If you have been following my blog, my first entry in May was about my top ten worst gripes in life. I have since been told that some of them on the list would not even make it on other people’s top one hundred gripes in life. After thinking for awhile and re-visiting what I wrote, I must admit albeit reluctantly that I was a bit too petty with my list. I do stand by my list, though which only means that I’m a petty guy.
Anyway, today’s entry is more of the same pettiness. It’s about the blaringly idiotic, incompetent and unreasonable behaviour of people we deal with in our everyday life, except that in my case it all happened to me last week.
The first incident was when I noticed a charge of $84 towards my credit card for child care services. Now, we are regular users of child care and I usually do not question nor go to too much detail with their charges. When they automatically charge the costs to my credit card I usually accept and pay it, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb as I knew I had not booked child care services for this term. This one was an easy one to solve, so I thought.
I called the child care to enquire about the irregularity and I was promptly told they would investigate and get back to me. Two days later, to my utter surprise and disgust, the accountant from the child care called me up and told me that there were further irregularities on my account and the computer actually shows that I owed them in excess of a thousand dollars. She gave some feeble excuse about their old system not being very good and she is new taking over the previous accountant etc. etc. but never once conceded that they stuffed up nor offered an apology. She told me she would tidy up our account and e-mail me the details (or bill) and I would then have to pay up. The mistakes apparently had been occurring since the very first day we had been using their services. Now what further complicates things is the tie in between the government rebates/ family tax office and the child care billings which is going to cause unnecessary nightmares for all involved. So, because I had queried the $84 charge, I am confronted with a billing mistake in excess of one thousand dollars, which I owe. I’m expecting the statement next week and they’re going to get a surprise when I tell them that I need as long to pay back the amount owing as the time in which the mistake has been going on. How incompetent can they be? Year two maths at most.
Second incident was yesterday when I was sending the kids to school. We drove up to our usual ‘drop off’ area and while approaching the spot, I noticed two cop-like men standing close to the entrance of the school. My first thought was that the school was so dedicated to the safety and protection of the children that they engaged security during the early drop off times. But then from the rear view mirror I saw one of the men take out his little digital camera and snapped a picture of the car. I was then told that the area that I had been dropping my kids off for the last 3 years is a ‘no standing’ area and a fine of $50 was on the way. It was then that I knew those men were the mean council rangers going about giving fines willy nilly to raise revenue for the council and not security men as I had initially thought.
I asked my daughter Kathleen, who is a school councillor to try to find out from the vice principal if she knew about the rangers outside. We pretty much concluded after her talk with the vice principal that the school had called the ‘authorities’ to harass parents and issue fines. Now, I’m upset about this not because I got a fine. I’m upset not because the rule of law does not apply to me. When I took a closer look, there was in fact a ‘no standing’ sign there and I was indeed breaking the law, and so too were loads of other parents. What I was upset about was the school did not have a designated ‘drop off zone’ and the area which we normally dropped the kids off was the closest to the school. No parent would like to drop their kids off far away from the school entrance, where the kids will have to navigate the dangers on the roads like 4 WD vehicles and weirdos looking to harm our young and vulnerable. Surely, we would drop them off as close as possible. Furthermore, for the last three years using that entrance to drop the kids off, we’ve never had a safety or congestion problem of any notice. Why would the school have a need to call in the rangers and cause this unnecessary rift between the school and the parents is beyond me. The school needs to educate instead of using heavy handed tactics to harass by calling in the ‘authorities’ to issue fines when they themselves have not got their act together by providing the proper designated drop off spots.
The last incident happened at work where we have a parking problem. Too many cars not enough parking spots….sound familiar? I’ve received numerous fines just by parking my car on the roadside to go to work. To avoid the fines, people normally park in the office car park but you could be blocked in as there are not enough spaces for everyone. Anyway, that was what I did yesterday and I was blocked in by someone. When it was then time to go home, this car was still blocking me. I then proceeded to call the number that was left on the windscreen but the business card was thrown on the car dashboard in such a way that the view of the person’s mobile number was obstructed by the corner of the windscreen. I then proceeded to call the land line number on the business card twice but there was no answer. While I was doing all this the rain was pouring down on me. I then proceeded to ask the reception to try to get in contact with this person. She managed to find a mobile number for the car, called it three times and left three urgent messages and after 15 minutes still no one turned up. I then managed to track down the person who had his mobile phone on his table but was sitting around another colleague’s table having a ‘chat’. I then proceeded to explain to the guy that he was blocking me in and the inconvenience he had caused and that he should answer his phone and put his business card on his car dashboard in plain view so people could see the number and he just ignored me. He rushed to his car, drove it to another spot, went back to what he was doing and did not utter a word of regret or apology. He gave me the impression that he felt I had interrupted his ‘social chat’ with his mate and that I was the one inconveniencing him. Not only was the incident annoying the resultant attitude and behaviour of this idiot was even worse.
