one of

Yesterday I had one of those days. No, no, no, not those days, those days. You know the ones that leave you wondering if it wouldn’t actually be better to demolish the earth to make room for a hyperspace bypass and get drunk in the restaurant at the end of the universe.

And it all began so innocently…

August 2005: Brian receives a letter in mail informing him that he has been awarded a scholarship from the department of engineering at Portland State. He notices that this scholarship can only be given to full-time students. Our hero only has 5 classes left and no intention of going full time so he does the Right Thing(tm) and write back to the department informing them he cannot accept the scholarship.

Late October: Brian receives a bill for $383.75 from Portland State University. This is week 5, financial aid has been disbursed, enrollement fallout from cancelled classes has been dealt with and bills paid. Being the curious sort Brian sets out to find what this bill is for. A quick login to his student account reveals two charges $20 for a degree application fee and 363.75 with the most informative comment: Q510 Sub Stafford Loan – FFELP. hmmm. Our plucky hero heads down to the Financial aid office to get some questions answered. Going to desk the mindless drone behind the counter answers that the financial aid department has no knowledge of billing and refers Brian to the cashier’s desk but does provide the helpful information that there are undisbursed scholarships on his account. Brian heads over to the cashiers desk who of course can’t tell him anything about fees that have a financial aid code. errrg. Returning to FA our hero discovers the phone number of a mysterious “Behind the door” person who tells him this story:

You were awarded a scholarship from the Engineering department and therefore your loan was re-evaluated to a lower value. (this is a scholarship of which I received nothing because I am part-time, not full time). You were then billed for the difference. You should talk to the department of engineering to see if they will release the funds from the scholarship or withdraw it.

This our plucky hero did, they had his letter on file, and notified the FA dept. that Brian had declined the scholarship in august. End of story right? Wrong.

Early November: Brian, still having a curious mind despite the second best brow-beating the school can offer (the best is to follow), called the “Behind the door” person from FA to see if his loan had been fixed. It had not and that person could no longer help him and was referred back to the evil desk drone. gggrrrrrr. The desk drone suggested a form that would take 3-4 weeks to process. Our hero declined that option and instead strangled another phone number of another “Behind the door” person out of the drone. Calling this person got the loan re-evaluated (I think) and prompted hung up on Brian. Not exactly trusting FA to clean up the rest of the mess Brian decided to try one more tatic. Going to the cashier, telling his story first to a drone, then to a supervisor, Brian asked if they could please check with financial aid and make sure the loan was revalued so they could reverse the charge. This supervisor attempted to call “Behind the door” person number 2 and got voicemail. But left her number with Brian and took down his number. Whether she will in fact “look into it” remains to be seen. Please note that in all of this Brian was not responsible for one single mistake, and in fact has expended considerable energy trying to make sure he doesn’t have to pay for the school’s clerical mistake.

And that was only how my day started yesterday, that mentions nothing about how my project team mate spent the day insulting my intelligence via email, the number of radio shacks I visited trying to find parts for my project, or the number of cashiers it took at Meir and Frank to figure out how to refund a purchase made on a gift card.

Yah, it was that kind of day.

But the good news is that Civilization 4 is out so when I need to unwind I can watch my hordes of Indian modern armor backed by zealous budhist rock and roll stars march over the face of the earth.