the flashy wire transfer

as a concluding remark i would love to quote Dinakar Palamand "by 2000, 98% of indian banks were Y2K complliant, other 2% used computers"

vathsa Out