Just installed WordPress for Nokia on my N900 so I am hoping for more frequent updates.
Here is a pic of Hundele I had promissed… More to come…..
Here is Hundele’s story
I have been way to quiet here even though so much has happened. We found a house, we bought it… moved in on April 1st. We found a dog, didn’t find his owners and trained him – more on all these topics later.
The topic that moves me since 6 months is the story that always leads me to a Writer’s block but today I will try again. The text that comes might be unstructured and hard to understand but I need to start getting it of my chest.
But before I start with the story here are some bullet points:
A small-sized Austrian Bank (240 employees according to their website) Volksbank-Tirol Innsbruck Schwaz AG took EUR 24,000.00 from my fathers personal Pensions Account. –> In my opinion this was theft * –> more on that later
- Before taking the money they froze my father’s account – he had about EUR 30,000.00 on it and was just in Chile on holiday
- The freezing and “theft” happened at a time (Christmas 2009) when my wife and I urgently needed EUR 28,000 to be able to purchase our home. Our financing plan would have not been possible without a personal loan of my father (non of us had the permanent residency in Chile and without that you don’t usually get a mortgage here in Chile).
- From the date we knew that we could not count on this money (which my father purposely had left on this account to loan to us) we had 1 month time to find the money elsewhere with the added difficulty that my wife and me were outside of Chile and my parents were also still traveling.
- The Bank (Volksbank-Tirol) has still not returned the money –> even though the Managing Director and two more Directors were contacted by us and have been informed by journalists (who are doing research and are planning to write the story)
What lead Volksbank-Tirol to this action?
My dad once owned a company. He had this company since he was about 17 or 18 years of age and ran it pretty well without big debts with good years and bad years but he always made sure to pay his staff and companies he owed money with no delay.
He gave this company to my brother who at first did a good job in growing the business, doubling revenue and winning big international projects. Important to note is that my dad made clear that he will NOT be a guarantor. He did not sign anything related to guaranteeing when he signed over the company . Then came the financial crisis. My brother had to finance some pretty big projects and his customers were paying later and later. That is usually the time when you need banks –> He went to the Head Quarters of Volksbank-Tirol but they would not extend the credit line. My brother went to other banks who also refused to extend credit.
My brother spoke to all his creditors most of whom understood the situation and who were willing to settle to receive a percentage of what my brother owed them. But not the above mentioned bank. My brother went to a meeting with them. The meeting did not go well. They right away said they would not accept any settlement offer and after a while a female employee from Volksbank-Tirol started smiling and mentioned they had discovered that there was a way they could get to the money of my father. My brother mentioned it to me when but my father was on holiday and we both saw no need to tell him since we first assumed it was bogus and secondly knew that to take money from my father they would first have to go to court and secondly win at court (which in our minds and in the mind of my brothers lawyer was highly unlikely).
Now what did the bank do instead of going to court and trying to win a court case. They just decided to lock down my father’s account after he transferred EUR 28,000.00 to me in Chile. The EUR 28,000 never left the bank. They left my dads account but were later returned (minus EUR 20,00 of fees which were never refunded). Remember even though the EUR 28,000 were returned he had no access to them since his account was on lock down. His Card would not work nor could he transfer money. The bank took EUR 24,000 of the account before unblocking it.
My dad and me both thought the transfer went through (since there was no error message and the money left his account). My dad who was in Santiago at the time of the transfer went down to Pucon (780 km to the south of Santiago, Chile) with his wife and his cash card. He noticed that he no longer received money from the cash machine but thought this was the spotty cash machine service I once had spoken about. –> Can you imagine having EUR 30,000 on your account and not being able to access it because the bank decided that it would like some of that money?
I will pause here since the post is already getting too long but will do several follow-up posts. I also plan to start a blog in German since the bank is in Austria and also plan on doing a series of 2 minute videos describing every part of this case.
What is to come in follow-up posts?
- How Volksbank-Tirol blocked my brothers children’s savings accounts for more than 3 months and threatened to seize the money.
- How the bank threatened to sue me and my father
- How Volksbank-Tirol accused me of defraud
- How the bank (in my opinion) broke professional secrecy *
- My dads lawyers opinion on the case
*Disclaimer although my dad and my brother have spoken to three different lawyers who pretty much had similar opinions I am speaking for myself with this blog article and want to make you aware that when mentioning words like theft and breach of professional secrecy that this is my opinion –> Courts may decide differently.
