Note: To head off bad karma, I'm including the update at the start of the post, to avoid unnecessary bad vibrations in the universe (can you tell I've been reading Eckhart Tolle and Yoga Journal a lot lately?? ;Þ)
Update 10 minutes later: Mrs. Sugarcoat just called to let me know that The Superintendent had decided to give me a full refund. It'll take 4-6 weeks. I'm already looking forward to mid-September and the arrival of a check from the Division of State Parks!!
And here, FYI, the original post:
I just came off the phone with the Division of State Parks (DSP)in Hilo, Hawaii. Back in January I applied , via mail, for a permit to use a State Park cabin for three nights and bled 165 dollars for it. I also included a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the SP staff to send the permit to a contact on the Big Island because I was arriving at a time when the DSP office was closed. Furthermore, I included my email and my cell phone nr so that they could contact me in case there were any issues.
The day comes that the use of the cabin is to start and alas, no permit has arrived in the mail. It's on a weekend and the DSP office is closed. I make other arrangements, pretty sure that the office simply didn't have time to process the permit application, and plan to go there any day now to reclaim my check.
On the following Monday I got a hold of the DSP office and hear that they did indeed process the application, cashing my check in the process. When I asked where on Earth the permit is and why they didn't do anything to contact me, knowing that I would be arriving on the weekend and not able to contact the office myself, they had no idea. After some back and forth it transpired that they had faxed the permit to the park and not thought it necessary to let me know, even if I never once alluded to the delivery method of faxing in my previous correspondence.
At that point I drove up to the state park, sorta to see what I'd been missing out on, and ran into two staffers who told me that the fax machine had been out of ink for months and that the folks down in Hilo should know that by now. Well, so much for faxing as a sensible delivery method. They also told me that no one is around on the weekend to tend to the fax machine anyway. Another reason not to consider faxing a good delivery option.
Why am I telling you all this? Because finally, after nearly half a year of trying to recover those measly 165 dollars of mine, I got a hold of someone at the DSP office who didn't say "no, I have no idea what you're talking about" or "no, he's not in" or "no, I'm not here and I'm not on the phone with you having this conversation". She listened, remembered and with a sugary smile in her voice said "yes, I understand" too many times. She then ended the conversation saying that "the superintendent would like to ask you to be so gracious as to call again tomorrow, when the superintendent plans to have made his decision". "Wait", said a bewildered I, "what decision?" I honestly didn't know there was a decision to be made, I thought there was an action to perform. "Well, he needs to decide the amount of the refund and how it will be reimbursed". If I hadn't been left gaping and speechless at these words, I would have asked if the superintendent planned to have me pay his staff by the hour for all the time they spent avoiding my inquiries, and subtract that from the amount his office owes me (although I guess in that case, I already owe him more money than I can hope to earn in a while...).
So, I called them again when I regained my composure (another 20 minutes of busy line, which is the staple over there) and left my number (you'd think they have it by now, given the three letters and fax that I've sent them) with the sugarcoated lady. Hopefully the superintendent is gracious enough to give me a call back soon, or I will have to go out in the hall and bite somebody's head off.
miðvikudagur, júlí 23, 2008
Toxic perfumes
I'm sure you all knew, or at least suspected, that labeling of ingredients in comsumer products isn't really up to snuff. Check out this article to find out how right you were. The US really needs to get its act together, I dare say (and not only on the poisoning-the-citizens front).
mánudagur, júlí 21, 2008
sunnudagur, júlí 20, 2008
Ok, rant explained
So, I'm pissed off.
Last Friday I bought a bed at a moving sale. Looking down a couple of posts you'll see that since I moved into my new apartment I've been sleeping on an air mattress because the airhead woman who lived there before me didn't leave her bed behind as she had promised to do. That was piss-off no. 1.
On Friday evening I moved the new used bed to my place, with the help of a friend from my department (side note: Ask for help, that way you won't have to feel sorry for yourself thinking that no one wants to help you...) and the two dudes that sold me the bed. No sooner was the bed in my bedroom and the two dudes had driven away that I noticed this disgusting, moldy odor and moisture stains on the bottom of the mattress and the top of the box spring. I tried to play Pollyanna and slept on the mattress that night, with the fan running on high to blow the musty smell out of my nostrils.
When I woke up smelling of mold myself it was clear that this thing needed to get out of my house asap. I called the guy I bought the bed from and he flat out refused to take the bed back and repay. I asked for a, partial repayment that he seemed not to rule out. He did however claim to be in the middle of something and asked if he could call me back in a little while. Stupid me said ok and hasn't heard from him since. That includes my gazillion un-answered phone calls to him. What a freakin' bastard! Piss off no. 2, and 3, and 4, and 5. And 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
My neighbors helped me to take the bed to the curb last night and I'm back on my air mattress. I hope some of Ithaca's (in-)famous scavengers will serve themselves a generous helping of musty bedroom furniture from my curb.
