Read this at your own risk.....you may get dizzy. The government is involved.
You've probably heard that scary line before..... "I am from the government and I am here to help". I love my country, I love everything it stands for, but bureaucracy is truly a mess.
Here's the background, I have a rental condo on the beach in Florida on the gulf coast with income affected from the oil spill. I filed loss claims with BP Oil directly. Everything was working smoothly. I submit a claim for the lost revenue for the month, BP processed it quickly, called with questions, mailed out a check. If you called them you got right through to your claim adjuster, no waiting. One claim number throughout, just show the loss each month and they processed it.
Yesterday I called the same number as I hadn't gotten my check for the lost revenue for July which was wierd, BP was paying so promptly. I waited 20 minutes on hold and that was also wierd. When I finally got through everything was different and here's why. I was told that as of August 23rd the claims portion was turned over to the government. Oh no.
First I was told "We have all your documents that BP sent to us. And you will need to send us your documents again". What???
Here is the shortened version of the rest of my conversation:
Government: "You will need to fill out an entire new claim packet to get a new claim number. We can't use the old claim number given by BP"
Me: "Okay but what do I reference when I do this to link it to the information you already have?"
Government:"Use your new claim which is XXXX".
Me: "I thought I didn't have a new claim number and I had to fill out a new packet to get one?"
Government: "Actually you have two new claim numbers but you still need to fill out the packet."
Me: "If you have my documents and a claim number,why do I have to fill out the packet?" "And why do I have two claim numbers?"
Government: "Oh, we gave you two claim numbers by mistake, one for the property location in Florida and one for your mailing address in Minnesota. When you send your packet back you will need to explain to us what we did wrong so that we can fix it and merge your files together".
(OMG!!! I CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!)
Me:"Can't you just merge the files now or send it to someone to do so since you already know what you did wrong?"
Government: "No, you'll have to explain in your letter with your packet what we did wrong and what we need to do to fix it".
After I hung up I tried to process this in my brain....when I get the packet I need to fill it out and send it back to get a claim number that they already gave me. I also need to tell the government what they told me they did wrong so they are aware of it and fix it??
So, it is my worst nightmare. The government is here to help me!!!!!!
I know BP did wrong, I know they screwed up the Gulf. But they are a business, they know how to run things, they know how to make complicated issues run smoothly, they have the staff to do it. Why couldn't they keep handling it?
No, the government cannot do it better. What do you think my chances are of getting their mess cleared up and actually receiving a check that is already four weeks past due?
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