Thursday Unbelievable

• On Thursday, January 22, I took my mother to the credit union to deposit money so she could pay for her new windows. We finally got to the window inside of the credit union and a teller asked what she could do for her. My mother handed her a card with her bank number on it and then she handed her an envelope with several thousand dollars in it. The teller picked up the envelope and turned around and said she would be right back. She disappeared into the area where the drive through tellers are located. I was surprised that she didn't count the money. We stood there for about five minutes. I told my mother that she should have counted the money before she walked off to confirm the amount was correct. I felt the need to speak to a manager about this and that's what I did.

• I walked over to an information desk and asked to talk to a manager. A manager of the tellers came out and I told her what had happened and she was dismissive to a certain degree. She said the teller had to work the drive through and the front desk. I told her it didn't make any difference and that she should have counted the money first. She said there were cameras all over and they would have caught the problem. I told her that a camera can't see inside an envelope and count the money. If there had been a difference in our total and the tellers total then what would they do? This manager still didn't seem to be concerned about what had happened. She said she talked to the teller about it and it wouldn't happen again. It bothers me that she had such a flip attitude about this matter. I have never had a teller do that before. The name of the credit union is Tinker Credit Union. I plan to make another complaint to the managers supervisor. I should have done it then but I had to take my mother to her doctors appointment just after that.

• Earlier that day, Thursday, my mother called me and told me that someone from the company that installed our new windows had called her. They were wanting to go to her house and pick up another check. They said that the check we had given them the on Monday, January 19, had the wrong name in the 'pay to' space. I had written the check to the company that made and installed the windows, Champion. This person on the phone told her that because she had decided to pay payments for the windows her bill would be turned over to a finance company. They were going to charge my mother 21% interest. My mother was having a fit of anger and nerves. She said she was not about to pay anyone 21% interest. She was fit to be tied. I thought it was pretty bad business practice for the window company to have waited until that moment to tell her about this amount of interest. When the window company's salesmen went to her house to sell us the windows, she told him she would be making payments. She planned to pay at least $500 a month. The salesman never said a word about a finance company or the 21% interest. What a RAT. I think he is a jerk for not telling an 84 year old woman on a fixed income about what the finance interest would cost. If she had not had the money to pay the bill in full she would be stuck with the outrageous interest. Now I won't recommend this company to other people. I may even report this to the BBB. I don't know if that will help but I'm going to try. They need to change the way they do business. They need to be up front with people and tell them the interest they will be paying.

I know this is out of order according to the way things happened that day. Sorry but I'm too lazy to copy and past them in the right order. So hang on.

• After my mom and I finished at the credit union I drove her to her doctors appointment. You have to understand one thing about me that has been true for some time. I have a problem with being on time. In order to combat my lateness I now give myself a lot of time to get places. That is what happened Thursday. I write down appointments and meetings in a large red day planner. It's a very nice book with plenty of space to write appointments.

• I had written down 2:45 pm in the day planner for mom's appointment for Thursday. That was actually the exact time of the appointment. No problem, right? Well, mom had gone to have an MRI on Tuesday and that appointment was 2:15 pm. No problem, right? Wrong. I have a problem with numbers. I see numbers fine but when I write numbers or remember numbers I sometimes flip them. On Thursday I remembered the time for Tuesdays appointment, 2:15 pm but our appointment was for 2:45 pm. We arrived at the doctors before 2:00 pm. The doctor didn't see us until after 4:00 pm. We waited in the waiting room from before 2:00 until well after 4:00 to see the doctor. Guess how long the doctor was in the room checking my mother. Five minutes. That's right, five minutes.

• After we left the doctors office we drove to the window company to give them a check for the full balance of the windows. My mom was real weak and tired from all the things she'd been through that day. She didn't say much to them. The person who called her on the phone earlier that day was not out front. That person was very rude to my mother on the phone. He had been instisting that he be allowed to go to her house and pick up another check. I'm glad she told him she had two appointments that day. What a jerk. We gave them a check for the balance of the windows and they gave us a printer receipt with a zero balance.

• My mother had gotten a bathroom window that had a half of the window etched. It isn't etched enough because someone standing inside her shower can see her form. We now have to buy something extra to put on the window. What a bummer. New windows that cost thousands and we now have to add something to them. We will now be searching the local stores for some kind of film that looks like stained glass or etched glass.

• Here is an idea for the stained glass look. We haven't gone shopping yet and I have no idea where to find this locally. Here's hoping.