La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
THIS IS A BUREAUCRACY AND customer service rant. I had a long text exchange yesterday with the director of my driving school. He’s been trying to get my information as well as another student’s but the Department of Traffic doesn’t bother responding. He said there are many complaints in the area because of delays. Then he said, “If you need to drive, you can do so without problems.” And I asked, “How, if I don’t have a license?” He replied, “If the police stop you, when they enter your identity number in the database they will see that you have permission. They know that the procedures carried out by the government are quite slow and do not work well.” Argh! I reminded him that I’m not yet in the database. So, I’m not driving anywhere. Two weeks before my exam, Tynan and Elena’s son, Alexander, was told he passed at the time of his exam and had his temporary license that same day. Again, argh.
I’ve been sending a monthly care package to The Kid Brother from Wegman’s Food Market. It’s been so easy and they deliver whenever I ask, even immediately if I’d like. This month, however, I receive a site security error message when I attempt to log in. I tried chatting with Wegman’s, but that didn’t go well. I’ll paraphrase: “Maybe you can’t order from Spain…. I don’t have any record of your orders… Are you sure it was Wegman’s… Oh, here they are… Maybe it’s your computer… Maybe it’s your browser…” I finally gave up and ordered from Amazon. I hate ordering from Amazon for a variety of reasons, one being I often end up with multiple deliveries because I can’t always tell before-hand that the items are coming from different sources. I sent email to Wegman’s today asking for a miracle.
There was more idiocy yesterday from (I think) a group home in upstate New York. San Geraldo and I are advocates for my disabled cousin who lives there. They’re an exceptional organization and I don’t know if the email is spam or incompetence from a new staff person.
And don’t get me started on Brooklyn’s Surrogacy Court, our New York lawyer, and my mother’s estate issues of five years running.
But that’s enough of a rant. We finished lunch, leftovers from a delectable chicken and pasta dinner last night. The sky today is cloudy and a bit oppressive, but there’s blue in there somewhere. So, now that you’ve had to listen to me, I’m going for a walk. Thanks. I feel much better.
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ESTA ES UNA BUROCRACIA Y el servicio al cliente. Ayer tuve un largo intercambio de mensajes de texto con el director de mi escuela de manejo. Ha estado tratando de obtener mi información y la de otro estudiante, pero el Departamento de Tráfico no se molesta en responder. Dijo que hay muchas quejas en la zona por retrasos. Luego dijo: “Si necesita conducir, puede hacerlo sin problemas”. Y le pregunté: “¿Cómo, si no tengo una licencia?” Él respondió: “Si la policía te detiene, cuando ingresen tu número de identidad en la base de datos verán que tienes permiso. Saben que los trámites que realiza el gobierno son bastante lentos y no funcionan bien”. ¡Argh! Le recordé que todavía no estoy en la base de datos. Entonces, no voy a conducir a ningún lado. Dos semanas antes de mi examen, le dijeron al hijo de Tynan y Elena, Alexander, que aprobó en el momento de su examen y que tenía su licencia temporal ese mismo día. De nuevo, argh.
He estado enviando un paquete de atención mensual a The Kid Brother desde Wegman’s Food Market (un supermercado en Nueva York). Ha sido muy fácil y me entregan siempre que les pido, incluso de inmediato si lo deseo. Este mes, sin embargo, recibo un mensaje de error de seguridad del sitio cuando intento iniciar sesión. Intenté chatear con Wegman, pero no salió bien. Parafrasearé: “Quizás no puedas hacer pedidos desde España … No tengo ningún registro de tus pedidos … ¿Estás seguro de que fue de Wegman … Oh, aquí están … Quizás sea su computadora … Tal vez sea su navegador…. ” Finalmente me di por vencido y ordené a Amazon. Odio hacer pedidos en Amazon por una variedad de razones: una de ellas, a menudo termino con múltiples entregas porque no siempre puedo saber de antemano que los artículos provienen de diferentes fuentes. Envié un correo electrónico a Wegman’s hoy pidiendo un milagro.
Ayer hubo más idioteces en (creo) la casa de grupo de mi primo norte de la ciudad de Nueva York. Son una organización excepcional y no sé si el correo electrónico es spam o la incompetencia de un nuevo miembro del personal.
Y no me hagas empezar con el Tribunal de Subrogación de Brooklyn, nuestro abogado de Nueva York, y los problemas del estado de mi madre durante cinco años consecutivos.
Pero eso es suficiente perorata. Comimos el almuerzo, sobras de una deliciosa cena de pollo y pasta de anoche. El cielo de hoy está nublado y un poco opresivo, pero hay un cielo azul en alguna parte. Entonces, ahora que has tenido que escucharme, voy a dar un paseo. Gracias. Me siento mucho mejor.
• Izquierda: Portador de fósforos de West Sioux Falls Hardware, Dakota del Sur. Más sobre eso en otro momento. Derecha: Moose observa a los pájaros volar.
• Temprano esta mañana.
• Temprano esta tarde.
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LOVE that ‘match holder!!
Don’t get me started on computer/business incompetency…….
Good to unload every now and then.
Jim:
When I started my walk, I was muttering under my mask at everyone. By the end I was smiling. Some days!
