Payback

I think we all dislike banks unless we have an abundance of cash. They serve as a reminder of the money we don't have. They also seem to be making a concerted effort to chip away at our meager savings through service charges and depressing interest rates. We watch them post ever increasing, record breaking profits, while reducing service levels and outsourcing labour. What's a person to do? Put your money in a mattress? Sure, you can do that, but what about getting even in stead.

That's exactly what Dan did when he found out his accounts at the Citizens Bank of Canada, whose name would imply Canadian labour and support, was outsourcing their transaction processing to the US. Don decided that after a year's worth of phone calls and questions that the bank didn't really care what he thought when he received a letter saying that they weren't going to change their processing arrangements. (What!?! A bank not caring about the customer? "Impossible!" you say.) He then figured that if you are to get someone bigger to listen to you then you need to hit them where they are weak. Rogers figured the weak link was in its computer system and with that in mind he began a deluge of tiny transactions and very quickly received a call from the bank's technology department saying the volume of transactions was creating trouble with the system, even making them process some of the transactions manually.

His Visa statement arrived with a mighty thump when the mailman delivered the The 35-page statement comprised of 985 entries and a combined length of nearly 10 meters. The sum of this immense shopping spree amounted to a mighty balance of $257.60 since most of the transactions were for one or two cents each.

He is my new nominee for hero of the people. Can you imagine if we as a people stop bending over and taking what the banks have to deal out? There would be chaos on the streets. Entire boardrooms would be filled with expensive tie wearing folk, scared to go outside into the crazed new world that is forming beneath them. Maybe I'll take my mattress and empty the $25.49 I've spent my life accumulating and open an account somewhere just to join the craze. I could be like a modern day William Wallace, overthrowing the oppressive masters who rule us. I'll likely meet the same sort of untimely end once the bankers get a hold of me, but at least I might initiate some change. Who's with me?