A Real Problem

For those unfamiliar with Chinese utilities, I have to pre-pay for my electricity. I have a card that I take to the bank, put money on it and then insert it into the meter in the hallway of my apartment to add credit. When the credit is gone, it's gone. Lights out. So, I usually watch the meter closely and when it gets down to 50 or so units left (I use about 5 units a day typically and up to 10 or 15 when running my air conditioning), I buy some more.

I was at about the 60 unit mark on Monday so I brought my card with me to stop at the bank. It didn't happen. My 9am to 6:30pm teaching schedule didn't work well with the banks' 9-5 hours. And Chinese banks aren't places that you can run in/run out in under ten minutes during a lunch break. Fortunately it was a cooler week and my fan sufficed to keep me comfortable during the few hours I was home. By Saturday, I was down to 35 units. After a late lunch with Hannah, Teri and Gretl, I went to the bank near my apartment. I got my number and was happy to see that I was number 177 and they were already on 152. Only 25 people in front of me and two windows open! It would be a pretty quick wait of about 20 minutes to half an hour. I sat down and play Tetris on my phone. Finally it was my turn. I went up to the window, gave the teller my card and money, paid a water bill that had appeared on my door (this is normal), got my change and left.

As soon as I got home I put the card in the meter. Nothing. Tried it another way. Maybe the magnetic square faces the other way. Nothing. Tried it the first way again. Nothing. Hmmm... This was not good. The teller must have forgotten to add the money to my card. I wasn't watching her the whole time since I was looking for change and the water bill in my purse but I didn't remember her charging it. So, back to the bank I went.

I talked to the guy at the front who helps you get a number for the right line. I explained what happened and he went to ask the teller about it. She said that I had to call the number at the bottom of my receipt and they would take care of it. I told him I couldn't do that because my Chinese isn't good enough and I had forgotten my phone at school. He kindly offered to call for me. After a couple minutes of conversation, he came back and explained to me half in Chinese, half in English that the lady at the phone number place could speak English and that I would need to know how much electricity was left and how had been bought the last couple times. I said I didn't know about the last couple times because my friend had bought it. He said all the info I needed would be on the meter. As we were talking some overly helpful (nosy) costumer came up and told me in English that I needed to put the card in the meter and I should just go home and try it again. I told him in Chinese that I had lived in China for more than 4 years and am quite familiar with how to use an electric card. His response: Oh, so this is a real problem. Yes, I smiled sweetly growling inside, as opposed to me being a stupid foreigner problem. Arg! I thanked the bank employee for his help and went home.

I tried the card in the meter one more time. It flashed 485 units! Yeah! It worked this time! Why? Who knows? Maybe it wasn't a "real" problem after all...