Fears are gone, now you’re just getting on my nerves
Amazingly, the ride was comfortable, and we were stopped once by the gendarme. This was probably one of the most painless stops we’ve had since my arrival in Cameroon. We arrived in Bafoussam without issue, and even got out early to go to the Nziko store. They’ve got quite a bit of stationary and books; I wanted to pick up a journal book, need to do some writing in addition to typing these journals.
Unfortunately, Nziko was closed and Akilah was kind of regretting getting off the taxi early. Since we would have to walk for a bit to get to the bank. As we walk maybe ten steps I look up and say, “Hey, this was why we got off early. DHL.”
A week or so ago when we were in Bafoussam, I noticed a DHL sign on a building. My thought? Why not check rates and retain the information for future reference. Remembering we’re in Cameroon, Akilah’s attitude was for me not to get my hopes up about this place. As we walked through the door, I’m responding “Well, a place like DHL has a certain reputation to uphold, and would surely affiliate with a company that would project that image.”
Just as I was making the last part of that statement, we were opening the door to probably the cleanest office we’ve ever seen in this country. The atmosphere was definitely professional and Mademoiselle Celine was very nice and attentive. It was like coming out from the dark into the light, because everything on the other side of that door just seemed so barbaric to the way we were received here.
Now on a high from just having the nicest treatment in a long time, we head towards the bank. Instead of making that stop first, we go to cyber cafe not far from the DHL office. The rates were cheaper than the one Akilah usually goes to, so I decide to stay here and get some work done, while she goes off to the marché.
Once again, this techno buff is fending for a fix of the ‘net. The woman scans my disk for a virus, and I’m laughing to myself because she has no idea who she’s dealing with, of course there are no viruses on my disk! Anyway, she signs me on the computer and I’m off. Ready to begin checking on several things that need my attention. What was I thinking? This was the beginning of the worst.
When Akilah returned a half hour later, I had reached my frustration point. In thirty minutes, I had made it to the front page of the Bank of America website, and even logged into my account. But for some reason, when it came to pulling up the information I needed, the browser would end up timing out. I was not happy; not at all.
Thinking I would save time, I’m using another browser to log into my domain and do some work. Ha! Fat chance. I did log in, but did I get to work? Fat chance! I even tried closing all the browsers and starting over, but that was just as bad. I now had to pay 900 CFAs for thirty minutes of waiting for Akilah to come back from the market.
We move on to Credit Lyonnais, her bank. We walked in, and the lines were non-existent. Just think, last weekend I was skeptical when Becky and Akilah told me it would be empty this week. I was ready to exchange my American Express traveler’s cheques. However, this bank doesn’t exchange AMEX cheques. They did, direct me to B.I.C.E.C not far from them. This is apparently the only bank in Bafoussam that exchanges AMEX cheques.
My advice? Don’t ever use BICEC. I intend on writing a letter to American Express to express my discontent with one of there representatives. Let me tell you what occurred.
We enter the bank to find a short line with two tellers. So we kind of stand near an “Ouvert” sign, thinking someone would eventually show up. He did, but all he served to do was make this the worst part of my day. The gentleman and Akilah spoke about my needing to exchange traveler’s cheques.
Do you know he had the audacity to say that I could only exchange them if I had both portions of the cheque. “Both portions?” He was actually trying to tell us I could only exchange them if I also had the receipt portion that contains the serial numbers. What! Are you crazy? What if I get robbed, the receipt portion with the serial numbers is my only proof to AMEX that I purchased these cheques.
Thinking we were misunderstanding him, Akilah continues to speak and reason with him about the fallacy in such a statement. Why would we travel with both? I was beginning to think he may have been right about needing the other half. Then he made a grave error. Akilah reasoned with him that it would not be safe for me to carry both portions. His statement? Let me carry the cheques and for her to carry the receipts. “Ah, hello!” If I get robbed, she’ll be with me, so she’ll get robbed! Why carry both!?
I could not believe this jerk-off was really trying to tell me that it was a bank policy to not accept the cheques without the receipts. At this point I’m way more than a little irritated and want to see a manager. She asks him about speaking to someone else, and he points to one of the teller’s walking in our direction. “Is he on your level?” she asks. And at that point she notices the look on his face changed. Awww, he’s offended. Good!
Nothing we said mattered to this guy. But one thing became obvious during the conversation. Though he spoke only in french, he definitely understood english. As he spoke with Akilah, I would insert various statements about why I should be able to do the exchange, and at one point when responding to her, he responded to what I said.
Also, during his comments he stated that if she were a customer of the bank, it would be possible to do because he could verify her identity. “Hey stupid!” It’s the gentleman who needs to do the exchange! It’s my signature on the traveler’s cheque, if you knew her, that would do nothing to verify my signature. Mind you during this conversational exchange, I provided my passport and placed the signature next to my signature on the cheque and continually showed the line that indicates I should sign again in front of the agent.
The obvious? This dude wanted some money. Why else would someone from the only bank in Bafoussam to exchange AMEX traveler’s cheques give a hard time about doing a simple task, and make it appear as though its a bank policy. And AMEX claims you can do it hassle free at any location that accepts their cheques. Ha! If I didn’t know better I would also say boycott AMEX traveler’s cheques, but I know it was more the guy than the bank. That’s why I’ll write a very calm-heated letter. What if I was destitute and needed this money to get where I had to go? This definitely doesn’t do well for the image of the bank or AMEX.