In my last blog, which I posted late last night/early this morning, I listed two things that were ‘all that I really know’. The second one was that ‘I refuse to live in a culture of corruption’. I have just had an experience that shows just how bad that ‘climate’ has become, for me.
Some background. First, the far bg. I have spent the bulk of my adult years living in a spiritual community, where we treated each other with integrity. It was just the way things were. There. And then I moved back to my old hometown, here in Southern California, to see out my retirement years in the sun, with the ocean as one of my pleasant backdrops. Now for the near bg.
I had been able to save up a (modest) cushion of savings over the years that I had been living in said spiritual community and receiving my Social Security whilst getting my room and board covered by the community; so I could get involved in making financial contributions to various worthy causes at this ‘payback’ time of my life. Three things of note have happened regarding that factor of my retired life back in my home country, of ‘the good ol’ U.S.A’ . The first was that I was so surprised at the immense number of such ‘worthy causes’. (Who knew there were so many outfits being concerned for the well-being of the children of the rest of the world, and of former zoo animals, and horses, and donkeys, and dogs, and cats; not to mention the education of Native American kids, and all the outfits looking out for the homeless in this country. Plus the plethora of political-oriented outfits. The list goes on.) The second was how my name ended up on so many outfits’s mailing lists that I had never heard of to begin with. And the third was the real eye-opener for me: All of a sudden my bank account started getting depleted with $20 phantom ’contributions’ to outfits that I had never heard of, let alone made contributions to. Off my debit card. The details of which obviously got ‘scammed’ by somebody, somewhere, somehow. And sold to some sort of network out there. Of people who 'make their living' scamming people like me.
Having kept an eye on my bank account online, I was able to go in to my bank and freeze that debit card info and take out another such card before too much damage had been done to my account. And stop giving out my card info over the Internet. Not knowing where the hijack had originated from. But beginning to be more wary of life in ‘the real world’. And my feelings being fueled, by that experience, of not wanting to live in that kind of world. And that experience, and feeling, was exacerbated when I started getting dunned by outfits that I even knew of, and had given prior contributions to. What the hell IS this?? I began thinking. My attention having been well gotten to ‘the real world’.
Which brings me to the current experience, which has shown, to and for me, quite a light on the general subject. Of how bad things had gotten for me in this climate, and culture.
I had allowed a small number of outfits to bill my account on a monthly donation basis, and had, after the above experiences, and reflecting as well my current financial situation - which doesn’t allow me my former ‘glory’, obviously, as a prime name on some mailing lists - cut the automatic payout down to just one. I won’t name the outfit; just to say that it is a (to my mind) very worthy politically-oriented organization. But finally I had decided to eliminate even that last one source of my giving spirit, needing at this stage of my retired life (with the possibility of my rent creeping eve nigher) to keep a very clear and close eye on my outgoings. Accordingly, I sent in their appropriate form to the appropriate address to stop that automatic withdrawal function. This was sometime in November of last year. Come December, and I saw that that outfit had continued to take its automatic deduction from my account. I let it go, thinking that these things could well take some time to kick in, considering as well that it is s.o.p. to say to give things ‘four to six weeks’ for delivery, etc. etc. But it happened again at the beginning of January. What the hell, I thought. Their computer system should have kicked in by now, surely. But they were a very reputable outfit; these things just may take longer than I have any knowledge about it. So I let that one go, too; figuring that that had to be ‘it’. But when I happened to check my account online on the first of February, and saw their automatic deduction appearing again, as ‘Pending,’ that was it. I immediately emailed them, at their online site, and explained the whole thing, and asked them to Refund that last Direct Debit, that surely their system would have kicked in by then..
That was late on the Friday. I accepted that, unless they had some sort of 24-hour service, they wouldn’t get to my email until the Monday. So I waited, either to hear back from them from my email or to see the Refund appear online in my account, or both. Tuesday. Nothing. Come Wednesday, and checking my account online shortly after midday, and my emails, and still seeing no response from them, I went to my bank, and explained the whole thing there. The Customer Service guy at the front counter heard me out, and rang up their Fraud Squad office. (Whom I knew about from their having gone to bat for me back when I had had that rash of fraudulent deductions; and who had helped me reverse at least one of them. Over the phone, with some sort of ‘clearing’ agency, not the billing outfit itself. Which led to my believing that there is a network of these sorts of people, in a very sophisticated scam operation. Grrrr. What has happened to my country, I wondered…)
The lady at their Fraud Department had the Customer Service guy hand me the phone and talk directly to the person that she had contacted at the site of the debiting account appearing on my account. (Same MO as before.) I explained the whole thing to this person, a lady, who took the information down, and repeated to me what she would forward to the appropriate account at their end: to see that the Direct Debit authorization was canceled, and to Refund the last such deduction from my account. She repeated that message, and then added that it could take “five to seven days” to process.