My office uses an online “travel agency” for all business travel, I tried fixing a problem with online chat, I was chatting with a computer that couldn’t understand my problem because it had not been entered into it’s “artificial intelligence” database. It took me to long phone calls to resolve the issue. Grr! Rant away, anytime you need to, we are here to listen. 5 years!?!?!?!?!?!?
David:
My first chat with Wegman’s, I explained my problem briefly and received an automated response from their FAQs (how to shop online). I then wrote another message that read: Is this really live chat or are you just going to dump automated responses that have nothing to with what I’m really asking? Oddly, I received an immediate live response. I’ll fill you in on the estate issues. Not the entire estate, just five small things as a result of guardianship-of-property issues. Brooklyn Surrogacy Court was the pits. And the lawyer we chose turned out to be a big mistake.
(((Scoot))). It’s too darn hot to do anything else!
Deedles:
Oh, your weather has been oppressive. So sorry. We really have nothing to complain about (in terms of weather at least).
I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I can get most things in the US to work from here in Belize if I use a VPN that gives me a US IP address. I use Express VPN and pay a (very) small fee for it. It works great for online banking and ordering. It does not work if I want to use streaming on Amazon Prime. But maybe you could try that with the Wegman’s orders so they think you are in the US. I also use a password manager for all my logins, which is a life saver. BUT – it does not play well with American Airlines – I have to manually type the password in or else the AA website tells me they are temporarily down.
In the meantime, rant away. Sometimes that is all one do.
Wilma:
I’ll look into a VPN from here. The European Union may have controls over that “disguise.” The rant helped. Thanks.
I have never seen such fricking bullshit of s system like your driving system there. They do realize the citizens there are driving cars and not rockets right????? Sweet Jesus!!!!!!!!!! Your better then I. I have no patience with things like that and and would have told them all to go fuck themselves by now.
And yet another reason I don’t online order. Things disappear and to many issues. In these times Im way too cautious of my personal information out there and just what exactly is being done with it.
Mistress Borghese:
The Traffic Department (and the entire drivers license process) is no doubt the worst bureaucracy we’ve experienced here. I’ve been so tempted to tell them to go fuck themselves but then I’d NEVER get my license (yeah, I’m still thinking this will all finally work out; what a chump).
Could you imagine the words Anne Marie would have? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Mistress Borghese:
I can! And it makes me smile. She always said what I wouldn’t and wished I could.
The Digital Revolution just seems to have made bureaucracy worse. Instead form letters we get robots.
Kirk:
And if we’re able to escalate, we’re right back with human bureaucracy!
Nothing is as frustrating as bureaucracy, NOTHING.
Debra:
I completely agree. If I weren’t already bald, I’d pull my hair out.
Rant away, darling, rant away. Moose has outstanding CaTV. So much to see.
Love,
Janie
Janie:
It’s so much fun to watch the cats watch the world. They shouldn’t ever be bored. Thanks for allowing the rant. It helped.
It’s nice[?] to see bureaucracy is Spain can be as miserable as the states. i thought it was only here that one jumped through hoops.
And, this is just me, but I’d find someone who lives near a Wegman’s and near the Kid Brother and pay them to do my care package shopping before I’d order from Amazon.
I will channel my inner Anne Marie … Jeff Bezos can FOAD.
Bob:
I know what you mean. It’s called schadenfreude (Avenue Q)? As for Amazon, I’m with you and Anne Marie. As for finding someone near a Wegman’s, I could never ask anyone to do that. But I’ll keep looking for other options. My first thought was Trader Joe’s. They outsource — on Amazon!!!
Bureaucracy is the same the world over — ranting or venting once in a while is a good remedy. Sometimes, the only thing to do is give up and start fresh another day!
Tundra Bunny:
And another and another and another. Yeah, some days I just shut it all out.
Don’t know whether this would work for you in Spain; however, here in the States, we now have the option with Amazon of choosing the usual 2-day delivery date or a date (Wednesdays where we live) whereby they will collect items as they come in
from different fulfillment centers and collect them so they arrive all at once in one box. Just have to tick the date you want after checking out. They say it’s in the interest of using less cardboard. Of course there’s a somewhat limited time frame into which you can keeep adding items.
Sheila:
I specify the date for it all to be delivered. After the fact, I get notification that two (or three) separate packages will be delivered on that requested date. I’ll see if I’m missing something. I’m clearly missing the fact that they’re not coming from the same supplier.
Geeze, that’s an extraordinary amount of crap!
Famous last words, eh? “Just drive.” Right.
I love the match holder and can’t wait to learn more! I hope you enjoyed your walk.
Judy C:
I actually laughed outloud — more like a cackle — when I read that. Just drive!!! The walk was great!
Is is just me, or does the beach look better when there are no people on it?
Walt the Fourth:
Oh, the beach looks SO much better when there are less people on it. I hate summer for just that reason.
Rant away it is good for you I have a few Rants coming up. Happy to hear you try not to use Amazon, I have several companies I stay away from as much as possible.
cheers
Anon:
I do hate Amazon and Bezos. Wish I could find another option. Wegman’s was where I happily landed.
But you have cats and this makes all better.
Urspo:
They told you to say that, didn’t they!?!