A tangled web

This past Saturday, as my amazing husband was driving to a local restaurant to pick us up dinner, someone crashed into our car. He was in the left lane, about to make a left turn, when another vehicle attempted to pass him on the left - in oncoming traffic - and the oversized rear passenger tire of his car hit the front driver side of our car. His car - unscathed. Our car? Well. See most of it for yourself:



The other driver gave his information to the police, who of course gave it to us. The first problem: He told the police the wrong insurance company. While I'd like to assume this was a simple mistake, a couple factors make that difficult to believe, mostly the fact that the supposed company informed me that this party hasn't been insured with them for about five years. I could see naming the wrong company after a few months. Maybe even one year, maybe you're flustered or something. But five? I don't think so. The nice people at the wrong insurance company helped me find out who the ACTUAL insurance company was, and I filed claims with both them and my insurance company.

Today, my insurance called and informed me that the other driver was claiming a completely different story.

I know car accidents are one of those "he-said-she-said" things. As evidence, I'd like to present the following:

A Google Street Maps view of the site. My husband was stopped planning to turn into the first driveway on the left for the shopping plaza.

A Google Maps aerial shot of the same location. You can see that the Mobil lot cannot be entered from the eastbound (right-hand) side of Boston Post Road; you must make a left and enter from the side street.

The driver who hit us stated, according to our insurance company: "I was turning left and they hit me." Where he was turning left, no one is exactly sure - if he wasn't going to the same shopping plaza as my husband, the only place he could have been turning was at the light, and the accident didn't happen that far up. If he's trying to claim he was going to the gas station on the corner ... well...

Note the multiple "Do not enter" signs.

Also, from the damage on the car and the LACK of damage on his car, it seems pretty clear that he hit us - our bumper was hit from the side and pushed forward. The damage is more on the side than on the corner.

So now I get to deal with a lengthy insurance battle, all because a punk kid driving his daddy's company car can't man up and find the cajones to admit he screwed up. I'm sure this drama is not over, so more to come.

Can you hear me now?

In January, after a long trial of trying to get our T-Mobile phones to work in the area we moved to recently, we gave up the fight and switched to Sprint. T-Mobile was very nice about it, admitting that their coverage basically sucks in this area, and happily canceled our service with no early termination fees.

Our trials with Sprint are for another post, but in general we've been happy with the service and very happy with our phones. Today, we received the final bill from T-Mobile. Although everything should have been canceled as of January 26, they were charging us another entire month of service: 1/28 - 2/27.

I'm not unfamiliar with this business, and of course I assumed it was something that would be corrected with a simple phone call - obviously, service had been canceled, as the number had been ported and the old phones no longer worked.

Upon calling T-Mobile, however, and explaining my predicament, I was met with this gem: "Your service didn't actually get canceled until January 28, and that's the start of your billing cycle for the month, so you get charged for the whole month."

I spent a bit of time arguing with the rep regarding the 1/28 date. We had 4 lines on our account, 3 of which were canceled on 1/26 when we showed T-Mobile proof of our new address. The other line was having the number ported to Sprint, which was supposed to happen on 1/26 as well (the day we got the new phones), but somewhere between Sprint and T-Mobile something got messed up and this didn't actually get processed until 1/28. My hunch is that it just took them 2 days to get their ducks in a row. But, it wasn't worth my time to keep arguing about 2 days and a few dollars. The heart of the matter was the charges after 1/28, which were substantial.

The rep kept to his position that we owed the full amount. He kept going back to the comment "You didn't cancel until 1/28." Finally, in my sweetest, most passive-aggressive voice, I said "I understand that service is billed a month in advance. That's not a problem. But by your own admission, service ended on January 28. So now all needs to be done is to issue a credit for all charges after that date." I was met with silence, and a request to hold. Shortly thereafter, he came back on the line, and within 5 minutes all the extra charges had been removed from my bill. Of course, later on when I was less mad, I thought about it and realized Hey, this is the end of March. They didn't bill us in advance, they billed us well after the fact! Too late now, although it makes the situation much more shady in my mind.

