Three incidents of our declining social values in the last few weeks
Each one of these stories represents something that has never happened to me previously. All of them have occurred within the last few weeks.
1. I was getting ready to go out of town two weeks ago, opening a last batch of mail, prior to having it held while I would be gone. There was an EOB (Explanation of benefits from BCBS which is the provider of my Medicare gap policy) statement--which I thought odd--with a check included. I looked at it. Looked again. It claimed to be for a visit on October 16, 2025 for a provider which I did not recognize, in the amount of $2430. It claimed that Medicare would pay $1905.12, and that BCBS would pay $486., for which a check in that amount, payable to me, was included. When the provider billed me for that amount, I would be required to pay it!
WTF? Well, for one, I was out of the country on October 16, 2025 and I could prove it. Secondly, I'd never heard of the provider. And third, I had no idea whatsoever what this service charge could possibly be. It wasn't an erroneous date for a service given by this provider some other date. It was a clear case of insurance fraud, hoping to ensnare me when I cashed the check.
I received this the day before I was due to fly out of the country again. I had to compose a letter to the US Office of Personnel Management Office of the Inspector General Fraud Hotline, because I needed to quickly document this fraud, and not leave it up to a phone call to a Hotline which only accepts recorded messages. I sent a copy of the letter to the local BCBS Office letting them know the gig was up. That letter was dated November 20th and I've heard nothing back--phone call, letter, or e-mail--from either BCBS or the Fraud Hotline office. When I returned from my trip on November 26th, I did find a Medicare Summary Notice for Part B which had processed a claim from Walgreens for the administration of my Covid booster shot in September. There was no mention of any service by any other provider during the period of July 29-November 14. In other words, Medicare had not been billed by the fraudulent provider which had billed BCBS.
2. Before I left on my November 21st trip, I used the Bill pay feature of the checking account with my bank to authorize payment of a rather large amount to one of my credit cards. Those charges had been accrued from my trip to Scotland in October and were all appropriate. I got around to looking at my checking account this past Monday (I had returned from my trip the day before Thanksgiving and had been very busy getting ready to host that a day late and then clean up from it) and it was odd. The balance on my account did not show the credit card charge having been paid--November 28th as authorized--yet the payee information indicated the charge was paid. Another WTF? I called my bank. They told me a paper check had been mailed to make the payment--rather than an electronic disbursement which has always been used to pay this credit card--and I exploded. So it turns out the bank has the right to accept the payee wishing to be paid by check--rather than electronically--and that overrides my authorization for electronic payment of the money in my account! This made no sense to me. None. I decided to let it ride for a couple of days to see if the paper check would turn up. By this morning it had not, and the payment is due by December 7. In the meantime I had verified that the payee no longer accepts paper checks at any of their stores (Target), and, that in fact, on their website they urge all holders of their credit cards to pay electronically.
This makes absolutely no sense unless some sort of funny business is going on between the bank and/or the credit card company. Is the bank issuing paper checks and sticking them in a drawer hoping to up the fees they collect for stop payment on checks? Is someone in their offices generating paper checks in hopes of using them in a check washing scheme? Is there someone on the other end at the credit card company approving a paper check to be issued in place of electronic payment in hopes of late payment generating significant interest charges on an unpaid balance? That's just three examples I could imagine. I cannot, for the life of me, think of a single reason why a credit card company--which has constantly been paid electronically--would all of a sudden decide it wants a paper check issued by my bank for the balance on an account.
So, I spent well over 30 minutes on the phone with my bank this morning requesting a stop payment on the check they issued --without notifying me--that was to have been received by the credit card company by November 28th and still has not shown up by December 4th. Interest starts accruing on the unpaid balance on December 7th. To top it off, the supervisor--I insisted on dealing with a supervisor--said a letter would be mailed to me from the bank confirming the stop payment and there was no confirmation number issued for the action, nor could he e-mail me a copy of the confirmation. When I asked him to verify his complete name, he declined to give me his last name! I told him that I would be filing a complaint with the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks.
