Plenty of Excitement in Oxford

This is so unusual I wouldn’t believe it if it were in a movie. Friday, Mom’s garbage disposal started leaking. We were still trying to figure out whether it was a leak or a spill when an electrical outlet shorted out. There was plenty of smoke and stink. Fortunately, our realtor has a good handyman. He was able to stop by Friday. He verified the electrical problem was s short and made sure it won’t short again until he can fix it. Then he verified the leak was from a rusted-out garbage disposal. So as it turns out, it’s just two old things that gave up the ghost on the same day. Repairs will be simple. Mom was understandably quite upset, but she was settled this afternoon.

The condo sale is still a go. In fact, the deadline for the buyers to back out without losing their deposit was Friday. The buyers are back in NY. The kitchen should be patched up Monday. I’ll be down Tuesday.

Mom’s bank is Chase. They don’t have any offices in Howard county, and none near Charlestown. PNC has branches right inside Charlestown. Danita and I already use PNC. I figured this would be an easy deal. I made an appointment and went down to the bank. My “personal banker” set up an account for Mom, but ** surprise ** it’s on hold until Mom can be physically present to sign her name. Then he told me he could issue Mom a credit card. It turns out he couldn’t until Mom is present. Along the way, he said many other things that were anywhere from irrelevant to untrue while not providing a useful answer to any of my questions. Then he told me that West Chester Financial Advisors was using my social security number. He obviously couldn’t help with that either. I called the call center, who also couldn’t help. I escalated the issue and got to talk to a competent person a few hours later. It turns out a business EIN (tax ID number) can use the same digits as an individual’s SSN. The numbers are easy to tell apart. The EIN is xx-xxxxxxx, the SSN is xxx-xx-xxxx. The competent person told me the personal banker should have never said that. For one thing, I was authenticated to discuss my SSN, and not business EINs. I had no right to know West Chester Financial Advisor’s tax ID number. Unfortunately, I plan to meet with this same personal banker next week. Maybe he’ll be competent enough to open Mom’s new accounts. If not, we’ll be in Charlestown the next day. We can try the Charlestown branch.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

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