I'm feeling a little bit like Lewis Black right now.

Pissed off, grumpy, acidic, bilious.

Why? Well, for the last 4 days, I've been attempting to buy a new camera. After much shopping around on the net, I settled for buying from Newegg, the same company Jake also bought the parts from for my recent computer (as my usual favorite, B&H has been having some website issues, and Newegg beat their price).

The total (with some additional batteries, and a 4G memory card) came to a little over $3,200. I opted to pay for 2nd day shipping and express order processing to have the camera in hand before the weekend.

Now you may say $3,200 really isn't that much. People spend that kind of money in a lump sum all the time - for vacations, medical expenses, furniture etc. But apparently it's too rich for my bank, Washington Mutual. They have a $3,000 daily limit on all their debit cards. And so I embark on my customer service odysee.

Friday - 6.45pm: I call WaMu customer service. The rep tells me I'd be better off withdrawing the money in person and buying the product locally (as if that'd be an option). After much explanation, she finally yields and tells me that she has lifted the limit and implemented a new one at $10,000. It would take 24 hours for it to take effect. Fine.

Sunday - 12.45pm: The card is still getting declined every 30 minutes through Newegg's automatic re-authorization feature (and I get emails telling me so). But it's Sunday. Screw it. I resolve to try and get this figured out first thing Monday morning.

Monday - 8.30am: Another call to WaMu - *this* rep now tells me that my limit is at $7,500 (note the different amount from Friday), that it took effect this morning, and that the authorization should work now. Minutes later and I still keep getting declines from Newegg.

11.45am: 3rd rep at WaMu tells me that while the limit may be there, for some reason the system keeps declining the authorization (no shit?). I'm on hold for like 10 minutes, while she checks with her supervisior. She comes back with an apology, says they don't know what's wrong, and that the merchant should call in to get a manual authorization.

11.50am: Call to Newegg, and the rep there promises to get that done right away.

1.39pm: Two hours later. Still getting decline notices. Another call to Newegg - and this time (after quite some persistent nagging and not taking the reps soothing "Everything is ok, I'm sure it will work out" crap any longer), the Newegg rep comes back with the bombshell: "We talked to your bank - they said the amount was too large, and that you have to go down to the bank IN PERSON to authorize the charge".

EXCUSE ME?

WHAT THE FUCK????

And that after all the "No problem - we'll take care of it for you" crap from 3 different reps?

I tell Newegg to scratch the WaMu card and give them a credit card number to run instead. I'll be paying interest on that thing from the second I use it (while I have the cash sitting in my bank) - but at least I was able to make the purchase.

And Oh - I'll be going down to WaMu IN PERSON alright.

But only to tell them to go fuck themselves, and that I'll take my business elsewhere. And if you're a customer of that bank right now, so should you.

Update: Thanks for the good idea, dkgoodman. I think I'll go down there and declare loudly that I want to close all my three accounts (two of them business accounts) - in addition to my IRA. Oh, and how about f***ing paying for the interest I'm having to pay on my credit card now?

Mind you, this comes on the heels of my hubby haggling with WaMu for the past few months over the fact that they've placed extended holds on his checks for his finish carpentry business - "because the amounts are too large ...". Never mind that he has employees to pay ...

I'm so ready to ditch these a-holes...