Not in the System

Welcome to my blog, which I, for some reason, feel the need to preface. I’ve been sending out mass emails for the past two years, but those no longer seem to be in style. So here I am, on the bandwagon, with my very own blog. And I won’t be filling the inboxes of people who don’t want to read my emails. On the other hand, those who do actually want to hear my complaints, observations, wonderings, and uplifting moments in America are welcome to stop here when time is at your disposal. So without much more in the way of disclaimers, I was inspired to begin a blog this week, mostly because I had something to complain about. Don’t worry, not all my entries will be this way. I thought I would chronicle the highlights of my weeks, keep you updated on my whereabouts, and record those moments that I always mean to write down.

Earlier this week, I called the prescription service linked to my post-service health insurance to ask about the price of something I thought I had been overcharged for. The cranky woman tried entering my name multiple times, my birthdate, my social security number, and my group health number. I wasn’t coming up on her computer with any of those entries. She said there are no other numbers to try, and she couldn’t help me because I wasn’t in the system. I asked to talk to someone who could help me. She said there was nobody that could help—if I wasn’t there already no one else could magically make me appear. It was a dead end. I asked what I could do. She said there is nothing that could be done. I asked again. Silence. I was speechless as well. After getting through an automated system, I had never found a real person to be so utterly unhelpful. I was not in the system.

I hung up nearly in tears and feeling quite disillusioned with America. I had remembered people to be helpful, courteous, and efficient. But already that morning I had been filed and forgotten twice, and now I didn’t even exist to be forgotten about. Somehow in the past two years, Americans in customer service have started matching the efficiency of the Senegalese.