Well that didn't work.

Remember when I said things were going smoothly and that I would regret saying such a thing. Well...that time has arrived.

Yesterday Renee and I were suppose to pick up our new car and the stars did not align themselves when we arrived at the dealership. Let me just say, Germs are big on documentation, all forms in quintuples, stamped and checked over doubly, doubly. Just, but I was surprised when the dealer asked if we had the money, even after I had talked to him last Thursday when he authorized the account to account transaction.

So we’re sitting there and he can’t find the transaction or something like that. So we go over to accounting and they check whether or not our money has gone through, they check under both our names…nein, zip, nothing.

The dealer gets on the horn, calls our bank and finds out that we had deposit the money and that the bank would fax over a copy of the transaction immediately.

I’m thinking why they didn’t check before we arrived, you know, check just in case there are any discrepancies. Thus I started to get a bad feeling about the transaction, because I was the one that wrote down the numbers and I remember feeling unsure when I was telling the bank clerk the dealerships account info. Things kind of get lost in translation.

While we were sitting waiting the sales representative named, Ralf, started handing us all the information about the car. He took us out to the car and showed us how to a start a diesel car properly, he showed us the fancy light that indicates when the motor is ready to be used. He told about the navigation system and so on.

We went back inside, he offered us a drink and after sometime the fax arrived. He gave the fax sheet a look over and he started calling his bank to make sure the company had our payment…nein.

I now also have to mention that the gray clouds and thunder had rolled in and had engulfed the entire city. It does not rain cats and dogs in Germany, it rains pigs and cows. The weather was awful, I’m not joking it was something out of some weird Neverland story. Back to the story

Now he’s puzzled, he goes over the account numbers and discovers one of the accountsto be missing a number and not only that has an extra number. Opps. He explains, This has never happen before, I don’t understand. He quite understood and we decided to try to correct the problem ourselves, he took back the keys and we left to our bank without our new car and begun to drive in the down pour of pigs and cows back to our village.

This was why I said they should have made sure everything was kosher (wink) before they had us drive over to find out our money had not gone through.

We arrived at the bank, got drenched in the rain and begun to try to correct the mistake. Oh yes we have to turn in the car the following day, therefore there was a sense of urgency to rectify the situation . Well not really we have our bikes, but still where is our money.

After some time we found out that they had to trace the money because they don’t know where it gone off to, I mean they do, but they don’t know what account in the car dealer’s bank. I’m thinking, the money is in the account that is written on the transaction slip, what’s the problem.

But no, the car dealer’s bank has to retrieve the money and then the money gets sent back to our account and then we start the process again. BUMMER.

I believe all of this could have been prevented had I doubly, doubly checked the account number. Later that evening I looked over the transaction stubs, I had all the account numbers written correctly, I must have not rewritten them correctly on the transaction slip. My bad. Maybe... I’m thinking it was the bank teller trying to sabotage me. Just joking…maybe.

It made me so mad, because I felt like I was perpetuating any stereotypes Germs have about Ausländer (foreigners). I must be perfect all the time; it’s a personal inner motivation thing with me. Renee was saying I shouldn’t beat myself up over it, but I will be flogging myself for weeks and cutting the small patch of weeds we have on our property with tweezers.

But on the pleasant side of the news, we get to keep the rental car longer. A lady at the bank is trying to get the situation sorted out so we don’t have to wait for the money to return to us, but will go to the correct account number at the dealership. At which point, cross our fingers, we get to pick up our car.

Ok, I’m pooped.

We miss everyone and send us some nut mix.

-M