Good grief. I'm done with the VisaTarget Credit Card. Although I rarely shop there anymore, it did have a 5% reduction on anything purchased anytime at a Target store with the card. It also charged no international transaction fees, which is why I had used it extensively on my trip to Scotland. Once the current balance is paid, I will cancel the card. I've been with my current bank for 25 years. I don't know if it's worth it to close my account. They have never pulled this stunt of converting a large electronic payment to a paper check for either of my other two major credit cards. I suppose now I will have to consider returning to mailing my own check to pay those cards, or going on their websites to authorize them to directly debit my checking account to pay monthly statements. What a pain in the ass.
3. This is the kicker. Very local. On Sunday I discovered that Home Depot ( I know, I know) would deliver an item--without charge--on the very day I ordered it. It was a set of battery operated Christmas lights to use on a 9 ft garland which has lights that no longer function. Fine with me! Home Depot confirmed the delivery would be made before 8 pm that very Sunday. At 4:30 pm I received a text with the delivery info--including the name of the delivery driver. I turned on all my outside lights so the driver could find my house. He didn't show up until just after 10 pm, but he did deliver the lights! What a treat.
Monday morning, I see a Slack post (for the community in which I live) that my neighbor two houses up from me, was returning from being out of town for Thanksgiving on Sunday night and saw a very "suspicious" van in front of my house, which then turned around and came back up the hill and had a driver wearing a hoodie which covered his face and that was very "strange" because it wasn't cold and the window wasn't down on the driver side. WTF? The neighbor never texted me--or came down to ask if everything was ok--just put up this racist comment suggesting the a person wearing a hoodie--whose face couldn't be seen--was driving a van in the neighborhood on Sunday night and that was very strange and suspicious. I quickly put my idiot neighbor straight on the reason the driver was delivering to my house (as if it's any of his damn business) and added a comment that not everyone wearing a hoodie and driving a van is "suspicious". Well. Two people applauded my neighbor for 'watching out for the neighborhood'. Then yesterday the neighbor puts up another post asking me if I'm calling them racist! OMG! She--the Karen wife--actually went there. Went on a giant rant about how she's never been racist and she's from another country (white as white Scandinavian could be) and she's never known any racism until she lived in the US. Just a total Karen demanding that I owe her husband an apology. Then one of the HOA Board members (a woman attorney) puts up a post saying this discussion needs to be taken off the Slack board. I fired off a response to the Board member agreeing, that the original post from my neighbor never should have been posted and that the woman's husband could have allayed his fears of a person wearing a hoodie driving a van in the neighborhood if he'd texted me or walked down to ask me if everything was ok. No. Oh, no. He just has to tell everyone that something strange and suspicious was going on in front of my house. Asshole. I told the HOA board member it was nobody's damn business when a delivery was made to my house and that we had enough nosy parker's in the neighborhood without having to report every time a contract delivery driver--wearing a hoodie no less--made a delivery in an unmarked van to a house.
Unfuckingbelievable. So, then I DM'd the neighbor and suggested she should tell her husband he could have saved her the trouble of the post if he'd bothered to contact me with his concerns before she posted. And that yes, the post smacked of racism. And that if they weren't aware of the right wing media constantly insinuating that wearing a hoodie--especially if the person was of color--was evidence of intended criminal--or at least suspicious--behavior, then maybe they ought to read up on it.
I haven't heard boo from the neighbor.
So, there you have it. Insurance fraud. Funny business between a large bank and a large credit card company putting me in the middle to make sure the credit card balance gets paid on time and is not subject to outrageous interest charges. A Karen neighbor and her idiot husband telling the neighborhood to beware of a bogeyman driver wearing a hoodie in a van in front of my house on a Sunday night. But that's not racist!
Oh, man. I came home on such a high from my trip to Scotland in October, and then on my spur of the moment return trip to the UK right before Thanksgiving. This country is so fu*ked up. Really fu*ked up.
At least I finished my Christmas decorating today!
= new reply since forum marked as read
but I take NO comfort in your tales!
The sad thing is that I see NO hope of ANY help from the ‘government’ - they’re too entrenched fighting for their own cushy job to even give a ROYAL FUCK about what happens to us.
What’s even worse, it seems that you and I are in a position to ‘survive’ the disastrous actions that this horrendous Mis-administration is doing to our country, but…………
‘The tired, the poor, the huddled masses’…………….
Who’s out there caring or fighting for them…………..
NONE of this is what I was raised in believing the United States of America would be. 
