The story is out
Last night, Bill & I watched our story air on the 10:00 news. This morning it was added to the news channel website. I'll send out the link to friends & family via email rather than posting it here because a lot of personal information is disclosed (the name of the gym, the insurance company, our small town, etc). If you would like to watch the clip & read about the story, email me.

It was interesting watching myself on the news, crying, of course. At least it wasn't what Oprah calls "the ugly cry". While the whole story wasn't told, it was still a good piece. They left out a lot of the details, like how someone at The Gym stole our insurance premiums & didn't send them into The Insurance Company or how we did file a formal complaint with the Insurance Commission, it was kicked out & we were told we had to file with the California Insurance Commission (which is nearly impossible to navigate). But, at this point, the details don't matter. We got our money back, the situation is over & done with & we won. That's all that I really care about anyway.

Over & done with
This morning I received our reimbursement check from The Insurance Company via courier. The investigative reporter came out this afternoon to film the final interview (with Logan running around like a wild hooligan, making Buddha chase him all around the house). They will interview the VP of The Insurance Company tomorrow & before you know it, our story will air on our local news.

With the check in hand, it's finally over & done with.

Persistence pays off!!!!!!
This afternoon I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with the VP of The Insurance Company we were in a lawsuit with. The Company was able to do some research on the situation to see where things went wrong. This is how it all went down:

Bill paid for employee benefits only in 2005. In 2006 he paid for employee plus spouse. In February of 2006 we paid for family coverage. From March to June of 2006 The Big City Gym screwed up & only took payments for employee plus spouse coverage. In October 2006, Big City Gym figured out they screwed up, took the premium payments out again, but never sent them to The Insurance Company (yes, this is missing money).

Big City Gym sent paperwork for employee plus spouse coverage to The Insurance Company, but The Company never canceled Logan's coverage. This was a mistake by the Service Center & thus why every time we went in for Logan's well-baby visits, we were never told of a problem. It was recognized in June & retroactive. We began getting billed for the services, we refused to pay since we had paid for it already. In the process of fighting the bills, they sent us to collections in mid 2006. January of '07 the collections agency filled the suit. This was authorized by a non-management employee. Another mistake by The Insurance Company. Our case has prompted procedure changes with The Company so that they improve communication with the collection agency & make sure they go over the case before a suit is filled.

The VP of The Insurance Company then proposed their resolution. They are going to reimburse us the money taken from the collection agency, interest, court costs & then an additional payment of interest (this is like a pain & suffering payment - or paying us interest that we would have made if we had the money in our account). Not only are we getting our money back plus some, they are removing the garnishment from our credit history. All of this will happen by Monday when we get our check via courier.

WE WON THE CASE!!!! IT'S FINALLY OVER WITH!!!!

Tuesday afternoon, the VP of The Insurance Company is getting interviewed by the investigative reporter who's covering the case. I'm not sure if I'll be interviewed again, but I most likely will so that the story is complete with a happy ending.

I cannot even begin to express how relieved & overjoyed I am that this is all over with & with our family finally being righted. There were definitely dark days where I felt defeated & honestly, I don't know if I would have kept on with the persistence & diligence that I had if it weren't for hearing the message of staying positive. This would have never happened if I hadn't called the media either. Without the reporter covering the case, we wouldn't have made this much progress in this short amount of time. I am forever thankful for her efforts in this process.

And I hate to say it like this, but I am unbelievably proud of myself for keeping on with this & sticking up for our family with such fervor. Not allowing us to get bullied by Big Corporate really paid off. It was hard, but it all worked out in the end. It gives me not only a great feeling of accomplishment, but strength as well.

I will never let our family go down & I think I've proven that without any doubt.

Eventful morning
It's been a whirlwind of activity this morning. As I was getting ready for another OB appointment, I got a call from the VP of The Insurance Company we're attempting to sue/have investigative reporter interrogate. Nothing really happened in the conversation except for an apology, assurance on a resolution & me crying on the phone about how this whole situation has effected our family. However, I hope things do move forward. It's kind of a big deal when you get a phone call from the VP of a multi-million dollar heath care system. So, I'm taking that as a good sign.

