Blarf: Dear B of A

I'm frustrated, and don't feel like spending time on B of A's chat to get what SHOULD be a simple, logical answer. I'll bet I'm not the only one asking this question:

Dear B of A rep...I thought I'd easily get an answer by calling your "Customer Service" line with what I thought would be a simple question, followed by a straightforward answer.

THAT was NOT to be, as I've hung up, after waiting on hold for 20 minutes. I'm not up to going through your chat, as my experience with various "customer service" chats supports the idea that doing so on your site would only DOUBLE my frustration as I try to dialog with a rep having probably 20 other "conversations" at the same time.

Question: Do I REALLY have to set up my Bank of America credit card as a "Pay To" account on your site?!

I'm logged in, I can see my account balance and transactions on YOUR site, and I'm being prompted to enter my credit card number TWICE?!

Do you really not provide a link from my credit card statement to simply pay you? I'd think that since credit card companies encourage us to go paperless, they'd make the process EASY. But I guess I'll be providing you with some good old-fashioned paperwork to process when you get my stub and check...that's OK...those checks were getting dusty, anyway.

Signed, Valued Customer "Thank you for holding"

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

I am the face of lung cancer:

Here I am, a few months before I became a lung cancer statistic, one of over 215,000 people in the US diagnosed annually with lung cancer.

I received my diagnosis in December of 2008, three days before my 53rd birthday.

What was originally thought to be stage 1 cancer was staged at IV, after surgery to remove the upper lobe in my right lung. 2 years later, I'm still in treatment, still fighting.

According to http://www.lungcancer.org/reading/about.php
“It is the second most diagnosed cancer in men and women (after prostate and breast, respectively), but it is the number one cause of death from cancer each year in both men and women.”

The most immediate question I face, when sharing my story is "Do you smoke?" I am a non-smoker.

Think about it: many of us know people who have smoked for 30 years or more, and THEY DON'T have lung cancer.

According to the Lung Cancer Alliance: Over 60% of new cases are never-smokers or former smokers, MANY of whom quit decades ago.

So, folks--let's get past the stigma, and make the battle against the #1 cancer killer as fashionable as the battle against breast cancer.

Lung cancer kills mommies, too.