Ignorance is bliss

---

What kind of idiots do you have working here?
The finest in New York.

- Exchange between Kate McCallister and a desk clerk in Home Alone 2

While I had another early wakeup, I managed to get back to sleep and ended up having a good bit of rest. I am finally refreshed.

The only thing I had to accomplish this morning was to take care of my accommodations for the next two nights in Taipei. This proved to be quite the challenge. I’ve had to go outside to get an Internet connection and did the same today. Last night I had emailed the hostel I stayed in before but they hadn’t gotten back to me yet. I checked online and it turned out this place was booked. So I had to find another option. At this point the Internet connection went bad so I was forced to go out and find another one.

I started out my search at 7-11, grabbing breakfast but unable to connect with wifi. My next stop was down to the MRT to see if I could connect to public wifi there. There was a connection but it was unworkably slow. Stop three took me to McDonalds, which has wifi at every location. There I ordered another breakfast so I could use the wifi. Except this one charged for it and had all the instructions in Mandarin. Plus they charged for a ridiculously slow connection. That infuriates me. If you want to charge for it then at least have it work.

I made my way back to the apartment and finally got the outside connection working, booking a room at a hostel in Taipei that is very highly rated, owned and run by a group of backpackers that seem very genuine.

I got my things packed up, said goodbye to Savoy and thanks for a great stay and went on my way to the train station where I had no trouble buying a ticket and making my way to Taipei.

I checked into the hostel, which seems nice, and found myself short on cash since there is a large deposit for keys and lockers. They were fine with me paying the balance after I went out to an ATM. I figured this should be simple enough. I was wrong.

I went to three ATMs and had my card declined at each one. It was very reminiscent of Hat Yai and, like then, I was less than amused.

Already torqued, I went back to the hostel and got on Skype to call Wachovia. I tried the customer service number on the card and it told me to try again during the normal business hours of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm ET Monday thru Friday. It also gave me an alternate number to use in case my card was lost or stolen. While my issue did not fit that description, I figured that at least someone would be on hand for those types of emergencies and they could direct me. When I called that number it read off my account balance and such but gave me no option to speak with a representative. Not only would I have to jump through hoops to use an ATM I would also have to wait to jump.

I checked in with my parents for a birthday call and to go over my itinerary for when I get to Philadelphia on Wednesday. Afterwards, I waited until 8:00 to try Wachovia again, at a time that seemed more suitable to them.

I spoke with one representative who transferred me to a man in the fraud department. After going over numerous security questions with information which I found suspect that they should even be able to have, I described my issue to the rep. He was unsure why my account was restricted, noting that it didn’t occur within 72 hours. That wasn’t helpful as I haven’t tried to use my card since arriving in Hong Kong (I used cash on hand for my Taiwan exchange). He unrestricted it almost immediately, at which point I wanted to understand the nature of the problem and what steps would be necessary to ensure this doesn’t happen again. I thought this had been taken care of last time but clearly it had not.

“That’s fine but how do I make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future? I was assured that I would have no further problems when I went through a similar process a month ago.”

“Sir, I have removed the restriction from your account. You can now access your funds.”

“I understand but you’re missing the big picture. I called a month ago with a similar problem and notified your department that I would be traveling abroad…”

“Yes, it states that on your account.”

“Then why was it restricted?”

“I am unable to answer that. It didn’t happen within the last 72 hours.”

“I know that. But I do not want this to happen again. I want no further restrictions placed on this account unless you consult with me first. Don’t shut it down without telling me.”

“Sir, your account is no longer restricted. You can use your card at an ATM.”

I had enough of the buffoon’s standard party lines. The quotes above and below are by no means precise and the conversation was surely less ornate but the message is accurate.

