A Shake Down
Was it shake down a Gringo for cash day?
Juan-Two-Three our painter-handyman-jack of some trades finally reappeared this morning while I was stumbling around brewing coffee. We'd been calling for at least two weeks and have been without hot water since the day after he supposedly put a timer on the hot water tank. Tico time is a real deal.
The good news is that he fixed the hot water tank timer. The bad news is that he fixed the hot water tank timer. Now it will not shut off at 8 pm like we had it programmed. I wouldn't have hot water at all if it wasn't for the dishes.
He installed the new cabinet, sink and faucet, but I got no choice in where the sink went. He said he could only put it in the middle. Had a sneaking feeling that was how it would work out. It's fine that way. See?
The only problem is that the floor in the bath is not level. Had no idea. Juan says "No problemo! I'll just stuff it with cardboard!" I had to explain why that was unacceptable. Ended up with wooden shems the way I wanted.
While this was ongoing I was going through yet again the craziest bullshit of all time between our insurance company and our clinic. Remember when Jim broke his shoulder 10 weeks ago? The clinic idiotically billed the U.S. based version of our insurance, instead of sending it to the overseas division. There was squabbling where the U.S. section insisted it be submitted to Medicare first, even if Jim does not have Medicare. Many phone calls later I figured out what the issue was, and got the entire thing transferred to the overseas division. Last week we suddenly see that the insurance company has put nearly eleven thousand dollars in our bank account. More phone calls. Someone, either the clinic, or the insurance company screwed up the paperwork and paid us instead of the clinic. Our U.S. bank account. The teeny tiny bank that is a union thing that does not do half of what you would expect. We could not wire it into the clinic, we could not give them a check drawn on a U.S. bank. The insurance company said we had to request our bank to refuse the money and refund right back and then the insurance company would pay the clinic.
Today I was literally on the damn phone for hours. We ended up writing a check, bringing it to the clinic where they scanned the check and had one of their doctors visiting the U.S. right now deposit the copy of the check into their U.S. account. This has been an enormous hassle I'd been embroiled in for over a month, but it's finally done. Whew!
But it wasn't until nearly dinner time that it got weirder and worse. Our ongoing struggle to get customs to release the rest of the household goods. Our new attorney advised us to do something immoral and squishy. I am not sure about it. I think we're not going to do it. The only uncertainty is if this Christian lawyer is jerking us around or is on the level.
Juan-Two-Three our painter-handyman-jack of some trades finally reappeared this morning while I was stumbling around brewing coffee. We'd been calling for at least two weeks and have been without hot water since the day after he supposedly put a timer on the hot water tank. Tico time is a real deal.
The good news is that he fixed the hot water tank timer. The bad news is that he fixed the hot water tank timer. Now it will not shut off at 8 pm like we had it programmed. I wouldn't have hot water at all if it wasn't for the dishes.
He installed the new cabinet, sink and faucet, but I got no choice in where the sink went. He said he could only put it in the middle. Had a sneaking feeling that was how it would work out. It's fine that way. See?
The only problem is that the floor in the bath is not level. Had no idea. Juan says "No problemo! I'll just stuff it with cardboard!" I had to explain why that was unacceptable. Ended up with wooden shems the way I wanted.
While this was ongoing I was going through yet again the craziest bullshit of all time between our insurance company and our clinic. Remember when Jim broke his shoulder 10 weeks ago? The clinic idiotically billed the U.S. based version of our insurance, instead of sending it to the overseas division. There was squabbling where the U.S. section insisted it be submitted to Medicare first, even if Jim does not have Medicare. Many phone calls later I figured out what the issue was, and got the entire thing transferred to the overseas division. Last week we suddenly see that the insurance company has put nearly eleven thousand dollars in our bank account. More phone calls. Someone, either the clinic, or the insurance company screwed up the paperwork and paid us instead of the clinic. Our U.S. bank account. The teeny tiny bank that is a union thing that does not do half of what you would expect. We could not wire it into the clinic, we could not give them a check drawn on a U.S. bank. The insurance company said we had to request our bank to refuse the money and refund right back and then the insurance company would pay the clinic.
Today I was literally on the damn phone for hours. We ended up writing a check, bringing it to the clinic where they scanned the check and had one of their doctors visiting the U.S. right now deposit the copy of the check into their U.S. account. This has been an enormous hassle I'd been embroiled in for over a month, but it's finally done. Whew!
But it wasn't until nearly dinner time that it got weirder and worse. Our ongoing struggle to get customs to release the rest of the household goods. Our new attorney advised us to do something immoral and squishy. I am not sure about it. I think we're not going to do it. The only uncertainty is if this Christian lawyer is jerking us around or is on the level.
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