After the phone call, I dropped Logan off at massage friends' house while I went to a follow up appointment from last week. I'm down another 5 pounds for a total of 10 pounds lost in 2 weeks. They were pretty concerned about that. I'm taking 8mg of zofran every 4 hours & I guess that's the max my OB wants me to be on. I'm still having a terrible time at night (not eating dinner, nauseous at the smell of what Bill's cooking himself for dinner, glued to the couch), so she prescribed compazine to take at night. I agreed & then came home to look up the information. I'm not sure I want to take it anymore.

It sounds kind of scary. I'm almost thinking starvation at night & dealing with HG with just the zofran (as much as it's not working at night) might be a better option. This stuff sounds serious. More so than zofran. I'm doing more research on it & other medication options (phenergan is not an option for me) to see what else I can do. It looks like my insurance company isn't going to cover the compazine anyway seeing as though the prescription was delayed & they have to call the insurance company.

This time it might be a good thing.

I have so much hope
This afternoon the reporter & her camera person came by the house to film the piece for the news story on our lawsuit. We sat at my kitchen table & talked about the issue on film. Logan has been sick for the last few days, so he was napping while all of this went on. I was hooked up on a microphone, just like when I was on the reality TV show with my photographer friend. Kitty was jumping all round the house & I'm sure she's in a few shots.

The reporter was just so bothered by all of this that we're going through & couldn't understand how all of this happened. Yeah. Me neither. As we kept talking about it, she said something to the effect of "this must be hard" or something like that. That brought on the water works. Yes, it is hard indeed & now all of Colorado is going to see me cry on the news.

After they filmed to story, the took some shots of our family photos & went upstairs & filmed Logan sleeping (who was out cold & an earthquake couldn't wake him up). The reporter said that she was going to contact the insurance company, Big City Gym & the attorney that screwed us over. She's going to give them a chance to make this right before she airs the piece, but if they don't, all bets are off & this story goes out. She seemed so motivated to help our family find justice. I have so much hope. So much.

Second base
We're making progress over here with the lawsuit against the Big City Gym! For the last few months, I've been researching on how to file this claim ourselves. It has not been easy; my eyes glaze over & roll back into my head every time I read legalese now. There's been a lot of research & trying to figure out how the intricate details of the legal system work. Let me tell you, attorneys pay an arm & a leg for their education & it's worth every last cent. It's not something you can just learn on your own in a few short months (like I was even thinking that was possible, anyway).

So, last night in a last ditch effort, realizing that filing the suit on my own was way too difficult, I contacted one of our local news stations. It sparked a bit of frustration when I picked Bill up from work & told him about it. "I don't think that's going to work", he said. I quickly snapped back, "Well, what do you suggest that I do!? We've exhausted every last option & I'm grasping at straws now!" This really made for a quite ride back home. It was not what I wanted to hear. If I was going to be told that this idea wouldn't work, it would have been better received if there was an alternate idea suggested, rather than me just being shot down.

This afternoon I took a nap while Logan was sleeping, too. I was awoken by the ring of my cell phone & a voice mail alert. I got up & listened to the message. It was the news station calling me back. They wanted to get a reporter out here to see what the story was about. I almost fell to the floor listening to this message. It was another hope! If there's not anything they can do about it, at least the story will get out to all of Colorado & maybe there will be someone who watches that can help us out. At this point, all I have left is hope.

Double the pleasure, double the fun
It's official. We're speaking to an attorney to proceed with another lawsuit, this one against Bill's current (soon to be former) employer. What. The. Hell.

He met with the owner of this gym this morning (let's call this one "small town gym" & the other one "Big City Gym" just to cut down on the confusion). They told him that he's causing too much trouble & stirring the pot & tried to fire him on the spot. They compromised with letting him finish the sales leads he currently has & they will part ways on the 15th.

