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The
Federal
Government has no corner on bureaucracy
Melvyn D. Magree Originally published in the Reader Weekly January 3, 2008 “Good enough for government work!” How often have you heard this statement when somebody doesn’t want to make any more effort on some project? Even if it has nothing to do with any government. On the other hand, government standards can often be more stringent than some corporations expect. One of the most bureaucratic incidents I remember is an attempt to sign up with AOL. I was staying at a hotel in the days before high-speed Internet was even thought of. There was no local dialup access on the nationwide list given by my provider. I tried to create an 800 account through AOL, but it wanted a member ID. I called the help number and the agent in India asked for my member ID. “I don’t have a member ID; I’m trying to create a new account.” Some discussion followed. “What is your member ID?” “I don’t have…” and around in this circle three or four times before I hung up. I don’t need to say much about the automated telephone systems. I’m sure each reader could fill the rest of this space with his or her stories of frustration trying to talk to a real person. Even email systems can be frustrating. My wife visited her mother in a hospital in Ontario. Because her mother’s condition was unpredictable, my wife bought flight insurance in case she wanted to change her return flight. She did change her flight and she filed a claim. She was told she could not be reimbursed because of a pre-existing condition. None of the information she had stated this restriction. It was on the certificate of insurance that she was supposed to receive by email but never received. That un-received certificate also had an opt-out from the insurance if she did not agree to the terms. Before this we bought travel insurance for our trip to Japan in October with my wife’s mother. We didn’t know if she would become ill before or during the trip. She did have a racing heart and a sore jaw the day before we were to return to North America. Our son took her to a university hospital where she received numerous tests and interviews. The doctor said it was OK for her to fly back to North America the next day. The cost of the visit and tests? A little over $300 that we paid. We submitted a claim to the travel insurance company, but we still have heard nothing. American medical billing is a nightmare, especially for seniors with two insurers, Medicare and Medicare supplemental. Every doctor visit results in three statements: one from the medical center, one from Medicare, and one from the supplemental insurer. The prize incident was seeing a denial form from Medicare for contact lenses that I paid for when I picked them up. Optical specialists always demand payment on receipt of contact lenses. Why should it even be passed on to insurance? An SMDC clerk said it was for deniability! No wonder medical costs in the U.S. are so high. I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan: once on the way to southern Ontario and a week later on the way back. A basketball team was also staying at the hotel the first night. There was a lot of loud talk, laughter, and slamming doors between 9:30 and 12:30. I mentioned it to the desk clerk in the morning and he said he would tell the coach. When we got back to Duluth, I had a letter from the general manager offering me a free stay. Couldn’t somebody have checked the records and seen that I planned another stay soon? The free stay is generous but not necessary. However, if they are going to make the offer, it would have been nice to be greeted on our second stay with, “Oh, by the way…” Border crossings are where many people think government bureaucracy can be at its worst. I don’t like international borders, but that was a subject of another article. My recent experiences have been almost delightful. Crossing over to Canada at Sault Ste. Marie last month was a breeze. First, there was no line! Second, the young woman at Canadian customs was all smiles, asked her formal questions, and I was on my way. Coming back we weren’t so lucky with crowds. I did notice that one of the three car lines was moving a bit faster. I got in that line and sure enough, a friendly, smiling border agent. A few questions and we were on our way. Of course, she did distract us as she ran our passports under the reader and knew immediately we weren’t on the bad guy list. OK, OK! The government agency everybody loves to bash, the Postal Service does make mistakes. A few weeks ago I received a Netflix disk for somebody one block away. Compare this with Charter Communications digging in our back yard for a cable that we did not order. They were off by a block the other way. They also left a copper grounding rod behind. I don’t think good service is related to the form of an organization, public or private. What matters is management and its support and expectations of employees. ©2008 Melvyn D. Magree |