I recently went to the South Portland post office with a package, twice, and both times walked out when there were 10 people in line and one clerk.
The third time I told myself: “I have to wait it out this time. There isn’t going to be a shorter line.”
I finally got to the clerk and was charged $10 to get a package from South Portland to a P.O. box in Portland. Should have simply walked it over the bridge, even though I am old and creaky. Then I asked for stamps. The clerk said: “We don’t have any,” and sent me to a machine. There I waited in another line. Mild-mannered Nordic that I am, I buttoned my lip and avoided a meltdown using foul language I never use. Now the post office is using white strips of paper discernible as postage only by the word Forever.
When my dishwasher broke down, I went to Home Depot for a replacement because it advertised free installation. When I got there, they said: “We don’t do that.”
So I went to Lowe’s, which must have outsourced its installation to Timbuktu. Just love hand-washing dishes. Fortunately I still have running water and electricity, which I didn’t have growing up in the wilds of Minnesota. Did I mention my $549 dishwasher became $999 with installation and other add-ons?
Speaking of electricity, I’m still reeling over the increase in my Central Maine Power bill, from $217 last month to $382 this month. The utility said it was my fault: I had used too much electricity. Not possible. I had used heat pumps before turning on the furnace and using it modestly only two weeks earlier, with only two people in the household. I listened to nonsense for a while and gave up. CMP doesn’t accept responsibility for anything. Its Jan. 1 rate increase is still waiting in the wings, a New Year’s treat.
My Bank of America card was canceled because of “suspicious activity,” somehow tied to Google. I was told a new card would arrive in between five and seven days. If I wanted it sooner, I could go to my local branch. I went. The bank said: “We don’t do that.”
A couple days later, the bank sent an email seeking praise on how it handled the situation. I couldn’t bear to respond because the same bank did nothing two years earlier when they allowed a hacker into my account and I lost $4,000. I wrangled with them for months until they said it was a scam, not fraud, and that it was my fault. I looked them up: They’re the same thing.
So what this adds up to is that we the citizens, consumers and followers-of-rules are always at the end of the line. And we the elderly, who for decades kept this nation on track with honesty and competence, now find ourselves wallowing in muck as capitalism joyfully takes our money. And sometimes defrauds us. Capitalism sucks.
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