In the meantime, Bill got a call from the techie-kind of job he interviewed for yesterday & was offered the job. He goes in tomorrow morning to shadow & officially "accept" the position (& find out the actual pay structure). So, the situation could be a whole lot worse. We're confident that everything is going to be A-OK.

The attorney that we met with for the Big City Gym case is out of town until Tuesday. We'll try & meet up with him again to see what we can do in the small town gym suit, be it a dispute solely on the commission or possibly that & a wrongful termination case. At the very least, we can file this with the State Labor Board & go through a mediation process.

It's at this point that I can see why I went through all of that crap trying to find an attorney for the Big City Gym suit. Now I know exactly who to call, what to say, what employment lawyers in our town offer free consultations & what to do in situations like this. We actually "have" an employment attorney that we've met with & have a connection with. Proceeding with the small town gym lawsuit will be very easy & virtually stress free. Imagine that! I still can't believe I'm saying "stress free" & "lawsuit" in the same sentence.

It's just strange to realize how life events eventually fit together like puzzle pieces. We knew Bill's time at the small town gym was coming to an end. Last week we had a "money versus morals" discussion at dinner, where Bill was telling me some underground news about the fitness industry here in town. We've known for a few years that the Big City Gym had purchased land to build their first club here in our small town. Since we've worked with the Big City Gym, we know the world domination that happens when they first develop in a town. It's oddly similar to the movie Dodgeball. The Big City Gym is definitely Globo Gym.

Bill learned that the Big City Gym is breaking ground in 4 months. They will set up their sales trailer until the building is completed by late spring/early summer. When the Big City Gym opens, all of the average Joe gyms will go under. Only the boutique gyms will stay in business. The small town gym? It's an average Joe gym & we know they won't make it.

Before all of th developments this morning, Bill was talking about possibly going back to the Big City Gym, even though we are currently proceeding with a lawsuit. His mentality was "if you can't beat em', join em". Financially, I can see his point. Emotionally, it was like a kick in the gut. I started to cry in my salad thinking about dealing with them again. I mean, they fired me for being pregnant, they screwed up our insurance paperwork & refused to fix it so now we're in this legal mess & overall, I just want them to burn to the ground. The Big city Gym is a multi-billion dollar gym, so that's never going to happen. They're just going to spread all over the world like the plague.

So, this change of career is prefect timing. It's kind of funny how all of this is feeling more like a nuisance rather than a huge, stressful upheaval. All I have to figure out is where I'm going to train my friends. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get into the small town gym after the 15th. I'm getting my thinking cap on...

It never ends, does it.
You're never going to believe this. Not only are we perusing a lawsuit against Bill's former employer (The Gym), but we might start another lawsuit with his CURRENT employer (a different gym). This is why I hate the idea of working for other people. The employee always gets screwed. Well, at least that's how it always is for us.

This is the scoop:

Bill is paid hourly versus draw. The way his commissions are calculated is he is paid by the total amount of the agreement over the length of the contract the customer signs.

Example:

Customer signs a 12 month contract at $57 a month $57 X 12 = $684
Based on his sales numbers he is paid anywhere between 6-10% of the total amount of the contract. So anywhere from $41 to $68.

On the contract it states that if you cancel out your membership early (before your contract is up) you must pay a cancellation fee of $150 to $225 depending on the type of membership (single, couple, family).

When he started working there in November of last year he signed a wage agreement stating that he would be making hourly vs. draw, & would be paid commissions according to their tier.

TOTAL CONTRACT VALUE
$25,000+ = 10%
$20,000-$24,999 = 9%
$15,000-$19,999 = 8%
$10,000-$14,999 = 7%
Under $10,000 = 6%

This is all that he signed.

A couple months into his employment he started getting "charge backs" on memberships that he had sold the previous months. These were charge backs for people who wanted to cancel early & were not made to pay a cancellation fee. He also received charge backs for people whose accounts went past due, due to credit cards declining or them closing their bank accounts. The total that he has been charged back equals over $2,000 over the 9 months that he has been employed there.

