Damn Bureaucrats!

The BBQ Pit
1

Extortion.

That’s the only thing you could call it. On Thursday, I go to the college registrar’s office to obtain a copy of my transcript. I need an official copy by Tuesday. After waiting in line, I am told by the person at the desk that I have two options. I can fill out the form and get my transcript by next Thursday or I could fill out the form, give them $20, and get my transcript by Monday.

I am forced to pay $20 dollars to get a piece of paper before my meeting on Tuesday. I relucantly give the money to the cashier. She gives me a recept and the form from the reception desk and tells me to take the form back to the reception desk. I tell her I was already at the desk with the form. She just looks at me.

So for $20 there was a maximum of 5 transcripts that one could order. I needed one but I ordered 5. Let’s see… that would be $100 dollars otherwise. Ridiculous!

The cashier told me that I could either pick up the transcipts on Monday or have them FedEx’ed. I decided to check the Fedex box. I figure that’s what I’m paying for. Why would I want to go all the way back to pick up my transcipts?

Damn it! Monday, late afternoon, no Fedex delivery. I call the office on Monday, before the office closed. I tell them that I filled a rush order and I did not get the FedEx today. She looks up my record and tells me that I needed to return the form to the office. And now I remember that the cashier told me to give the form to the office desk person. Why, oh why! did they not have the cashier take the form! You mean to tell me that I have to bring back the form to where I received it instead of giving it to where I took it. Yeah that makes sense.

The person on the phone tells me I can come in tomorrow morning when the office opens. Ok. Now I am really upset. I have to go at 8am to the office. I have a meeting at 11am.

So I go to the office and talk with the manager. He says that the transcipts need to be processed and it would take a few days for the transcipts to be ready. (This is where I try something. I’ve read that bureaucrat types are pinheads who are never really sure of themselves - if you say ‘they told me…’, ‘they said…’ then you will get things done)

I look at him and say, “They said that I could get the transcipts today and resolve this problem”. He pauses, visably confused. He then says, ‘I’ll check with the registrar’. He comes back to tell me something that would have made me blow a fuse if I wasn’t getting what I needed to get.

The transcripts will be ready in 15 minutes. 15 minutes? 15 minutes. 15 minutes!! I was told that I had to pay $20 dollars and wait 2 business days to get my transcipts. 2 business days…I was told…and then…and then…I was told…15 minutes.

I could have gotten by transcipts on Thursday. In 15 minutes. If I knew then what I know now, I would have really told them off. I suspected this damn bureaucracy lie but I did not have proof. Now I have proof they lied. Don’t tell me I have to wait until next week, get it done now! Get off you’re ass, you overpaid piece of shit, and get back there and get the fucking transcipt! :mad:

2

Wow. So you don’t follow directions, a manager helps you out when you get yourself in a pickle, and so you pit him. Talk about ungrateful. Sheesh.

3

I consider it a pitting on my behalf. I always give myself plenty of time whenI;m dealing with a beauracracy, and follow instructions to the letter. I ask questions like, “Who else do I have to bring this form to?” and “You said after that I have to bring it to whom (Sometimes you have to trick them into giving you complete instructions)?” If thye tell me that printing the screen they’ve just pulled up, and then staming it with an imprint, will take two days, I say okay, two days it is. Apparently I’ve been getting hosed.

4

And this pit is on behalf of all FedEx Dopers who deliver pointless “transcript rush deliveries” like the ones from my college. All because some bureaucrat wants to make some money off poor college students…

I just want to save my fellow college students their $20 bucks and FedEx workers an extra trip.

5

Just remember that the person taking your money and copying your transcript is most likely not the person who set the fees (“fees keep tuition low”), nor the person who established the check and balance of one person taking money and another providing the service (“this will keep employees from taking bribes or stealing the fee”), or the person who refused to authorize sufficient staff to allow personal 15-minute service to every walk in who waits until the last minute to request paperwork.

6

All students have a low tution.
Some students pay fees so that all students have a low tution.
Some students work at FedEx so that they can afford a low tuition.
Some students pay fees so that some other students can work at FedEx.

And this is logical. :dubious:

7

Have you ever heard, or seen a sign that says, “Your emergency is not my crisis.” These rules are not completely arbitrary bullshit. Most likely they assign some staff person to process these requests in bulk periodically, as there are usually pretty significant efficienceies to be gained that way. Most likely they have to process thousands or even tens of thousands of such requests every year.

They told you the rules, you didn’t follow them. And creating a transcipt usually involves more than just pushing a button. A lot of them require special paper which might be in a vault when not in use, or an embosser. It’s not rocket science, I know, but it’s not necessarily just a matter of selecting a different print tray. On your second visit, somebody ultimately decided that since you HAD paid the rush fee, they had some additional duty to help youm even though you admit that it was YOUR screwup. Good for them.

As far as I can tell they acted entirely properly and you’re just a little self-important shit.

8

One person processes the transcripts, right. One person. Wait a minute! You wrote that there was *additional * duty that day… something sounds funny here. If there is some staff person processing the request, you recieve the transcript in three days. If there is additional duty processing the request, you recieve the trancript in 15 minutes. Talk about inefficient! What the hell are those additional duty personnel being payed to do?! Scratch their butts? :mad:

So if they did not have some additional duty that day then I would not have gotten my transcript. :rolleyes: If I had not paid the rush fee then they would not have additional duty to help me. I see, it’s all about the money. Too bad for the student behind me that day with their transcript request and no money.

And you’re an egotistical bastard who is turning my pitting, on behalf of FedEx workers and other students like me, into your own lame pit.

9

Additional duty/ doesn’t mean additional staff. Someone apparently felt that they had some additional obligation (duty) to help you since you had paid the extra fee, even though you didn’t follow instructions. They could have said that since you didn’t return the form, it would take three more days for you to get the transcript. Most places would have said just that - it wasn’t their fault you didn’t return the form. They went out of their way to help you.
And I’m sure Fed Ex workers don’t mind making an extra stop ( not an extra trip) - if it weren’t for people like you who wait until Thursday to order something they need in their hands by Monday, Fed Ex would have a lot fewer employees.

10

What Ravenman, Boyo Jim, and **doreen **said.

And let me add that “$20 dollars” is an irritating redundancy, since “$20” already means (and is said as) “twenty dollars.” So “$20 dollars” = “twenty dollars dollars.”

11

I forgot to add the article: give them a $20.

I omitted the parenthetical: I am forced to pay *in the amount of * $20 dollars

RTFirefly, I’ll give you these - (I was in the heat of the pit and I was using a redundant appostion to be rhetorical)

12

Pardon me, but how do you know what **Boyo Jim ** meant?

The person with whom I was on the phone went out of her way to help me. The nice person at the desk felt sorry that students have to pay, not the manager. Also, it’s “obligation to you”, interestingly, a carryover from feudalism which connotes a contractal obligation. The signed order form is a contract, right?

Doreen, I believe you do know your Latin because you said, “extra fee”. Please clarify so I will know what you mean.