No, it's not the Wizard of Oz. But it's close.
The Daily Mail (UK) reported March 22, 2009, on a man whose father had died.
A son got so fed up with hospital staff sending letters to his dead father that he took the ashes to an appointment.
Andrew Wild, 44, received more than 20 reminders asking his father Peter to attend kidney clinics at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire – despite repeatedly telling them he had died in 2007 – so he took the urn to one of his own appointments.
He said: ‘The consultant asked how I was feeling. I said I was OK, then produced dad’s ashes and asked, “But what can you do for him?”
You gotta love it!
The hospital has since apologized.
And just in case you think it only happens with socialized medicine, I heard a story a couple months ago of something similar happening here.
The woman's father-in-law passed away, and the family divided up the various tasks. Her job was to notify all the utilities and insurance and other companies that sent him bills. It all went fine until she called the phone company. They requested a copy of the death certificate, which she faxed to them, and they assured her that it would be taken care of.
A month later, she and her grandkids stopped at Dad's house for something. The granddaughter picked up the phone and announced that it worked. So the lady called the phone company later from home to get Dad's service stopped.
"I'm sorry, but we can't cancel phone service unless the customer himself calls to cancel."
"Well, he's dead. He won't be calling."
"Let me put you through to a supervisor."
So she explained the situation to the supervisor, who said, "I'm sorry, but we can't cancel phone service unless the customer himself calls to cancel."
"HE'S DEAD! I'm just trying to help you, so you're not trying to collect money from someone who won't be paying."
"You know, it's a black mark against his credit if he doesn't pay his bills."
She gave up. They'll figure it out eventually.
7 comments:
Whether in a socialist system or a market system, a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy. And people who can't figure out how to stay flexible in such a system are bound to take stupid actions such as recorded here.
Which is why we should want LESS not MORE government; SMALLER not LARGER government. Who really, truly wants more of these unresponsive bureaucracies?
i know this sort of thing shouldn't shock me...and yet it does. my GOODNESS! well...for the man in the second story...as long as he doesn't try to buy anything on credit after he messes it all up by not paying his phone bill, he'll probably be okay. (shaking head at the whole thing...)
I think the phone company will have a hard time trying to collect, eh????
Tsofah,
Yes, and in a few months when the phone company figures out he's a deadbeat who doesn't pay his bills, they'll turn off his phone service.
Skyepuppy,
No, I expect the Obama Administration to step in and subsidize this dead man's phone service in perpetuity.
At the very least, he will become a registered Democrat if he was not already one.
I see the acorn (that's a nut, isn't it?) folks on his doorstep now!
On March 27th, my husband was in a fatal motorcycle accident. The following week, I received his monthly order of special cigars in the mail. Not wanting an additional box the following month, I called the company to have the order stopped. The clueless-one I spoke to obviously had a "script" on his computer screen, and after I twice explained that we needed to cancel the order and why, he responded by asking if I was sure he wouldn't want the next order since it would come with a CREDIT FOR A FREE BOX. I guess this is what we get when we have people who need the picture of french fries on the cash register at McDonalds.
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