Tag Archives: frustration

What’s Eating Aunt Debbie?

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Hello. It’s me again. 

I have to say that yesterday I was pretty pissed off. It all started when the mail came.

Back in March I changed my pharmacy of choice from Walmart to Family Pharmacy. Walmart doesn’t have a drive up window and they didn’t ship to home like they used to. During this pandemic, I would need to be able to drive up to a window to pick up my scripts or have them shipped. After I switched over, Walmart called me and said they now ship to home. “Too late,” I told the associate. “I’ve already got the transfer worked out.” Fast forward to yesterday, when I received a letter from Family Pharmacy, informing me that they were closing their doors and have sent my pharmacy records to Walgreens. First of all, I knew they were closing their doors but I didn’t know exactly when. I figured they would let their customers know ahead of time so people could transfer their prescriptions to a pharmacy to their choice. Well, I guess that was too much to ask.

“Thanks a lot, assholes. Walgreens is not convenient for me,” is what I wanted to tell them, along with, “How dare you send my information to another pharmacy without my permission?!” I was thinking this had to be a HIPAA violation, but I was informed that it is not by a friend who works in a pharmacy. Ok, well it still pisses me off that they couldn’t let their customers know so people could take care of their own business. Who knows how long it will take for Walgreens to get things worked out because as of now they have no record of my scripts. UGH.

Then…

Last night, I was having trouble with my wireless printer. It was printing, and was connected to my WiFi but it wouldn’t connect to HP’s server. It’s supposed to keep track of my ink usage and send new ink cartridges when I’m running low. I pay $3.12 a month for this service and I can print up to 50 pages a month with no extra charges. Pretty good deal! I was trying to fix it myself, which I had done before, but was having trouble. I thought tech support would be quicker. I spent 45 minutes on chat with a tech guy who talked me through everything I had already tried. Step by step. Do this, then try that…you know the routine. After that 45 minutes, my printer printed out a diagnosis, which showed that there were 2 IP addresses in conflict. Ok, now we’re getting somewhere, I thought. Nope. I thought wrong. The tech guy said, “You’ll have to contact HP at xxx-xxx-xxxx because this is beyond my scope.” Seriously? I remembered doing this before, when I first got the printer. My brother in law helped me figure it out back then because it was my first wireless printer and I didn’t know anything about it. It was just a matter of changing the configuration by switching from manual to automatic. It was right there on the printer screen! How is that beyond his scope? It wasn’t beyond my scope and I fixed it myself. UGH.

Anyway, I wasted 45 minutes with this tech guy for absolutely no reason! I should have known though, because since 1995, I’ve not had much luck with any computer or printer tech service. I can count on one hand how many times they’ve actually been able to solve my problem. Most of the time, I have fixed it myself and/or had the assistance of my brilliant brother in law. Shhhh…. Don’t tell him I said that. He’s too big for his britches already. 

The Parking Ticket

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For the past 20 years, I’ve had to listen to Dad carry on about old people and how they get ripped off all the time because they don’t ask questions, make any calls to verify, or just hand over their hard-earned savings to someone who apparently is going to reshingle their home for pennies or some other odd job. Older folks who don’t understand the internet and computers all that well also get ripped off easily. Dad just rolls his eyes every time there’s a story on the news about a new scam that some old fart fell for. He says, “Were they born yesterday, for God’s sake? How can anyone with half a brain fall for that shit?” One older man who got duped was a college professor, for goodness sake! I don’t remember the scam now, but he fell for it and lost all of his savings. Dad really had a conniption fit over that one!

Fast forward to 2019, just a mere week before Christmas. Dad gets something in the mail from El Paso, TX. He was intrigued because he used to live there, as did his brother and we still have family and friends there. It’s from a collection agency demanding Dad pay for a parking ticket he received over 20 years ago. The paper stated he owed $91.00 and that any action would be taken to secure those funds, including if necessary, a lien on his vehicle.

The problem was in the information on this paper. The ticket was issued when Dad was not even in El Paso. In fact, it was during the time he was most definitely here in Missouri because he was busy locating a house for us to move into, securing the loan, and then moving the majority of our possessions in. The kids and I were staying with my sister at the time waiting for the house to be ready. Another problem was that the vehicle ticketed was a Toyoto. Dad has NEVER in his life driven a Toyota! He drove a Ford Ranger during that time up until he sold it, probably 8 years ago or so. He tried to find the old papers (purchase contracts, registration, licensing, etc.) because the license plate number didn’t sound familiar to either of us. We always memorized our plates just in case someone stole one of our vehicles. Since he sold the truck I’ve forgotten the plate BUT it would have rang a bell because I’m not that far gone! He couldn’t find anything to prove it wasn’t his truck.

I told him he needed to make a phone call and have someone look into it because it could have been an error. He bitched at me about how “the collection agency isn’t going to look into it because it’s not their job” and I had to clarify. “Dad, I know the collection agency won’t look into it but if you call the city of El Paso or DMV maybe they could look it up in their database and just maybe they’ll see that some idiot entered the wrong info or something.” I added, “You don’t know if you don’t call.”

After over a week of trying to find papers, he just said, “I’m just going to pay this fine. It’s easier.” I said, “Dad, you complain all the time about how old people get duped and you’re just going to pay it??” He said, “It’s only $91.00!”

I just threw my hands up and left the room. Good grief!

Let’s just throw money away, no questions asked.