Sorry, but I need to vent…
Being a so-called micro-publisher, I do enjoy the advantages of the Internet. For instance, if I want to send one of my books to someone in the United Kingdom, I just log into my Ingram account and fill out a form. The book will be printed in the United Kingdom and then delivered to the recipient per Royal Mail. The whole process takes only a few days.
The situation changes, however, if I want to pay royalties to one of my authors who lives in the United Kingdom. In this case I am dealing with TD Banknorth, “America’s most convenient bank,” but you may pick almost any bank in the United States to address the problem with fund transfers. It seems that the American banking system, despite the much-promoted online banking, is utterly incompetent when it comes to transferring funds into foreign countries.
In my particular case we are talking about the TD Banknorth branch in Greenfield, Massachusetts. About two weeks ago I went into their office on Main Street to initiate a transfer of $305.97 to a British bank account. And since I mentioned the vast advantages of the Internet… they don’t apply when it comes to fund transfers between banks, foreign or domestic, meaning you have to physically show up and have someone enter the transaction into their computer. In my case it took two employees roughly twenty minutes to fill out the transaction form on their computer. The first hurdle was the amount of $305.97 that they were unable to convert into British pounds.
“Let’s try 200 pounds,” one of the young ladies suggested. Turns out, 200 pounds was too much, so they went with 190. Well, not enough. In the end, after a number of trials, the amount was determined at 197, which translated into a little over $306. Ultimately, this would result in a slight accounting problem for my business, but I was willing to deal with that. However, on top of the amount paid comes a transfer fee of $40. Gulp!
A few days later, one of the young ladies called our home phone, and my wife picked up. The young woman asked for me, but refused to give my wife any details what the call was about. Well, my wife trusts that I don’t have a girlfriend, and she forwarded the phone number to me. It turned out the bank routing number was not correct, and I was to provide the correct bank code. The way it works at TD Banknorth is that bank employees fill out the transfer form without being aware of the requirements, but they get a feedback from another department (probably somewhere in New York) when information is missing or incorrect.
I was told to provide the “Bank Sort Code” or the “Bank Swift Code,” but I had to come into their office again to fill out another transfer form. That same day, after I had been to the bank and provided the sort code, I received yet another call, saying they needed the 6-digit swift code. At that point, I told them to go to hell…
Well, the world as I know it (I mean the one with the vast advantages of the Internet) is in order again. I just googled “fund transfer from US to UK,” and after some quick research I found xoom.com, an online service by Barclays Bank. First of all, I could handle the transfer online within a few minutes. Secondly, I could transfer the exact amount of $305.97. Thirdly, the exchange rate was much better than with TD Banknorth, and the fee was a mere $4.99. And, last, but not least, the funds arrived in less than an hour. I managed to do within an hour what I could not do with TD Banknorth in Greenfield, Massachusetts in two weeks. All in all, I am just flabbergasted by the incompetence I encountered at TD Banknorth.
THE LONDONDERRY AIR
Testament of an Ulster Gunman
A Novel by Garrad Gawler
It all changed for Charles Cunningham, a Physics teacher at the local College of Technology in the County Derry town of Maddenstown, on a June afternoon in 1973 when a bomb exploded in his neighborhood. He answers an advertisement by the UDR, the Ulster Defence Regiment, but, in the time to come, he will experience the consequences of his decisions, and how his involvement complicates matters with family and friends, Protestants and Catholics alike, to an unexpected degree.
With “The Londonderry Air – Testament of an Ulster Gunman” Garrad Gawler describes in minute detail and with an astonishing level of authenticity not only the inner workings of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but also the activities of underground paramilitary groups of regular citizens who planned and carried out the assassination of suspected Republican terrorists in their neighborhood.
The Londonderry Air is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon Kindle (US), Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Kindle (UK), Barnes & Noble, smashwords.com, and any other good bookstore.
For more information on Garrad Gawler and to read an excerpt of “The Londonderry Air,” please see the author’s section on this website.
