April 29, 2002

• An interesting thing happened while I was out of town . . .

  
  

  Have you ever had a really great vacation?  One of those magical weeks where everything goes right and you keep pinching yourself to make sure you are alert and enjoying every moment?  Me neither.  But, I came pretty close last week. 

  
  

  Then I came home.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not whining and moaning here.  I'm just saying that coming home was not the peaceful landing of our craft in a calm port.  Our cats apparently had way too much time on their hands while we were gone.  They got into my yarn basket (quiltnmomi is also crochetmomi, cross-stitchmomi, scrapbookmomi, and "almost finished a project once" momi).  There was yarn strung from one end of our house to the other.  From the looks of things, they got into some catnip and invited a few feline friends over for fun and frolic on the furniture. 

  
  

  In addition to the yarn, there was enough fur on the floor to make a coat.  I don't know where it came from.  Both my cats seemed to still be covered.

  
  

  My phone was dead.  Well, actually, its been sort of on again and off again since we got here.  I have no idea what's going on, but it isn't just me, it's my neighbor too.  I know because she's paranoid that "they" are coming to get her and when the phone goes dead she sends one of her kids over to see if my phone is dead too, (and have me use my cell phone to call in the problem.)  Her kids have gotten a lot of exercise today.

  
  

  When the phone finally came on I discovered that I had 8 messages on my voice mail from my mortgage company.  Now, I'm a good customer and they occasionally call me with offers of a credit line for home improvement or some such thing, but generally not more than once or twice a month.  So 8 calls over a period of 4 days didn't sound good.  It wasn't. 

  
  

  Somehow our account was flagged for their collections department.  Not because we have EVER been late on a house payment or anything like that.  No, their computer said that I had no proof of insurance.  I'm sure that would surprise my insurance agent.  Further, their computer indicated that I owed money for a "forced" insurance policy.

  
  

  I tried to explain to the person in collections that a mistake had been made.  We do have insurance, the same insurance that we've had for all the years we've lived here.  I'm not one to complain about immigration, I take a "more the merrier" view of immigrants.  But, I do think that if you are going to have a job working in a telephone center, you should speak the language of the people you are expected to communicate with.  I'm probably offending someone now, so let me just say that you're gonna have to get over it.  When I call my mortgage company, I want to speak to someone who can understand me.

  
  

  Finally, I persuaded her to transfer me to the insurance department.  Where a very helpful English speaking person was able to see the problem and correct it.  I was advised that it usually takes about 24 hours for the system to update and that I could call back tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning to verify that the problem was solved.

  
  

  This afternoon, I got two more calls from collections.  On the last call I'll admit I was a little abrupt.  When I was asked, "When can we expect you to take care of this delinquency."

  
  

  I said, "You can't." 

  
  

  "But, Mrs. Verrette, this is your responsibility." 

  
  

  "No, Miss collections agent, this is a mistake made by someone in your company who incorrectly entered insurance data, this is not my responsibility." 

  
  

  "Mrs. Verrette, I cannot end this call without some arrangement for how you are going to pay this."

  
  

  It was too much temptation.  I hung up.  See?  You can end the call without a payment arrangement.

  
  

  I'm compulsive about paying my bills.  I pay everything in advance of when it's due "just in case."  I get a thrill putting a little extra payment on my principle - I feel like I'm scoring points against the big dogs who are trying to wring all that interest out of my hide.

  
  

  After this afternoon, I can say that I cannot imagine what it would be like to live with creditors calling and demanding payment.  I have friends who struggle with their bills as a result of medical expenses or lost employment.  I only had collectors after me for one afternoon and I was ready to use all those words that Zoodom has taught me. 

  
  

  Now, I need a vacation.  I'm up for Branson, or Florida, or Atlanta, or even Fugitive's house (she's finally learned to cook in her maturity )  I kind of wish I hadn't been so efficient in unpacking my bags. 

  • 9:15 pm
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