GOODBYE AMERICA Ooooh
As was expected, it was a dreadful last weekend. Being faithful members of the Procrastinators’R’Us society, we of course left everything for the last minute. Even though we found time to spend with family and friends, most of the weekend was spent battling various Customer Service Reps.
Right after I successfully completed my Diving Certification, Shurik realized that the very same morning he left our Debit Card in a Bank’s ATM. Brilliant. And what’s worse, it was Veteran’s Day and a Friday! The Bank was closed for the weekend, and there was no way of retrieving our card. Have I mentioned that our plane was leaving at 7AM on Monday? Then, we also realized that in another stroke of brilliance, your’s truly has left her Debit Card, to the same account, in Boston. All efforts to get an emergency replacement from our bank overnighted to us proved futile. We even considered opening a Bank Account in Florida, but no bank would give us a card right away. Luckily, we do have another card from an old account with an Internet Bank, but now we are left without a backup.
Another interesting battle that we had, has to be the Verizon fiasco. We still had more then half a year to our Family Plan. Two phones, each would incur an early termination fee of $175 if we will fail to prove that we are indeed leaving the country for an extended period of time. Our key point was that Verizon does not provide service in South America, our first stop on the trip. But Verizon had its own excuses… we will spare you the details but after two faxes, a trip to a Verizon store, and many hour long phone conversations, we got what we wanted. Needless to say I personally did a big victory dance to the occasion. So now, in case anyone asks, we are Travel Writers researching our next book, self employed and with no permanent residence. Bedouins have nothing on us.
Right after I successfully completed my Diving Certification, Shurik realized that the very same morning he left our Debit Card in a Bank’s ATM. Brilliant. And what’s worse, it was Veteran’s Day and a Friday! The Bank was closed for the weekend, and there was no way of retrieving our card. Have I mentioned that our plane was leaving at 7AM on Monday? Then, we also realized that in another stroke of brilliance, your’s truly has left her Debit Card, to the same account, in Boston. All efforts to get an emergency replacement from our bank overnighted to us proved futile. We even considered opening a Bank Account in Florida, but no bank would give us a card right away. Luckily, we do have another card from an old account with an Internet Bank, but now we are left without a backup.
Another interesting battle that we had, has to be the Verizon fiasco. We still had more then half a year to our Family Plan. Two phones, each would incur an early termination fee of $175 if we will fail to prove that we are indeed leaving the country for an extended period of time. Our key point was that Verizon does not provide service in South America, our first stop on the trip. But Verizon had its own excuses… we will spare you the details but after two faxes, a trip to a Verizon store, and many hour long phone conversations, we got what we wanted. Needless to say I personally did a big victory dance to the occasion. So now, in case anyone asks, we are Travel Writers researching our next book, self employed and with no permanent residence. Bedouins have nothing on us.