ERI LA Socio-Political Blog

Several weeks ago, my husband went to the bank to order checks. We did not think much about the common task and his order just rested in the back of our minds. Ordering new checkbook for your bank account is not the most difficult thing to do but somehow, we managed to find ourselves in a huge mess very quickly. We simply ommitted to following through and we did not have our lines of communication open.

The problems began when I opened the cheque account to pay for car parts we bought through our local mechanic. There were no checks. I told the mechanic, who looks after all our car repair needs, that I would be right back to fix him up for the money. I got home and found that there were no checks to be found. I literally tipped the house upside down looking for the checks we recently ordered.

I freaked out and contacted my husband at his job. I never call there and it’s usually something very important when I do. He assured me that he went to our financial instituion to order checks months ago. I asked him if we got them in the mail and was struck by silence. “Didn’t you get them,” he finally said. “Well I didn’t order checks, so I wasn’t looking for checks in the mail.”

I remembered surfing the net to order cheques, but we had relocated and I wasn’t able to make such changes to our account while ordering new checks. This made perfect sense to me and I was glad that our bank was very careful about our security. This is when I sent my husband to the bank for the check order. I was beginning to recall placing the order. I just couldn’t understand why on earth I didn’t think to look for them. . The next thing I know I’m facing my mechanic with an empty checkbook.

I called the bank and our usual teller said that she remembered that my husband had come in to order checks a long time ago and we definitely should have gotten them by now. Again, my imagination went wild and I began to get a little angry. Who on earth would take checks from a struggling, new blue collar family? We have a baby and we have a mortgage. We really don’t have enough funds to make stealing from us worthwhile. Then I heard the teller’s sweet voice, “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I inverted one of the numbers in the account and your check order was rejected. I didn’t know.”

I was absolyuely let off the hook to hear about a mistake in my life. We will continue to order checks through our bank. Our favorite teller is extra careful with numbers and we are extra careful to make sure that we follow up on our check orders. As for the paranoia, I’m still working on that.