Wed 22 Jul 2009
The Information Age
Posted by Erin under Daily Life
[2] Comments
In which I struggle against the inertia of bored data entry clerks and poorly linked databases to get one digit of my birth date corrected at the health insurance company.
Number of
phone calls: 11
emails: 4
faxes: 1
agencies: 3
departments: 5
representatives: 8
days: 35
Victory! I actually said, “Praise the Lord! I’m dancing around the kitchen!” when the insurance company customer service rep told me that she was seeing my correct birth date.
This is our third battle on the issue. Dr. G’s previous attempt, in January, ended with someone’s stonewalling request for an original birth certificate.
Wow–congratulations. It once took me a couple of years to get a birth certificate issued. I finally took a binder of documents to the courthouse and camped outside of various offices, stunning various bureaucrats out of their stupor by meeting wild, unpredictable demands for things like proof of my parents’ place of residence precisely ninety days before I was adopted in 1974, etc. It was a misery, but a triumph.
Tara, I’m impressed. Anytime I have to do anything like that, I’m reminded of Kafka’s “The Trial.”