Posted in Bad Customer Service, Fraud, law, Legal Issues, Offtopic, Personal, Theft, Volksbank-Tirol, weird | 5 Comments »
Last week I went to Flannery’s an Irish Pub in Santiago to celebrate a friends Stag night. I had way too many beers but a great time. By the way if anyone from Flannery’s is reading this. An Irish Pub needs to serve Guiness – not just advertise it.
I had one AHA Moment there – it seems there are tons and tons of foreigners here that choose not to learn or speak Spanish but live in Santiago for years, even start families with kids. Now that got me thinking. Is it plain ignorant? I definitely don’t like it.
Saying this 
I am struggling myself… I have been here now since October 2008 and my best friends still prefer speaking English to me. Until about a week ago – when I met all these "non integrators" I was happy about that. The problem I have is that I work from home – in English and German, my wife is near native in English and I always preferred speaking English with her. Now since my eye opening evening we are starting to speak Spanish en nuestra Casa. It will take time to get used to but gut Ding braucht Weile.
Things have also changed. After living here one year I still got compliments for my good Spanish – but it has not improved since and now it’s been 18 months my Spanish certainly should be better and when people ask how long I have been living here I hardly receive any more compliments……
Posted in Chile, expat, Personal | Leave a Comment »
Meldung in English – im Anschluss offener Brief auf Deutsch.
I have thought what can I do apart from donating money to Chile to help. When a friend of my wife who is Mexican joined the Facebook cause Canada helps Chile I thoght I would do the same and create a group where Austrians can help. Before I did that (a few days ago) I had been emailing my friends in Britain and my international friends (not the Austrian ones) links to the Red Cross asking to post them on their Facebook Profiles. From the about 50 friends I asked 3 posted something so the outcome was not that great 
Nevertheless I opened the Group asking Austrians to Unite for Chile. The Group Österreich hilft Chile has 72 Members * and that in lless then 3 days. DANKE OESTERREICH – DANKE NASSEREITH (where quite a few of the members are from) DANKE Tirol & DANKE to some of my international friends some Austrian like Gerald who lives in Australia now or Jana, Christian (Germany), Isabelle (French woman in Spain), Alfredo (Chile) etc pp
The Chilean Embassy in Austria has opened an account and they are taking donations.
Here the letter to the Austrians that have joined the Group – The group is OPEN.
*updated March 7th 11 am Chile Time
Ich moechte mich im Namen der Chilenen in Not bedanken bei Euch dass Ihr dieser Gruppe beigetreten seid.
Ganz kurz zur Situation. Chile ist das laengste Land der Erde – laenger sogar als der Kontinent Europa – d.h. es gibt Regionen die das Erdbeben gar nicht gespuert haben. (Im Norden die trockenste Wueste der Welt und ganz im Sueden die Antarktis)
Santiago, die Hauptstadt in der ich lebe ist recht gut davon gekommen da es Erdbebensicher gebaut ist. Santiago hat ein Erdbeben der Staerke 8 gespuert. Auch in Santiago haben Leute das Dach ueberm Kopf verloren.
Die wahre Katastrophe ist jedoch etwa 350 kilometer suedlich von Chile am Epizentrum. Dort hat es doppelte Probleme gegeben. Einmal ein Erdbeben der Staerke 8.8 und zum zweiten eine Riessen Flutwelle welche wahnsinnig viel zerstoert hat. Es sind in etwa 1,5 Millionen Menschen ohne Dach ueber dem Kopf.
Hilfe ist langsam am anrollen.
Wein ist eines der wichtigsten Export Produkte fuer Chile und die wunderschoene Weingegend Colchagua hat es auch stark erwischt. In dieser Gegend kaempft keiner ums Ueberleben es hat nur ganz gewaltigen Sachschaeden gegeben.
Zu meiner persoenlichen Situation. Uns geht es hier in Santiago sehr gut. Wir leben im 8. Stock eines Hochhauses und hatten heute einen Architekten der die Struktur geprueft hat. Die Struktur ist sehr stabil. Wir sind zwar einerseits froh dass uns nichts passiert ist sind aber sehr mitgenommen vom Leid das wir sehen. Auch sind die Naechte sehr unruhig da wir staendig von Nachbeben geweckt werden. Es gab seit dem grossen Beben mehr als 100 Nachbeben der Staerke 5 oder hoeher.
Da ich sehr nahe an der Situation dran bin und es das Land ist das ich liebe (fast schon so sehr wie das wunderschoene Oesterreich) habe ich ca. 1 Monatsgehalt gespendet den die Firma meiner Frau verdoppelt hat.
