Ahh, it was great fun to waste an hour of my life I would never get back.

Quick background. I was poa on an account for an elderly relative who died. His choice as to when; his quality of life was getting yucky so he just declined further treatment. I am the executor of his will. And general gopher as he got more feeble in his later life. (It’s provided me a lot to rant about here in my pblog!)

So, I go a probate the will. Which considering that I was dealing with the gubamint was relatively painless. It cost me 200$ to get a clerk to print some paper. This is much better than the way it used to be where you actually had to see a judge. I was in and out in 45 minutes.

So, back to wachovia and technology.

Now I take my newly minted executor form, called a testamentary letter, to the bank and say “Convert this account to an estate account”. I had the death certificate, my gubamint irs estate tin, and my new nj digital dl. So I’m set.

Oppps. They can’t close the old account until Monday because, since I do web banking, that has to be done by the “back office” in North Carolina. OK who cares. Let’s open the estate account. Then I can begin the process of “marshaling the assets” and “discharging the liabilities”. (Seriously who makes up the jargon?). When that’s done, I present a final account to someone (me?), pay off the legatees. And, I’m done!

SO, let’s open the estate account. (It’s just like opening any account. Right?) Wrong! The nice lady taps on keys for the better part of an hour and announces the system isn’t working right. She calls HQ and they can’t make it work either. She’s advised to try again in 30 minutes.

Bye! I said to call me whenshe gets it done.

Then, I’m sure I’ll have to go back and select a pin.

(Can’t use the id and authentication I set up on the other account. Too easy!)

Never heard from her today. So I assume that they are still rolling back code. See, having worked at several financial institutions, you make changes on Friday night because it gives you a modest live test on Saturday, and all day Sunday to fix it, and all Sunday night to roll it back if you can’t make it work.

It was humorous to see a front end user, frustrated in her inability to complete a relatively basic function.

Wonder how much it cost them in opportunity cost. To bad there not based in Jerzey, I could go to work for them to fix their problem. That’s how I wound up at our favorite ISP!