Rant and rave

[rivkat]

Argh. In 1997, my checkbook was stolen. I cancelled the checks, and in 1998 closed the account. Turns out, in 1999 someone forged two of the checks. In 2001, a collection agency tracked me down; I submitted an affidavit of fraud, and that should have been it. But no; the store at which the forger used the checks went bankrupt, and (no one will admit this, but it's clearly what happened) they lost the records of which accounts receivable were actually closed and a new collection agency contacted me about the "bad checks that [I] passed," language both understandable and infuriating. Now, of course, after 7 years I don't have any records and I'm really upset. Also, they got the name of the issuing bank wrong, so the bank has no record of the (nonexistent) account. I'm probably overreacting, but we're about to close on the house and financial curveballs like this really scare me.

I'm just going to assume that if you're here and you're fannish, you've heard about Lanning's new SV story, which I just devoured. So instead I will point you to yahtzee63's incredible Edward Scissorhands/Lemony Snicket crossover, so good that I begin to believe Mr. Snicket has cleverly disguised himself as the noted XF/Angel/Alias/XMM writer. Knowledge of Snicket is a plus, but I don't think you need to know anything about Edward to adore this story.

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec!

Also, if it helps leaven the angst, I will share the ultimate bad-credit tale of all time, which truly happened to two people in my New Orleans book club:

Judith met her husband while they were both grad students in London in the 1960s. Dick was about to leave for a six-month research stint in Africa, and he and Judith got married in a big rush right before that. She went around happily changing her account names everywhere to Mrs. Barton, so all would be in order before they left.

They left. They returned six months later. And among their correspondence were huge -- huge as in tens of thousands of dollars -- bills from Harrod's, for extravagant purchases made while they were in Africa. Clearly it was a mistake, and they took the bills in. Harrod's first policy was that Harrod's did not make mistakes, but after proof was offered that these people were in Africa and NOT London at the time, the store finally agreed to doublecheck.

What happened?

Turned out that, on the same day Judith went in and changed her account name to "Mrs. Richard Barton," somebody else went in and changed her account name to "Mrs. Richard Burton."

And so they had six months' of Liz Taylor's impulse spending on their tab.