Monday, June 05, 2006

Things I learned while trying to change over utilities today

1. Every utility company has a record of your Social Security Number as part of their billing system. As a past victim of Identity Theft - and there really is no such thing as a "past" victim of Identity Theft - I have a huge problem with that.

2. Never, ever name your kids after yourself. Never. It may feel good for your ego, but having two people with the same name at the same address will cause no end of difficulties when it comes to things like keeping social security numbers and identities from getting confused on medical records and utility records.*

Sonofabitch. I have to head over to the Social Security Office to get a copy of my Social Security Card.** Goddamit.

P.S. Utility company and Social Security Administration voice mail systems suck ass.

Oh, and it seems like everybody is experiencing "unusually heavy call volume" today.

*Actually I learned this a long, long time ago. Today is just another day where I am dealing with the consequences of a decision made nearly 40 years ago by somebody else.

**I got lucky. My mom had my original card (and the original cards of all of our family members) stored in her fireproof safe. I never knew that. I bought both of us fireproof safes about ten years ago. Mine is just stuffed with old letters from girls I think I used to know.***

***Name that tune.

3 comments:

Michael Plank said...

I remember she used to fall down a lot.

"Catch" by The Cure.

Wildefrost said...

People seem to always have a heavy flow of phone traffic. Isn't that annoying? Can't, for once, you call and get a message that says, "Wow, you are our only caller! We will talk with you immediately!" Funny that that never seems to happen.

D.B. Echo said...

Yeah, I know who you remind me of...

I just wish the message would say "Due to bad management cost-cutting decisions involving staffing, we no longer have sufficient personnel to answer all calls in a timely manner. Please bear with us, and realize that the delay you are experiencing is not the fault of the person who will eventually answer your call. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

...but I never even caught her name.