This was on Wednesday afternoon, February 6th. I waited, periodically checking my online account for the expected refund. Nothing for twelve working days; at which point - yesterday - I went back in to my bank, really miffed, if not outright angry by now. The original Customer Service guy wasn’t there, but one of their Account Managers came to hear my story, which I had also outlined on paper, for quick and handy reference. For whatever reason, when he called the Fraud Department they didn’t intervene themselves, but gave him a phone number to call. Which he did, and then handed the phone over to me, to talk to the outfit’s ‘representative’/person directly. Calmly I outlined the whole thing - this was to a different female this time. She took the info down, checking my ID first (including my telephone number and email address), then told me what their records showed: that I had said (on the phone conversation to them of Wednesday, February 6th) that I had written to them sometime in November to cancel the DD, that on the 6th I had requested that a) my DD be canceled, and that b) I be refunded the February 1st deduction. She then reported that the record showed that “They had not received my request”. Period. That was it? Nothing about what they were going to do about it all??!
I controlled my temper, but I was beginning to fume, thinking that I was being stiffed by what I darn well knew was a legitimate outfit - unless everybody’s Accounts departments in this country are being told that whatever you do, don’t ever admit to anything. Make people sue if they want to. We’ll outlast them in the courts…I told the lady that I felt that that info was “silly,” that at least they had received my email to act on my request and had done nothing about it, and I requested her to pass on my request for a Refund again to the appropriate department, that I had waited in good faith for twelve working days, etc. etc. She calmly said that she would do that, and told me that I would again have to allow for “five to six working days” for a response, and closed the conversation by offering her apologies. Besides her name,* this time I asked the person I was talking to what department she was in. She replied that it was “the Call Center”.
And walking on my way home, out of the heat of the moment and the event, I began putting two and two together. And realized that I had been operating under a false impression. At least to some extent. Was a bit of a victim of conditioning. Of making an assumption, of ‘how things are’ in this damn world, which is an illusion at the best of times.
To explain.
Basically the department that my request of February 6 had been sent to - presumably the Accounts Dept. of the organization - was just saying, ‘Request received’. To cancel the DD. But as for the other part of my request, that of a Refund for the debit of February 1st, they were simply saying on their record of the matter that they hadn’t received my Cancellation request through the mail back in November. And apparently not my email of February 1st. So, the first they had heard of the matter was the relaying of the message from their Call Center to them of February 6th. Which was after the automatic deduction or that month. So, they were basically saying that they had acted ’in good faith’ on their part, too; that I had no case for wanting a Refund of the Feb. 1st deduction.
Now, one can well say that perhaps in hindsight, from this last request of mine to them of February 25th, that they could ‘own up’ to not having replied to my email of the 1st-4th (not having responded to my original request in November to cancel because of not having received it in the mail); but even that was ‘after the event’. After the automatic deduction that occurred on the 1st, fairly, according to their way of looking at the matter.
All I have out of the deal is a) my legitimate-to-my-mind irritation at their not having responded to my email, to let me know that they hadn’t received my original request in November to cancel; and b) my legitimate-to-my-way-of-thinking irritation that they didn’t call or email me in response to my phone request to them of February 6th, that they just let the matter go, without telling me that that was their position in the matter. And my imagination took over from there.
That everybody is wicked in this world. Automatic assumption to be entered into. (‘Fallen’ Man; just a poor sinner; etc.) ‘Assume the worst.’ Live your life from an automatic position of defensiveness. It’s all just ‘survival of the fittest’.
So, my takeaway from this little personal anecdotal experience:
Not everybody is wicked.
Be careful who you accuse of something.
There could be more to it
than is dreamt of in your philosophy. Of life.
—
* My bank’s guy passed me a note to ask her for her last name, to which request she replied that they don’t give out their last names. Okay. At least I had the name of the person that I had been talking to.
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