One thing I had to deal with on returning home (even before I left MA, actually) was the fact my roommate's employer had taken money OUT instead of direct depositing money IN - this happened to ALL of the employees of that company, and it happened on the big shopping weekend following Thanksgiving. Talk about a mess for a lot of people! This of course affected bill payments.
A few days after I returned, I found that AT&T had tried to take a payment out of MY bank account almost two weeks before it was authorized to come out. I called them and spent more than two hours on the phone trying to get them to fix the problem. They gave me a case number. I waited.
In the next few days, I had NSF's of $30 each coming out left and right, caused by the domino effect of AT&T's unauthorized deduction. Now if I had made a mistake like that, no doubt I'd end up in prison for it. But hey, AT&T can do whatever they want.
A few days later I got a call from them, asking me if the issue was resolved. Umm. NO!!! They had done NOTHING to rectify the situation, and I was facing possible disconnection of service because the payment had to be cancelled, and that would create the appearance of a returned payment on MY part. They finally fixed THAT part of the problem after another 1.5 hours on the phone, but the NSF fees had not been addressed.
I was given a toll-free number where I was to fax paperwork showing the NSF fees I had incurred because of AT&T's mistake. They promised to credit my checking account directly once I sent the fax. I did that. I waited. I waited some more. Nothing.
Two weeks later, I've got $240 in NSF fees. Yesterday, I got a text saying the issue had been resolved with the case number attached. I assumed that meant they had made the deposit. They had not.
I called them while ago. Nobody knows of the department I sent the fax to. Nobody can give me any answers. I go round and round with these idiots and get nowhere. Some jackass sent me to the "handset security department for prepaid accounts". I don't HAVE a pre-paid account. I have a regular account for which I am billed each month. I spent 2.5 hours on the phone this time. Now I'm told I'll have to wait until tomorrow evening to get a phone call with an explanation on what they are going to do about this, and each day I have bills trying to come out of my bank account that are getting returned, which means I'll also have returned fees for THOSE companies in ADDITION to the ones from the bank.
AT&T claims they don't have a phone number for their legal department. Trust me. I'll get it anyway, and when I do, I'll be making a claim against AT&T for far more than the $240. I've spent TWO WEEKS - REPEAT - TWO WEEKS - trying to clean up the mess that AT&T has made of my checking account and my already full-of-struggle life.
What is my point in blogging about this? Well, mainly I just need to vent. But this raises an important point: How many people have had their lives turned upside down, how much productivity has been lost, how many people have been driven to near-nervous breakdowns by what starts out as a simple customer service issue and spins out of control until it affects almost all aspects of the person's life?
(Beginning of rant within rant.) Actually, this is VERY similar to some issues I had with my business years ago when some suppliers decided to take payment from ME, then NOT drop-ship products to customers I had paid them to ship the products to, resulting in ME getting in trouble with my business. It was a long, very drawn-out, convoluted process, but ultimately ridiculous occurrence after ridiculous occurrence of companies not doing what THEY promised to do resulted in my company failing and me having to answer for how it affected my business. The large companies involved did not suffer any consequences. In fact, one of them still owes me several thousand dollars for products which I paid them to send and they never did and I will likely never recover those funds. It's the little guy, folks. It's always the little guy who pays the price for the corporation's blatant, arrogant refusal to correct mistakes they have made that affect us, the little people.(/End of rant within rant.)
My ability to buy gas, groceries and giftmas gifts has been affected by this. My time has been wasted. Income-producing work hasn't gotten completed because I've had to spend so much time on the phone with FUCKING AT&T!!! If EVER there was an appropriate time for profanity, THIS IS FUCKING IT!!!
The fact that both my roommate and I have had similar issues with separate bank accounts leads me to believe that this sort of thing must be very common in America. For all I know, it's common EVERYWHERE. Who will answer for all of the hell caused by some corporate employee's careless mistake? This was NOT a computer error. This was a HUMAN error caused by someone entering the WRONG information into a computer. The fact that I have the employee's UID number means nothing, since nobody has asked for it and nobody seems to have the ability to do anything with the information. This means that the same person will likely go on making the same errors. I feel for whoever else has to go through this at any time, much less during the holiday season.
What's worse, last Friday (the 10th) my roommate's ex mother-in-law (who is 90 years old) and her daughter were hit by a car. Not only were they hit by a car, but the asshole who hit them sped off. Luckily, somebody knew who it was and tracked them down, but I haven't heard if they've been charged or arrested or not.
