Little Old Lady Vs. The Bank!!!

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  • cabinetman
    Gone but not Forgotten RIP
    • Jun 2006
    • 15216
    • So. Florida
    • Delta

    #1

    Little Old Lady Vs. The Bank!!!

    Love this one!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Shown below , is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.

    Dear Sir:

    I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month.

    By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

    I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

    You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

    My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

    I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, --- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

    From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

    My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

    Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete.

    I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

    Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

    In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

    I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
    Let me level the playing field even further .

    When you call me, press buttons as follows:


    IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH


    #1. To make an appointment to see me
    #2. To query a missing payment.
    # 3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
    # 4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
    # 5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
    # 6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home .
    #7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier.
    # 8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.
    # 9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.
    # 10. This is a second reminder to press* for English.
    While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call

    Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.
    May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?
    Your Humble Client

    (Remember: This was written by a 86 year old woman)
    'YA JUST GOTTA LOVE "US SENIORS" !!!!!
  • TB Roye
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2004
    • 2969
    • Sacramento, CA, USA.
    • BT3100

    #2
    Go Granny Go!

    Tom

    Comment

    • LarryG
      The Full Monte
      • May 2004
      • 6693
      • Off The Back
      • Powermatic PM2000, BT3100-1

      #3
      Cute, as most things of this ilk are; but also as most of things of this ilk are, it's not true, at least not as it's represented.

      http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/takethat.asp
      Larry

      Comment

      • cabinetman
        Gone but not Forgotten RIP
        • Jun 2006
        • 15216
        • So. Florida
        • Delta

        #4
        Originally posted by LarryG
        Cute, as most things of this ilk are; but also as most of things of this ilk are, it's not true, at least not as it's represented.

        http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/takethat.asp
        I should thank you for taking the time to research this post for the details. It was an email to me and the humor I found with its content didn't spur me to take the time to check it out. I realize the importance of "getting it right" and after checking found that a gent by the name of Peter Wear, wrote the letter, didn't send it to the bank, but did publish it in the New York Times.

        It's good to know that we have members that find these details pertinent to a humor article.

        Comment

        • LarryG
          The Full Monte
          • May 2004
          • 6693
          • Off The Back
          • Powermatic PM2000, BT3100-1

          #5
          No need to get your knickers in a twist. I didn't say that you, personally, had misrepresented it. I realize that you would have just cut and pasted it from email, as is typically done with these things.

          The point was, and is, that it begins, " ... an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times." According to snopes.com, it is not an actual letter, it was not written by an 86-year-old woman, and it never appeared in the NYT.
          Larry

          Comment

          • cabinetman
            Gone but not Forgotten RIP
            • Jun 2006
            • 15216
            • So. Florida
            • Delta

            #6
            Oh my God, wrong again!! This is just not my day. AND, Larry, you're right again, you get 10 more points for your tenacious effort. Not the New York Times, but was some newspaper. Thanks again. Think I'll go sweep up the shop, or sharpen some chisels. Then I can post how that went.

            Comment

            • radhak
              Veteran Member
              • Apr 2006
              • 3061
              • Miramar, FL
              • Right Tilt 3HP Unisaw

              #7
              While I find snopes very interesting (and informative) about all those 'urban myth' floating around, I still find some of them (like this one) humorous.

              Of course, when I day-dream about emulating it myself and sending my bank a letter like that, I hit reality : most probably that letter would hit the 'circular file' within minutes of being read; I would need to follow up (and again), then send them a certified mail; then I would go in and hand it over personally, and they would continue to ignore me; if I attempt to really collect on it, they might counter it with a bill for wasting the manager's valuable time.

              Worst is, the snope entry for this piece ends with a bit of 'advice' for all of us: the bank is not at fault, we are . Even snope has sold out to the big bad bank.
              It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
              - Aristotle

              Comment

              • LCHIEN
                Super Moderator
                • Dec 2002
                • 22011
                • Katy, TX, USA.
                • BT3000 vintage 1999

                #8
                Humor stories, sad stories, amazing coincidence stories, heroic stoires, there are all sometimes passed off as true stories as if being true makes them more potent and valuable.

                But is truth vs. fiction not a little bit of a lie? Many of these stories are carefully crafted and written to make them appear true and perhaps we all secretly want them to be true, but so many of them floating around as mass-mailed e-mails are just that, urban legends. They demean really true stories of amazing pluck, courage, honesty, luck, and love.
                I thank Snopes for exposing these.
                I don't blame the messenger-the original author went to great lengths to make these believable.
                Loring in Katy, TX USA
                If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
                BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

                Comment

                • leehljp
                  The Full Monte
                  • Dec 2002
                  • 8774
                  • Tunica, MS
                  • BT3000/3100

                  #9
                  SNOPES IS NOT Always Right! They are misleading in at least one of their "truths" by saying that a famous governmental official did NOT say that he invented something. Snopes alludes to an interview with a famous newscaster, and that from that interview, the politician has been misquoted.

                  The Truth is that the famous quote WAS said, but the politician was in another country when he said it. THAT interview was aired on TV in the politicians home state and in other countries.

                  Snopes does not mention this.

                  A lot of Snopes is great and helpful but it bothers me that they want to air the truth and add just enough "revisionist" to the truth at times that they even do the same thing that they are trying to prevent.


