I can’t believe a school invites foreigners to come teach for them and then offers no assistance in setting up a bank account. AND, the school pays all wages in cash. My colleagues all had connections here and were able to have accounts set up for them. When one of them tried to help me at her bank and the bank demanded a green card to open an account, I’d had enough. I told the boss I was on the next plane out if he did not help me set up an account immediately.
OK, so that happened on 3 Oct. I was told I’d get my debit card delivered to my bank brand after in 5 working days, but I would get a text message when it was there. No message. I tell the boss to check on it. He says I have to call a number but don’t push any butttons a d eventually someone would come on the line and I should ask them to speak English with me. I do it and finally get someone who tells me in English that my card is already there. This was Monday.
Tuesday I hop on over to the bank after work. Nobody speaks English. Again, it’s a deal like the DMZ where you pick a number and wait to be called. I’d writing down the phrase. I needed to get my card, so I finally get called up and say my thing. This manager, who looked as if she sucked lemons all day, checks my passport and everything else. I’m surprised she didn’t ask for my dental records. She, gives me a debit card and sends me back up from to the ATMS (and there are lots of ATMs) and two young assistants try to help me activate my card. Because of the language barrier and all the things I’m not understanding, I screw up the PIN and block the card for 24 hours.
OK, I go back again yesterday after 6. Keep in mind, I have to pay my $6 phone bill, my $6 WiFi bill and deposit a sizeable amount of cash. As I’m sitting in the bank waiting for the one nice assistant to get done with another customer, assistant #2 comes over to me. So, we get my debit card set up and change the PIN to the one I want. Then she helps me pay my phone bill. But instead of doing it at the ATM and showing me how to do it, she does it online.
I fired off a text to my boss. Told him I wasn’t happy about the situation. Friday morning one of the guys has to take me to the clinic to get blood drawn. I told the boss I insist the guy go to the bank with me and finally explain things to me and show me how to do things. When I had the guy at work go over my questions with me, he says my phone bill had been set up to be taken out automatically. That ain’t gonna happen. I’m gonna make every transaction myself while I’m here. OK, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So then I want to pay the WiFi bill and this time she tells me to do it on the ATM. At least I get to see which buttons I have to push. So then I tell her (or, I think I tell her) that I want to make a deposit. She sends me back in to one of the windows. The lady at the window doesn’t get what I want. She sends me back to a bitchy manager who sticks her phone in front of my face and tells me, “write, write!” So I figure out that she has a translation program on her phone. She might as well have translated it into French. Because she’s asking me if I want it in an interest account or a debit account. I’ve only opened one account. I’ve got the contract with me in my hand but none of them will look st it to see what kind of account it is, what my account number is, etc.
Then they decide I’m trying to buy dollars. No, I’m not. I’m trying to deposit Russian rubles in a bank account I opened two weeks ago. Look at my contact, you jerks. (Boy, i wish I could have said that in Russian!) So, by this time it’s after 7 and the bank is closed. They decide I can give them my money. By this time I say hell, no! I’ve you don’t even know what account you’re going to put it in, How am I ever going to get it back again?
Texted the boss last night and told him I insisted the guy from school go with me tomorrow. Went into school this morning with steam coming out of my ears. I grabbed the guy after lunch and let him have it for over an hour. I told him these were the questions I need answered and the things I wanted done. He got it.
If this school wants to start building a reputable international staff, it had damned well better start offering it some services. This is all the more reason for me to only stay one year. I’m steamed at how cavalierly the bureaucracies in Russia handle everything.
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