Den Chilenen ist aber mit ein paar Euros auch schon geholfen. Die freuen sich schon ueber eine Spende von 5 Euro. Das ist ein Teil der bitter benoetigten Zelte oder medizinische Versorgung.
Wenn Ihr nicht spenden koennt dann ist es auch schon viel Wert Freunde zu dieser Gruppe einzuladen – ich hoffe dass wir auch im Osten Oesterreich bald Interesse finden.
Nochmals vielen lieben Dank im Namen der Notleidenden Chilenen.
Andre
Santiago de Chile
SPENDENKONTO
Botschaft Chile in Oesterreich Spendenkonto fuer Erdbebenopfer
KTO: 0052808522
BLZ: 12000
Bank Austria
PS: Das SpendenKonto wurde von der Chilenischen Botschaft in Wien eingerichtet.
PPS: Auch die Caritas nimmt Spenden entgegen.
Auszug aus einer Presse Meldung:
Die Caritas bittet um Spenden für die Erdbebenopfer in Chile.
Spendenkonto PSK 7.700.004, BLZ 60.000, Kennwort Erdbeben Chile.
Posted in Chile, earthquake, Erdbeben | 2 Comments »
Vince Beasley is offering his plane to help people in remote locations. Head over to the discussions on All Chile for more info.
The never tired Charles Spencer from AllChile managed to organise a plane and some doctors to help in the remote locations. So far there have been quite some donations for the fuel. Thanks Charles, thanks Vince & thanks ALL CHILE members
Posted in Chile, earthquake | 2 Comments »
English below the German
Heute habe ich eine Facebook Gruppe fuer Oesterreich eroeffnet um Chile zu helfen. Ich hoffe ich bekomme heute die Kontonummer von der Botschaft fuer das Spendenkonto damit ich es dort veroeffentlichen kann. Ich werde es auch hier veroeffentlichen.
Die Situation ist wirklich sehr sehr schlimm… Es gibt nach wie vor Regionen ohne Wasser, ohne Nahrung.. aber konzentrieren wir und auf das positive 
Leonardo Farkas ein Chilenischer Millionaer hat 17 LKW Ladungen Hilfe in die am schwersten betroffenen Regionen gebracht. Farkas hat diese Ladungen selbst finanziert – gesponsort. Farkas ist ein selbstloser Millionaer welcher einmal im Jahr ca. 700.000 Eur spendet. Diese Spende war zusaetzlich zu seinen normalen Spenden. Hier sehen Sie eine Twitter Meldung als er gerade unterwegs war:
Auch das Rote Kreuz kommt langsam voran und die ersten Personen haben Hilfe erhalten.
Ich bitte alle Oesterreicher die dies lesen und Facebook haben der oben verlinkten Facebook Gruppe beizutreten und Ihre Freunde einzuladen. DANKE
update: Konto Nummer fuer Spenden in Oesterreich:
Botschaft Chile in Oesterreich Spendenkonto fuer Erdbebenopfer
KTO: 0052808522
BLZ: 12000
Bank Austria
Today I created the Facebook Group Austria helps Chile which was inspired by the Group Canada helps Chile which was created by Christian Fernando-Palomo. The account number for the Austrian Account should be updated here later today.
The Situation in the Region Maule is still very bad. There are still Regions without water, without food but lets see the positive. und auf das positive
Leonardo Farkas a Chiliean millionaire brought 17 lorries of aid down to the worst hit region. It was financed by himself and he was there.. With his Twitter (!) Farkas is a very genourous man who usual is the most generous donor to the annual Chilean Teleton. Last year he gave about 1 Million Dollars.
Everyone is free to join the Facebook Groups above and if you know Canadians and Austrians please do forward them the group link.
Posted in Chile, earthquake, Erdbeben | Leave a Comment »
Matt was finally able to post his story of the earthquake from Santa Cruz. Head over there to read his story. I will write more later today. Again if you have not done so yet please please please give money to the Red Cross. It is about Water, Food, hygienic articles. Amongst all the bad news there is also good news. Expect a new post in the evening.
Matt’s Story about Santa Cruz –>
The Boston Globe about the Situation 3 days after the quake –>
The Red Cross UK donation page ->
The red Cross US donation page –>
Thank you for helping the Chileans in the South. Please also ask your friends to post donation links on their Facebook Profiles.
Posted in Chile, earthquake | 1 Comment »
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