“You are completely missing the point here. I am in a foreign country where I know no one within thousands of miles. Your department deems these security methods for my protection. How is this protecting me? If I can’t access my money for things like food and shelter, how is that in my best interest? I took measures a month ago - something I’m also ticked about is you charged me $16 to send a new card to Bangkok because your department deactivated my old one, I was not made aware of this charge but I plan to discuss this when I get home - to ensure this type of thing wouldn’t happen again and sure enough it did. I’ll tell you exactly what’s being protected here - your job and Wells Fargo / Wachovia shareholders. That’s who. You don’t care about me, the customer. You care solely about following your misguided rulebook to cover your ass and profit your shareholders. Let’s call a spade a spade. Now I’m calling you from overseas again. I have to waste my time and money on expensive international calls (the latter admittedly fabricated for potential effect) just so I can go get my own money. Don’t you see a problem with that? This is absolutely ridiculous. I should not have to go through this when I travel. Now, can you assure me that this will not happen again?”

“Sir, I have removed the restriction from your account. You can now access your funds.”

“I’ll take it from that response that you can’t assure me of that. Someone should not be allowed to just go into my account and restrict it on a whim without notifying me first.”

He never did directly answer that question. Somewhere in the massive back office there is a guidebook for dealing with situations like this. He followed it to a teethe. While his boss should be irate for the lack of customer service offered here, he will, if anything, commend his employee for following the company’s policy so well. And therein lies a major societal problem today.

I rail on big government a lot but it certainly doesn’t end there. We live in an institutional society, run by big everything - government, business, unions, religious bodies and special purpose organizations. These institutions have extorted the power away from the individual and given it to the oligarchical beast of control. The microcosm that is the individual or small social unit - business, family, community and even church - is in essence the living dead. For the most part, the best he or they can do is conform to the institutional world brought about by collectivism and live in the bliss that is naiveté. The guy I spoke with today could be a spokesperson for that form of action; a reformed Winston Smith.

To be fair, I can only imagine having a job which, by design, is intended to receive complaints from most everyone to whom you talk. I have friends and family that work in similar roles and would certainly not want them treated harshly. But I think I largely kept the issues as it relates to his role as an ambassador of his organization (not personal), whether he sees fit to take on that responsibility or not. In that role, he melds himself with his company to create a customer experience, a largely sour one today.

Nevertheless, his total incompetence and complete disregard for my well-being brought about a wrath that would have made Khan blush. I truly think he was too inept to understand the consequences of not having access to funds, as if my ability to call them when there is a problem would be a minor inconvenience, like having to wait in a longer line than expected. And I expect we, as a people, will see society continue to deteriorate as more people are sucked into the institutional machine.

Anyway, enough ranting and proselytizing. It’s my birthday today so that calls for some level of serenity. I found that serenity by heading to Shida Night Market for dinner. One of the girls at the hostel gave me some recommendations on a few things to try. I took them to heart and tried each one of them. The first was a duck dumpling roll, similar to one I had last night, from a dumpling stand.

The second, a leader in the category of bizarre foods - stinky tofu. It has received this reputation for the comparison of its scent to old sweaty socks. I found this to hold true and, while I can’t say it was enjoyable, it was more than tolerable as it tasted like normal tofu, which is to say it had no taste except the hot sauce that was on it. After some walking around, it was time for round three.

I try all these new and unique foods not solely for the purpose of show or to say “yeah, I had that.” Every now and then it serves a purpose. I found one tonight that I would love to have again and could easily make on my own.

I love egg omelets and I love oysters. Someone else must have also and thought “why not put them together?” Thus the oyster omelet was born. That person threw in some hot sauce and he devised a finalist in the contest for my death row special. It was amazingly good.

For dessert, I found a fruit stand and had a banana smoothie, foregoing a birthday beer for something a bit healthier. I’ll have a birthday beer when I get home. Something delicious like my home brews from last birthday.

Back at the hostel I chatted with a bunch of guys that are also staying here. After a bit one of the girls came back with a mini birthday cake and a home made card. I had read online that this hostel treats you like family but I never expected that. Without getting into a rant about the virtues of small business, I’ll leave it at this - what great people.

I spent the rest of the night chatting with the guys, staying up until after 1:00 as I gradually shift myself back to Eastern US time.

---

Photos

Shida Night Market
Another great night market.

Stinky tofu
The smell of old, sweaty socks with the taste of tofu.

Oyster omelet
A finalist for my death row special, if it ever comes to that.

Banana smoothie
Delicious.

Happy birthday
The hostel workers got me a mini birthday cake and card.