The curious letter.

OK so,  yesterday I mentioned something that we got in the mail that I thought was rather….odd.  Normally I would simply turf something like this out,  but I thought I’d share.

So,  there was no actual name above the address in the little window box of the envelope.  Just our address,  which I’ve blanked out here.  Not putting my address on the internet fer heaven’s sake.  Bad enough trusting the gobermint with our information with the heartbleed business, but that’s a whole other story.

Don’t get me started.

 

Anyway,  no actual name,  so I thought “Hey that’s a good scam.”  I mean,  just randomly pick addresses out of the phone book, and fire off an “invoice”.

Well, who uses an actual phone book anymore, really?  But you know what I mean.  And,  it turns out it is an actual company,  although I’m not about to provide a link.  T.C. looked it up.  They exist.

So here we go:

I don’t recall which one was the cover letter,  but it might have been the one above.  Doesn’t matter.

So let me just paraphrase what this dough head was saying.  “We’re kinda dumb and we don’t understand this tax thing,  so could you send us money?”

Oh and,  it’s also wrong.  We don’t even have *that* tax anymore. 

And you know,  you can look sh*t up on the internet and find out all about importing,  exporting.  Taxation.   You should try it there, Matt.  

It’s amazing really,  that whole internet thing.  It’s not just for sharing dumb jokes and some of that *rude* stuff.  There’s actual information to be had out there!

OK so,  did you get all that?  They were “audited”.

Right. 

 

And so,  to support their “claim”,  they include all the documentation.

 

Oh,  and then there was an additional sheet to fill out with a credit card number.

 

 

Oh my fecking Gawd! 

Where shall I begin to explain the stupidity here?   First of all,  it may very well have been a legitimate purchase by Daughter Number Two who was living here for the last four plus years.   Fine and dandy.  She was here today,  I honestly forgot to ask,  because it matters so very little.  Because really? 

Here’s the thing,  if you go into a shop and they forget to charge you the tax that they’re supposed to collect on behalf of some government or other,  then guess what?  They’re on the hook.  You’re long gone.

And really FOUR DOLLARS???    

Postage is a buck,  and then what?  send you a cheque?  Oh wait,  in US funds?  Let me just run out and get a money order.  ‘Cause they’re only ten bucks.

I’m tempted to call up this “Matt van Dom” just to tell him how uttering stoopid he must be.   Or think I am.

Maybe I misread that.  Was it Matt van Dumb?   That would be too obvious.   I can only hope that this was somehow generated by some automated program installed by a room full of a thousand monkeys smacking away at a thousand keyboards. 

That I could accept.

Never know,  maybe I’ll be getting a threatening letter next.  Of course,  It would be a good thing if they actually had a NAME to add to their documents. D’ya think?

And don’t worry,  I won’t be calling Matt any time soon. Unless of course I block my number…

Meh,  not even then.  Couldn’t be bothered.

 

Now,  the upside of all this?   I got to try out our nifty new scanner/printer thingy.  It’s an HP 4500 something or other.

We’ve been going through some peripherals over the last little while. 
First of all,  the scanner was no longer being supported by the new Windoz program.  So that sucked.

THEN,  our old reliable printer,  which WAS being supported by the new Windoz,  decided to crap out.

Oh,  and let’s not forget the web cam.

BAH!

I mean, the printer and the scanner were both TWELVE YEARS OLD, so I can’t complain about longevity or anything.  I mean,  what’s that in computer years?  144?  A long time. 

A long.  Time.

So I found us a new one.  Had to go to Futile Shop to pick it up,  but it’s here and working just fine.  There was a “deal”,  and it was either there or “The Source”.  It came down to whoever wasn’t sold out.

AND,  it’s wireless.   I just sits there in the little spot that was originally designed for a massive typewriter (it’s an old desk)  and will spit out whatever I want it too.  Oh,  and I’ve *almost* figured out how to get it to print from T.C.’s Ipad.   Somehow the POP is being a bastard.  No big deal.  It will print pictures from her Ipad, but emails?  Meh.

Scanning something of course means I have to actually open the door to the desk and pull the thing out,  but I can suffer that inconvenience.  

I mean,  I have to lift the lid and everything.

 

Normally I’ve never been keen at all when it comes to the “all in one” type of devices,  but it was only just under eighty bucks.  And that’s including some feckin’ 10 dollar “environmental fee”.    *pfft*

So we’ll see how long it lasts.   I suppose if we don’t pack it up and move it half way across the globe,  that should help?  Who knows?

 

Didn’t want to say too much about it,  but we had that white four letter word stuff earlier today.  It’s mostly gone,  but still cold out.  

And I’ve already put away my winter coat but hey,  it’ll be nice again in a few days.  Let’s hope.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for stopping by.