Tag: Lawyers
Bustin Chops - Answering Questions
by thoth on Aug.25, 2009, under Bustin Chops
Mysterious, evasive, alluring. These are all fun things. I get it, I get the idea of mystery and suspense. I understand not wanting to be an open book, to hold certain things back about oneself. I also sympathize with those who are just private people and don’t like talking about themselves. I fall into that category a little bit myself. These things are ok. To be evasive when it comes to oneself or private affairs I totally get that.
This entry is not for those people. This entry is for those people who wouldn’t know their ass from a appropriate answer. Are certain professions taught to abandon logical dialogue and reason and just monkey crap out answers that have no purpose. Or worse yet those who cannot commit to single answer.
This day has been riddled with people who absolutely refuse to answer a question. All business related of course, so getting a damn thing done went out the window long before lunch. First up, a lovely chat with my doctor’s office regarding a bill. I received a call from them requesting an update on payment status. Ergo I called to update them that the status was it was going back to my insurance carrier because the hospital in question made a billing mistake. This woman I spoke to takes it upon herself to attempt to fix the problem….well, really to attempt to piss me off. Mission accomplished! Below is a synopsis
“Hi, I am calling to update my status on this billing situation, it is going back to the insurance.”
“Sir can you please verify 18 pieces of information for me…”
(5 minutes later)”Ok, so there is your update”
“Sir let me see if we can figure this out, I am pulling up your itemized bill now.”
“Really, cause when I called 6 weeks ago, they couldn’t pull up the bill and had to send it to me, which I only just received”
“Yes I see this is about to go to collections, can we set up a payment plan?”
“How did we get here, the bill is going back to insurance.”
“Sir, I am not going to argue with you, the charges you are arguing are appropriate. We need to set up a payment plan.”
“I haven’t even told you what charges I am contesting.”
“Very good sir, what are the charges you are contesting?”
“The physician consultations, these never happened.”
“Sir, the charges are appropriate, they wrote reports, when would you like to start the payment plan.”
“I have never seen these reports and neither has my doctor, can I get a copy of these.”
“Sir you can request a copy of each report (there are 2), there will be a 17.95 fee for each report.”
“Of course they are…. I think I will just deal with my insurance company, thanks.”
However, the simple little question that drove me over the line, came from non other than a lawyer. No, don’t get me wrong, lawyers I assume serve a useful purpose (one I have as yet to identify). However, these people are masters at complicating every single thing they touch. Now due to confidentialy I can’t post the exact wordage but here is the break down:
I send an email to a lawyer who routinely does work for us. The email explain a brief situation involving a friend and ends with the question, do you know someone in Adam’s County DA office? I would have been happy with a yes or a no. Instead I get a 2 paragraph email back about how people should hire lawyers and this situation requires a lawyer…. blah blah blah. So I am thinking, maybe he just got confused it happens. So I send another email, very brief saying that all makes sense, do you know a deputy DA my friend can call? This is a simple f$#@ing question.
Here is the response: Unfortunately no DA, friendly or otherwise is going to talk to me about your friend’s daughters case if I am not representing her.
What does that have to do with anything?! Maybe I should get thai food tonight, but getting back to the question, DO YOU KNOW A DEPUTY DA IN ADAM’S COUNTY?!
Do you think we could all come together and agree that in every day life if we are poised with simple questions we can just answer them. I am sitting here sans info because a guy paid to litigate in front of people, to represent people in a court of law is having trouble with a 9 word question!!! I am reminded of King of the Hill: Hank to Bobby: “An F in English, damnit Bobby, you speak English.”
People who cannot answer questions, your chops have been BUSTED!