The dispute is that we do not see how they can legally do this after his commissions have been paid & it is out of his hands whether or not these people pay for their memberships. They have an entire group of people in their business office who handle all of the cancellation calls, EFT rejects etc. He's worked in many different gyms where there is a (legal) three-day cancellation policy in which he doesn't get paid on the membership, but it's never ever been like this before.

Is this not ridiculous? He is their top sales person, making them a crap load of money every month & this is the thanks he gets? Yesterday Bill got his paycheck & found out that they shorted him over $900 due to "charge backs", which is nothing he ever agreed to. We've been talking about this issue ever since he found out what was happening (months ago) & now it's affecting the livelihood of our family (go figure). He had a total freak out at work & talked to the General Manager telling him that he has a family to feed & they better fix this now or it's getting reported to the Labor Board & we're taking them to court to recover the cost of these "charge backs".

They scheduled a meeting with the owner of the gym for tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, Bill had an interview with a different company this afternoon. He aced their written sales test (they said it was the highest score they've ever seen) & he'll get the results of the test later tomorrow (where he had to take an IQ test. Not bragging, but I think he's qualified for MENSA). The next step is that they'll offer him a position & he goes in to "shadow", making sure this is something he wants to do.

I'm not holding my breath because he's interviewed with this company before (back in May) & it fell through. Even after they were showing him around saying, "this is where your desk will be. This is where you will, blah, blah, blah". If you're not going to hire someone, then why tell them this is where you WILL work? Anyway, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

First base
This morning we had another consultation with an attorney. I was very hopeful about this meeting because I actually spoke with the attorney himself, rather than having the case description passed along by the receptionist or legal assistant. He seemed interested in the case & wanted to take a look at all of our evidence.

We arrived at his office & reviewed every last detail of events & documents. He was astonished at the unethical practices of the attorney working for The Insurance Company, who filed the judgment to garnish our wages. Apparently, with one more piece of evidence, our case is a slam dunk winner.

But there's a catch.

While we spent a good hour with him in this (free) consultation & he reduced his retainer fee quite a bit, it will cost more in legal fees than what we would sue for. There are different courses of action we could take, with the attorney writing The Gym a threating letter & (the most expensive option) filing a lawsuit in The Big City. This is going to break the bank because there are major travel expenses involved. Our least expensive option is to contact The Gym (again) warning them that we've sought legal counsel & begin a file in small claims. If there isn't any progress with this direction, my next step is contacting the media.

I've waited to get the media involved because I didn't want to compromise the case, just in case things were to work out with an attorney. We have one more option to resolve this, but if The Gym continues to pull this corporate bull crap, I'm dedicating my days to calling every single news station in the state, every single national station, every paper publication & even emailing Oprah. I will spread the word across the entire world if I have to.

It's not fair or just that a billion dollar corporate company (or companies) can take advantage of working class families just because they don't have the money to defend themselves. As I've said before, we're not going down. We are not going to be bullied & we will not be beat. I'm not only fighting this because of the sum amount being a big chunk of change for us, but my fire is fueled on fighting for the principle. What's happening to us is just wrong & now we have expert opinion on this as well. I'm not going to take it lying down.

Ring around the rosie
So what have I been doing the last few days? Making phone calls & doing research. First, I must say...THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET. If I didn't have Google, I wouldn't even begin to know where to go or what to do about this lawsuit. I've found many options, which is great. It's better than the lost puppy feeling I had last week. While I've made calls to ten (yes, 10!) law firms & each one sounds hopeful but results in a referral to another office, I'm still staying positive. I'm feeling a lot better; determined & persistent rather than defeated. I called an office earlier this afternoon & will personally speak to the attorney later this evening. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!!

With the perception of "live the life you love, love the life you live", I announced the date of the next tasting party. In two weeks, everyone is coming over to sample burgers, pizza, a fruity dessert & Betty Crocker dessert. This is the big month, with a ton of contests! I'm actually really nervous about it because I haven't practiced nearly as much as I need to. Really, we should be having burgers & pizza every night for the next while (& who's going to complain about that?!) I have some great ideas & it' going to be a lot of fun putting them together.