Both victims are alive and recovering at home now, which is amazing in itself, but the fact that so many people take cars and put people's lives at risk, cause injury or even death, and are allowed to go on driving really pisses me off, given the fact that people who have done things as non-life-threatening as writing $5,000 in bad checks are hauled off to prison for years at a time. What the HELL is wrong with our justice system? Apparently, America's justice system values money more than human life. Is this how we want to be represented?
We've had snow and ice all week. Last night, I went outside to turn off the animated yard decoration (Peanuts, of course, with Snoopy pulling Charlie Brown out of the chimney) and slipped and fell - the entire driveway was solid ice. I hit the bench in front of the porch, ricochet'ed off of it and ended up sliding and slamming into the front of my van. More bruises. It's starting to look like I'm in a fight club. I've still got fading bruises from two weeks ago, now I've got fresh ones to take their place.
I was sick earlier this week with some kind of stomach flu, I am just now getting over a mild case of the shingles (stress, anyone?), and last night a HUGE boil came up almost instantly on my right inner thigh, positioned just so that any walking or other movement is excruciatingly painful. Oh yes, and let's not forget the aerosol cheese that exploded all over my face and clothes a couple of days ago.
After another session on the phone with AT&T's clueless "customer service" department, Charlie Brown's Christmas special was on television. I decided this would be a good time to put my little Charlie Brown tree together. "Surely that will cheer me up.", I thought to myself. Well, that didn't work out so well. That's right. My Charlie Brown Christmas tree, which is literally a replica of the tree from the television special, is defective.
I can't even put up a pathetic-looking Charlie Brown Christmas tree for cryin' out loud! Even Charlie BROWN wouldn't have THIS kind of bad luck! Seriously!!! If it fucking KILLS me, I'm going to get this Charlie Brown tree replaced and put it together. I mean REALLY!!! Only I could go to the store and buy a tree that is supposed to look pathetic, and even THAT doesn't go right because the damn thing won't assemble due to defective parts.
Speaking of defective parts, I think I need new glasses. I can't see very well lately.
In other news, a really nice lady who goes to the church in Easthampton, MA where my grandfather went when he and my grandmother lived there posted a link to Conan O'Brian doing his monologue and discussing the fact that their church has had the baby Jesus stolen from their nativity scene three times. Seriously, even if you're an atheist, you don't crap all over someone's cultural practices. Disagree with them out loud if you must, but unless you want them putting a cross in YOUR front lawn, don't go stealing the baby Jesus from theirs for crapsake! But hey, at least Conan is able to make a joke out of it. Humor: it's what's for dinner. Here, have a taste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziiMpXI1aZo
So yes, life seems to be crapping all over me, and even though there are many many people who have it far far worse than me, that fact does not make MY life any easier to deal with. We all have to deal with our own problems, and it's all relative. They don't get any easier just because we distract ourselves by saying that someone else has it worse. Them having it worse doesn't pay the bills, and it doesn't magically solve anyone else's problems. The fact that a woman is getting beaten to death by her husband in Afghanistan doesn't feed starving people in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. (Remember, we DO have hungry people in AMERICA.) So there. Let me have my disgust and my anger and my frustration, because at times it seems as though that is the only thing I have in abundance.
This world will, at times, do everything it can to take away anything and everything that means anything and everything to you. And when it's done, it will try to steal your right to feel bad about it.
And now, after my pissed-off, ranting, bitchy, complainy blog post, I leave you with perhaps the most beautiful poem I have ever read, which also happens to be by my late father. It also happens to be full of hope, which I know many of us could use right now:
The Dancer
By F. Benton Miller
. . . and he danced . . .
They took away his costume,
And they took away his shoes;
They tried to take his joy;
Even tried to take his blues,
But they couldn't take his soul,
And they couldn't take his feet
. . . and he danced.
They tried to take his love,
And they tried to take his meaning,
They almost got his music
And the song that he was singing,
But he kept a wistful eye
On the things they tried to take
. . . and he danced.
They tried to get his freedom,
And his chance to make a life;
For a while they took his talent
And they muddled it in strife,
But they couldn't keep it long,
For he knew that it was his
. . . and he danced.
He danced, and he knew
That they couldn't take it all,
And the things that they had taken
Didn't matter.
He danced, and he saw
That the things they couldn't take
Were the things that he had buried
Keeping safe,
But he couldn't leave them hidden
He had done that long enough;
So he bid his foes farewell,
Claimed his treasures, brushed them off
. . . and he danced . . .
A.
1 comment:
Life is hard, isn't it? Thanks for sharing your frustrations. Yes, yes, so true all the screw ups. Loved your dad's poem - didn't know he wrote poetry. I found a cassette tape yesterday of his senior recital. Do you have it? If not, I'll be glad to get one for you.
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