More Moving Challenges

This move is proving to be somewhat more challenging than one would hope for.  As you know, the previous owners left a ton of stuff behind and it cost us a small fortune to get it hauled away so we would have room for our stuff and, obviously, be able to move in.

We are still trying to get compensation for that little debacle...

But I digress...

First challenge... Or perhaps I should say second challenge... Yes, let's go with second challenge.

Second challenge:  Canada Post.

Now I know a lot of people have a lot of negative things to say about Canada Post.  I don't - usually.  And, to be honest, this challenge isn't entirely their fault.  Sort of.  Kind of.  

The mail forwarding system that Canada Post has in place - for a ridiculous amount of money, I might add - is flawed.  

What is supposed to happen is this:

1.  You give the post office your new address and ask them to forward your mail from your old address to it, which, after charging you stupid amounts of money to do, they agree to do.  (Notice that I say agree.)  In theory, this is pretty straight forward.  Mail coming to address A must be delivered to address B.  

2.  You confidently march down to your community (in our case) mail box with  your community mailbox key and open it up.

3.  You retrieve your forwarded mail.

All systems go.  

The trick to this, I have discovered is timing.  Coming from a small town with a single Cheery post office where everybody knew my name and communication between the grand total of five employees was (almost) assured, and moving to a big city with multiple post offices with hundreds of employees, I failed to consider that things might not go as smoothly as I hoped.  In the name of efficiency, I dutifully applied for, paid for and received confirmation of mail forwarding from my old address to my new address.  

Now it's reasonable to assume that, unless you are moving into a brand new home with a brand new address, that someone lived at the address you are moving into before you and that they had lived there long enough for Canada Post to develop the expected habit of delivering their mail to them there.  It's also reasonable to assume that that someone will also request mail forwarding to whatever new address they move to.  Makes sense, right?  And here is where the timing comes into play.

I requested, paid for and had confirmed my mail forwarding before the previous owners of our house requested theirs.  And in the infinite wisdom of the mail forwarding system, my mail (along with everyone else's in the house) got swept up in that mail forwarding request and is being delivered to god knows where.

And... And here's the real kicker! ,,,the previous owners are not returning our mail!  

Can you say pissed off?  

Patience, little grasshopper, it gets better.

Third Challenge:  The Bank 

Okay, so in the name, once again, of efficiency, we used a mortgage broker to help us find and secure a mortgage.  (And he is so, so cute!)  Anyway, he found us an amazing deal with amazing interest with the Scotia Bank.  Happily, we went in to sign all the paperwork and while we were there we set up an account for household expenses, including the mortgage payment.  But did they take our first mortgage payment out of that account?  The one with the money in it to cover the payment?  No, of course not.  They took it out of my personal RBC account, overdrawing it in the process.  Yay.  Interest fees!  I love those. 

Now, we got our house (and the mortgage) on the 10th of June.  Property taxes in Edmonton are due on the 30th of June.  So we told the guy at the bank that we would deposit the money to cover this year's property taxes into the property tax account so that we didn't end up with a huge deficit next year and the subsequent increase in our mortgage payment that would go with it.  No problem.

Except that they didn't submit our property taxes to the city on June 30th.  

The epithets that followed that little discovery are not fit for publication in this blog.  Rest assured the air was as blue as the deepest, bluest sea when I realized what had happened.  

Okay, so shit happens.  I get that.  And shit can be fixed.  All it takes is a phone call...

More blue air.  I swear, whoever invented those horrible call answer systems needs to be drawn and quartered.  Nothing sets me off like hearing "Thank you for calling (insert corporation name here).  If you are calling about your account, press 1.  If you are calling about your mother's sister's husband's ex-wife's dog, press 2.  If you wish to hear these menu options again, press *.  If you want to speak to a real person hang up and come talk to us in person because we're only going to screw you around until you feel the distinct need to rip your eyeballs out.  Oh and press 666.  Just 'cause we get a kick out seeing how many of you will do that."

As a general rule, I don't throw things in anger.  But one day I might not be able to make that claim ever again!  Answer the damn phone, corporations!  Just answer the damn phone and let me speak to a real person.  Please!  For the love of god, just answer your phones in person.  

Between the previous owners not compensating us for taking care of their garbage, the post office being over efficient with their mail forwarding services, the previous owner's not returning our mail and the bank errors in our automatic payments and submission of our property taxes and the stupid call answering systems I had to fight with to get the problems solved...

I need a drink!  

(Just put a straw in my wine bottle.)