Janice Manilow » Venting

Postponed

Janice — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:47:34 +0000

I’m sure glad that I am not paying my Worker’s Compensation lawyer by the hour! We had to go to a hearing yesterday where the defendant’s lawyer argued for a postponement so that they can try to poke holes in my story. Naturally the postponement was granted, and so I had wasted most of my day going there just to learn that I have to go back in three weeks! What a pain in the neck! I’m sure that the defendant’s lawyer is a very nice man, but I was very aggravated by the delay. I’d like to get this over with so I can move on!

Bank of America done me wrong

Janice — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:23:27 +0000

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

When my hubby was injured in my car accident in 2007, I tried to get my mortage company for our house in New England that we were trying to sell to grant me a hardship forebearance. Since he wasn’t able to work due to my injuries, I was hopeful to get some empathy from the company. Boy, was I wrong!

Long story short, the mortgage company has dropped the ball and tossed me around from department to department, where I have been met with gross incompetence at every turn.

After over two years, even though we FINALLY did a deed-in-lieu with the company last November, and the deed to the house was transferred into their name in December the company is continuing to send me notices that I owe them the money and the company is still sending notices to the credit agencies that the mortgage is overdue. This is resulting in credit card companies closing my credit cards or lowering my credit limits.

Every time I call Bank of America I am shuttled around from department to department, and told the matter will be escalated and someone will call me back within the next week. That never happens. I have called them about once every two weeks, and nothing is resolved. I have sent them letters, and I get replies that someone will contact me within 20 days, and that never happens either! I got collection calls several times a day for years on end until I finally blocked their telephone number!

As of today, I have been on the phone with Bank of America for the past four hours, being shuttled around from department to department, trying to find some help. I’m on hold at the moment, waiting for a supervisor to talk to me. The lady I just spoke with said that my account was in the process of being assigned to someone in the home retention department!

I have contacted my state senator Mark Warner’s office, asking for help a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t heard back from them yet.

Anyone know a good lawyer that would like to sue this company on my behalf to get this resolved and maybe some punitive damages for emotional distress it is causing? I had hired a lawyer that I was told is an agressive lawyer that loves to sue people, but for some reason he just doesn’t seem to be in the mood to take this on! If you know of a class-action suit going on for people in situations like this, or know a good lawyer that could/would help me, please post comment to this blog and I’ll get the information!

Can you feel my pain?

What’s Up With The Weather?

Janice — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:53:16 +0000

It has been beautiful all week long, it has been such a wonderful change from this nasty winter that we have had to endure. It has been in the 60’s and I do believe that today we hit the 70 degree mark. Unfortunately nothing good lasts forever. The rains and the cold are making a come back just in time for the weekend, sigh………………

Compensation Issues

Janice — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:48:58 +0000

It’s such a shame that the legal system is so bogged down with so many cases that many people are left behind with little or nothing at all. Being in an accident that wasn’t your fault at all can cause such hardship on people with lawyers and insurance companies take their sweet time and battle it out on the innocent victims expense.

My brother has submitted a Personal Injury Claim and it has been three years and still no money coming in and the bill collectors are hounding him like crazy. Just what some one needs when they have been seriously injured. There are good attorneys out there, but it still takes time and I really feel for him and my sister.

I was mortified

Janice — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:42:18 +0000

I wanted to bake a cake earlier today, and I remembered that I had a couple of different cake mixes in the cupboard. So rather than dashing to the store to buy a mix I thought I just find the mixes I already had and bake one of them up. I was mortified to find that both the cake mix and can of frosting had expiration dates of August 2007! So I threw them away. Rummaging around I found more cake mix and frosting that hadn’t expired yet so I pulled them out onto the counter. Reading the directions, it calls for oil. Looking in the pantry I pulled out the jar of oil and see that it is almost empty. Not quite sure I’ll have enough, so I went out to the “auxillary pantry” to pull out a full one. That was was pretty far back on the shelf, so I decided to check the expiration date on that as well. Darn if it was expired too! Not by as much, but expired just the same.

I guess that means that it is past time for me to go through the cupboards and check the expiration dates on all of the goods and throw them out! Not a fun job, but one that needs to be done. I hate wasting food!

It wasn’t closed, it was denied!

