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		<title>I won&apos;t be able to get into the mailbox for a week! &lt;https://y.st./en/weblog/2017/01-January/20.xhtml&gt;</title>
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			<h1>I won&apos;t be able to get into the mailbox for a week!</h1>
			<p>Day 00685: Friday, 2017 January 20</p>
		</header>
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2017/01/20.jpg" alt="Ivy thriving beyond its pot" class="weblog-header-image" width="809" height="480" />
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		I awoke to find an email from T-Mobile, thanking me for that payment that I never made yesterday.
		Lovely.
		It must be that time of the month, and they charged my credit card because I hadn&apos;t made the payment yet.
		I hate forced autopay.
		(If you recall, autopay is mandatory with the inexpensive plan, which is the only reason that I set it up.) I logged into my Discover account to see if the stupid E911 fee had been charged, as I&apos;ve been mildly curious about whether that fee is only charged in person or not for quite a while.
		Much to my surprise though, no charge from T-Mobile was present.
		They must have taken money out of my T-Mobile account yesterday (or very recently), so when I looked and when the representative at the mobile shop looked, no money was there.
		However, the coming month has already been payed for.
		Had I bought the new account, I&apos;d have lost over a month of service that I&apos;d already bought!
	</p>
	<p>
		While I was logged on though, I saw another charge, much to my horror.
		It&apos;s a $25.17 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> charge from my old domain registrar, the one that Discover said that they&apos;d prevent from making further charges!
		I wrote this to them, demanding that they fix it:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			You said that you&apos;d stop future charged from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>, but this month, I see another charge from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>!
			I can&apos;t keep paying this, and I&apos;ve made it *VERY* clear that I do not authorize these charges!!
		</p>
		<p>
			If you do not stop these charges and give me a refund for this most recent charge, as you said that this charge would be blocked, I will be forced to close my account to make sure that no more charges from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span> get through.
			I am *DONE* with charges from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>.
			Please make them stop.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		My Discover card is useful to me because it&apos;s the only card that I have that isn&apos;t under my legal name.
		I mean, the account is under my legal name, but the card itself isn&apos;t.
		That means that I can use my real name instead of my legal name when dealing with merchants.
		However, if this card comes with too much baggage from the past (specifically, at least three reoccurring charges from my old domain registrar that both the domain registrar and Discover are failing to let die), the card is more trouble than it&apos;s worth.
		It&apos;s irreplaceable (even Discover doesn&apos;t offer the option to set up such cards any more), but I&apos;ll have to cancel the card and the account.
		I don&apos;t have the extra money to spare on this garbage, domains that I don&apos;t even have access to, especially now that I have rent to pay.
		Later in the day, Discover wrote saying that they blocked PayPal Pro for all charges up to and including $100 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> until 2018-20-04.
		I assume that that means that my old domain registrar is using PayPal Pro to charge my card on their behalf.
		All of the domains that are haunting me from the past cost less than that per year and the block is over a year long, so hopefully that will force all three or more of those domains to expire so that my old domain registrar will finally leave me alone.
		However, Discover made no mention of refunding my money, despite this clearly being their fault.
		As such, I wrote back to them again requesting a refund:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Hopefully that charge block will get <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span> to drop the domains and stop charging me.
		Thank you!
		</p>
		<p>
			As for this recent charge, are you going to reverse it? On 2016-10-25, a Discover representative said that they&apos;d block charges from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>, yet this charge went through anyway.
			Clearly, this charge is on Discover.
			I tried to get charges from <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span> blocked *months* before this charge was posted, which was *plenty* of time to get the block put in place.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		Today was spent running around getting my apartment set up for use.
		It took too long, so I had no time when I got back to my mother&apos;s place to do anything aside from write up this journal entry and post it to the server.
		I&apos;m taking a box of shoes to work with me, so I&apos;ll take them home after work, then head back to my mother&apos;s place to sleep.
		Today&apos;s shift is a closing shift, so by the time that I get back, it&apos;ll be past midnight and this entry (and more importantly, my <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a>) would be past due.
	</p>
	<p>
		My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="apartment">
	<h2>Apartment hunting</h2>
	<p>
		I forgot to bring my wallet, which I realized as I was heading ot to the property manager to finalize the rental.
		I realized before I got there, but it was too late to turn back and I hopefully wouldn&apos;t need it.
		As it turned out though, I <strong>*did*</strong> need it.
		I normally keep it in my bag, but I pulled it out last night to insert the two-dollar bill.
	</p>
	<p>
		While going over the rental agreement, I learned that I&apos;m required to keep my home at at least 13℃ at all times.
		I was going to turn off the thermostat, but it seems that I can&apos;t do that.
		Additionally, the previous tenant didn&apos;t turn in their mail key.
		I would be required to head to the post office and pay a fee to have them rekey the mailbox.
		I&apos;d need to stop at my mother&apos;s house first though, because I forgot my wallet.
