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by Roy Becker
Many customers use international wire transfers when making payments overseas. This includes businesses paying invoices as well as individuals sending money to relatives.
Prior to the current state-of the-art ability to initiate such transactions online, a customer was required to call their bank with the pertinent information, such as the amount to be transferred, beneficiary's name, address, bank, and bank account number.
The customer's bank is the remitting bank. The remitting bank determines how to route the money to the beneficiary's bank and to notify the beneficiary's bank that they sent the money. On rare occasions, and for a variety of reasons, the money doesn't arrive promptly at the beneficiary's bank. In such cases, the remitting bank traces the wire to determine where the money went, what went wrong, and how to correct the problem so the beneficiary receives the funds.
A bank I worked for had a customer who asked us to send a payment to a beneficiary in France. A young man in our department, Eric, took the call. He recorded the information, determined the routing, and informed the customer that the beneficiary should have the money in two to three days.
A week later, the customer called Eric and informed him that the beneficiary in France claimed non-receipt. Eric offered to put a tracer on the wire and promised the customer he would resolve it quickly.
Another week elapsed and again the customer called, somewhat less understanding this time, and informed Eric that the money still had not arrived in France. Eric came into my office and asked, "Roy, if I get up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow and call the bank in France from my home, will the bank pay for my phone call?"
I smiled to myself as I replied, "Eric, if you want to get up at 4 a.m., yes, the bank will pay for your phone call!"
The next morning, at a staff meeting, he related what had happened. He had called the beneficiary's bank in France. The bank's operator answered, "Bon jour." Eric, who knew no French, tried to explain that he needed to speak to someone in the international department who could speak English.
After several phone transfers, he reached someone who could help. They discussed the transaction and finally placed the problem with another bank in France, an intermediary bank, who apparently had failed to relay the money. Eric asked the employee at the French bank if she had the telephone number of the intermediary bank. She said she did, and she gave it to him.
Eric then dialed the number of the intermediary bank. As it rang the first time or two he anticipated hearing, "Bon jour," and expected he would again have to find an English speaking person. Instead, he heard a voice with a distinct American accent, say, "Hello?"
Of course, this caught Eric off guard. Since he knew he had carefully dialed the number, including country code and city code, he jumped right into his reason for calling. "Hello, my name is Eric. I'm calling from a bank in the United States and I'm trying to trace a wire transfer we sent to you two weeks ago," he said and then went into a lengthy explanation of the problem.
When he paused, the voice on the other end said, "Excuse me, do you think you are speaking to a bank?"
"Why, yes," Eric replied, "to whom am I speaking?"
"I'm an American student going to school here in Paris," she explained, "I just walked down the street and heard this pay phone ringing!"
I have often reflected on this incident and continue to marvel at the remarkable sense of humor that Eric had. Most employees would have come in that morning, grumbling about how early they had to get up, and then, of all things, they ended up calling a pay phone! However, no one saw the humor in the situation better than Eric, and as he told us the story, the whole office laughed at his misfortune. I believe humor in the workplace allows us to feel more relaxed and handle stress and frustration more effectively.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| LUCF20-2LS bearing | 20 | 32 | 41 |
| LUCF16-2LS bearing | 16 | 26 | 34522 |