'IT' happened...

'IT' happened, as we know when things are running smoothly, 'IT' always happens. The unexected, unforseen, ussualy singularly unpleasant 'IT'....

You can never be totally preared for 'IT', 'since by it's very nature (the occurrance of an unforeseen obstacle, difficulty, or calamity), 'IT' is always a surprize. In my case here IT began as what I shall call-

 

The paypal debacle...

'IT' all began with the nature of the payment involved. While in the overal scheme of things the amount of money involved did not involve earth shaking numbers, they where large enough that they would require reporting to the IRS, which I considered fair enough and as such had no problems with. However Paypals idea of reporting and looking into the matter was to freeze the account and as a result deny access to the funds for what was to become roughly five and a half weeks. in these next two entries I willl chronicle the phone calls, faxes, requested and provided documentation, the financial crunch of having to order equipment for the installation using personal funds, and ultimately the frustration of having to deal with a system that does not have a clue as to what is required to operate a small business.

 

But the night is young, and already I ramble, rant, and rave....

 

There I was ordering all manner of amplifiers, fancy slide out racks, desks for consoles, and of course the mixer itself, when emails start flooding my in-box informing me that the requests for payment from paypal were being denied.

 

 DENIED?!?!?!

Something was cleary amiss, I thought. Let me log into the account and see what the problem is  But lo and behold, I am unable to log in....

 

Things are starting to look not very good. I fire off some emails to Paypal's customer service department, from which I recieve notification that the account is 'frozen' until further verification is provided.

 

Hence was born my unshakable belief that ol' Murphy (author of that infamous law which shall go unamed on these pages) is none other than a not too distant cousin of the very devil himself. It became, over the course of the next few weeks, an impossible task to do the simplest of things, such as prove that my phone number really was mine, they just kept asking for ridiculous amounts of paperwork about any number of things and in the meantime I was being denied access to the funds.

 

- Did I mention that contracts were signed?

- Did I mention that there was a deadline for the completion of the system? 

 

I think the most frustrating aspect of all this was paypals customer service. Here was a group of people who were sympathetic to my pain but powerless to make it go away.

 

But I get ahead of myself, as the first and most difficult thing I had to get done in a timely manner proved to be confirming my mailing address. Paypal requested that I wait six to ten days for a letter that was being sent to me and which contained some secret code that I had to enter into a form on their website in order to confirm my mailing address. I politely at first, not so politely afterwards as the days ticked on, explained to them that I could fax them any number of documents showing that I recieve mail at the address that in fact is mine. I requested to speak with supervisors, and was given special "rush fax numbers" to stress the urgency of my case, only to have to call back the next day and argue my case with yet another poor hapless soul. I faxed tax returns, copies of my passport and birth certificate, phone bills, bills for my personal credit cards. I sent forth banking information (for the second, and then third time) to verify my account. I drew the line when they requested a complete list of clients which I had serviced in the previous year. I proceeded to firmly tell them that while I might discuss one or another job here and there, my client list was none of there business, nor did I ever intend to make it their business. In the meantime, my mailing address remained unverified. Week four of this debacle....

 

I shall save weeks five and six for my next posting, as well as the parallel drama of the lost mixing desk that took place simultaniously with this. For now I ask that you only enjoy life my friends. You never know when IT will happen!

 

Mad soundman signing off in the

wee hours of the dawn to crawl

into his cocoon and sleep....