One of PG’s banks recently became very confused about his accounts. He learned of their confusion yesterday.
PG has been gathering documentary information to demonstrate to the people who run the bank that they and not PG are the confused party and that they need to correct their records.
He thinks it’s a good idea to take a shower and change out of his typical blogging/proofreading attire.
Not that he expects anything beyond a polite exchange of views and examination of documents will be required to resolve the bank’s errors, but PG recently commented to a group of attorney friends with whom he regularly gather for lunch and shoptalk that he really misses going to court and engaging in the cut and thrust with a skilled attorney on the other side of the litigation.
You can take the lawdog out of the courtroom, but you can’t take the courtroom out of the lawdog.
UPDATE: Everything is straightened up with the bank.
Is there something in the water? In my case, just recently some thieves were making fraudulent charges off my account, and my mother’s account (we use the same credit union). Both these charges were allegedly from Amazon, but the catch in my case was that they were charged in the UK, which is what prompted my credit union to text and call me to find out what’s up. “You’re still in America, right?”
In person, a teller speculated that the charges weren’t even made at Amazon, but the thieves were spoofing it as Amazon to escape detection. And they might have gotten away with it … except that I knew my Prime renewal is scheduled for later in the summer, not spring (one of the charges was exactly the same as the cost of the Prime subscription).
I’m slightly amused by the attempted Geek Squad invoice scam that hits my inbox every so often. Pshaw, as if! I fix my own tech stuff, dagnabbit.
Glad everything worked out in your favor, PG.
The cut and thrust with other lawyers is great. One can actually learn something, even from “the Bad Guys,” if they’re proceeding in something short of active bad faith. Once upon a time, this shark used to tangle with the lawyers for collection agencies, car dealers, subprime lenders, and so on daily (which, frankly, was a more-honorable crowd than those who represent media conglomerates with whom this shark has tangled since), and often learned things. Admittedly, that “often” frequently concerned “this is how not to communicate with a subprime lender when a tornado destroys all of a borrower’s records and the secured property” and similar problems, but it was still learning.
The cut and thrust with managers who’ve already made up their minds and won’t be convinced that they’re wrong because being wrong costs money is… much less entertaining, a mere exercise in frustration and talking to oneself, and not a learning experience at all.