Venting

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.