Why La Poste is evil

Well, I had hoped my first post after the weekend would have been about my wonderful weekend, but that will have to wait for later since la Poste has done such a good job at pissing me off lately!

On September 2, Lionel and I had a meeting at the Poste to open a joint account and for me to open a new checking account and a savings account with them (so I can eventually close out my Societe Generale account and we will have all our accounts in one bank).  It went well and we opened the accounts, or so we thought.  And thought.  And thought.  Until I spoke to my banker yesterday (he had been trying to call me for a week, but we were playing phone tag).  My checking account is not open.

So, my checking account is not open, and the incompetent idiots at the Poste waited 3 weeks to inform me of this, after I had already sent in my last paycheck from my old job (August pay AND vacation pay!) and after I had giving my RIB to my new job and they transfered my September pay into my not-open bank account!!!!

Why isn't it open, you might ask?  Well, because when we met with Mr. I'm-an-idiot Banker, we had to delcare how much we make a month and all this stupid shit so they could get an idea of our expenses and our overall financial situation (this is France, they ask the stupidest things in order to open an account...).  And since this is France, I also had to give them one of my pay stubs.  Knowing how France LOVES the most recently printed documents, and nothing over 3 months old, ever, not even birth certificates (cause that makes sense since I was born 27 years ago......but more on that later), I brought in my most recent pay stub from July.  Unfortunately, I didn't really think about how my average monthly earnings and my July pay stub don't really match up since I earn my money per hour and in July a lot of my students were on vacation so I didn't make a lot.  But I had explained to him my situation and that the amount I told him was an average of all of my months.  Unfortunately, that seems to have gone in one year and out the other because even though he promised me that my account would be open 5-7 days after our September 2 meeting, it is not open for the very reason that he sent our papers into the financial center and they refused to open my account until I provided them with a pay stub showing the EXACT amount that I had verbally declared.  Great.

So, Lionel and I have been making a million calls and basically I have to find a pay stub with that amount on it and get it to them, and then my account will be open in 2-3 days.  I was assured that it would be ok, even if the pay stubs were old since the last time I made that exact amount was in January (well beyond France's beloved 3-month deadline).  We have also been assured by the financial center that the received my check from my old job and it is being held until my account is open.  However, what worries me the most is that they do not see anything about a transfer from my new job, though they transferred my pay on Saturday, and they have not received the money back in their bank account since my account wasn't open to receive the money.  So, for the moment my September pay is lost and I'm not at all happy about it.  And trust me, the Poste will be paying it back to me if it is never found because this is entirely their fault and what the hell kind of bank tells you your account will be open in 5-7 days and then doesn't open it!?!?!?!

What really pisses me off is the fact that the stupid banker didn't mention it to me when we were meeting with him and I could have run home to dig out a different pay stub for him.  And it also pisses me off that they waited 3 WEEKS to inform me that my account didn't exist yet, as if I wouldn't have had any transactions to make in those 3 weeks.  And, the one that makes me the most angry...why the hell do they care how much money I make per month and how my husband and I spend and budget our money!?!?!?!  They are a bank!!!!!  They should just be happy that we have chosen to put our hard earned money in their care!  Of course, now I am SERIOUSLY doubting that decision, and I'm very tempted to just keep my account at Societe Generale and transfer all my money back there and close my account with the Poste.  Why would I want to trust my money to people who are so stupid they can't even manage to open a damn account???

Ok, I'm better now.  Sorry for the rant, but I am EXTREMELY frustrated and stressed by this right now and I just had to get it out!  My recommendation...NEVER bank with La Poste!