I can only assume that the reps are trained to try to make it sound like the consumer is required to pay these charges. Thankfully, I pride myself on being an informed consumer. But I wonder how many less-informed people have just said "Okay" and paid the charges? It's a shame such a great, 10-year relationship with T-Mobile ended on such a sour note. Oh well, at least I got out before the world ended.

You want the package? You can't handle the package!

Sometimes, I get packages. Not often, but maybe a few times a year. Sometimes we order something off Amazon, or maybe Newegg. Sometimes my mom sends us something. Some sources are great when it comes to shipping. If we aren't home, UPS (and FedEx too, to their credit) will leave it in our apartment office, which accepts packages for residents who aren't otherwise able to sign for them.

Not so, however, with the United States Postal Service.

Until sometime last year, the USPS was leaving packages at the office. I clearly remember picking up some things there shipped USPS Priority. Around December, that changed. First it was a package from Old Navy. Then, from Amazon. Yesterday, it was a package from my mom. For those who don't know, my husband & I co-host a World of Warcraft podcast, GKick (insert shameless plug here). We'd been holding on to our 2008 Blizzcon goodie bags and we were finally prepared to start offering up our swag as giveaways for our show. So my great awesome fantastic mom found them for us (one of many things left in CA when we moved to MA) and shipped them out.

I knew the package was coming. I had a tracking number and everything. I knew it was out for delivery. When we didn't hear anything as the afternoon went on, we checked the USPS site.

It said they attempted to deliver and we weren't home.

Cue blind rage.

Not only was I home, as I am almost every day in my role as a stay-home wife, but my husband was home as well. Seeing as this is the third offense in four months, I decided it was time to complain. In a slightly related but altogether different story, it's quite difficult to get someone on the phone at 1-800-ASK-USPS who will take a complaint. Once they do, though, they're quite nice. I was told I'd get a call in a day or so from my local branch to talk about the issue.

This morning, I got that call. A brusque and slightly peeved-sounding woman called from a private number (she's lucky I answered, I did it on a whim) and after confirming my identity proceeded to tell me exactly why I was wrong and essentially called me a liar. And I quote: "The carrier knocked on your door and there was no answer. You must have been in the bathroom or something."

Normally, I'd accept this as a possibility. Contrary to popular belief I do in fact use the facilities from time to time. But there were two people home today, and neither of them were in the bathroom at the same time. There was always someone who would have heard if there was a knock at the door - or, if the carrier had the brains God gave a billy goat, a ringing of our very loud buzzer.

Tired of discussing my bathroom habits with a faceless USPS employee, I moved on to Point 2: If the tenant isn't home, packages should be left at the main office. UPS does it. FedEx does it. The USPS used to do it. Her reply? "Even if you request the package be left there, we won't do it. It's not secure, and if something happens we take the blame."

Let's recap, shall we? If I'm not home, I don't get my package. If I am home, the carrier doesn't knock, and I don't get my package. If I know there's a chance I may not be home, and request that packages be left attended and secure at the main office, I don't get my package. I'm unable to figure out a circumstance short of sitting outside waiting for the carrier to show up where I actually do get to receive my package without having a failed delivery attempt and having to just go pick it up myself.

After picking up my package at the local USPS office, I made a call to my mom, and requested that from now on she just send everything FedEx. And people wonder why the USPS is bleeding money.

Welcome!

My oldest and dearest friend once remarked to me that she couldn't believe the ridiculous things that happened to me with frequency. My everyday life is fraught with difficulties and hurdles usually not of my making - the truth of the matter is I often can't believe it myself.

Another old, dear friend recently commented that writing is not therapy, which I agree with. I cannot pretend I have any of the writing skill she has, but I can agree that the act of writing is not therapy. So please, do not misconstrue anything you may read here as my attempt to battle mental demons.

I'm starting this blog for two reasons. The first is to chronicle and share the inanity that is my life, in all its' glory, as a testament that yes, that really just happened. The second is a cleansing of the soul - my attempt to summarize events and let them go. Free-range inanity on the internet.

Por favor, mantenganse allejado de las puertas.