Not Grasping the Concept

Yes indeed, it's another of my infrequent missives from the Emerald Isle. I'll try to keep this short, as I'm in a little bit of a rant mode right now.

As I've mentioned before, I generally like what I've seen of Dublin so far, aside from the fact that the weather and the food could both use some serious improvement. Oh.. and the whole customer service thing? Yeah, not so much.

In fact, that brings me to my current state. After weeks of searching, I've finally found a suitable apartment. It's not quite as modern as I would have liked, but the location is incredible and the rent is almost reasonable so, overall, I can't complain too much. Well, at least not about the apartment. At least not yet.

What I can complain about is the banking system. Don't get me wrong, the people who work in the banks seem pleasant enough, but the system is in a word, fucked. Take the concept of online banking. I'm a big fan and have been doing my banking online for a number of years now. It's fast, convenient, easy. What more could you ask?

Well, here in Ireland, the answer turns out to be a lot more. First of all, logging into your account is a mind-numbing process. Sure, everyone is concerned about identity theft and I appreciate the bank looking out for my money, as limited as it may be but really, do I have to put in a PIN, a personal identifier code, and then either a phone number or birth date each and every time I log on? It's a little bit of bureaucratic overkill. Of course, that's nothing compared to what happens when you actually try to use the system.

Take today, for example. I need to put a down payment on my new apartment and since checking accounts here don't actually come with checks, doing this online seems like the best option. So, I jump through all the hoops to access my account and go to the Make a Payment section only to find out that I can't just click a button to add a new payee to my account. No, that would be simple. Instead, I have to call the bank and give them the details, and then wait up to five days for the payee to actually be added. WTF? Seriously.

What's even sadder is that, after talking to our company comptroller (who knows a little something about the Irish banking system), it turns out the Bank of Ireland's online interface is considered to be state of the art, by Irish standards. I promise, I'll never say another disparaging word about CitiBank's interface ever again.

Of course, the fun and games with the banking system is just part of the customer service problem over here. After talking with my colleagues, I fully expect to fight the same battles with cable and utility companies over the coming days and weeks. Who knew that a country where it's already dark and cold at 4:30PM had such a strong grasp of the "Manana" concept so popular in warmer, more relaxed climates?

When it comes right down to it, maybe I'm just being an ugly, pushy American when it comes to these things. I think I'll grab a pint and think it over while I wait for the bank to do it's thing.

...And There Was Much Rejoicing

Yes, believe it or not, people here in Dublin town did in fact follow yesterday's U.S. elections. And yes, there really was much rejoicing over the fact that Bush and his cronies had their collective asses handed to them by the general public.

To tell the truth, I was really surprised by how enthusiastic people over here were over the election results. As someone in a local card room said last night, "It's not that Americans are stupid, they're just fucking gullible. It's about time they got it right." For my part, I did point out that not all of us were deceived by the Republicans, but overall, I can't completely disagree with the assessment. I mean, we may not have really elected W to office either time, but we certainly didn't provide his opponents with strong enough margins that they could effectively argue that he stole the elections.

Anyway... all that aside, I happily raised a pint (OK, maybe two or three) to the American voters last night. And really, when was the last time any of us could say that?