Sweet Gummi Mary! It's time for another rant about institutions who have done me wrong. And how Farmer H was equally right!
Farmer
H goes to the doctor every week for a shot. It gets billed ($30) to the
insurance, which pays a pittance, and then $22.60 shows up on the
statement for him to pay. We get the statement at the end of each month,
and I write a check and mail it the next day.
Yesterday,
while Farmer H was having lunch before his shot appointment, I got the
bill. It showed an amount 30 DAYS PAST DUE! Well. That doesn't fly with
Mrs. HM. I pay that statement every month. I dug out the last itemized
statement, and saw the charge in question had been marked with an
asterisk, for PENDING INSURANCE. That happens pretty regularly. Then the
next month, the statement shows the remaining $22.60 due as part of the
new items.
It has never termed such an amount PAST DUE.
Seriously?
I have nothing to do with the insurance. Why is it MY fault that the
service was on July 26, sent to the insurance for processing, with the
statement mailed July 31? I'm not the one making it look PAST DUE. I pay
as soon as I get the monthly statement. I can't pay more than the total
due at that time.
Anyhoo... it's not like they billed
it twice, or overcharged. I just object to the 30 DAYS PAST DUE
terminology. Couldn't that affect a person's credit? How unfair is THAT?
I'll
get over it, but of course it put a bee in my bonnet when Farmer H
wasn't here to hear me buzzing about it. So I sent him a text, with a
picture of the recent statement showing the 30 DAYS PAST DUE, and the
previous statement showing the original charge. I thought he might ask
about it while he was in the office.
I didn't hear
anything back from him until he came home around 6:00. Farmer H declared
that nothing on the statement showed PAST DUE.
"You're crazy! It's right there on the bottom line! $22.60, 30 DAYS PAST DUE!"
"No. You're crazy. There is nothing in any of the boxes showing past due."
"I swear! How can you miss that? Are you looking across the bottom line? On the top picture?"
"Yeeessss."
"I can't believe you! I guess I'll have to show you myself. It's as plain as the nose on your face!"
"It's NOT there. As plain as the nose on YOUR face!"
"We'll see, won't we? When you get home."
"Yes. We WILL!"
Farmer
H came stumping down to my dark basement lair, holding out his phone,
zoomed in, to show me nothing in the past due boxes.
"You're
on the wrong picture. I said the TOP picture. Look. Here it is on my
phone, where I sent it to you. Top picture. Zoom in. THERE! $22.60, 30
DAYS PAST DUE! I TOLD you!"
"It's not on MY phone! Look."
"You're
on the wrong picture! Back out. I sent you the statement. Then a note,
saying 'I am sending last month's below.' Look at the TOP picture!"
"I only have one picture."
"No you don't! My phone shows that I sent you two! See?"
"I
see that on your phone, yes. But look at mine. I only have one picture.
The line above it says 'I am sending last month's below.'"
"Oh. Well. I don't know how you can only receive one picture, when my phone clearly shows that I sent two."
SWEET GUMMI MARY! We were BOTH right! I hate it when that happens! Because it means that Farmer H is right.
you should have grabbed his phone and done a little scrolling yourself, just to check that he did only get one picture. I hate when things say past due too, it's happened a couple of times for my daughter, when the son was out of work and not able to pay his share of the housekeeping, now and again she'd get behind on something, so I would take that bill home and pay it for her. He's working again now, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteNo, he's not right. If his phone isn't right, if it didn't receive both photos, by default he's not right.
ReplyDeleteYou decreed him right in print, but did you say it out loud? To him?
I certainly hope not.
River,
ReplyDeleteI DID! Farmer H waved his phone in my face, saying, "SEE?" So I snatched it and made sure. Darn it! There WAS only one picture. It's a new phone, too. You'd think it would work. If he got one picture, he should have gotten the other. Mine clearly showed both were sent. Of course, my phone is about seven years old, pre-owned by Genius before that.
I've gotten ACTUAL past-due bills, and was all discombobulated until I looked back in my checkbook and realized that they WERE past-due, because I never received them, so didn't think to pay. Those dang mail thieves! One was the electric bill, and the other was a phone bill. I thought they seemed awful expensive, until I saw the previous month past due.
The same thing happened with a hospital bill, after Farmer H had neck surgery. As soon as I got it, I called to pay by debit card over the phone, and the rep started babbling about how she'd cut the amount in half if I paid right then! I told Farmer H that I was insulted, and he said, "You got it half price! Who cares if they think we're paupers!"
***
Sioux,
I did NOT say he was right. HE did! "See? We're both right." I still hate it when that happens.
I hate it when that happens! HATE IT!
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteThere oughta be a LAW! Tie goes to the wife!