As for a real bed (which I'm craving, by now), I went to the IKEA site to take a look. I created a decent mattress-and-spring combo for 350 bucks, not bad at all. Tell them that I need it shipped to Ithaca, NY and voila, the price goes up to... are you all sitting?... 680 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Taxes and, most important, shipping double the price! Why, oh why, do I live in the middle of friggin' nowhere where overpriced and stuffy vs. thin and uncomfortable are the the only mattress choices available?? Piss off no. 11-20.
Updated @ 5 pm: A thunderstorm with torrential rain just started. Gee, I hope someone has already taken that bastard bed off the curb already!
Updated @ 7 pm: Well, a message in my email inbox tells me the bed is gone off the curb. Thank heavens. That way I won't be reminded of Mr. skíthæll í fúlum pytt anymore.
Last Friday I bought a bed at a moving sale. Looking down a couple of posts you'll see that since I moved into my new apartment I've been sleeping on an air mattress because the airhead woman who lived there before me didn't leave her bed behind as she had promised to do. That was piss-off no. 1.
On Friday evening I moved the new used bed to my place, with the help of a friend from my department (side note: Ask for help, that way you won't have to feel sorry for yourself thinking that no one wants to help you...) and the two dudes that sold me the bed. No sooner was the bed in my bedroom and the two dudes had driven away that I noticed this disgusting, moldy odor and moisture stains on the bottom of the mattress and the top of the box spring. I tried to play Pollyanna and slept on the mattress that night, with the fan running on high to blow the musty smell out of my nostrils.
When I woke up smelling of mold myself it was clear that this thing needed to get out of my house asap. I called the guy I bought the bed from and he flat out refused to take the bed back and repay. I asked for a, partial repayment that he seemed not to rule out. He did however claim to be in the middle of something and asked if he could call me back in a little while. Stupid me said ok and hasn't heard from him since. That includes my gazillion un-answered phone calls to him. What a freakin' bastard! Piss off no. 2, and 3, and 4, and 5. And 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
My neighbors helped me to take the bed to the curb last night and I'm back on my air mattress. I hope some of Ithaca's (in-)famous scavengers will serve themselves a generous helping of musty bedroom furniture from my curb.
As for a real bed (which I'm craving, by now), I went to the IKEA site to take a look. I created a decent mattress-and-spring combo for 350 bucks, not bad at all. Tell them that I need it shipped to Ithaca, NY and voila, the price goes up to... are you all sitting?... 680 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Taxes and, most important, shipping double the price! Why, oh why, do I live in the middle of friggin' nowhere where overpriced and stuffy vs. thin and uncomfortable are the the only mattress choices available?? Piss off no. 11-20.
Updated @ 5 pm: A thunderstorm with torrential rain just started. Gee, I hope someone has already taken that bastard bed off the curb already!
Updated @ 7 pm: Well, a message in my email inbox tells me the bed is gone off the curb. Thank heavens. That way I won't be reminded of Mr. skíthæll í fúlum pytt anymore.
Affluent society in debt
Excerpt from the headline news in The New York Times today:
For more on the lucrative business of credit cards, check out this Frontline show (I think this only works in the US, not sure though).
“Today the focus for lenders is not so much on consumer loans being repaid, but on the loan as a perpetual earning asset,” said Julie L. Williams, chief counsel of the Comptroller of the Currency, in a March 2005 speech that received little notice at the time.The first part of this quote says it all: People have become virtual slaves to the financial companies, supplying them with a steady flow of cash, struggling to pay the combined sum of essential daily expenses and the minimum payments on the credit cards/mortgage/consumer loans. It's amazing that lenders have been given such latitude to help Americans (well, and Icelanders too, for that matter) get in debt way over their heads. As the article points out,
Ms. McLeod, who is 47, readily admits her money problems are largely of her own making. But as surely as it takes two to tango, she had partners in her financial demise. In recent years, those partners, including the financial giants Citigroup, Capital One and GE Capital, were collecting interest payments totaling more than 40 percent of her pretax income and thousands more in fees.Where is the sense in allowing these companies to extend credit to individuals who are already in debt they're unable to repay? Why are these companies allowed to toy with the national economy like this? Because ultimately, it's not just the indebted people who suffer, or the lenders, but the economy in general. Granted, I'm not an economist, but it boggles my mind that individual companies are given latitude to nearly collapse a strong economy with what can really only be described as unethical business practices.
For more on the lucrative business of credit cards, check out this Frontline show (I think this only works in the US, not sure though).
fimmtudagur, júlí 17, 2008
þriðjudagur, júlí 15, 2008
mánudagur, júlí 07, 2008
In luuuuuvvve
I LOVE my new apartment!! OMG, it's SO good to be in a place that feels like home. I've found a lot of furniture already (Shan was very generous and craigslist's been quite the treasure trove) so it's definitely looking like a home already, although most of the stuff is still in boxes and I don't even have a working trash can yet! But it's clean, beautiful and comfy and I couldn't be happier that I made the move!
Gerast áskrifandi að:
Færslur (Atom)
