I Can't BELIEVE This!

Major grocery store drama and checking account angst.

So, I stop off at the grocery store on my way home tonight to pick up a few things. My total comes to $24.06 which is about $2 more than I happen to have in my pocket, so I pay with my debit card. Well, as I'm standing there, I see the (teenage) clerk typing on the credit card machine furiously and slip after slip appears to be spitting out of the top. Finally she hands me the receipt to sign and says, "I entered in the wrong amount, so I had to void it first." So, okay, I sign the thing and then say, "oh, show me what you voided so I know what to look for on my account". So she hands me a wad of papers and points to the amount that she charged first. $240.66!!! Yikes! So I feel a bit unsettled about it and come home and go online to check my bank account and sure enough, these funds are now subtracted from my balance! Now, usually this wouldn't really be the end of the World, except that we are at the end of a pay period, the first half of the month is when my mortgage and my co-op maintenance is paid, along with a good number of other bills and then there is the little bit of excess that is siphoned off into savings. So, basically, my checking is pretty much down to bare bones until payday on Friday. I am sitting here still waiting for my co-op maintenance check to be debited from my account (they haven't cashed the check yet), so I need to make sure there is enough left to cover that. Still, not a problem with only a few days to get through, I have enough left as a buffer for groceries and incidentals. That is I did, until afore-mentioned grocery clerk screwed up my CHARGE!!! So, I call the bank and (this it the other thing) I have to rush through my explanation of what happened because the battery on my home phone is dying and I only have a few minutes before the phone drops the call (not being one to talk much on the phone, I haven't gotten around to getting a new battery for it since it means taking the handset and finding a radio shack or similar) and so the guy I'm talking to is "ummming" and "hmmmmming" and I am tapping my foot and desperately thinking to myself 'hurry the F*** UP!!! For all that is good & HOLY!!!' The guy finally, basically, tells me that usually it takes up to seven (7!!!) days for a voided charge to clear because they have to get some invoice or paperwork back from the merchant. Now I am really freaking out because I know that maintenance check is going to come through in a day or so and now it's going to bounce. And I am very upset because this is all clearly not my fault (unless you can fault me for not having a raise in over four years and not making enough money to keep thousands of $$$ in my checking account as a buffer against such a happening) and there is nothing at all that I can do about it -- I have plenty of money that could cover it in my emergency fund savings account, but it would take a few days to move that money over, and by then I would have been paid anyway AND the check would already have bounced. Am ready to scream and cry. The unhelpful bank guy then says that the only other thing that I can do is go back to the merchant and have them contact the bank to verify the void and they'll see what they can do from there. However, even this approach will most likely still tie up my funds for over 24 hours. ARGH!!!! So I go ripping out of my apartment and back to the grocery store. Where I stand there by the checkout and babble (hysterically) my pathetic tale while waving the wads of receipts illustrating my charges and voids. All the clerks listen, as do all the people on the checkout line, all rubber-necking to catch a glimpse of my sad state like I'm the local freak show. Manager is not there, so I have to stand at the front of the store and wait, all the shoppers filing past me, while I stand there on display like I've stolen something. The manager finally shows and I explain the situation to him. I am a little unclear on what needs to be done on his end since I had to rush off the phone with the bank rep before my phone died and so I am basically an incomprehensive mess. Finally after I explain it a couple of times and he reviews my receipts and the credit card machine records, he understands and so agrees to call the bank. He does so and talks to a rep, he comes back and hands me the phone so I can verify to the rep what happened, and who I am, etc. He speaks to the rep again and finally, I talk to the rep for a final time. This time I appear to have a very helpful person who says that he is going to go ahead in the system and delete the charge from my account and that the funds will now be available for charges or checks against it. I sag with relief and profusely thank the bank rep and the grocery store supervisor and apologize all over the store for freaking out. What a nightmare! What a relief! Such drama. I have to say this about my bank. This is the second time a customer service rep has helped me out of a jam (last year I had made an online payment for a bill that had gone to the wrong place, it was my mistake, but the rep that helped me had fixed everything and the bank had not charged me a cent). It is really a level of service I don't usually expect from such a large and (supposedly) impersonal company, but the second time that they have really come to my rescue. Although, the first guy I spoke to this evening was not very helpful at all, so it may depend on who you get on the phone. Now, I'm going to feel embarrassed to show my face in that store again, but there aren't too many options in my town for food shopping, so I'll just have to bite the bullet and hang my head in shame. Anyway, so that is my sad, pathetic tale for this evening. At least it has a happy ending. I made the evening even happier by stopping and buying myself a couple of beers on my way home. You know, for the stress and all.