All afternoon I've been trying to get Logan doing his sign language & ring around the rosie on film. All attempts have been squashed with an inquisitive toddler trying to look through the view finder of the camcorder, then freaking out in a fit of rage because I ask him to sign something. I'll keep trying & if there's success, I'll upload it on here tonight. Or, maybe I'll just show the world the temper tantrums that I'm dealing with over here & everyone can send their sympathies...

Strike two
This morning we had another consultation with a different attorney. It did not go well. Well, it didn't go anywhere. I was referred to this attorney by another attorney. Apparently, this guy didn't practice the particular type of law we need (business & employment) & on top of that, he didn't work on a contingency basis or have sliding scale fees & wanted a good chunk of money for the consultation. When money is being wrongfully taken from us & we're barely scrapping by, how are we supposed to just come up with retainer fees & throw cash around for consultations?

This meeting was a big waste of time & even more so because he couldn't refer us to anyone else. We thanked him for his time, gathered our notebook & manila folder of evidence & walked out the door. Again, choked up & teary, I tried to keep it together as we walked down the sidewalk to the car. "It's OK. I'll take care of it", Bill reassured me.

While we were driving home, Bill was talking about not hiring an attorney & taking care of this in small claims court. "Are you serious?", I gasped. "I'm not going to pretend I know what I'm doing here. We can't do that. We have no expertise in this. We're not taking any short cuts". I breathed some more & tried not to cry more than I already was. We drove without further conversation, listening to a CD Bill burned a few days ago.

I sat there listening to Pato Banton & staring out the passenger window. I started to silently cry as the lyrics spoke directly to me:

Situation in the world is crazy.
We got to stay positive.

Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.
Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.
Live the life you love, love the life you live
and no matter what the crisis is.
Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.

Every time me take a little look on the T. V.
seems like the whole world gone crazy.
War, famine and poverty
people are dying continually.
So many people are getting confused
so many reasons to get in the blues.
But with a little faith in the most high's plan
it gives me strength to sing this song.

Positive! Ooh yes we have to stay positive.
Positive! No matter what the crisis is.
Positive! Even when things gone wrong.
Positive! This is the time when you got to be strong.
Positive! Black, white, pink or brown.
Positive! Live in the city or you live in the town.
Positive! Ooh yes we have to stay positive.
Positive! No matter what the crisis is.

Live the life you love, love the life you live
and no matter what the crisis is.
When there's life to live, and there's love to give
why should you be negative?
You got to stay positive!

I kid you not. While my views on organized religion are jaded from my experiences, I never denied my spirituality & that there is a higher power. This was one of those times where I was being spoken to & it rang clear as a bell. Everything is going to be alright & I just have to hang in there.

Later in the afternoon, Bill called me from work. He called around & found another firm that sounds like it will work out. They specialize in the type of representation we need & they'll work with us on a contingency basis. We should hear back from them on Monday to schedule a consultation. In the meantime, I'm going to try my best to stay positive.

Strike one
What a draining day it's been today, both physically & emotionally. Logan & I went to playgroup this morning before our appointment with the attorney. He was a bit clingy in the beginning & had been signing "more" & "help" constantly. I need to teach him some new signs because I have no idea what he wants help with, or more of.

It was great to talk with the other moms for a bit & then my cell rang. It was Bill. Apparently, the attorney wasn't the right fit & we had to find someone else. I tried to put on a happy face & went back to chatting & playing with the kids. After a while, someone asked about the situation & I vented, wondering how could I talk about this without tearing up. Others commented on that too. "Wow, how can you be so happy & smile all of the time with this going on? I'm impressed", was the general conversation.

I came home & Bill went to work. While Logan napped, I researched more attorney's in our area, calling for referrals & finally made an appointment with a firm at the end of the week. You know? If you ever need a criminal defense or personal injury attorney, you won't have any problems getting a consultation. But, if you need a civil litigation attorney (especially in a small town), good luck.

After phone call after phone call, repeating the situation to the respective attorney's assistant, it became increasingly difficult to not cry in the conversation. Finally, after I hung up on the last call while Logan was eating lunch, I stepped out on the back deck & cried. I breathed & cried. It was just too much to keep in anymore & everything just kept spilling out.

