Over my lunch break, I went back to the Accounts Receivable department. I told the woman why I was there, and she went to see if my check had been returned to them yet. It hadn't. I told her, flat out, that at this point I just wanted to put a stop payment on the check and have another one issued. She told me that it would take fourteen days for the stop payment to go through. I told her that I had "consulted with some friends who had experience with this" -- basically said what you guys told me, that it should only be a matter of minutes, and she basically said "I don't care, I'm the one who does them and it'll take fourteen days."
At that point, I very nearly lost it, but I stayed mostly calm. I told her that this was unacceptable, that because of someone at the university's stupid mistake in editing my account and changing my address, I couldn't get textbooks which I need NOW. She was unimpressed, and basically said there was nothing she could do.
I trudged down to the Office of Student Affairs, where I was told that I would need to make an appointment if I wanted to speak with the Dean of Students (which is understandable, I suppose) and that he probably couldn't help me with financial aid, anyway. The secretary took me to talk with... I guess the head of financial affairs, I don't remember exactly. They basically told me my only option was to take out an emergency loan, which would include a $25 fee. I know $25 isn't that much, really, but geez, I'm a college student. That'll buy a lot of cheap overly-processed food. But if it's my only option, it's my only option. At least now I'll be able to buy textbooks. -_-
I want to complain to someone higher up about this, but I'm not sure who. Maybe write a letter to the Dean of Students? It's just... during this whole situation, nobody offered any kind of apology for WSU's fuck-up, nobody even offered a hint of sympathy. I actually started crying in frustration when I was filling out the emergency loan application, I asked the head financial guy if he had any tissues, and he just sat there staring at me for like 20 seconds before doing anything. So now I can add embarrassed to stressed out. I feel like someone owes me an apology (and a removal of the $25 would be nice too, but I'm not getting my hopes up). I'm not even sure that there'd be a point in writing a letter, now that they have my money it's not like they give a damn. If this weren't the only decent school in my area, I'd transfer.