So beware pricks and idiots are everywhere, especially this close to me. My apologies to all as this is another one of my whinging entries but I feel a little better now that I’ve got it out in the open.
Anyway, today’s entry is more of the same pettiness. It’s about the blaringly idiotic, incompetent and unreasonable behaviour of people we deal with in our everyday life, except that in my case it all happened to me last week.
The first incident was when I noticed a charge of $84 towards my credit card for child care services. Now, we are regular users of child care and I usually do not question nor go to too much detail with their charges. When they automatically charge the costs to my credit card I usually accept and pay it, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb as I knew I had not booked child care services for this term. This one was an easy one to solve, so I thought.
I called the child care to enquire about the irregularity and I was promptly told they would investigate and get back to me. Two days later, to my utter surprise and disgust, the accountant from the child care called me up and told me that there were further irregularities on my account and the computer actually shows that I owed them in excess of a thousand dollars. She gave some feeble excuse about their old system not being very good and she is new taking over the previous accountant etc. etc. but never once conceded that they stuffed up nor offered an apology. She told me she would tidy up our account and e-mail me the details (or bill) and I would then have to pay up. The mistakes apparently had been occurring since the very first day we had been using their services. Now what further complicates things is the tie in between the government rebates/ family tax office and the child care billings which is going to cause unnecessary nightmares for all involved. So, because I had queried the $84 charge, I am confronted with a billing mistake in excess of one thousand dollars, which I owe. I’m expecting the statement next week and they’re going to get a surprise when I tell them that I need as long to pay back the amount owing as the time in which the mistake has been going on. How incompetent can they be? Year two maths at most.
Second incident was yesterday when I was sending the kids to school. We drove up to our usual ‘drop off’ area and while approaching the spot, I noticed two cop-like men standing close to the entrance of the school. My first thought was that the school was so dedicated to the safety and protection of the children that they engaged security during the early drop off times. But then from the rear view mirror I saw one of the men take out his little digital camera and snapped a picture of the car. I was then told that the area that I had been dropping my kids off for the last 3 years is a ‘no standing’ area and a fine of $50 was on the way. It was then that I knew those men were the mean council rangers going about giving fines willy nilly to raise revenue for the council and not security men as I had initially thought.
I asked my daughter Kathleen, who is a school councillor to try to find out from the vice principal if she knew about the rangers outside. We pretty much concluded after her talk with the vice principal that the school had called the ‘authorities’ to harass parents and issue fines. Now, I’m upset about this not because I got a fine. I’m upset not because the rule of law does not apply to me. When I took a closer look, there was in fact a ‘no standing’ sign there and I was indeed breaking the law, and so too were loads of other parents. What I was upset about was the school did not have a designated ‘drop off zone’ and the area which we normally dropped the kids off was the closest to the school. No parent would like to drop their kids off far away from the school entrance, where the kids will have to navigate the dangers on the roads like 4 WD vehicles and weirdos looking to harm our young and vulnerable. Surely, we would drop them off as close as possible. Furthermore, for the last three years using that entrance to drop the kids off, we’ve never had a safety or congestion problem of any notice. Why would the school have a need to call in the rangers and cause this unnecessary rift between the school and the parents is beyond me. The school needs to educate instead of using heavy handed tactics to harass by calling in the ‘authorities’ to issue fines when they themselves have not got their act together by providing the proper designated drop off spots.
The last incident happened at work where we have a parking problem. Too many cars not enough parking spots….sound familiar? I’ve received numerous fines just by parking my car on the roadside to go to work. To avoid the fines, people normally park in the office car park but you could be blocked in as there are not enough spaces for everyone. Anyway, that was what I did yesterday and I was blocked in by someone. When it was then time to go home, this car was still blocking me. I then proceeded to call the number that was left on the windscreen but the business card was thrown on the car dashboard in such a way that the view of the person’s mobile number was obstructed by the corner of the windscreen. I then proceeded to call the land line number on the business card twice but there was no answer. While I was doing all this the rain was pouring down on me. I then proceeded to ask the reception to try to get in contact with this person. She managed to find a mobile number for the car, called it three times and left three urgent messages and after 15 minutes still no one turned up. I then managed to track down the person who had his mobile phone on his table but was sitting around another colleague’s table having a ‘chat’. I then proceeded to explain to the guy that he was blocking me in and the inconvenience he had caused and that he should answer his phone and put his business card on his car dashboard in plain view so people could see the number and he just ignored me. He rushed to his car, drove it to another spot, went back to what he was doing and did not utter a word of regret or apology. He gave me the impression that he felt I had interrupted his ‘social chat’ with his mate and that I was the one inconveniencing him. Not only was the incident annoying the resultant attitude and behaviour of this idiot was even worse.
So beware pricks and idiots are everywhere, especially this close to me. My apologies to all as this is another one of my whinging entries but I feel a little better now that I’ve got it out in the open.
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