I pulled myself together & reminded myself that I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to let these companies run us over & into the ground. We are not going down. Depending on what happens in the consultation at the end of the week, my next step is going to the media.

And so it begins.
We meet with an attorney tomorrow afternoon to move forward with the lawsuit. After many follow up calls to the National Director of HR of The Gym (which I will totally out one day so everyone can cancel their memberships. It's probably smart to wait until the case is settled) & no returned calls from him. It's on. Funny, because there was supposed to be this "big meeting" with other HR employees & even Sales Directors that Bill worked under. Considering the lack of communication, I don't think this meeting ever happened. I'm pretty sure we were lied to again. Why am I surprised...

I have a feeling this may be a long ride, but I'm hoping for the best. I will not let our family go down & I refuse to let corporate BS ruin us.

Logan is feeling a little bit better today. No puking, but the other end could improve, if you catch my drift. He hasn't had much of an appetite today & we missed a play day at the local swimming pool with The Club. I hope he's feeling well enough for playgroup tomorrow, because the two of us need to get out of the house. The Little Man is bored out of his mind, which makes for a very annoyed mom.

Well, wish us luck & send us good vibes for tomorrow! We'll need it.

Finding solutions
Now that I've boo-hood & freaked out about having to sue two (if not three) corporate companies & all of the money that will entail, we're in go-with-the-flow-mode. Bill is making arrangements with various companies to see how we can temporarily adjust our bills (car payments, etc). We also have our stainless steel appliances (check out the Craigslist link!) that we moved from our other house & put them up for sale. These solutions should tide us over for a little bit, giving Bill time to find a second or completely different job & giving me some time to find something to do without putting Logan in daycare (either training at the same gym Bill works in or possibly even stopping by Starbucks to pick up the early morning shifts...my sisters will laugh at this).

Since this whole crapfest unfolded, Bill has been doing exceptionally well at work in sales. He's expecting a pretty good commission payout (despite the fact that it will be 25% less). He's attributing it to The Secret (I'll have to elaborate on this sometime later). I'm not very excited with this, but he's even sent resumes out to different gyms across the nation. I know we might have to do it, but I don't want to leave my mom friends or Logan's little buddies either.

Somehow, this will all work out.

Kick em' while their down
This should be a segment in Micheal Moore's new movie, Sicko. It's been no secret over here that we've had a terrible time with insurance coverage. It hasn't been because of any previous condition that nobody wants to insure. No, it's because nobody can get their paperwork straight. It's all administrative BS that we have no control over.

We've met with the insurance company's attorney, sent in all of our evidence of payments & we heard nothing back. We figured that everything was resolved, we proved our case, it was a done deal. WE WERE WRONG.

Yesterday afternoon, Bill calls me from work saying that he just found out that his wages are being garnished by 25%. I just about had a heart attack. If we don't get this straightened out before the end of next month, we won't be able to pay our rent. We are in major crisis mode over here, trying to figure out the quickest solution possible.

This makes me want to kick, scream, cry, have a massive melt down & basically just lose it. We have EVIDENCE that we have paid not only monthly premiums, but all of our co-payments as well. They are saying we don't have coverage because they don't have a copy of Logan's birth certificate. THE ONE WE'VE SENT IN THREE DIFFERENT TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now they're STEALING money from us. MONEY THAT THEY ALREADY HAVE!

Bill is calling higher up on the HR ladder of The (stupid) Gym. We're also calling to set up consultations with our own attorney. I am going to sue the freaking pants off all of these people if we can't pay our rent next month! Screw that. I'm going to sue them regardless. If we don't have an immediate solution (like if the lawsuit drags on forever), we're going to have to make arrangements with our landlords on our rent payment (who will probably understand, given the circumstances), Bill is thinking about taking on a second job & the minute I have to transfer the rest of the money in savings to our checking account, I'm out looking for a daycare for Logan & a full time job for me. We're also considering a cross-country move (again) to avoid this last option if we have to.

