What made me unhappy today ?

[hirundine]

Actually yesterday, but an elderly lady with dementia threw her TV remote at me for wiping her table. More accurately, for going back and wiping it again when she was shouting that I hadn't cleaned it properly, just in case I'd missed anything (note: I hadn't). It brushed past my trousers right at knee level, so it could have caused a bad injury if it hit me.

 

[Amontillado]

I'm not in the account department, but a place I used to work for handled it thus:

Let any unidentified moneys remain unallocated.
Let the overdue notices go out to customers who haven't had payments allocated.
When the customer rings to complain that they have paid, get them to tell you the payment details, identify and allocate the payment.
"Oh, and in future, if you put your account number on the payment we can avoid this confusion. Thank you have a nice day."

I have a category in my personal accounting I call Deadbeat Vendors. For instance, an insurance company stopped sending bills to my home. For some reason, they thought sending the bills to the insured site where there is no mailbox, no office, no staff, and no means of receiving mail would be a great idea.

Meanwhile, I have a control panel that alerts on expected invoices. The insurance bill popped up, the bill didn't come in, and I went to the company's web site to check.

The policy was renewing and it only bills ten months out of the year. I didn't know if I owed or not.

According to the web site, no bill was due. And then I got mail to my correct address saying they had charged a late fee because the account number had changed, something I could have known if they had sent the bill to the address that's worked for years.

Deadbeat Vendors are kept paid a month in advance to make sure they have nothing to whine about, and I send them a letter explaining why they became deadbeats in my system.

It's a win-win. They get paid in advance. I get to heckle.

It's not simple mistakes that earn deadbeat status. I make mistakes, too.

Mistakes made with church lady degrees of sanctimonious piety earn the Deadbeat award. The electric company whose bills often arrive on or after the due date and then tell me to be responsible, the water company who believes it's OK to send postcard bills the post office mangles and doesn't deliver, and this idiot insurance company.

Amazingly, and probably to the credit of deadbeats everywhere, I've gotten replies harumphing about company integrity. But, just like the company can't remove the late fee for the bill I proactively checked on before the due date, my systems won't allow me to remove the deadbeat flag.

Sorry, Buttercup, your company is a documented deadbeat for at least a year. You can appeal then. Have a nice day!

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I have a category in my personal accounting I call Deadbeat Vendors. For instance, an insurance company stopped sending bills to my home. For some reason, they thought sending the bills to the insured site where there is no mailbox, no office, no staff, and no means of receiving mail would be a great idea.

Meanwhile, I have a control panel that alerts on expected invoices. The insurance bill popped up, the bill didn't come in, and I went to the company's web site to check.

The policy was renewing and it only bills ten months out of the year. I didn't know if I owed or not.

According to the web site, no bill was due. And then I got mail to my correct address saying they had charged a late fee because the account number had changed, something I could have known if they had sent the bill to the address that's worked for years.

Deadbeat Vendors are kept paid a month in advance to make sure they have nothing to whine about, and I send them a letter explaining why they became deadbeats in my system.

It's a win-win. They get paid in advance. I get to heckle.

It's not simple mistakes that earn deadbeat status. I make mistakes, too.

Mistakes made with church lady degrees of sanctimonious piety earn the Deadbeat award. The electric company whose bills often arrive on or after the due date and then tell me to be responsible, the water company who believes it's OK to send postcard bills the post office mangles and doesn't deliver, and this idiot insurance company.

Amazingly, and probably to the credit of deadbeats everywhere, I've gotten replies harumphing about company integrity. But, just like the company can't remove the late fee for the bill I proactively checked on before the due date, my systems won't allow me to remove the deadbeat flag.

Sorry, Buttercup, your company is a documented deadbeat for at least a year. You can appeal then. Have a nice day!

I am amazed. How does your system function at all?

In Sweden, we have pretty much everything digitalized. You pay your bills through a banking app. All I need to do is push one or two buttons every month and done!

Though digitalization does bring its own problems such as vulnerability in war times and such.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I am amazed. How does your system function at all?

In Sweden, we have pretty much everything digitalized. You pay your bills through a banking app. All I need to do is push one or two buttons every month and done!

Though digitalization does bring its own problems such as vulnerability in war times and such.

