To honor Neal’s Little Kick, I’ve got my own story of being generally beaten around.
So, I’m pursuing my master’s degree right now at San Jose State University. I had to pick up two credits of undergrad classes before I could be admitted to full status (I needed ONE art history and ONE studio course… so of course I end up taking SIX credits to cover them). So, I signed up for Open University, meaning I’m not yet an “official” student. I took out an education loan to pay for my classes. Even though my loan has been confirmed and signed for, SJSU insisted that I needed to pay my bill IN FULL immediately or they would drop me from my classes. After many hours (seriously) on hold, I finally learn that I can put my SJSU classes on a credit card, and they will give me my loan as a check when it comes through. Not my favorite option, being that they should be used to dealing with loans and just count me as paid and wait for my disbursement to go through. But, that would make too much sense, so I have to scramble to pay for this huge bill.
So, I go online to the little pay your bill dealy and, again, go through HOURS of navigating through their horrible user interface. Finally, the moment comes when I can finally enter in all of my info and pay the bill. Only…and this is the real kicker… AFTER I enter all of this information, taking HOURS OF MY TIME… it tells me that they don’t accept VISA. VISA!?! Isn’t that, like, the MAJOR credit card? Why would you not accept visa? And why wouldn’t you at least have the courtesy to tell me that UP FRONT before I spend hours of my time figuring out your horribly designed web site?
So, Josh gives me the Discover card. I login and, after going through all the hoops YET AGAIN, I press the “Pay Bill” button. THEN, it tells me there is a $35 fee for paying online, and do I accept? WHAT THE HECK?
Later, I am starving, so I go to the dining center place, which has Jamba Juice, Subway, McDonalds, and a coffee shop. After standing in line at the Jamba, I finally get to the front where I see a tiny sign on the cash register that says, “Sorry! We only accept Cash and Star Points!” (Star points are the little on-campus money so you put money in an account, then buy things with your student ID card). I was so MAD! Every other Jamba Juice I’ve been to has accepted Visa/Debit/Whatever cards with no problem. I assumed that since they were a real Jamba Juice place that they would maintain the same standards across their corporation. But NOOOOOOOOO!
Then, I went to the student store where I picked up an orange juice and paid for it using my VISA check card! Gosh!
Okay, I’m sorry, but this is so insane. It makes me wish that the government would just put those stupid computer chip deals in my head so I could just scan my face everywhere to pay for things. “My face, it’s everywhere I want to be!” Besides potentially being the mark of the beast, I think that would rock.