This Sucks and Sucks Some More

I’m going to smile and stay positive. My smile might be through gritted teeth, but it’s there nonetheless. First thing this morning I called CSE (child support enforcement) to find out what happened to my money. I was in the van driving Dolly to school when I placed the call. The rep was very polite as she asked me the buttload of information she needed to verify that I was actually me. “May I have your name and case number?” “Who is the other party on the case?” “May I have your birth date and the last four digits of your social?” “What is your daytime phone number?” “And I please verify your address.” “How may I help you?”

With the exception of the case number, all the info I provided can, pretty much, be obtained by anyone with good computer software. My case number can probably also be found; I’m just trying to be optimistic about that. Why they need all that info to verify that I’m me is beyond me but I gave her what she needed (I have to do that every single time I call them for any reason) and got down to business. I told her that their website indicates that my money was disbursed on the 16^th but that neither my old account nor my new account had received the money. According to this rep my payment was still being processed. I’m finding that to be a little confusing. Was it disbursed or is it still being processed?

Seems it’s still being processed and will be deposited into my new account although she couldn’t give me any specific account information, just that, “It’ll be deposited into the account that you set up this month.” Now, she just asked me for my entire repertoire of personal information to verify my identity yet she can’t give me specific bank account information about my own bank account? Why is that; in case someone saying they’re me and having all my personal information actually gets past the initial verification process in an attempt to fraudulently gain my banking information from the Missouri Department of Child Support Enforcement? Seriously? See, if someone gets all of my personal information, I think he or she probably already has my banking information and doesn’t need to call CSE to verify it.

In any case, she told me that the payment was still being processed and if I don’t have it in the morning to call them back. I don’t know why I need to call them back since the person who answers the phone tomorrow won’t be able to tell me anything more if the payment hasn’t been received. All she’ll be able to tell me is that it’s still being processed and that she can’t give me a disbursement date. See, one thing I learned about this particular department over the past four years is that no two reps can ever give me the same information to the exact same question.

This is the same department that delays my child support payment if a holiday happens to fall during the week I’m supposed to get it, yet tells me that they can’t control when the payments go out because it’s an automated system and they can’t change what the computer does. Does that make sense to you? If it’s an automated system, my payment should be in my account on the designated Friday regardless of whether there was a holiday or not since computers don’t take days off to celebrate. I guess the reps in the CSE department don’t realize that; nor do they realize that someone is actually sitting at the computer when my payment is disbursed or has scheduled my payment to be disbursed. The line, “Well, it’s an automated system and we can’t control the computers” must be a line scripted and handed down by the suits in the office to throw off the less intelligent child support recipients.

Like I said, I’m going to smile and deal with it. I just think it really sucks that the week of Christmas is when they chose to fuck up my funds. I’ve got a shit-load of things to take care of over the next couple of days and I couldn't do anything today and I can’t do a fucking thing tomorrow as of this moment. If I keep smiling and putting positive vibes out there I may have my money by the time I wake up in the morning. Positive vibes; positive vibes; positive vibes…Fingers crossed and more positive vibes. See me smiling? I’m smiling…I’m happy…I’m going to bed to put out more positive vibes.

Until next time…peace to all.