On April 28^th, four boxes of checks were shipped to me from Classic Checks.

On May 2^nd, I received three of the four boxes of checks I ordered.

Not a good thing.

Two of the three I received were damaged by the post office. Looks like their dog got a hold of them. Although the checks were fine, the boxes were taped together with packing tape and placed in a plastic bag that read, “I’m Sorry – USPS”

I called Classic Checks and informed them I had not received the fourth box. They told me I had to wait until May 20^th for that fourth box to show. In the mean time, I should call my post office.

I called the post office. They did not have the fourth box. Did you know that they classify boxes of checks as "secondary mail"???

Today is May 20^th. No box No.4 to be found. I called Classic Checks again. Why? I don’t really know because they said there wasn’t a darn thing they could do for me…

They, the Classic Check people, had shipped my blank checks...

You know, with all my account information...

BULK mail...

Which can not be tracked…

Am I the only one who believe checks should be considered a little more important than untrackable secondary mail?

Why, I asked the lady, would you use a service to shipped something as personal as personal checks through a service that is untrackable? She replied,

“We don’t - anymore. Three days after your order was shipped, we switched to DHL.”

Okay, so people like me who happened to order before that are essentially screwed if our package is lost.

“Yes. You can call your bank and see if they’ll put an alert on those 150 checks that are lost…”

Yes... I will do that.

But rather than putting myself through 150 times the stress of worrying about who’s got our account number, I decided to go the whole nine yards and cancel the account.

Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it is to do that??

Not canceling the account, that’s rather easy. But switching all your stuff around, anything that is linked to that checking account, ordering more new checks and waiting for them, waiting for your new debt card, etc etc.

But before I went down to the bank to do that, I called the Classic Check people back to tell them I was going to ship their stupid dog chewed checks back and was demanding a full refund because I now I was forced to close my account because of them.

Amazingly, they agreed.

My bank offered a couple options on how to handle this. One was to actually leave the account open and report those check numbers as fraudulent. But I was afraid that any smarty pants could figure out how to use my account number on those checks to do serious damage. So I opted to close the whole thing and open a new one.

But nothing is ever as simple as it seems because of course, I had a few outstanding purchases floating around in cyber space which prevented me from closing the account completely. I had to leave enough money behind to cover them. Now, I could have taken the extra time and effort and had the bank lady enter each outstanding check number in to the system and schedule it to be rerouted into the new account as it came in, but I think the less steps taken the less likely something will go wrong. Like dad always says, the less bells and whistles, the less likely it will break.

Now I have to watch my old account everyday and wait for things to clear, watch for any fraudulent activity, and wait for the credit back from the Classic Check people. THEN I can close it. And of course, the nice bank people have agreed to wave any overdraft fees if something comes in that is not authorized by me.

I was so proud of myself. I knew exactly what I wanted and stood my ground, even when they were trying to say leaving the account alone would be "safe" because they would just watch for those 150 checks to come in. For once, I apparently knew more than they did... funny how it's about thievery...

I said I didn’t think they realized how smart and technologically advanced thieves are now a-days. I was even told once by another bank manager how dangerous it is to pay for anything over the phone with your checking account number. He wouldn’t have stressed that if there wasn’t some way someone could use my account number to get to my money.

The bank lady assured me that security prevents that kind of fraud...

Oh really.

If a 15 year old kid, bored out of his noggin, can create a computer virus that will wipe out half a million hard drives, he can figure out a way of getting a debt card with my account number on it. Getting my SS# would just be the next step.

She saw my point and closed my account.

Afterwards, I sat for an hour redirecting my other accounts around, which is not an easy thing to do. One involved filling out forms and mailing them in. Another needs me to have new checks before I did anything, which means I have to order from someone else. This time, I will insist they use UPS, FedEx, or DHL. WHAT A HASSLE. I like to take care of things right away. I don’t like waiting for something to come in before I complete the process, you know? And all this because of a "just in case" thing.

Watch. I get home tonight and the box of checks is in my mailbox.