bureaucracy

Bureaucracy, you are lame.

You sent my homeowners insurance renewal policy to my mortgage company (good job). They paid last years premium (lame). You sent a bill for the extra $22 to my old address (lame). The letter got returned to you and you somehow also knew my correct address (so why did you didn't you send it there in the first place). In any event, you wrapped the letter in a piece of paper with the correct address and sent it here. Unfortunately the whole process took about two months. I opened it up and it said to pay the extra amount by the following date or the policy would be canceled. The "date" was two weeks before I got the letter. I logged on to my mortgage company's website and paid the $22. Several weeks later (didn't you get the payment?) you sent me a refund check for the 1st amount. Then you sent me a refund check for the $22.

Then I drove to the insurance company's office so the friendly staff could take care of this for me. The lady there was very nice. She made a call, you emailed a letter, I signed it and poof, I have insurance again.

But I have to say you are very lame for canceling the policy because it was $22 short, after you sent the bill to the wrong address. Then got it back and sent it to the correct address (so you knew there was a problem), after the due date. To a person this is obviously stupid. But you are clearly not a person. You are a bureaucracy.

And mortgage company, you are also lame for not paying the extra $22 when they sent you the bill. Because they tried you first before they sent it to my wrong address. You would think, holding the mortgage, it would be in your best interest to pay the insurance premium.

As a side note I looked up "bureaucracy" in google, just for fun and found this:

Bureaucracy is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987, scripted by popular comic science fiction author Douglas Adams. It is Infocom's twenty-fourth game.

The player is challenged to confront a long and complicated series of bureaucratic hurdles resulting from a recent change of address. Mail isn't being delivered, bank accounts are inaccessible, and nothing is as it should be. The game includes a measure of simulated blood pressure which rises when "frustrating" events happen and lowers after a period of no annoying events. Once a certain blood pressure level is reached, the player suffers an aneurysm and the game ends.

I would really like to check that game out. It sounds hysterical. On the other hand, why buy the game when you can play in real life for free. ...um, well often not for free, but anyway.