This week has been heinous.York University somehow "lost" my social insurance number (I had to give it to them to register in the first place, so they did have it at one point), and because according to them, I didn't have one, they switched me over to "international student", and started sending me these outrageous four-figure bills. Of course, I was confused, seeing as I'd paid all my fees in September 2002, so I called them and asked what was up. I was told about the "international student" situation, and that I should go to the registrar's office and give them my social insurance number again, and the fees would be taken off.
So on Tuesday, that's what I did.
The lady I saw looked at my fees, and said "No no .. we thought you were an international student but we fixed that .. look, right here, we reimbursed you." ... so I said "OK .. then why am I still getting these huge bills?" .. and she said "Because you didn't pay for two of your courses, see?" .. So anyway, I was really confused, because I was pretty sure I'd paid for all my courses in September 2002, and I was also pretty sure that those measly little 3-credit courses didn't cost anywhere near the amount I was being billed, but the woman seemed so sure of herself, and I do tend to screw things like this up, so I went home in tears, thinking I owed York over $1,600, which of course I don't have, and which I would have to ask my parents for, which would be really bad, since my dad gave me more than enough to pay for all my university fees back in 2002, and I'd spent it all, somehow apparently without realizing I still had two courses to pay for.
So I went home and called my mom, who called my dad and told him (What, me tell my dad I fucked up with his money? Are you kidding me?), and needless to say, he was pissed.
Then my mom and I started going through my statements from York, trying to make sense of them. We discovered that I DID pay for all of my courses in September 2002 after all, and then in May 2003, they were suddenly not only charging me for them again, but they were charging me ridiculous amounts of money for them. They did, however, deduct what I paid for them in September (I paid the full, domestic cost of the courses, a mere fraction of what they were trying to charge me now), which is why the woman thought they'd reimbursed me.
So yeah, they still thought I was an international student. Why they only charged me international fees for two of my courses, I have no idea. So I had to go down there yet again on Wednesday (did I mention it takes me about two hours to get there?), re-explain the situation to them, and give them my social insurance number. And finally, they fixed the problem for me. I think they owe me for emotional damages and unnecessary stress, though.
So anyway, after that, I had to explain to my dad that it was a mistake, that I really didn't screw up. The thing is, York had been sending me these nasty bills for almost a year, and I never did anything about them, because I was pissed off that they were making me go to so much trouble for a mistake they made, and had probably made with a whole lot of other students, since the woman I talked to said that the computer system is what "lost" the social insurance numbers. Anyway, the unfortunate part is that my dad had to find out that I'd been ignoring my York bills for a whole year, letting the interest go up like crazy .. tsk .. irresponsible (luckily, they can't make me pay interest on money I never actually owed). I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't send creditors.
To top it off, when I finally fixed things, the guy I talked to called up the financial office to make sure the fees were wiped from my account, and he said to them: "Hi, I have a student here that you've probably been sending notices to to give us her social insurance number ..". BULLSHIT! They never sent me anything so informative! I had to call York to find out why they were sending me such huge bills, and every time I tried to get through to them, they put me on hold for an hour. Literally, an hour! Rrrrrgh! Goddamn beaurocracies.
Another funny thing was that when I went back to the Student Services Centre at York yesterday and asked for a ticket to see someone from the registrar's office (yes, they make you take a ticket), she said "Um .. you need to talk to someone? May I ask what it's about?" .. in other words, she was saying "We don't hand these things out to just ANYONE, honey", despite the fact that I'd had no trouble getting in the previous day (of course, that might've been because I was practically crying after hunting the entire campus for the registrar's office, which had recently moved all the way to the other side of the campus, and the woman clearly felt sorry for me). So I tried to explain my situation to her as briefly as possible, and she said "Oh .. well do you have any proof of your citizenship?". I almost said "Well let's see .. I'm whiter than fuck, I don't have any sort of foreign accent, and if you talk to me for two minutes, you'll note that I punctuate almost all of my sentences with a healthy supply of "eh's". Instead, I simply said "Yes I do.", and she gave me my precious ticket. Probably for the best.
My neck started hurting today, and shortly after that, it started to rain. I think I might be getting one of those pains that old people have.
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