A couple of caveats here:
- I’m not much of a people person any more. I was in my younger years but now, life experience has taught me that I’m better of without most people in my life. Maybe a bit sad but it doesn’t bother me.
- I’m tired and there’s a lot going on for us right now.
- I’m not very patient with rude or incompetent people.
To start with, the papers were being sent overnight for the house transaction. We had to get them, sign them before a notary and return them to MO. UPS used to come through our gate but now, they come down to the house sometimes and sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t matter – we don’t get many packages any more. An overnight delivery . . I thought they would bring it to the house. When we hadn’t received it by about noon, I wrote the title company and asked for a tracking number, which she sent. I tracked the package and it hadn’t left Joplin yet so I wrote her back, told her there must have been a mix-up because the package hadn’t left Joplin yet. I also wrote the seller, who is one to get things done. A little while later, he called me and told me that the lady at the title company had sent me the tracking number for the package we were sending back, and that our package had been left at the gate.
Unless our package arrived, I hadn’t planned on going anywhere today so I hurriedly slapped on a bit of makeup, put on decent clothes and we rushed off to get to the bank before they closed so we could get everything notarized.
Neither of us have had hair cuts in 5 months, we’re tired; we’re busy and we probably looked like . . I don’t even know what the lady at the bank thought we looked like but she was NOT nice! We walked in, wearing our masks and keeping our distance. She asked what we needed and we told her we had papers to be notarized. She snapped . . do you have an account here? Yes!
She took the papers, said “Where do I sign?” I told her we just picked up the papers, hadn’t even looked through them. I started looking through them. I was about halfway through (not signing – just looking) and she said “You don’t need to be here if I don’t have anything to sign!” It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. I handed them to her and she thumbed through them, found a place where a notary had to sign; directed us to another room where we could sit and sign papers. She wanted our ID so we gave it to her and went to sign the papers. She told us we needed 25 cents for her to make a copy of our driver’s license for her records.
I asked Vince “Did you think she was a bit grumpy?” He said “Yes, but I’ll bet she changers her tune when she looks at our account.”
Don’t get me wrong – we do not have a lot of money and even if we did, I wouldn’t expect favors because of the size of my bank account but I don’t think anyone deserves to be treated rudely when at the bank, taking advantage of a service (notary) offered by the bank – whether you have $10 in your account or $10 million in your account.
Sure enough, she was sweet as pie when Vince went back for her to sign more notary spots he found. I really felt like asking for the guy we normally use there. He’s a vice-president and always has been super nice. I really don’t think he would approve of her attitude but . . we’re leaving and I don’t want to cause her any problems but no one deserves to be treated that way.
Her actions didn’t make me feel any differently about myself but you know there are people who might get treated that way, then see some fancy dressed people walk in and get treated totally differently and that would upset them. I feel like her actions were shallow and narrow minded and I hope I never treat anyone that way!
Then we went to the mailing center here to send the package back to Joplin and the people at the title company had put ZERO for the weight of the package on the shipping label and the guy almost wouldn’t take it. He decided since their account number was on it, they would be charged correctly so he accepted it and I hope it gets there on time.
The good news . . and there is so much good news:
- It was all done and over with pretty quickly with the bank and we aren’t permanently scarred.
- We have a buyer for a chicken coop and Vince’s old pickup – neither of which had we even planned on trying to sell. We probably would have sold the truck nearer our departure date but a friend wants it and he’s fine with us keeping it to make runs to the dump.
- Rita is home and doing fine. I’ll do another blog post about that in a few minutes.
Marcie says
Hang in there, Judy. YOUR innate kindness and respect for others comes through. Continue to lead by example. And – thanks for trusting all of us enough for sharing. It helps to express our feelings to someone – lots of us! – who care about you.
Dottie says
I feel for you – there is absolutely NO REASON for anyone to be rude like the person at the bank, especially in the times we are living in.
This reminds me of an incident that happened to friends of ours, probably 30 years ago. We (had just gotten off work and were dressed for work) and had gone to an appliance store to purchase a new microwave (ours had just quit and it was a NECESSITY for us, LOL). The sales people were so nice, etc. As we were finishing, a friend of ours (and one of his daughters) came into the store to buy a new tv. They were dressed in sweats and were in there a good 5 minutes before someone went to wait on them – the sales people didn’t want to really give them the time of day – sort of directed them to where the tv’s were and ignored them. What the sales people didn’t know, our friend was a TOP NOTCH gastroenterologist in our area and had OODLES of money.
