khatru | Entries tagged with fucking bullshit

The COBRA management company claims that Otter is listed as eligible for COBRA because he was terminated, not deceased. This is causing bloody hell with me trying to elect COBRA.

Furthermore, there will be a new COBRA management company as of next week. I had called them on Monday to ask if it made more sense for me to wait to elect COBRA until they are the company or if I should do it now and the person I spoke to seemed rather flustered and said I should definitely elect it before it got to them and let the system pull things over.

Current COBRA management company has '3-5 business days' for their resolution of issues.

*headdesk**headdesk**headdesk*

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/27109.html

Wednesda - wednesday? - I had that lovely phone call with the life insurance company. The subsequent phone call with the mortgage company went even less well, as apparently they don't have any means within their system to account for the concept of 'partial payment'. All they do is hold the money until/unless they have enough to count as a payment. If this happens before their system instigates foreclosure, all well and good. Otherwise, they send the money back and it's in foreclosure. I had a small bout of hysterics, and have been hiding in bed (somewhat literally) ever since.

This morning I was actually awake at 7am ish. Took my pills, sat up poking at phone games till C came up to tell me it was 11am or so. I actually lay back down cause I was feeling tired-ish, and after a half hour gave up and came downstairs so I wouldn't be alone. I've done some useful things:

Detailed list so I feel better about it

ate late lunch
record bank activity into my ledger book so I can correlate more information
wrote out checks for att, oil, allergy shot copay,
asked R to take care of bullshit forms for the day
Signed forms for life insurance, Otter's ashes to be returned (sooner than anticipated)
recorded new bill/payment info into ledger
Consulted with R regarding dinner, pulling a recipe from my childhood that was tagged interesting
Fell asleep while R made dinner
Eventually woke up and ate delicious dinner, discussed/evaluated with R, deemed a success by both. Even C went back for seconds.
Gave up being downstairs and came upstairs.

Failed on:
currently trying to get the impetus for
filling out forms for 401k
filling out forms for TIAA pension

Now to see if I can manage to play wow today. If not, Diablo.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/24635.html

So far today:

Called life insurance person direct, left message with my name, Otter's name, claim number, my cellphone number, and the fact that I called a couple of weeks ago and haven't ever heard back.
Called Abby and made arrangements about the chocolate party
Called Specialty Pharmacy, returning their fucking annoying automated call. And, just like on the 9th (which they have records of me calling), I *again* had to give them permission to send the med, and apparently the $60 copay is *every month* until max out of pocket. Which I don't recall it being, but Otter handled it cause it was his insurance etc, and I just don't know for sure.
Called PSEG wrt lack of return envelope. Customer Service Rep has no clue why there was no envelope, as far as they know there's no program about asking to not get envelopes, and they made a note to make sure for my bill to have envelopes again. Would that everything were this easy.
Called Oil Company - overage mentioned on receipt received 20180119 is actually all paid up.
Called Verizon and fought my way through the voice menu to a person, where I talked about how the person who moved the account over from my deceased husband's name had said that I should call and ask to be put back on the 2 year plan to get the lower rates. I was told, this time, that my *discounts* were locked in till 2020, but that I would still be subject to any basic rate increases. They also said that, should that happen, I should call again to find out if I had the lowest prices available, which apparently I currently have.
I had also tried to create a myverizon account, first, to see if I could do it myself without poking the phone monster. It got all the way through the setup process till I got to the 'create account' button, and then failed to react at all. No spinny things, no visible aspect on the browser frame to indicate any sort of processing or transaction. It was like I wasn't clicking the button at all. I turned off my adblockers, and tried again, same effect. So that's when I called the phone menu system to beat it into submission. I mentioned this to the person I got on the line, and they connected me to what I think was called the 'e-troubleshooter'. Who walked me through it twice more, including clearing cache and cookies, to the same result. I actually have a trouble ticket in to the 'devs' to figure it out. I'm betting some combo of linux and firefox and blockers, but we'll see.
Called Water Company to ask about the charges that weren't on the previous bill. I'm wrong, it was on the older bill. Also, account wasn't name-changed, it was complete new account. Person on phone looked at Otter's bill history, and said that most often it was about $55 or less. So whee, I guess I budget 60 for months we go over.
Called life insurance basic help line. Oh, this was special. First, my Claims Consultant is not the person listed on the letter, it's someone else. I now have their first name and their extension. Second, they don't know how much the insurance is for. Apparently it depends on Otter's earnings, and his cause of death. Sometimes that REDUCES IT. FMH. Third, of COURSE they don't put the interest information on the brochure about the "security account" that I can put that money into, cause obviously it's going to change on a fucking whim. Now I'm *really* pissed off.
Sent email to Otter's HR person detailing the info in the phone call, and asking them to please clear up whatever issue they are having. Stupid fucking shit.
tbd

