Considering the crummy start to my week, I hope you’ll forgive the late posting of my weekly menu. It all started on Sunday when we realized we didn’t have hot water and our boiler wouldn’t light. Long story short, the fix was relatively easy, but the cost for the part was pricey. I’m just thankful that the plumber we called (who is NOT the plumber who installed the A/C that still isn’t working right) didn’t charge us extra for coming out on a Sunday.
Then I’ve been dealing with an awful company called PayFlex. Each year we put money into a flexible spending account, managed by PayFlex, to use for things like co-pays. I thought we were so organized this year, considering we had a good estimate of costs for Laura’s birth and all the info we needed. Well naturally, they want to make it difficult and were questioning whether these payments were qualified. (Come on — what do you think I’m buying for $500 from an anesthesiologist?) According to their letter, what we had sent them in June should have been sufficient. However, yesterday a CSR told me that an itemized list of services wasn’t acceptable (despite the fact that letter says it is); we had to send an EOB from our insurance. At least he was pleasant to speak with.
This morning I called to find out if there was an actual person I could send this pile of EOBs to (because they can sort it all out). The rep this morning was a total bitch, questioning why I was sending “those.” I tried to stay calm, I really did, because I lost it yesterday. But her attitude was so shitty that I let her have it too because she wouldn’t answer my question and kept arguing with me. I finally said, “I would suggest that in these letters you send to your customers that you explicitly state exactly what information you need because as it now stands, the language is vague and misleading.” Maybe I was using words that were too big for her. Yeah, I know that’s mean, but it’s not like I was asking for anything ridiculous. I got so frustrated I just hung up. I think the only other time I’ve done that is about 15 years ago calling in regards to a student loan. These private corporations are out of control. They make things as difficult for you as possible, so you won’t send the information in and they keep your money.
So my week has not been great so far. But I do have a plan, even if it is only a meal plan:
- Sunday: Pizza
- Monday: Bacon & eggs
- Tuesday: Sausage and peppers with roasted potatoes, salad
- Wednesday: Chicken picatta, orzo, CSA vegetables
- Thursday: Grilled steak, salad, CSA veggies
- Friday: Turkey burgers, pasta salad
- Saturday: I’ll be in WMass with Laura and Noah and I imagine Drew will do something fun w/ Jake.
I hate companies like that… that is what all my phone calls are like with CareMark… argh… I always ask for their boss when they get crappy like that…
Carol, I assume the PayFlex is the vendor Drew’s company uses since they generally deduct the funds pre-tax via payroll. He should complain to his benefits department about the poor service and difficulty of using this vendor. Now’s the time since his company is probably shopping around for renewal quotes. These companies do have to abide by IRS regs since it comes directly from Section 125 of the tax code, but how they do depends greatly on the vendor. What a major time suck dealing with that. Hope your week goes better.