Posted by
DenverCatholic on Friday, May 08, 2009 12:33:19 PM
It takes about 15 minutes to get from my home to an online school where my children are able to have an education without too much liberal view interjected throughout the day. After dropping them off, I had to get to the nearby store and get lunches for them, since time did not allow me to do that the day before. There was only one cashier, who was tied up with a customer. I had to take my purchase to a self-serve cashier without any customer service skills. The dumb thing couldn't help me because it didn't recognize my phone number, and I had lost the card for this store a long time ago. It let me know that a real person had been notified that I needed help. I looked around for who that could possibly be. There was a customer service person just a couple of feet away, but she was chatting. Then she went away.
Not one to just wait around, I tried to get my wired and metal cashier to do it's job. I pushed it's buttons, let me tell you. I had an appointment with government watchers in about an hour, but my kids needed to get their lunches before I could even head over there. Once again I was informed that I was a difficult customer and had been reported to a customer service representative. As I write this, I realize that I really don't recall being told that anybody was actually going to help me. But anyway, I looked over at that chatty woman who looked back at me that time. Since she didn't approach me to help me, I told her about the money taker's attitude problem.
After being bothered to have to walk a couple of feet, the human instructed me to pay for my purchase with my card as if the problem was with me. I told her that I had put my phone number in but I wasn't getting the discount. She went back over to her booth and looked at the screen. Having been communicated with, she came back to me and handed me a new card, telling me I needed to update information on the form and submit it to the store. I didn't have time for that, but the good news is the new card worked right away.
I brought the quickest thing, Lunchables, to my kids and departed immediately. I drove home, parked my car, took my dog to potty outside, gathered my paperwork, and proceeded to walk over to the building that I was required to go to if I expected to continue to receive food assistance for my family. We hadn't had food stamps for 2 months, and I had received a frightening letter stating that we had been terminated. I had already spoken with a customer service representative about that.
I couldn't believe that I had been terminated when I don't even have an income. The rep checked on things and let me know that I could disregard the termination letter because an approval had gone through for my family. She said I had to go through the Colorado work registration appointment that was scheduled for me. I've been through this process before several years ago.
The government wants to watch your job search. But it is a much improved way to do things. The other time that I had to go through this, I was actually required to perform at leaset 30 hours of weekly community service; and I submitted a complaint over it. How could I look for work when they were tying me up all day with community service! I have nothing against serving my community. I do that regularly, whether organized within an agency, or on my own as I see a need. Maybe my complaint helped affect this positive change.
And so I was there at 9:08 for my 9:15 appointment. I spoke with the receptionist who informed me where it was, but that they weren't going to let me in; because they had already started, and I was late. I didn't let her words stop me, I explained that I was going to go speak with somebody there. I walked through the building to greet a closed door with the words of the program and an additional sign that said something like do not disturb, class in session. I knocked and tried the locked door.
A woman opened the door and told me that I could not come in and I was late. I tried to show her my paperwork, stating that my appointment was at 9:15. She said that the class had started at 8:45 and I would need to return next Tuesday. I asked why my paperwork has the wrong time on it and made it clear that I needed to be there and didn't need any problems over this. She assured me that I could come back next week, no problem. She said that some people know what time they start and some of them don't. Nice. I repeated her information to be sure of things. "Okay, next Tuesday at 8:45." She corrected me on the time. "12:45," Then the Employment First counselor wrote the rescheduled appointment on my paperwork.
In looking over the accompanying documentation, I also have paperwork stating that my information "must" be returned by 5-11-09. Oh brother. My appointment is on the 12th. So that'll be about a half hour on the phone trying to reach somebody and explain things. It may also include going down to the human service building to submit documentation of their error. Inconvenience, yes, but I can tell that this is one of the few, less problematic issues involving mis-communication and lack of accurate information within the system. Thank God.