Moving Pains

For those of you who do not know, I am moving back to the United States. It's been a great year here in Netherlands, and I have enjoyed my job here. However, I was given an offer back home I didn't want to refuse. My new job will take me McLean, VA. I already have a place to live lined up in Reston. I fly back to Virginia on September 21st.

I began moving preparations some time ago, but as I prepare to move out of my apartment end of this month, I have to yet again deal with terrible Dutch services. I called ABN AMRO, my bank, to inform them I was closing my account, and also to let them know of an address change. I can understand having to go into their office to close an account, but I don't see why I have to go into their office for a simple change of address. I need to change my address few weeks before closing my account and I don't want to make two trips to the bank, especially for something so trivial as an address change. I can't call it in, fax it in, or email it in. Their website doesn't even allow you to change your information. If their on-line banking services is secure enough to perform transactions through, why can't I change my address there also?

Then there's Eneco Energy. They can't prepare the final bill until 6-8 weeks after my move date. I'll be in the States by then! Based on my arrival experiences with Dutch service, I can already imagine things will only get worse from here. Not looking forward to the mess at all.