It’s sad that people can’t treat everyone equally.
So glad Rita is doing OK.
Judy Laquidara says
That is one thing that just frustrates me to no end – judging people and thinking one is better than the next. Like I said, I hope I never treat people that way.
Rebecca in SoCal says
Shopkeepers and clerks around here are better off if they speak Spanish. I always thought that was for locals and Mexicans, so it amused me one day when a clerk in a clothing store mentioned the Spanish-speaker being helped by the other clerk was someone who made twice-yearly trips from (somewhere in) South America to stock up. I’ll bet they competed to help her! (if commissioned)
Nelle Coursey says
When I worked at the bank and at TU Electric there would be people in my line and in no one else’s. I would ask them why they waited for me and they told me it was because I always smiled and treated them nice. That made the other tellers mad because it didn’t matter to me if they were dirty and smelly or if they reeked of high priced cologne. I treated everyone with respect and tried to be nice to everyone.
Judy Laquidara says
And that’s exactly what I’ve seen in you since I’ve known you!
Pat says
I complemented my orthopedic surgeon once on what lovely , kind people he had hired to work in his office. He said that most people react to how you treat them . THEN there are those people who react to who you are or your appearance.
Judy Laquidara says
I never quite figured that out but that’s what I call shallow people.
Susan Nixon says
I agree there’s no reason for anyone to be treated that way. She might have had a bad day, but there’s no reason to pass that along to other people.
Duane says
A friend of mine was wearing overalls when he went to pick out flooring. He had around a half million in the bank, and a new house and vehicles that were paid for. He asked to see some granite flooring for his foyer, and the man told him that he could not afford the granite. He said, I can afford to put granite in my entire house if I wanted to. He turned and walked out the door.
Judy Laquidara says
I can’t get over people acting that way. Some of the wealthiest people I’ve ever known were the ones you’d least expect to have money.
Cathi Harry says
When my husband & I were in our early 20’s in about 1973 or so, we went to an appliance store with cash in hand to buy two tv’s. My husband was an undercover police officer with shoulder length hair & I had on bell bottom jeans. The salesman looked us up & down & said “Is your style early salvation army?”. We walked out & bought our tv’s elsewhere.
Judy Laquidara says
WOW! That’s terrible. If I had read your story before going to the bank, I would not have complained about our service. That was just so rude, and like I try to always remind myself – it said way more about the salesman than it did about y’all.
Barbara says
I have several stories of people being treated poorly by sales staff because of their attire. Our country prides itself on individualism yet too often we judge people by a rigid view of how we think people should look.
Also, the virus has created much anxiety among people that interact with the public as part of their job and they don’t always handle it well. Previous customers may have treated that banker badly and she took it out on you.
Carolyn Thompson says
Judy,
I’ve been reading your blog for about a year now. I’ve never posted any comments, however, today I felt lead to say something in regards to the lady at the bank.
I use to own a business and maybe that’s why I’m overly sensitive about how rudely the lady treated you guys.. I’m sure the bank would want to know about this lady……because she could cost the bank a lot of customers, if this is the way she treats them. I always wanted to know when my employees were not kind and courteous with my clients, and I know you are leaving that area…..but just saying…….you may want to think about just calling into the bank and sharing with the one in charge:):)
I’m so happy for you and Vince that are moving to MO. and that will allow you to be real close to Addie!! She is so much fun!!! I love, love, love her comeback comments!!!! She is a beautiful child.
I love your tender heart with your animals…..”chickens(???)…cats dogs….you’re a blessing!!
I’m happy that this home buying experience has been a very positive one!!
May the rest of the move go as smoothly as what everything else has gone.
Again, I really enjoy your blog……your so transparent and say it like it is…..and many things I just laugh out loud…and that’s meant to be a positive!!!
Blessings to you and Vince!!
Judy Laquidara says
I have a feeling that, like so many people here, she’s a longtime resident – probably born here and her great grandparents were from here, and the “local” customers would not be treated the way we were. So many people here treat “outsiders” differently. Since there are few outsiders here, I doubt it would make much difference to the customer base at the local bank.
Vince did write the guy at the bank that we’ve always dealt with and told him but as far as I’m concerned, just chalk it up to experience. It doesn’t bother me so much about how we were treated but it does bother me that it would cause some people grief to be treated that way and that’s just not right.
I can see how a small business owner would want to know and I would be way more likely to share my feelings with someone if I thought they cared . . the bank . . not so much.