Janice — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:29:13 +0000

After waiting a couple of days for worker’s compensation to call me back I decided to call them again. The adjuster explained that my worker’s compensation wasn’t closed, it was denied! I was very surprised to hear that – I was hurt on the job! But the agent said that when the accident happened that I was not specific enough as to exactly what pain I was feeling and did not go to the hospital, so the claim is denied! So, lesson learned – all you folks out there – if you are in any kind of accident at work, complain that everything is in major pain and go to the hospital immediately and demand complete X-rays of your entire body!

Bad customers

Janice — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:18:39 +0000

This morning I woke up early and decided to do some shopping. I needed to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and I had a $30 gift card burning a hole in my pocket! So off I went! Walking down the main aisle past the pharmacy I noticed a young man lying on the floor, squirming around, a big grin frozen on his face! I thought maybe he was having a seizure! I asked him “are you all right?” He just continued to squirm, and as I watched it was evident that he had something spilled on his left knee that he was trying to wipe on the floor! I saw an older man about fifteen feet further down that same aisle looking at something on the shelf. I called out “excuse me sir, is this man with you?”

He looked up and said “yes, he is, why?” I pointed to the man on the floor, and the older guy came up to him and made him get up, saw that he had broken some kind of gel container and was wiping it on the floor. He was asking “what on earth did you do?” Confident that the older man was now in proper charge I went ahead with my shopping. About twenty minutes later I walked past that section of the store and saw the gel still smeared all over the floor! I just had to shake my head at the nerve of that older man not contacting an employee to clean up that mess. I imagine he also didn’t bother to pay for the item his companion had broken. Things like this make me sad.

Cutting pay, increasing work

Janice — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:37:20 +0000

As I think about the meeting we had last week I keep thinking about how the county is going to be cutting the pay that we get, but increasing our work load. I’ve never been keen on the idea of having to do some of the things that they require, such as fueling our own buses and washing our own buses. That’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve been thinking about just remaining a substitute driver; when you are a substitute driver you don’t ever have to wash a bus, and if you are lucky you don’t have to fuel a bus very often. Of course there are times when you are given a sub bus where the tank is on empty and that is a major aggravation because you don’t usually have the time to fuel up before leaving on the run!

But one of the things that annoys me the most is that they are now saying that whenever a school bus hits anything at all – including tree branches that hang over the road that they are to report it to dispatch. What a pain in the neck that is going to be! I can’t recall ever driving a bus where the bus didn’t brush up against some branches somewhere along the road! And some of the turn around spots are so overgrown that you can’t turn around without scraping up against shrubs or trees! So I don’t know how that is going to go over!

Why even bother to make an appointment?

Janice — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:57:54 +0000

One of the most annoying things about being a bus driver is the fact that the county requires us to all pass a physical during the summer before school starts up again in the fall. What’s annoying about it is that you have to go on your own time. I think that we should get paid for our time to go. So on top of having to go on our own time, when we get to the doctor’s office, even though an appointment was made for the physical that I always end up waiting in the exterior waiting room for over an hour. This office is also an “urgent care center” so anyone who brings in a child with a cold without an appointment gets seen before the appointments. So I have to wonder why we even bother to make the appointment? If we just “walk-in” we will probably be seen sooner!

So today was my appointment. I went to the doctor’s where I spent over two hours, then went to the office to drop off the papers saying I’m cleared for employment. Much to my dismay, the office doors were unlocked, but no one was there in the office! I went into every single room (even the rest rooms) looking for ANYBODY and found NO ONE! So I left, bringing my papers with me. I’m not leaving the papers there on someone’s desk! I used my cell phone to call them and leave a message, and then went home. I hope I don’t get into trouble for not turning my papers in immediately!

Auto mechanic rip off

Janice — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:53:14 +0000

I get so upset when my younger sister calls me and tells me that her car has broken down (again) and when she took it to the shop they quoted her a huge amount of money to fix it! I tell her to fax the estimate down to me, and I have my hubby look at the estimate. Invariably my hubby ends up fixing her car for about 30% of what the estimate was for. I understand that the repair shop has a higher overhead, but I think that they take advantage of the customers who are not as knowledgeable about cars. Like the time that I took my car for an oil change to a big name “quick” oil change company and they tried to convince me that I needed a new battery (four years ago and my battery is still going strong!)