Pretty please….stop trying to rip me off

Dude, I’m tellin’ ya………

I feel a little rant coming on. My really close friends would laugh at that because they’ve probably already heard the tirade. I often use my friends as the sounding board to gather and organize my ideas. Then I try and express them decently in this forum. My roommate and I laugh whenever I ask him if he read the blog lately.

He always replies, “I don’t need to read the blog. I live it. I hear what’s pissing you off before anyone else does.” 

I’m laughing as I type that often-used quote of his because that is one true statement. He gets to hear about what is scraping my nerves before anyone else gets it. Poor fella.

But this last week in particular, something is really starting to irritate me. It just seems like no matter where I go……what I do….someone is trying to rip me off. On a grand scale all the way down to a fast food order. Every time I have contact with another human being, whether thru their ignorance/stupidity (like they don’t know how to do their job)……or pure malicious intent……they’re all trying to rob me of something.

It reminds me of the line by Major Frank Burns to Major Houlihan in an episode of Mash:

“I’m not paranoid, Margaret. It’s just that everyone’s out to get me.”

Since last Tuesday, there have been a number of instances. Even more than usual. I’m used to being ripped off. My employer ripped off all of his employees by taking health benefit deductions from our paycheck for 5 months after the policy was cancelled due to his non-payment of the premium. I never go to the doctor unless I’m dying. And I never received a letter in the mail from the insurance carrier. So we were in the dark until the company folded and everything came to the forefront.

And when the company folded, this same man stole everyone’s last two weeks of pay. A week before Christmas last year. In the second half of 2008, I had my insurance benefits stolen out from under me and then my paycheck.

So I’m used to people trying to steal from me.

The recent wave started last week when my college alma mater tried to steal my academic achievements away from me. And their denial of my accomplishments caused a hot job prospect to drift away. So I was robbed of that employment opportunity. By way of over 25 phone calls and faxes thus far encompassing 8 departments, I have almost reclaimed my education. They now fully acknowledge that I not only attended their university but that I also completed everything I claim to. I have two bachelor degrees from this school and they agree with me. But my work doesn’t even end there. Because they failed to log it into their on-line verification system whenever they established it (not when I was there in 1992….years later), I now have to apply for graduation again. It will allegedly be pushed right thru and my degrees will be recognized in all their systems.

My question is how many other graduates achievements are not being recognized simply because they were accidentally omitted from the inital data input to the verification system? Like me, people may go years not knowing their college is not acknowledging them to job inquiries. You can have the diploma hanging on the wall of your den, but if you are not in the electronic database, you are being robbed of your education achievements. And you don’t even know it.

But things kept happening from there. I take on-line surveys in an effort to make make a little cash to—-you know…stay alive. And three times in the past week, I have completed surveys and then not been compensated as promised. My total loss is $13. I’m not saying that grand larceny has been done here. But I’m already on a short fuse with the whole college thing. I’ve communicated with the support people for the survey company and all they have to offer in response is the Great American Shrug. They say that the client assigns a code number to all people who begin/take the survey. And when the project is done, the client provides the survey company with all of the code numbers of the people who finished the survey and should be compensated. If your code number is not on the list, they don’t know what to tell you. The Great American Shrug.

So I’m out $13 in the last week from them. {And I’m quite certain that I did indeed complete the surveys as I have taken hundreds of them in the eleven months I have been off work. And at the end, they say “Thank you for completing the survey. You will receive credit into your account in the next 2-3 business days.”    I received that message on all three in dispute.}

Yesterday, two different places tried to rob me. I was going to the Hawks game with a buddy later in the night. So I went to White Castle to get some lunch. I ordered (4) cheeseburgers and some fries. Not too difficult. I learned at about the age of 16 when I drove thru my first drive-thru that you do not leave the window until you personally confirm all of the food you ordered. I don’t care if it takes 3 minutes with a long line of cars behind me. I learned the hard way that this is what one has to do to overcome the incompetence of some people.

And there were only (2) cheeseburgers in the bag. Again, I’m not saying this was like stealing the Hope diamond. But it’s not freakin’ brain surgery either. Cheesburgers and fries? We can’t get that right? Really? Or is someone trying to rip me off?

So later my friend and I are at a sports bar that we always park at for the Hawks games. We save $15 by not parking in the United Center lot. And then we also have a few less expensive drinks before going to the game in a shuttle they provide. Yesterday we received the worst service we ever had there. Usually it’s great. Yesterday was the worst service I’ve had in 10 years. And in the end, this moron of a waiter who was MIA whenever we wanted him, presents me with two bills of different amounts. I’m like, “What the hell is this?”  Together, we established which ONE SINGLE bill was applicable and I paid it.

I told my buddy I was going to watch that close because I’ll bet my left arm I get double charged on my credit card. I was on watch after everything else this past week. And when I phoned the automated system on that credit card this morning……guess what??…….they charged both bills to my card. Even though they only had one signed receipt. Charged me for both.

So I’m just hoping to make a humble, exhausted, plea to the planet:

Pretty please…. with sugar on top……please stop trying to rip me off in every transaction we do together. I don’t have hardly anything left. You’ve gotten me down to poverty level. Give a brother a break.  Please.

Besides, the Bears are on tonite. And I’m sure they’ll rob me of three hours that I’ll never get back with their horseshit play. Let’s let that be the last robbery for a while. OK?