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Jul. 17th, 2007 10:33 amI went through my piled up mail last night. That's always fun.
I got a letter rejecting an application I submitted to my bank for a credit card. In the same mailing, I got another copy of the same letter that they sent a couple months ago when I originally applied, suggesting that I apply for a credit card. Printed boldly across the top was the phrase 'Read this letter carefully; this may be your only notification.'
In the same pile of mail were at least five 'pre-approved' credit card offers. After seeing Maxed Out, that makes me rather uneasy. I decided a long time ago that if I did apply for any credit cards, I was going to do it through more legitimate looking means. I suppose that's probably why I was rejected.
I paid online and/or wrote checks for about six or seven hundred dollars in bills.
Made up for that by getting my state income tax refund of about eight hundred dollars, which is probably going directly into savings. I want Andrea to be able to go to school next year if there's any way to manage it.
Going back to the the credit tangent, there was a note along with my rejection letter that I could call Transunion to get a free credit report since I was rejected based on their information. So I called them. I deal with voice mail systems on a regular basis at work and I can safely say that theirs is the most unnavigable and obfuscatory one I've every dealt with. Half of the prompts accept voice responses, while the other half don't. Once, I started pushing buttons right after the menu choice I wanted was read and got disconnected for my trouble with a message stating 'You have made too many incorrect responses this session. Please hang up and try again later.' I was disconnected a second time with the same message after calling back and pressing '0' a couple times to try to get to an operator.
The system required me to say and spell my first name, last name, social security number, address, and a myriad of other information. It then played it back for confirmation but left me no way to correct mistakes. Having accepted the recordings as they were (I accidentally recorded my full name in the space for first name), I was again disconnected with a message to the effect that my information had been noted and that, if it was sufficient to validate me, my report would be processed. There was no transaction number, name, or any other concrete data I could use to check on my status. It's amazing to me how great the pains that are taken to prevent me from getting to the information I want are. I'm left with the same sort of slimy feeling I had while watching Maxed Out, except that this time, instead of seeing it from a distance, I've dipped my own hands into the muck. Wish me luck at finding anything useful; I'm going to try calling again today after searching the internet for other numbers. I have to admit, there's a part of me that's looking forward to the challenge of tracking this prey out, running it up a tree, and demanding my credit report.
Posi's suggestion to fix our refrigerator worked beautifully! The vents that were letting cold air into the fridge must have been clogged with ice. After letting it sit off for a day, a puddle of liquid appeared from underneath (I can only assume it's the aforementioned ice after undergoing a phase transition and succumbing to the force of gravity) and it now cools both the freezer compartment and the fridge just beautifully. I'm still glad that the temporary malfunction gave us an excuse to the get the chest freezer out in the garage (one of my curb-side finds) powered up and working. I bought a bunch of pizza, lean pockets, and other frozen foods on sale at Woodman's and have been going through them for lunch and dinner while the fridge wasn't working.
Speaking of food, I'm attempting to lose weight via a method I first heard about from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boixboi; The Hacker's Diet. Hey; it makes a lot of sense. And with Andrea eating much better and losing weight, I'd really like to do the same. It'd be nice to have less knee and ankle pain when I play DDR. Or climb around abandoned buildings.
I got a letter rejecting an application I submitted to my bank for a credit card. In the same mailing, I got another copy of the same letter that they sent a couple months ago when I originally applied, suggesting that I apply for a credit card. Printed boldly across the top was the phrase 'Read this letter carefully; this may be your only notification.'
In the same pile of mail were at least five 'pre-approved' credit card offers. After seeing Maxed Out, that makes me rather uneasy. I decided a long time ago that if I did apply for any credit cards, I was going to do it through more legitimate looking means. I suppose that's probably why I was rejected.
I paid online and/or wrote checks for about six or seven hundred dollars in bills.
Made up for that by getting my state income tax refund of about eight hundred dollars, which is probably going directly into savings. I want Andrea to be able to go to school next year if there's any way to manage it.
Going back to the the credit tangent, there was a note along with my rejection letter that I could call Transunion to get a free credit report since I was rejected based on their information. So I called them. I deal with voice mail systems on a regular basis at work and I can safely say that theirs is the most unnavigable and obfuscatory one I've every dealt with. Half of the prompts accept voice responses, while the other half don't. Once, I started pushing buttons right after the menu choice I wanted was read and got disconnected for my trouble with a message stating 'You have made too many incorrect responses this session. Please hang up and try again later.' I was disconnected a second time with the same message after calling back and pressing '0' a couple times to try to get to an operator.
The system required me to say and spell my first name, last name, social security number, address, and a myriad of other information. It then played it back for confirmation but left me no way to correct mistakes. Having accepted the recordings as they were (I accidentally recorded my full name in the space for first name), I was again disconnected with a message to the effect that my information had been noted and that, if it was sufficient to validate me, my report would be processed. There was no transaction number, name, or any other concrete data I could use to check on my status. It's amazing to me how great the pains that are taken to prevent me from getting to the information I want are. I'm left with the same sort of slimy feeling I had while watching Maxed Out, except that this time, instead of seeing it from a distance, I've dipped my own hands into the muck. Wish me luck at finding anything useful; I'm going to try calling again today after searching the internet for other numbers. I have to admit, there's a part of me that's looking forward to the challenge of tracking this prey out, running it up a tree, and demanding my credit report.
Posi's suggestion to fix our refrigerator worked beautifully! The vents that were letting cold air into the fridge must have been clogged with ice. After letting it sit off for a day, a puddle of liquid appeared from underneath (I can only assume it's the aforementioned ice after undergoing a phase transition and succumbing to the force of gravity) and it now cools both the freezer compartment and the fridge just beautifully. I'm still glad that the temporary malfunction gave us an excuse to the get the chest freezer out in the garage (one of my curb-side finds) powered up and working. I bought a bunch of pizza, lean pockets, and other frozen foods on sale at Woodman's and have been going through them for lunch and dinner while the fridge wasn't working.
Speaking of food, I'm attempting to lose weight via a method I first heard about from
boixboi; The Hacker's Diet. Hey; it makes a lot of sense. And with Andrea eating much better and losing weight, I'd really like to do the same. It'd be nice to have less knee and ankle pain when I play DDR. Or climb around abandoned buildings.
