Rant #3,417: Frustration

I had a bit of a frustrating day yesterday.

Everything I did was a bit of a chore ... nothing to do with me, directly, but nothing went too smoothly yesterday.

Without going into every nook and cranny about why the day was so frustrating, I will just tell you about one incident, or some similar problems that led to one frustrating incident after the other.

On the way home from my son's work and then, both of us getting haircuts, I decided to get gas, because my family and I have several things to do leading up to, and including, this weekend, where I will be doing a bit of driving.

So I pull into a local gas station, and a Prius--a fully electric car--pulls ahead of me and parks right along side a pump in a gas station where every pump was taken. except the one that the Prius was at.

Happily, another car pulled away and i got the one right behind the Prius, where I parked my car to get gas.

Why an electric Prius is parked next to a gas pump is beyond my comprehension, but my gas-propelled car needed gas, so I was happy to find an open pump.

I decided to pay with my debit card, but for some reason, the pump would not take the card, even after trying more than once.

I then tried another card--a card attached to an account I use only to pay rent and for nothing else--and again it would not take my card--

But get this: it also wouldn't give my card back to me, and it was seemingly stuck in the pump's card reader.

So I went into the gas station's building, and the attendant behind the window told me that my cards were no good, and the pump keeps such a card until prompted from inside to release it. I guess that is a safety measure.

So he sets the prompt to release the card, I go out to retrieve the card, and I go back inside, try to use the two cards there, and they still won't work.

I ended up giving the attendant whatever cash I had on me, and filled up my car.

I drove away--the Prius had already left, with its driver maybe finally figuring out that the pump he pulled along side of is only for gas--dropped my son off at home, and went to the two banks the cards emanate from.

I went to the first bank, and they have a new rule that if you are waiting to speak with someone on the floor, you have to check in with your phone by scanning a QR code and filling in a questionnaire with your name and what you want to speak to the associate about.

To make a long story short, i refused to check in like this, and simply told the associate that their cards are not working, and she let me slide without doing this nonsense.

The bank associate told me that the chip.on the card was no good, and gave me another card--even though I use the sheath given out to protect the card so this won't happen.

I left to my car, but one of those Brinks trucks--the one with all the money, and with guards with guns--pulled up directly right behind me.

You just can't go over to them when they are handling money and ask them to move, so I had to somehow squirrel myself out of my spot, holding up other bank car traffic in both directions while doing so.

Then I went to the second bank, with the same complaint about their card--

And they told me that the bank's card system was going through an upgrade, and people trying to use their card could not use the card until the update was complete.

"When is this upgrade going to be completed?" I asked.

"I really don't know," said the bank associate. "We haven't been told anything at the bank. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not."

Just for kicks, I tried to use my card to get my status at the bank's ATM, and lo and behold, it sent a message to me that I had used up the number of times I could use my pin number, so it would not give me my account status!

(By the way, both banks told me that my account status was fine.)

Why the bank did not put out a warning to all customers that they might have trouble with their cards is beyond me.

And why they don't know when this problem will be rectified ... ?

Technology is wonderful, except when it doesn't work, and I think I proved that belief today, without a shadow of doubt.

We--me too--rely too much on this technology, and when it doesn't work, we are stuck like a duck in quicksand.

And I am only telling you the half of it ...

Yesterday was as frustrating a day as I have had in quite a while, and we are only at Wednesday now--

What more can add to my frustration as the week goes on?