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May 27, 2016:

THE EXPERIAN EXPERIENCE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I don’t know, call me crazy, call me irresponsible, call me madam, call me Ishmael, but I am so nauseous right now it’s disgusting. I’ve been nauseous before over the past couple of weeks but this is much, much worse. I hope I don’t have to interrupt these here notes to vomit, oh, yes, I hope I don’t have to interrupt these here notes to vomit.

So, let me move these here notes right a long with the main story of yesterday. After having the lunch that probably gave me food poisoning, I picked up some packages, and there was a letter from Bank of America. You may recall we found fraudulent activity in the business account, and we cancelled that debit card and I was refunded a ton of bogus charges. All good, and handled very nicely and professionally. So, this little missive said that one of the disputed charges had been found to be real and so they were going to deduct what they’d credited me for that. I was curious as to which it was, so I called them and they told me it was this year’s worth of 17.99 double charges from Experian, the credit reporting place. The BofA gal said I must have applied for one of those free credit reports where the small print tells you they’ll charge your card monthly if you don’t call and cancel. There was only one thing wrong with that theory – I have never done such a thing and had I I’d be getting a monthly credit report – I’ve never had any credit report from any of those places. She was great, and she said that we’d call Experian together. She gets some person on the phone there and we explain the thing and ask them to look up my account because if they’re charging me twice a month I surely must have an account. They ask which credit card would have been used and she gave them whichever I had at that time, since cancelled. They found two accounts and asked my name again. I told him. He seemed confused. He asked me if my name was Helen W. I said do I sound like a Helen W? He then asked if I was Sarah P. I said do I sound like a Sarah P. Obviously someone had used my credit card to open these two accounts and had been receiving credit reports monthly for over three years. The BofA lady patiently explained this was fraud but this guy was a nincompoop so we got a supervisor on the phone. While waiting for that person my gal immediately kicked this to a high level now that she had absolute proof this wasn’t me or legitimate, and she assured me the money I’d been credited would not be taken out of my account.

Then the supervisor got on and we explained everything. She said that BofA had put in for the refund and two had been made, for a total of $76. BofA never received that nor was it what we were asking for, in fact it was three hundred less than what I was credited. She kept saying it wasn’t Experian’s fault and I kept saying it was fraud and that they knew who the people were and should go have them arrested. She said they don’t do that, that I have to file a police report and then they’d have to release the information, which they can’t do without the report. Well, you can’t file a police report for online stuff – they simply won’t do it and don’t care. The BofA gal was great and just kept pushing this woman, who put us on hold so she could get us the ERN numbers to show the $76 had gone through – only she couldn’t find the numbers – how convenient. We finally just hung up. So, I’m protected, but the Experian experience was unbelievable. They KNOW the guilty parties and don’t care and won’t care and are probably trying to solicit their business. It’s reprehensible and the real question is is there a case for a class action lawsuit, because I am not the only one who’s had this problem.  In fact, most of it started back in 2012 and one guy did a blog on it and there are now four years’ worth of posts about exactly this same thing.

Prior to that silliness, I’d slept exactly two hours – just could not sleep and that’s probably exacerbating my tummy issues right now. So, I was pretty much out of it all day. I had a cup of soup, a sandwich and a few fries for my meal, the picked up the packages, then had the endless telephonic call. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled I Saw What You Did, one of those William Castle things. I’d only seen it once before – it’s pretty lame, actually, and poorly directed, but it’s kind of enjoyable on its own terms. The transfer is from an internegative with burned in cue marks at the ends of the reels. It looks okay. I then watched the first half of another new Blu-ray, I Could Go On Singing, starring Miss Judy Garland. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never seen it before – I vividly remember seeing the trailer in the movie theater and thinking it was not something I’d enjoy. So, I’ve avoided it all these years. Well, the first half is damn enjoyable – in fact, it’s terrific and I’ll have more to say about it and the transfer after I finish it.

Today I think she of the Evil Eye is coming – a day early because she’s then going out of town for four weeks, so I’ll have to be up early instead of sleeping in, which is what I need to do. I doubt I’ll want to eat but I may just go have a ginger ale and dry toast if I’m up to it, just to kill time. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, then just relax and try to feel better. I’ve just about had it with all this stuff.

The weekend is pretty open and I’m not sure what’s what, so hopefully I’ll get to relax until Monday. Monday is a holiday, but I have a work session for an hour. Tuesday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, Thursday is our second and then I go directly to LACC to do a little pick-up session for the LA cast album CD, redoing some horns so we get them cleanly – we’re having too much trouble digging them out due to the way in which we recorded and I want the orchestrations to sound great. Then we have our stumble-through on Saturday and then sound check and show on Sunday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, the songs I have to learn in case Guy Haines is a no-show. Blu and Ray, I Could Go on Singing, and them more Twilight Time releases. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that I don’t vomit and that I never have the Experian experience again.

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