I think I would be crying a whole lot more than I am now if it weren't for my sore neck muscles from being sick with the flu. It hurts too much to breath let alone cry. And I'm trying really, really, really hard not to swear every two words in this post too. This is just unbelievable.

Lawsuits, taxes & The Conversation
Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Not really! We went back to court to meet with the opposing attorney again this morning. Guess what we found out? The dude is just as STUPID as the HR department of The Gym & the administrative department of The Insurance Company & he ACCIDENTALLY sent in a judgment to garnish wages!! Why are we going through this? Seriously! He realized his mistake is is revoking the judgment today. We still have yet to hear from The Insurance Company, but have found out that one person who handled our HR issues at The Gym ended up getting fired because she lied about doing things when she hadn't (meaning, she said she sent in our paperwork when she didn't do anything but lie). What a freakin' mess.

Bill finished our taxes this morning (because we're slackers & wait until the very last minute to do anything). I think we're getting $65 back. I hear about people getting thousands of dollars back. I'm really wondering how that's happening. We could use some extra cash for sure! I was almost positive that we would get a bigger return this year with being able to claim Logan, the house & now being a one income family that drops us down a bracket, but I guess not!

And then...The Conversation. Bill "talked" to his mom on Sunday. I could go on forever about this, but I'll save everyone from poking their eyeballs out. Basically she said that they'll be here for Memorial Day weekend & that she wants to get this all put behind her. Bill told her that things are going to be the way they are, we are adults & not her children anymore & that's about it. I still have yet to hear from her (I'm not holding me breath for an apology-I just want a common understanding). So now the in-law visit countdown begins. T-minus 39 days.

Putting my attorney hat on
Who knew that in my life as a stay at home mom, I would have the chance to try my luck at being an attorney for a bit. Or give in & hire one. But, that's what started the craptastic week this morning. We are being sued. Yes, S.U.E.D. By our STUPID insurance company.

We received a summons for a court date a couple of months ago. When I was served the papers (in my PJ's!), I was fired up. Oh yeah! You want to sue us? I'll show you, you stupid corporate vampire! I'm going to counter sue!

This is the sitch: We had individual group coverage for both Bill & myself when we were working at The Gym. Then I was fired (for being pregnant...yes! Pregnant!!). Bill added me to his individual plan & it became a family plan. We had our premium payments taken directly out of his paycheck. We paid our co-pays before we saw any nurse or Doctor (because they won't even let you through the door of the clinic without a swipe of you debit card, cash or check). After Logan was born, we added him to the family plan. Then there was The Battle of The Missing Paperwork.

Apparently, HR at The Gym has no idea how to handle paperwork. They never sent information over to the insurance company. After many phone calls & conversations with insurance company managers, it was figured out & we were told we had coverage. Or so we thought. After a couple of months, it started all over again. I figured, "Forget it. We'll settle this in court, because I'm not paying thousands of dollars that we don't owe".

So we got served.

We gathered up our evidence that we paid premiums & co-payments (hmmm. Funny that we didn't have coverage, yet they we more than happy to take our monthly payments!) & met with the insurance company's (actually, the credit collectors) attorney. Since people are usually at fault & not The Company, we have a new court date in a couple of weeks where the attorney will look over the evidence & send it to the Insurance Company (who already has all of this evidence on file). I am very tempted to calculate how much we paid in premiums to see if it would be worth it to counter sue. I'm holding off to see what happens, because that could complicate matters & just make it worse.

In a worst case scenario, the insurance company will find fault with The Gym, in which case we'll have to pay the insurance company, then turn around & sue The Gym. Best case scenario, the insurance company will see that they need to figure out how to minimize administrative errors & improve communication with client companies & drop the case.

Either way, this is a huge pain in the butt because two big corporate companies can't find capable people to do efficient work. Hell, it seems like they can't even find people to rub two brain cells together (I know this is very true of the HR department at The Gym). So, we're stuck in the middle of this mess. I'm hoping it resolves before the end of the month (in our favor, of course).