Comment
The last Saturday of February, the 29th, was of course an extra day, but that was no good reason for wasting half of it - yet, sadly, that is how it turned out.
The day started off badly with the arrival of a letter from a major company whose customer we had been for several years. The letter was unsigned and began by asserting, quite incorrectly, that "we have contacted you several times about your unpaid account of $308.74" - this was, in fact, the first communication we had received from them on the subject.
The letter then proceeded to threaten that, if the $308.74 was not paid immediately, we would be faced with legal action and we would, at the least, be referred to a debt collection agency which would add to our costs and jeopardise our chances of getting credit in the future.
I was so concerned that I immediately phoned the number provided for what was laughingly described as its customer service department. I then entered a nightmarish - not to say Kafkaesque - world of recorded voices, constant requests that I should choose to press one or another number, none of which seemed to be relevant to my inquiry, long minutes of recorded music while I waited to speak to someone - anyone - and then barely comprehensible conversations with people who had no knowledge of what my inquiry was about and in any case lacked any competence to deal with it.