theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Please vote

filed under: bureaucracy, NaBloPoMo, USA, yes!

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I rarely, rarely get political on this blog and it’s for a reason… but I really hope that you, who live in the US and are allowed to vote, will vote today in the midterm elections.

Because I can’t. Because as a permanent legal resident, who works and pays taxes, you still don’t gain the right to participate in making the decision on who runs this country and who makes the decisions that affect you, too.

I know, politics can be frustrating at best and upsetting and downright futile at worst, but if you’re not making use of your right to vote (which still a very high percentage of people in this country do not – and I wish I could use one of their votes as my own), you’re just aggravating the problem.

It seems ridiculous to me that people who voted for Obama in 2008 are ready to switch to the other side of the aisle again, just because they don’t think Obama is doing a good job. I mean seriously, do you really think that two years is enough time to accomplish everything he’s trying to do, while jumping over the obstacles that the GOP is putting in his way at the same time?

I wish people wouldn’t have such a short term memory – and short attention span and so little patience for that matter.

You know, I get it that the Republicans are still angry that the McCain/Palin-duo didn’t make it into the White House (now you know how the Democrats felt for 8 years!), but simply calling everything Obama is trying to do “socialism” without even giving it a second thought and just voting against everything that he proposes out of principle, is not really the answer.
Just simply try your hand at a little bit of bipartisanship, for god’s sake. It’s really not as scary as you might think. In fact, in Germany, bipartisanship is overall doing a pretty good job at representing minority groups in the legislature.

Make your voice heard. Make your vote count today.

Tying up some lose ends… or not.

filed under: bureaucracy, FYI, my so-called life

You gotta be kidding me!
Is it really always too early to get excited about some good news? Is it really that you can’t share anything with anyone, can’t share the giddy anticipation, until it’s all over?

I think I will refrain from getting everybody excited for me from now on and instead just tell you about the good things that happen to me (when/if they happen!) in the past tense, alright?

I am referring to this and this post, in which I cautiously announced victory over bureaucracy after a long personal (and in my opinion, totally unnecessary, but obviously inevitable) fight and yet, I am still waiting for things to happen (read: checks to be sent).
What do you do, if someone tells you “Yes, you’ve been right, we apologize and will rectify the situation” and then nothing happens?
Right now, I am still pretty calm, just a little bit irritated, but that might change any minute. I mean, seriously! What’s wrong with people?
I feel like I have some kind of mysterious magnetism for unbelievable situations in which I have to deal with unbelievably incapable people.

I’ll keep you posted.

IN YOUR FACE, USPS!

filed under: bureaucracy, yes!

It’s amazing what two letters, one friendly and matter-of-factly, the other one a little bit more pissed off, can do when you’re trying to get what’s due to you.

What can I say, perseverance prevails once again.

I have blogged before about my very deranged relationship with the Postal Service.
I know it’s a tough business. I can only imagine how very difficult it must be to figure out the logistics to safely take hundreds upon hundreds of letters/packages around the world. However, that’s their job. They should have figured it out by now.
I can still understand that occasionally a letter can get lost. That’s just life.

What I really don’t appreciate is bad customer service, especially from someone who basically still has a monopoly on the services they offer. Just because there isn’t much of an alternative for customers to turn to doesn’t mean you can treat them like shit.

Remember this story about the package that was lost in the mail and how the Postal Service was trying to sneak their way out of the responsibility of reimbursing the amount for which I had insured the package?
Yeah, they were barking up the wrong tree here.

I finally heard back in response to my second letter in which I got a little bit cheeky (which they deserved), telling them that I really didn’t appreciate their attitude and in which I  presented enough very good arguments to back up my case.
Let’s just say they were eating humble pie this time and offered me almost the full amount (out of the $200 insurance that I purchased) for indemnity (they subtracted a small amount, because I couldn’t provide receipts for all the items in the package).
There you go! Why couldn’t they back down in the first place when they knew they were at fault? Why did they think they could get a away with it?

I’ll tell you why.

Because most people won’t fight back. That’s it.
Most people won’t have the energy, nor the persistence to slug it out with them. No complaint, no redress. Simple as that.

And meanwhile, they’re getting away with this, time and time again.
BUT NOT UNDER MY WATCH!
This kind of shit makes me mad like nobody’s business.

In which I will continue the never-ending story of the Postal Service and me

filed under: bureaucracy, f*ck that

Remember my post about my most recent dispute with the Postal Service?

Yeah, so I followed up with a letter to the Consumer Advocate’s Office in order to ask for an exception for a late acceptance of an International Inquiry request.

I received a letter back, stating that they would not be able to grant my request, because the package that is lost now contained things that I was not supposed to send to Germany and that it was the responsibility of the customer to comply with Customs rules of foreign countries.

WTF?

a) What does the content of the package have anything to do with the fact that they freakin’ lost my package and that they don’t want to pay for the insurance amount that I purchased?

b) I did inquire about the legitimacy of sending what I sent, but the policies were not really clear (and what I sent was prescprition-free), so the final sentence convinced me that I was just going to give it a try: ” In case of any doubts as to the permissibility of the importation of medicine the competent medicine control authorities shall be consulted. Medicine which is prohibited entry shall be either destroyed or must be re- exported . ”

The Custom people decided to re-export it (which I can prove with a statement of theirs).

One of the last sentences of the Consumer Advocate Office’s letter said that their  “office is the final level of postal authority concerning international claim appeals”, which translates to me into “there’s nobody else higher up that you could write to, so you’d better give up right now”.
But as you might already guess correctly:  they’re barking up the wrong tree. I am not easily intimidated like that.

If I hadn’t inquired about my package over and over and over again at the post office, now that would be a completely different story. But I did inquire and I wasn’t given the correct information from the beginning.

So I sent a letter back, making clear that I was not going to accept their decision and that I thought it to be outrageous how they treat their paying customers!
If they don’t want to pay the insured amount – fine! Then they should find my package, or at least, initiate an International inquiry as a first step – since it was THEIR fault that I didn’t request the inquiry in time.

I haven’t heard anything back in two weeks. I think they’re trying to ignore me now.