Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hey USA. . .

I've got an idea. We're in a huge financial mess right now and looking for ways to cut budgets and save money, right? So here's an idea for the good old bureaucrats who run our country. How about you stop making stupid mistakes? Maybe if you would take a few extra seconds to do things right, it would save a whole lot of time, money, and effort to fix your stupid mistakes. For example, if you had taken a couple of seconds to proofread my new passport (and compare it to my old one) before you sent it to me, then you would have seen that you had misspelled my middle name and you could have corrected it before you sent it. You would thereby save the money and effort that is now required for me to fill out a new passport form with all of the same information that I just mailed you a few weeks ago, mail that to you along with the supporting documentation that I also sent a few weeks ago, have it all reprocessed, have my supporting documentation mailed back separately from my passport, and then have my passport priority mailed back to me, hopefully with my name spelled correctly.

Yes, people, that is correct. I recently renewed my passport and in the process, changed my last name to my married name. I sent my old passport, the renewal application, two pictures, and my marriage certificate. All of which had my name spelled correctly. Upon receiving my new passport, I saw that they misspelled my middle name. Which middle name had been spelled correctly in my old passport, required no change on my new passport, and should have been no problem. Does anybody else think that these types of mistakes are unacceptable? My entire life, I have had my name misspelled. On everything. First or last name - didn't matter - one of them was going to be misspelled. And you know what it says to me when you misspell my name? You didn't pay attention to details. And details such as names are fairly important details. So, the United States Government apparently has a problem with paying attention to details. No wonder we have budget problems. No wonder we're in an economic crisis. No wonder we have bad relationships with other countries. Some details, in truth, are not important. But, some are. And if you don't pay attention to those details, you're going to make mistakes. Mistakes that cost time, money, and effort to fix. Proofreading and rechecking your work were concepts I learned in elementary school. Maybe it's time for our government to go back to the basics.

6 comments:

Tammy said...

You'd think they would take the time to do it right since they are pretty much our most important documentation telling who we are if we want to travel. Imagine Kaitlin's surprise when she received hers and it said she was born in 1886! She looks great for her age!

Dalene said...

C'mon, people!

Hayley said...

you tell em, frisby.

my sister's name is "whitney" and on her birth certificate she is known as "whitnery"

Hilary said...

I didn't think I was registered to vote because I called the county and they couldn't find my name. AJ goes to vote and sees my name and tells me to come over. Well they spelled my name completely wrong. Hileny. Not only an N but an E as well. I mean, such an obvious mistake people!

I've also had middle name spelled wrong on my drivers license, and had to redo that.

And the latest news, AJ's social security number has been wrong with the company he works for for the last year and a half. We had no idea until I got his W-2s and saw it after all this time. Meanwhile after being layed off twice, the unemployment office hasn't been able to provide him benefits and we had no idea why. Until now.

Long comment, but I feel you!

Ashlee said...

I know how you feel. My name is spelled wrong on just about everything.

Sharon said...

Jennie Ray, get over it. It's a misspelling, not a $787 billion dollar spending package.