The unreasonable person on the other end of the phone line.
That was me. Twice this week. Somehow, upon arriving home both afternoons so far, I've been greeted with problems that have compelled me to get on the phone and call somebody and express displeasure with how somebody's done something.
Today I managed to hack off one of the staff members at the middle school. As a rule, I don't diss teachers or school staff - these are mighty important people who do mighty important work that I am profoundly grateful for. But somehow the fact of not having a kid at the school for one year meant that the rep I'd built up as a parent had melted away - the school has all new staff and principal this year, and so I had nobody that could say "Oh yeah, Mrs. Coffinberry... let's get right to this problem and fix it." Nope. I get the patient long-winded explanation, and I'm busting at the seams thinking "Can we please cut to the chase and identify why this happened and what we're going to do about it?" Particularly, as a parent, I do not appreciate making (and getting approval) for a specific (and allowable) schedule request only to have some functionary forbid it on the basis of some legal rule that nobody has mentioned before. Grrr. And I'm mad at myself for having to be so assertive that I became offensive.
It probably didn't help that when I got home yesterday I discovered in the mail a notice claiming that my account had been sent to a collection agency, and I owe double the original amount, payable immediately. Huh? I look to see what account, and I find that it is one to whom not only do I not owe any money, I have a positive credit with them for overpayment. What the hey is going on!!!
So I call the entity... they don't know anything, my bill shows as paid every month for the last so many years, and payment posted just two weeks ago, no problem. They have no idea why I would get such a letter. Is this the collection agency you use? Yes. How did the get my name and address. One of your checks must have bounced; the only time they get any information is when a check bounces.
WHAT??? I pay you guys by online bill pay. My bank takes the money out of my account, cuts you what is essentially a cashier's check, and mails it to you. How can it bounce??? We don't know, you'll have to talk to the collection agency.
So I call the collection agency (in Wyoming), and they say, sorry nobody's available to talk to you today, they're all travelling. But your account shows that you bounced a check that you wrote to the entity.
No I Did Not Bounce Any Check! It Is Not Possible! Somehow, firmly asserting this fact makes me belligerent... obviously my check has bounced or I wouldn't have gotten the letter.
We're sorry. Please find out why your bank said it wasn't acceptable.
So I call my bank. No, checks like this cannot bounce.
So I call the collection agency again; (I am becoming "that woman from h*ll is calling again") somehow, a person is found that can actually look at the bounced check. Yup, all the info matches, it is my check. But look! Oh, it isn't NSF. It's really a "Stale Date." The bank that entity presented the check to stamped the check "Stale Date," meaning that it was over 90 days old. Except... oh look, it was dated August 2, 2005, and presented to the bank August 8, 2005. Hmm. You'll have to call the bank and find out why they did that.
So now (this is like the 6th or 7th phone call) I call the bank (here in my own town) and ask... what are you going to do about this mistake that is causing me such a headache and threatening my credit? Oh, we can't talk to you about that. You don't have an account with us. You'll have to talk to the folks you wrote the check to.
Arrrrrgh!
Back to the beginning again... I call them, and at last they see that maybe they could do some research and find out what happened (mind you, from their books, all they can see is that I've never had a problem!). By this time I was pretty tired of the run around. And I think they could tell.
My milk was delivered in a nice shiny new porch box this morning. (I'll leave it to the reader to figure out just what that had to do with the story.)
****
Well since this torquing-off of people seems to coincide with the first two days of law school, I surely hope there isn't some causative correlation. I don't want to become a meany.
Today I managed to hack off one of the staff members at the middle school. As a rule, I don't diss teachers or school staff - these are mighty important people who do mighty important work that I am profoundly grateful for. But somehow the fact of not having a kid at the school for one year meant that the rep I'd built up as a parent had melted away - the school has all new staff and principal this year, and so I had nobody that could say "Oh yeah, Mrs. Coffinberry... let's get right to this problem and fix it." Nope. I get the patient long-winded explanation, and I'm busting at the seams thinking "Can we please cut to the chase and identify why this happened and what we're going to do about it?" Particularly, as a parent, I do not appreciate making (and getting approval) for a specific (and allowable) schedule request only to have some functionary forbid it on the basis of some legal rule that nobody has mentioned before. Grrr. And I'm mad at myself for having to be so assertive that I became offensive.
It probably didn't help that when I got home yesterday I discovered in the mail a notice claiming that my account had been sent to a collection agency, and I owe double the original amount, payable immediately. Huh? I look to see what account, and I find that it is one to whom not only do I not owe any money, I have a positive credit with them for overpayment. What the hey is going on!!!
So I call the entity... they don't know anything, my bill shows as paid every month for the last so many years, and payment posted just two weeks ago, no problem. They have no idea why I would get such a letter. Is this the collection agency you use? Yes. How did the get my name and address. One of your checks must have bounced; the only time they get any information is when a check bounces.
WHAT??? I pay you guys by online bill pay. My bank takes the money out of my account, cuts you what is essentially a cashier's check, and mails it to you. How can it bounce??? We don't know, you'll have to talk to the collection agency.
So I call the collection agency (in Wyoming), and they say, sorry nobody's available to talk to you today, they're all travelling. But your account shows that you bounced a check that you wrote to the entity.
No I Did Not Bounce Any Check! It Is Not Possible! Somehow, firmly asserting this fact makes me belligerent... obviously my check has bounced or I wouldn't have gotten the letter.
We're sorry. Please find out why your bank said it wasn't acceptable.
So I call my bank. No, checks like this cannot bounce.
So I call the collection agency again; (I am becoming "that woman from h*ll is calling again") somehow, a person is found that can actually look at the bounced check. Yup, all the info matches, it is my check. But look! Oh, it isn't NSF. It's really a "Stale Date." The bank that entity presented the check to stamped the check "Stale Date," meaning that it was over 90 days old. Except... oh look, it was dated August 2, 2005, and presented to the bank August 8, 2005. Hmm. You'll have to call the bank and find out why they did that.
So now (this is like the 6th or 7th phone call) I call the bank (here in my own town) and ask... what are you going to do about this mistake that is causing me such a headache and threatening my credit? Oh, we can't talk to you about that. You don't have an account with us. You'll have to talk to the folks you wrote the check to.
Arrrrrgh!
Back to the beginning again... I call them, and at last they see that maybe they could do some research and find out what happened (mind you, from their books, all they can see is that I've never had a problem!). By this time I was pretty tired of the run around. And I think they could tell.
My milk was delivered in a nice shiny new porch box this morning. (I'll leave it to the reader to figure out just what that had to do with the story.)
****
Well since this torquing-off of people seems to coincide with the first two days of law school, I surely hope there isn't some causative correlation. I don't want to become a meany.
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