urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:nospamat Born on the First of July! Walt Manitoba 2007-08-12T01:54:15Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:nospamat:27372 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z 2007-08-12T01:54:15Z As a talented storyteller with an active imagination, I'm impelled to share this week's excitement with you.<br /><br /><ul><li>Tuesday: A student loan representative leaves a grave-sounding voice mail; it is "very important" that I call him. Returning the call, I am told there is no record of anyone having called me.<br /><li>Friday: I receive an e-mail from my online savings bank, "Due Diligence 2nd Request". In my reply, I object that I never received a 1st request, and that I did indeed submit at application time the employment information they've just requested. Three hours later, they e-mail to apologize for the error.</ul><br />I was touched with slight paranoia^†. 'Cause it's not every week that a financial institution has a bureaucratic snafu, right? You would have heard of it on the news.<br /><br />A friend with the same account type at this bank got the same two e-mails, so it's reasonable to assume that everyone with the account got it. And while every big institution keeps a record of every damn thing, you can count on the info being stored in a diffuse system with hierarchies of access control.<br /><br />As an aside, isn't this portion of the bank e-mail<br /><blockquote><i>Please disregard the email sent on August 10, 2007, with the subject line: Due Diligence 2nd Request. This email was sent in error and we apologize for the confusion it has caused. If Due Diligence information is required, you will receive a follow-up email. Again we apologize for this inconvenience.</i></blockquote><br />typical Kafkaesque nonsense? "We won't offer an explanation for the mistake, which perhaps wasn't a mistake and we have the right to at any time inquire again." Perhaps the writer tried to be reasonable and honest to the extent a professional veneer allows. I can appreciate the challenge of that sort of writing, but... it still gnaws at me^‡. How can anyone conscious fail to be insulted by such cant?<br /><br /><br /><small><br />^† Two of my colleagues are bombarding me with this "9/11 truth" stuff and won't let up. I'm weakened.<br />^‡ I'm not fond of corporate category mistakes and the arbitrary capitalization of business terms, neither!</small>