There's a lot of small companies here that haven't digitized. Or worse, massive companies who can't digitize because they waited too long and it would cost them millions to upgrade.

Trimark, a multi-zillion dollar paper and restaurant supply behemoth, until very recently was unable to provide an effective digital ordering platform because they were too huge and too old and it would have taken billions of dollars and hundred of warehouse shutdowns to get upgrade what they already. IIRC they had to shut it down a piece at a time across the company to finally upgrade their system. It took years... and still sucked!

 

[Rath Darkblade]

There's a lot of small companies here that haven't digitized. Or worse, massive companies who can't digitize because they waited too long and it would cost them millions to upgrade.

Trimark, a multi-zillion dollar paper and restaurant supply behemoth, until very recently was unable to provide an effective digital ordering platform because they were too huge and too old and it would have taken billions of dollars and hundred of warehouse shutdowns to get upgrade what they already. IIRC they had to shut it down a piece at a time across the company to finally upgrade their system. It took years... and still sucked!

Sorry, I can't help but laugh at the last sentence.

I have a category in my personal accounting I call Deadbeat Vendors. For instance, an insurance company stopped sending bills to my home. For some reason, they thought sending the bills to the insured site where there is no mailbox, no office, no staff, and no means of receiving mail would be a great idea.

Meanwhile, I have a control panel that alerts on expected invoices. The insurance bill popped up, the bill didn't come in, and I went to the company's web site to check.

The policy was renewing and it only bills ten months out of the year. I didn't know if I owed or not.

According to the web site, no bill was due. And then I got mail to my correct address saying they had charged a late fee because the account number had changed, something I could have known if they had sent the bill to the address that's worked for years.

Deadbeat Vendors are kept paid a month in advance to make sure they have nothing to whine about, and I send them a letter explaining why they became deadbeats in my system.

It's a win-win. They get paid in advance. I get to heckle.

It's not simple mistakes that earn deadbeat status. I make mistakes, too.

Mistakes made with church lady degrees of sanctimonious piety earn the Deadbeat award. The electric company whose bills often arrive on or after the due date and then tell me to be responsible, the water company who believes it's OK to send postcard bills the post office mangles and doesn't deliver, and this idiot insurance company.

Amazingly, and probably to the credit of deadbeats everywhere, I've gotten replies harumphing about company integrity. But, just like the company can't remove the late fee for the bill I proactively checked on before the due date, my systems won't allow me to remove the deadbeat flag.

Sorry, Buttercup, your company is a documented deadbeat for at least a year. You can appeal then. Have a nice day!

I like this system.

As for me, I have a half-half system when it comes to bills. Some bills are digitised (e.g. the one from my credit card company and body corporate, who refuse to mail me my statements to pay, but insist on either my logging into their portal and paying, or sending bills by email, respectively). As for the rest - water, gas, electricity and so on - I wait for the bill in the mail.

That way, if the bill (and my payment) are late, I can always blame it on the postal system.

 

[DLC]

Pretty interesting what's under the bonnet of the food industry. Or maybe horrifying is a better word.

 

[Schism]

I lost my few chapters in WIP Autumn Spiral. I could've sworn it was there on the desktop, hoped I'd emailed it to myself in a compressed folder like the others but I didn't.

 

[Iain Aschendale]

Sorry, I can't help but laugh at the last sentence.



I like this system.

As for me, I have a half-half system when it comes to bills. Some bills are digitised (e.g. the one from my credit card company and body corporate, who refuse to mail me my statements to pay, but insist on either my logging into their portal and paying, or sending bills by email, respectively). As for the rest - water, gas, electricity and so on - I wait for the bill in the mail.

That way, if the bill (and my payment) are late, I can always blame it on the postal system.

We pay bills either by direct withdrawal from our credit card (air miles. I end up with about one free international flight a year) or, in Japan, paying at the convenience store. I have all my essentials like power, gas, water, and phone set to go from the card, but I have my national pension and health insurance on a pay-as-I-go at the convenience store.

In 2007, the company I was working for underwent the largest postwar consumer bankruptcy in Japanese history, leaving about 5000 of us foreign teachers very suddenly without a job or paychecks for the final month and a half that we'd worked. I had enough savings to tide me over, barely, but there was a lot of prioritizing of bills. At that time I was paying my city income tax in cash at the convenience store, but it was a hefty quarterly bill and when the company went under, it was national news for quite some time. So I went down to the ward office tax section with my bill and said "I'm a NOVA teacher." The guy at the counter said basically "Oh, man... wait here, I'll get my supervisor." I didn't even have to explain anything.