Call SocSec lawyer and see if she wants to meet (partner of no longer eligible lawyer)
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906

Call mike the lawyer about the north bergen house deed.
Find out if I called Meryll Lynch about angus gone, account come to me?
Decide day of month I need to pay bills. (2 days before end of month is not enough time)
Contact EZPass and find out how it was being paid and figure out if I need to do anything with it.

To Do Soon

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year (current back half of step sorter that R got from Staples)
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Today, I:

Laid in bed for 5 hours, during which I did not sleep overnight. I expect this is due to having woken up around 8pm yesterday after taking migraine meds and letting my body be unhappy.
Received a phone call from the doctor's office where I had a 10:30 am appointment to get my anti-hive shot. Apparently, they had not received the medication from the specialty pharmacy, and thus we need to reschedule. They gave me the number of the specialty pharmacy so I could kick them
Got dressed and got downstairs about the time I would have if we were going out to the doctor.
Called the Surrogate's office for the county Otter died in (which more than one person had said was where I needed to go), to find out where it was, and also to ask about the fact that the DMV website said that, to transfer the title, it needed stuff from the county he lived in. Turns out 'county he lived in' was correct. They gave me the number to call them.
Called the Surrogate's Office for the county we live in, got directions, and was told I didn't need to bring any proof of what he had, or any papers like that, they'd figure out everything there.
Went out with C to have breakfast at the diner, as it was on the way to the county admin building.
Stopped at the eyeglass place for C's glasses, as it was also on the way. His were ready, mine were not. (unsurprising, both.)
Got to the County Admin Building and walked from where the car was parked through the long hallway and into the Surrogate's Office section in mostly one fell swoop. A slow swoop, but a swoop nonetheless.
Waited for a while, and then talked to the assistant surrogate or something the like, and found that while they were not going to question me about the value of anything, they really did want the checking account numbers and the VIN of the cars. She was willing to type it all up and leave 'currently unfindable' in place of the info we didn't have. I poked my phone onto Kelly Blue Book website to get the values of the cars, which she persistently lowballed. I received "Affidavits of Surviving Spouse", which apparently stands in for Surrogate's Certificates when the estate is worth less than $50,000. Yay, we're poor?
Got directions, and went to DMV to retitle the cars, it being almost 30 days since Otter died, and that's what the DMV website tells me is the grace period for this. As it turns out, if I don't produce the titles, I can't just create titles in my own name with their database info and the relevant paperwork. I must *first* ask for copies of the titles as they currently exist, at the cost of $60 per title, and THEN I can ask for the titles to be changed over to my name, at the cost of $60 per title, with the registration carrying over for $4.50. We have three cars.
Noped the fuck right out of that and came home.

Partly due to pain, partly due to 'i am not paying nearly 400 dollars to do this', and with the gentle words from the nice police officer who had drawn duty that day in Somerville's DMV office, who told me that as long as I don't do Bad Things (tm) (like commit crimes, or do things that might cause people to try to find the owner, or try to register the cars again in the decedent's name) that I won't be hassled over it.

Oh, and I also called the pharmacy to find out why I hadn't gotten my synthroid refilled along with everything else. Apparently I'm out of refills.

To Do

- Call paindoc again re willing to fill out handicapped parking forms.
- Call allergy doc about resched shot.
- Call old trash company and cancel the account
- Call endocrinologist about getting more synthroid
- PAY BILLS
- Find the mazda car title. (R found the other two)
- call oil company about account and payments etc.
- Fill out forms for 401k
- Call number at town hall about making appt to talk to folks about putting house/bills in my name only. (look for business card. Catbag? DeathCertEnvelope?
JANUARY 16th: Go to SocSec office and deal with death stuff.
Depending on paindoc answer, DL handicapped parking forms from DMV and get him to fill out, if he's ok with it.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Things I need:
Container for current month bills before they are paid.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.