		After reading and signing everything, the property manager gave me two copies of the apartment unit key, and said that I could get the laundry room key from the on-site manager.
		Additionally, they said that I&apos;d need to set up an account with the Springfield Utility Board in order to keep my power turned on.
	</p>
	<p>
		I headed back to my mother&apos;s house to pick up my wallet and a box of stuff to bring to the apartment, then headed out.
		I was going to take both a box of personal stuff (records, <abbr title="compact disc">CD</abbr>s, hard drives, my <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr>, et cetera) and a box of files, but I found that that wasn&apos;t going to work.
		The file box has a handle, but the personal box is just cardboard.
		I needed both hands to carry it very far, despite not being overly heavy.
		I only took the personal box.
		The box cut into my wrists and was just overall unpleasant to carry for long, but it&apos;s not like my other options were any better.
	</p>
	<p>
		Once I got home, I stashed the box in my closet and turned down (but not off) the thermostat, giving me a chance to try out the unit key, then paid a visit to the on-site manager.
		I brought the paperwork from the property manager to show as proof that I had finalized the rental, but the on-site manager didn&apos;t even look at it.
		They just handed over the laundry key.
		I paid a visit to the laundry room to check that out, and found that they have a small library in there, where anyone may borrow books.
		Another tenant came in, and told me about the table covered in stuff there.
		It&apos;s one of those take-stuff-and-leave-stuff tables that anyone may use.
		I took a bag of rice, as who couldn&apos;t use some rice? They also said that if I stop by daily, they&apos;re going to leave a filing cabinet at some point.
		Nice! I could use a filing cabinet now that I have a place to put it, and I won&apos;t even have to carry it very far! As I&apos;m just moving in, I feel like I&apos;ll probably mainly going to be a taker for now, but as I settle in, I&apos;ll be sure to give stuff as well.
	</p>
	<p>
		Next, I aimed to head to the post office.
		The property manager said that the only thing that I&apos;d need to bring was my rental paperwork and my money, so I brought the paperwork along with me as well.
		On the way though, I noticed the Springfield Utility Board office.
		I knew that it was in the area, but I didn&apos;t remember exactly where.
		Its being on the way to the post office saved me a trip! Or so I thought, anyway.
		I stopped in, showed them my rental paperwork, and tried to set up my account.
		They asked for my Social Security card though, so I explained that I don&apos;t carry my Social Security card on me.
		They said that state-issued <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr> would work instead, so I explained that as a pedestrian, I don&apos;t tend to carry that on me either.
		(Drivers in my country are required to carry <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr> whenever operating a motor vehicle.) So ...
		they first requested the more sensitive piece of information? They didn&apos;t start with trying to get the less sensitive information instead when that would work just as well? That seems like a jerky move.
		More on this later.
		Without either identifier on me though, they couldn&apos;t set up the account.
		I said that I&apos;d be back tomorrow with <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr>, but apparently, they&apos;ll be closed then.
		I had to do this today.
		Taking an extra trip to the Springfield Utility Board cost me what little time that I had though, so I didn&apos;t get to rest at all today before work.
		I also didn&apos;t have any time to prepare dinner for at work.
		I won&apos;t get to rest after work right away either.
	</p>
	<p>
		I continued to the post office, where they charged me a $40 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> fee and said that it&apos;d be done in a week.
		Ugh!
		This is really cutting my time short.
		Before I can order my album(s), I need to get into the mailbox and add my name to the card in there, but before I can do that, the post office has to rekey the box.
	</p>
	<p>
		I headed home for my <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr>, then headed back to the Springfield Utility Board.
		There, they set up the account using my state-issued <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr>, then explained that there would be a $125 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> deposit that I&apos;d have to put on the account.
		There were two ways to waive this deposit: they could run a credit check on me, which would require that I bring my Social Security number in later, or I could have a cosigner on the account that had had an account in good standing with the Springfield Utility Board for at least two years.
		So that&apos;s why they umped to requesting a Social Security number right off the bat!
		They were going to run a credit check on me without my consent!
		I was angered at the time, but I kept it to myself.
		Had I had more time to think though, I would have filed a complaint or at least clarified the situation with them.
		It&apos;s worth noting too that both times that I stopped in, they asked for a telephone number.
		Despite my having told them the first time that I didn&apos;t have telephone service, they again assumed that I did.
		They gave me my account number after they set up my account, saying that it could save me a call if I needed it later.
		Perhaps the first representative didn&apos;t type into my account information that I didn&apos;t have telephone service, so the second representative would see.
		However, I told the second representative too, yet they were still thinking that I could call them.
		It&apos;s sad how ingrained the thought that everyone has telephone service is in the minds of the general public.
	</p>
	<p>
		With my apartment now officially rented to me and my utility account set up, this will likely be the last apartment-hunting entry.
		I&apos;ll likely put information about the rekeying in the main section instead.
	</p>
</section>
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