Wow, Good People In Miami

I'm blow away by an event that has transpired over the past 2 days.  I arrived home from work yesterday and got my mail and found I had a letter from the Traffic Citations department of Miami.  At first I thought it might have been those new video cameras in Coral Gables that had busted me doin' a "California Roll thru a stop sign or something but when I opened it up I found a parking ticket inside.  ""WTF?", was the only thought that entered my mind.  Not that I'm immune to parking tickets by any means.  I get them occasionally when I don't have change or something.  This one was different though.  I knew I didn't have my car that day.

I went online and found out where the ticket was issued.  It was a place I'd only been to once.  I had turned in my car that morning at Bimmer Shop, a BMW repair shop located caddy corner from Braman BMW.  I had wires on both tail lights short out and needed to replace the whole damn panel.  Bimmer Shop repaired it and did a great job.  In fact, I was impressed with how nice everyone that worked there was and that they completed the work within hours.  However, I guess at some point they had to move my car to a parking spot (their place isn't enormous) and while it was there it was ticketed.  I'm assuming they took the ticket and intended to pay it but forgot or something because I never saw it.  I knew nothing about it until I got the late notice yesterday in the mail.

I left a voicemail and sent and email to their office because it was after hours.  I also called the next morning. The girl who answered the phone was really nice and had just listened to my message.  She asked for my tag number and said they would take care of it.  Most of the time in Miami this means you have to call the person every day to remind them to do it.  Not this company.  She called me back within 10 minutes and let me know the ticket had been paid.  I couldn't believe it.

Bimmer Shop will definitely be recommended to any and everyone I know.  They can do body work on any auto and mechanical work on any BMW and they do a really good job in a short amount of time.  The people in both the office and shop are friendly and they showed me that they will make amends to any mistakes they make.  Good stuff all around.

JUST CHARGE ME ALREADY!!!

Why is it that some businesses take so long to push thru the transactions when you make a credit card purchase at their establishment? This is so effing annoying to me. Why? Well, I like to pay off my entire credit card balance each month and I like to track how much that payment is each month. When businesses take forever to push the purchase thru, the transaction isnt recorded on my account when I want to pay my bill and thus jumps over to the next month. Since Citibank is lame and wont let me pay more than my current balance, even when I know charges are out there waiting to be added, there is nothing I can do.

There are 2 reasons this annoys me:

1.) I have been spending a shitload of money this year. Probably about double what I spent last year on a monthly basis. Sure, Im having way more fun but Im trying to get myself back into saving mode as I have a few things Id like to save for. When charges get carried over to the next month, I dont get to "start fresh" with a chance at keeping my card spending low for that month by starting with a zero balance. Its a mental thing I guess and something thats not easy to explain. Just one of my many quirks.

2.) As a business owner, wouldnt you want your money as fast as you could get it? I just made about $400 in purchases since last Tuesday. NONE of these have shown up on my card yet. One was from an online retailer. The other was a restaurant here in Miami. The online guy has shipped my order and Ive already eaten the food from the restaurant and crapped it out by now.

I guess I could add Citibank being lame and not letting me prepay balances that I know are on the way to the list of why this annoys me. Bank of America let me do that but they dont give me AA miles for my purchases. Instead they have a lame reward program so it was bye bye to BoA. This may be the first case of someone wanting to be charged for goods and services but, unless the transactions have been forgotten or wiped clean, Id like to be charged. Dammit.

I need a remedy for what is ailin' me

After a stressful day and considering the current economic climate, this song pretty much sums it up for me. These guys kick major ass unplugged and live. Enjoy.