Tossing a snowglobe at Florida

Watching the MEDIA Watchmen, bringing PERSPECTIVE to the WORLD.

Written by admin on 24 December 2008

Looking over my credit card statements (in what has become a weekly, if not nightly, ritual), I found my insurance company double-billed me. It wasn't there fault; another credit card I was using to pay the bill had to be cancelled and reissued, and when I switched over, they automatically tried to get payment after I manually made a payment to prevent cancellation of the policy.

Anyway, no big deal. The insurance company rep was helpful. What irked me was the following statement from the rep: "due to State of Florida regulations, we are not allowed to refund the amount to your credit card. We will have to mail you a check, which should arrive in 7 to 10 business days."

Excuse me?

What legislator came up with this idiotic regulation?

And what is this regulation supposed to do — protect me from getting my refund instantly?

I would love to hear the official explanation. I'd love to hear Kermit the frog or George W. Bush explain to me why it's bad for companies to refund money directly to their customer's credit card … how the public good is served by making me wait two weeks for a refund.

"Well, you see, Mr. Vahl, waiting to get a refund check in the mail will help you reflect on the problem, and encourage you to be more proactive in the future…."

I swear, bureaucrats who read 1984 or Animal Farm in High School must view those books as manuals for how to govern; they must've smiled when George Winston was broken down by O'Brien.

If they read Catcher in the Rye, they probably were delighted when they realized that Holden Caufield was in a mental institution.