"There are no whiteouts"

[Darrell KSR]

Ah, life in this crazy spinning world.

I have an account with a vendor. Strike that -- I have three accounts with a vendor. I don't know why. Should be one. They are constantly sending erroneous amounts being billed to me. So yesterday I contacted them to try to get it straightened out. Here is the exchange. It was not by telephone, but near instant communication - for awhile.

Me: "I have received 5 different amounts in the last 2 weeks that are supposed to indicate the amount being billed to me. I'm trying to figure out what the correct amount is so that I can pay it.

Vendor: "No, you have received only one amount."

Me: "The amounts are xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx, and xxx. And that doesn't count the ones that are whited out on the invoice I received."

Vendor: "You have nothing whited out."

Me: (Ignores Vendor while I take invoice I'm holding in my hand, looking at the white outs, with handwritten numbers over them in two different places, and place it in my scanner. I scan it, and email it to Vendor.)

I wait. And wait. And wait.

Vendor waits until this morning to respond by email.

Vendor: "I don't send out invoices. The reason you have handwritten numbers (ignoring the whited out part, of course), is because you have three different accounts and they come from two different cities, Milwaukee and Cleveland."

I typed out a response. Deleted it. Typed out another response. Deleted it. It boggles my mind how incompetent an organization may be that they can't get things like this straight. The funny thing is -- they have two of my three "accounts" set up on an annual billing, and the other "account" on a semi-annual billing, so it's really not that hard. But I get these random add-ons, credits, payments I didn't make, charges, and it's just silly. And then the gall of someone to tell me I didn't have an invoice that had "whited out" numbers until I scanned it and showed it, and SHE DOESN'T EVEN SEE THE INVOICES, just makes me hit my head against a wall.

May not match the Birmingham water works telling me to catch my toothbrush water in a 55-gallon rain water drum, but just as frustrating. Or moreso. I ignored several other frustrating communications about having 3 accounts, the numbers mixed up, payments misapplied, and the like. Suffice it to say they're really bad.

This is a captive, no-competition if I want the service, vendor, or else by now I'd be long gone, by the way, in all seriousness.

[CitizenBBN]

This is a captive, no-competition if I want the service, vendor, or else by now I'd be long gone, by the way, in all seriousness.

Ah, the reason I"m Libertarian. I really don't want the whole country run by quasi-government entities that have no competition and thus no incentive to do a good job.

As Bobby Slayton, a 1980s and later era comedian said, he was against socialized medicine b/c he didn't want the emergency room to have all of the compassion and efficiency of the department of motor vehicles.

I should probably tell some stories on the Kentucky DMV, not our local office but the state department. Yeah, I want them in charge of essential services....

No one who has no competition ever does a good job. Just as with politics, power corrupts.

[KSRBEvans]

Strong Jean-Luc Picard "THERE ARE 4 LIGHTS!" vibes here. Keep fighting the good fight, Darrell.