Supervisor came over and said "Okay, do you think you'll be able to make the next payment after this one?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, you came in to talk to us. That's good. Skip this payment. If you can, make the next payment. You'll still need to make this one when you can. If you can't make the next payment, come in and see me again. Here's my card. We'll make something work."

Amazingly cool for a government bureaucrat, but the whole bankruptcy experience has left me with the cagey knowledge of what I can skip without starving or freezing, and oddly enough, things I owe the government are more skippable than things I owe the utility companies or my landlord.

 

[Schism]

I have to do something school related later, which is unfortunate since I'm sleep deprived...which means I often keep forgetting things like: where did I put my car keys, wallet, brain...

 

[Homer Potvin]

I was a fetus for the Blizzard of 1978, but this one might come close, the old-timers are saying. The snow is balls deep by my kitchen door and the backdoor is blocked by the drifts. I shoveled a square maybe 3x3 feet for my dog to pee, and I'm already out of room. The banks are still waist high from the last storm removals. I can't really see out of the windows because they're frosted over, but my neighbor's cars appear to be buried above the hoods. And that might not a drift thing, as it's both sides of each street on the corner.

This... this might be actually be a problem. I'm not normally a weather-worrier but I can see a few things going very wrong very quickly.

 

[Louanne Learning]

They are calling it a "bomb cyclone"

I heard all traffic except for essential travel is banned right now in NYC

We've got some snow coming down here, but not that much. A car drove into the ditch in front of my house this morning

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Y'all must be getting your snow and ours, too. If you don't want it, we'd like to have ours back, please.

 

[Homer Potvin]

They're saying 2 feet is possible. '78 was like 30 inches or something. I was in my momma's uterus for it. First trimester, I think?

I was going to pop a few edibles and play videogames or something to make it a fun snow day, but then I was like, if the roof collapses or we lose power or I have to clear a path to the garage for some emergency reason, do I really want to be high for that? There are some huge ass tree limbs that are sagging so badly under the weight I'm reconsidering my classification of trees as solid objects.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Two more feet on top of what you already have? Wowser.

Here's something to substitute for edibles, if you have a proper sense of the absurd. I just stumbled across the entire archived series of Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, with his archnemesis, Snidely Whiplash. HERE

 

[Homer Potvin]

Two more feet on top of what you already have? Wowser.

Here's something to substitute for edibles, if you have a proper sense of the absurd. I just stumbled across the entire archived series of Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, with his archnemesis, Snidely Whiplash. HERE

Haha. Dastardly. I was a big Boris and Natasha fan myself.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Holy donkey balls, the snow is chest deep in spots and over my head near my car. I'll post some pics later, but this is becoming comical. My former restaurants might not be able to open until the weekend at this rate. I'm gaming out in my head what I would need to do if it was still my problem, and I got nothing.

 

[Link the Writer]

Just pissed off a coworker and am not sure if I’m the asshole.

We were just joking around, ribbing on each other. I called him a dumbass in a joking way. I said, “You put the fingernal clippings on my desk, dumbass!” The context was that he was looking at someone else’s fingernail clippings on a table and was ribbing me saying if it were mine.

He blew up, said he’d never defend me again. Said something about might get me fired. I apologized but he said to stop talking.

Am I the asshole here?

 

[big soft moose]

Strikes me that he didn’t think either of you were joking. That said if I was your manager I’d be more concerned that you have so little work to do that you are looking around about nail clippings

 

[Link the Writer]

I mean, he was acting as he usually does when he jokes around. I didn’t get the sense he was being serious with me.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

Just pissed off a coworker and am not sure if I’m the asshole.

We were just joking around, ribbing on each other. I called him a dumbass in a joking way. I said, “You put the fingernal clippings on my desk, dumbass!” The context was that he was looking at someone else’s fingernail clippings on a table and was ribbing me saying if it were mine.

He blew up, said he’d never defend me again. Said something about might get me fired. I apologized but he said to stop talking.

Am I the asshole here?

To me it sounds like your co-worker has some issues...