I had looked forward to workingfrom home today, getting thing packed for this weekend and washing the gambesons after yesterday’s fighter practice. Then we saw the letter that the bank has finally (10 months after taking office) approved my access to the shire’s bank account, and I just need o bring my ID to the bank and they will give me access. So I decided instead to head in with Keldor and work at his dad’s, and we could go to the bank as soon as he was done with work. So we stayed up later thsn we should to get most things packed and ready, and I got up early today to gather food to take with me to his dads.
When we drove past Bryan’s new house on the way home last night we had noticed that the porch light wasn’t on, which was weird, but with the flurry of packing, we didn’t investigate further. But this morning Keldor remembered, and grabbed the keys to that house, and on our way to work we stopped to check, and the power was off. The electric meter had the little red blinking indicator showing that the power had been switched off by Skellefteå Kraft. Several phone calls and a few hours later I had sent 6,500 kr to the Skellefteå Kraft Swish number with his account number as the message and customer service assures me that the electricity will be turned back on today. So lucky that we noticed that the porch light and internal window lights were off and checked today. If not, we wouldn’t have known the power had been disconnected. Today’s temperature is -13 C, so if I hadn’t noticed today the house would have been deeply frozen, and the pipes destroyed before the problem was discovered. I sent their customer service address a long, carefully crafted letter that started with: “This letter is a request to change one of your corporate policies. I would like to you change them such that the electricity for a house which has just changed owners is not turned off without an explicit acknowledgement from the new owner that they are aware that you will turn it off. Or, at least, it will not be turned off if the temperatures are colder than +1 C.” And ended with: “While I am writing, I also wish to thank each of your employees with whom I spoke today. Each of the people I spoke with (both through my initial call to the “Felanmälan” number (020-77 27 00), and during my follow up call (once they opened) to the Customer Service number (0910-77 25 50) were kind and as helpful as they could be. You have good people working in customer contact positions. Please adjust your policies so that the entire company shows the same level of compassion.”
Writing the letter took much of the morning. I had considered writing a Swedish version, but instead, I just added a ps:
“PS I chose to write in English because it is faster, and I have more control over the finer nuances of meaning and grammar use. However, I read Swedish fluently, so if you choose to reply, svara gärna på svenska.”
Much to my surprise, i got a reply this afternoon! (In Swedish) Thanking me for my thoughts, expressing joy that I got the help I needed, and assuring me that my suggestion will be forwarded to the appropriate department for consideration.
After I got the letter sent off and packed up the computer Keldor picked me up, and we picked up Þórólfr and his stuff, then went into town to the bank, which had a sign on the door saying that they don’t open till 13:00 (it was around 11:00). It never occurred to any of us that they wouldn’t be open at that hour, so we didn’t check.
So we headed south towards our house, stopping at Bryan’s to check. Yes, the electricity was on again, and the heaters were warm. We gave Þórólfr the tour. He thought the house was big after he’d seen the workshop, garage, cellar, and first floor. Then we took him upstairs and showed him the master bedroom, craft room and large guest room with its own fridge, stove and sink. Yah, it is a nice place. He will love living there once he moves.
Then home, pack the food and pillows and other last minute stuff and get on the road. The bank in Umeå is also only open 13:00 to 15:00 on Fridays, and we managed to get there before they closed. Given the months worh of hassle to get the paperwork perfect, I was a little worried about this visit. It went amazingly well! I not only got my Swedish Personal number attached to the Shire bank account, so I can use my BankId to log in, she also told us about the corporate Swish App, which lets me get real time notifications whenever someone Swishes our account, including their name, which will make it much easier to tell who has paid for events.
Then our customer service person solved a problem that Þórólfr had had when he tried getting a debit card for the Shire at the bank in Skellefteå—on that occasion four different bank employees tried helping him, over the course of 40 minutes, each saying “This should be easy, the push of one button, I don’t know why it isn’t working”.
Today they figured out the problem. The shore was founded in the 90’s, before modern Internet banking, when all transactions required the kassör (Exchequer) show the copy of the meeting minutes showing they have the authority to access the account. She made some changes to our profile to bring it into this century, and then issued us a card, which will be mailed to us soon. So now I have multiple ways to access the account and see what transactions have happened.
Now we are nearing Sundsvall, should be on site in about 40 minutes, so a good time to post this.
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