                  Related but un-related: Wording can be tenacious and misleading. When the BT3000 was being discontinued and just before the 3100 was introduced, their representatives said: "We do not currently have any plans to announce a new saw at this time." The 3000 is being discontiued. HD people said this to members of the old Ryobi forum, many who are here now. Ryobi representatives said directly in emails and over the phone too. When posted there on that forum, I had just gone through some of the junk snail mail sent to my daughter in which she was sure that she had won something. With "Wording" being fresh on my mind the way that words play tricks, I dissected the following sentence.

                  "We do not currently have any plans to announce a new saw at this time."

                  What it does NOT say - That a new saw would NOT be introduced. In fact three months later, the 3100 was introduced.
                  What it DID say: AT THIS TIME we do not have plans to ANNOUNCE a new saw.

                  Wording can be intentionally misleading. Snopes did this once and it bothers me about them.
                  Last edited by leehljp; 03-26-2007, 06:43 PM.
                  Hank Lee

                  Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

                  Comment

                  • JR
                    The Full Monte
                    • Feb 2004
                    • 5636
                    • Eugene, OR
                    • BT3000

                    #10
                    Originally posted by leehljp
                    SNOPES IS NOT Always Right!
                    Yeah, wiki-type data stores will have innacuracies.

                    As to the politician in question, I've always forgiven him this bit of hyperbole. He did so much in support the Internet's widespread deployment and open commercial structure (tax-free!), that a little "senator-speak" seems unimportant. I suppose for a lot of non-DARPA types in Washington it must have seemed like he invented it!

                    JR
                    JR

                    Comment

                    • tedkitch
                      Senior Member
                      • Jul 2006
                      • 646
                      • NE Suburbs, Chicago
                      • Ryobi BT3100 What else is there?

                      #11
                      Hank sure hit the nail on the head with the WORDING problems. I have a great wording story. My wife is from Uruguay and when we first moved to the states she got a Publisher's Clearinghouse letter in her name that said that she had won $10,000,000.00. When I got home from work she was grinning ear to ear about this. She told me about and it and I told her that it wasn't true. She insisted that she understood what the letter said (after looking up the entire first few sentences in her Spanish/English dictionary) and I told her that she wasn't going to get any money. I had to wait until the next day when I got my letter from them and then show her the ones that our neighbors had until she believed me. After her seeing all of this she brought out a small stack of paper and threw it into the trash. I asked her what that was all about and she had made a list with each persons name on it and what she would get them with her new found riches. She then had to call back to her family in Uruguay to explain to them that the American dream hadn't come true.

                      All in the wording.
                      Ted Kitch

                      Comment

                      • LCHIEN
                        Super Moderator
                        • Dec 2002
                        • 22011
                        • Katy, TX, USA.
                        • BT3000 vintage 1999

                        #12
                        Originally posted by leehljp
                        ...Related but un-related: Wording can be tenacious and misleading. When the BT3000 was being discontinued and just before the 3100 was introduced, their representatives said: "We do not currently have any plans to announce a new saw at this time." The 3000 is being discontiued. HD people said this to members of the old Ryobi forum, many who are here now. Ryobi representatives said directly in emails and over the phone too. When posted there on that forum, I had just gone through some of the junk snail mail sent to my daughter in which she was sure that she had won something. With "Wording" being fresh on my mind the way that words play tricks, I dissected the following sentence.

                        "We do not currently have any plans to announce a new saw at this time."

                        What it does NOT say - That a new saw would NOT be introduced. In fact three months later, the 3100 was introduced.
                        What it DID say: AT THIS TIME we do not have plans to ANNOUNCE a new saw.

                        Wording can be intentionally misleading. Snopes did this once and it bothers me about them.
                        Actually what they said could be interpreted as
                        CURRENTLY we have no plans to ANNOUNCE A NEW SAW AT THIS TIME
                        which would be technically correct even if they planned to announce 3 months later or even next week, as long as the announcement was not at this time (right now).

                        English language is so subjective and potentially ambiguous. Lawyers must love it - negotiation of contracts and treaties are usually made with ambiguous wording that both sides declare to be a moral victory thinking they'll duke it out in court later with their arguments.
                        Loring in Katy, TX USA
                        If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
                        BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

                        Comment

                        • mater
                          Veteran Member
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 4197
                          • SC, USA.

                          #13
                          Anyway 'YA JUST GOTTA LOVE "US SENIORS" !!!!!
                          Ken aka "mater"

                          " People may doubt what you say but they will never doubt what you do "

                          Ken's Den

                          Comment

                          • jhart
                            Veteran Member
                            • Feb 2004
                            • 1715
                            • Minneapolis, MN, USA.
                            • BT3100

                            #14
                            Cabinetman, it still was a pretty good letter that I would like to see sent.
                            Joe
                            "All things are difficult before they are easy"

                            Comment

                            • scorrpio
                              Veteran Member
                              • Dec 2005
                              • 1566
                              • Wayne, NJ, USA.

                              #15
                              Originally posted by radhak
                              Of course, when I day-dream about emulating it myself and sending my bank a letter like that, I hit reality : most probably that letter would hit the 'circular file' within minutes of being read; I would need to follow up (and again), then send them a certified mail; then I would go in and hand it over personally, and they would continue to ignore me; if I attempt to really collect on it, they might counter it with a bill for wasting the manager's valuable time.
                              Getting due attention is a lot simpler than that. You simply initiate a move of 100% of your business to a different bank.

                              Comment

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