When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

When I stayed in New York, I had my account of a bank to use debit card service. Someday I needed to deposit some money. I usually went to bank counter, but this day I came to an unattended service site, so I had to deposit my money with ATM. I had withdrawn by ATM in New York frequently. Although I didn't know how to deposit to it, I thought I could use it on the same way of ATM in Japan.

I operate the ATM for saving money, and then it opened a slot. I guessed I could put my money into the slot and threw them into it. However this machine didn't seem to count my money as Japanese ATM, which counted thrown money automatically and show the amount of money and goes to confirmation process. However, American ATM didn’t seem to care about my money and finished process, and I heard the sound that my money dropped into something like a postbox and were scattered on the bottom. I was afraid whether this machine could acknowledge the money of mine.

I thought that I should have seen how other customer's do to deposit cache to an ATM. I decided to wait someone to do so in the bank, and then I saw someone put the money into an envelop which was in the corner of the bank and she wrote something on it, sealed it, operated ATM and put it into it's slot.

I realized that I should have used the bank’s envelope, and I had to think how I should do next for the problem. This was an unattended site, so I thought that I should call the customer service center of the bank. But I hesitated it, because my English skill is not good and I thought I couldn't explain my situation to them and I might not be able to understand what they say.

Before I decided to call the bank, I tried to call a Japanese life support service office in New York, which I contracted before visiting New York for helping my New York's life. I called them and explained my situation to its staff. I expected that she would do something for this problem, but she said that she could nothing for it, because banks didn't allow a substitution for their privacy policy, so I should call the bank by myself. However she said that she would try to contact this bank’s Japanese staff who she knew privately. I got some comfort and waited for her reply. After a while, she called my mobile and said that he was absent unfortunately, so I had to do by myself.

I decided to call the customer center of the bank and called them. The staff of the bank was very kind. He told me that he needed to have my account number and some personal information for confirming my identity. I gave him them and explained my situation. Fortunately he understood my situation easily, but I had difficulty to understand what he would do for my problem because of my poor English skill. I had to ask him to give his explanations repeatedly. Finally, I could understand that they could distinguish my ATM from my account number and deal with my money correctly, and he told me that I must check my balance sheet next day, and if it wouldn't have this dealing then I had better call them again. I deeply appreciated him.

I made sure of my balance sheet next day and I found that I had no problem. I realized that my mistake came from being in use my Japanese way in New York. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.