So, I like rainbows. (Hence the background) Evelyn saw one yesterday. She called it bow bow. But, that's not why I'm writing.
Evelyn also says thank you now. It's adorable. However Will and I will be the only ones to ever hear her say it. She doesn't talk around strangers much. But, I promise she says please, thank you and sorry and it is adorable. She even does it now without us reminding her to. Today Will gave her some cheese before dinner and she said "sank uuuu".
But that's not why I'm writing.
I'm writing because I need advice on how to keep my cool and not punch someone in the face. Ok, I wouldn't do that, but I do need help trying to be more calm when I approach someone who has screwed up and now I'm having to pay a lot of money. (If you missed all my groupon posts on facebook a few weeks ago, you were lucky. If you saw them, you may have realized I do have issues with keeping my cool.) Here is the scoop:
Back in October I started physical therapy for my leg. The therapist didn't think he was that helpful so I stopped in early December. Probably in November, the owner of the place was working on me and suggested sending me home with a "TENS" unit. If you want to know what it is you can go here. But basically it shocks muscles that may not be working right and makes them contract on their own and eventually maybe you can start to contract them on your own. It's not as painful as it sounds; it mostly feels like the part on the body that it is touching has fallen asleep really and has a bad case of the prickly needle feeling. Anyway, so yeah, she gave me one to take home and said I can keep it. She said my insurance was very good and it would probably cover it, but if it didn't, she'd take care of it. Anyway, months later and I start to get a bill. I call the place and they seem confused and ask to call me back. When the billing lady calls me back she has me call the rep who sold them the equipment. He tells me that I should just ignore the bills and that I'll get two more and then they will stop. It doesn't matter if I don't pay them because they don't send them to a collection agency and it's too bad, but basically they don't care. Cool! A few weeks ago, however, I get another bill that says if not paid it will be sent to a collection agency. Um...that doesn't sound good. So, I call the # on the bill. It's a 3rd party billing agency and they don't understand why the rep would have told me that and that if it isn't paid it's going to a collection agency and now I owe them $240 (the original bill was 76.00). I ask why I owe that much and she explains because the machine is a rental??!?!? (The PT gave me the machine to keep and said nothing about it being a rental.) Anyway, after calling both the PT and the rep guy again and trying to figure out what I can do about the situation they both are completely confused. The billing lady is completely confused because she claims she never sent any info to the rep about me and the rep guy guy didn't realize that his own company is dealing with a 3rd party billing agency.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk to the owner of the PT place...the one that started this whole mess and gave me the "Tens" unit. I just don't want to loose my cool and ruin someone's day. (After my horrible experience with Groupon a few weeks ago when they totally messed up on something, I realized I may have overreacted and ruined one lady's day...although she was the one who started yelling at me first....yeah that was the worst experience ever...really you all should boycott Groupon.)
Anyway, any advice on what to do about this whole mess and how to keep my cool? I don't want to cause one big stormy mess.
Most day's when Will gets home, I basically just hand Evelyn over to him and make him deal with her because I've had enough. :) However, today she was actually amazing and after I got off the phone with the PT office for like the 4th time I was grateful to play with her and when Will got home I didn't need a "break" from her crazy mood swings. So I suppose today wasn't all bad...Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
5 comments:
I don't have much advice other then, I can relate. Since having kidsi don't like taking peoples "crap" and sort of quit being the "nice girl". Now I do remind myself that by being polite I get a lot futher and usually a discount to go with, but smetimes I am rude but it gets the job done. And as far as handing evie over, I do the same with tristan some days. Its good to get a break and I helps me learn from the day and gain patience.
I did recently fast to have more patience and though its only been 3 days, it helped. Heavenly father is there for you and jesus attoned for this very moment in your life. Use them and prayer. I love you!
I had a similar problem like this; my insurance was supposed to cover something during my pregnancy with Margot, and in a fluke mistake, I was taken off of the insurance without my knowledge. So I suddenly recieved a big bill from my doctor's office, and I spent a whole day on the phone with the insurance, my doctor, it was a huge headache. I had a really hard time not losing it, but I just kept reminding myself that the people I was talking to were basically messengers. They didn't cause my problem, they are just trying to do their job.
I'm so sorry this happened, I hope it all gets resolved and you don't have to pay that bill!
Did you sign anything? If you didn't sign a rental agreement, they can't hold you to it. Make them prove you possess the TENS. There has to be a paper trail, and if your signature isn't on anything, they cannot prosecute you. However, if you did sign something, you better get a copy and read it quick!
Sandra, u ALWAYS brighten my day- I don't say this because I get pleasure from your frustration, but because you are so genuine and REAL. I read that post- especially the part about punching someone in the face and the part where you said "so yeah" and I could just see you.
Anyway... things like that make me want to yell at people- I also have gotten a little more willing to argue my point since I've had kids. Unfortunately when I act frustrated, the person I talk to usually is nicer. that's too bad. I would say be firm, and actually talk kind of slowly and repeat phrases if you have to. I have found that if you narrow the phrases down to a couple key points and repeat them like "I won't pay for something I was told was free" it helps. That might sound weird but it keeps it simple and it works for me- plus they realize you won't get off the phone until they do something because you obviously know exactly why you called--- if you're gonna say it over and over:)
WAR STORY! I WAS SO FRUSTRATED LAST NIGHT! I couldn't even tell Ben about it. I need some advice, too. :) Something like this just happened to me...I need to get a $1000+ blood test, which the doctor's office was supposed to pre-authorize a couple of months ago, and I was told they did, until I found out yesterday that they actually didn't. Now I have about a week window to take this test so we can start TTC again. It takes 30 days to get it pre-authorized, so I either have to wait another month to take the test and start TTC, or take a risk on paying $1000+. Don't these people know we've been through hell trying to start a family already? "Only one more month" was over three years ago! I'm done with that!!! To me, this is a really big ball to drop. Anyway, I know from this experience that it's really hard not to feel angry in the moment, but getting outside of the situation and getting some perspective helps. For example, after I told Ben my story, we went for a walk and for a while it was all I could think and talk about, until we bumped into some friends on our walk and it completely changed my perspective. I'm still upset about it, but I'm not worried about blowing up and ruining somebody's day. :) I hope that helps!!! I REALLY hope your situation works out. You should definitely ask them to honor their word and remove the charges - simple as that. You're awesome! Love reading your blog. :)
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