Ugh. Venting time!

A woman from the Federal Communications Commission called me this morning to question some information on a form I’d filled out (long story, has to do with me trying to renew my ham radio license), and she made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in hearing any of the FCC-related problems that were the reason behind my filling out the form in the first place – she just wanted to know why the last name they had on file was different from the one I used on the form (maiden name vs. married name, which boggles the mind, since I swear I sent in a copy of my marriage certificate before to make the name change official). She even went out of her way to be rude about my must-be-a-terrorist-or-something last name by asking, “How do you pronounce that?” But don’t mistake that for interest. She followed up with a very snippy, “Well, I can’t say that here.” What? Where? In the United States? Really, lady? Too bad my first name isn’t Sudoku to go along with it. If you don’t care how my name is pronounced, don’t ask.

The woman made other snide remarks during our brief conversation to make it clear that she would really rather not be talking to me, and I had to play along and be nice because I needed her to process my “secret question” so I could access my FCC online account for the first time. (By the way, FCC, it isn’t “I forgot my password” if I never had a password to begin with.) I also had to be nice because she had my Social Security Number on file, right in front of her, because for some reason, the FCC now seems to believe it’s important to be able to associate my tax records with my “hobbyist” license.

This whole thing, along with other (unrelated) unpleasant experiences I’ve had over the years I’ve spent as a ham operator, makes me question why I’m even bothering to renew my license. If people are going to be so ridiculous during everyday discourse, I can’t even imagine how obnoxious they’d be in the face of a real emergency, when the communicators are needed most.

Todd questions whether I really want to mention the FCC directly in this blog, and yes, I do. If someone from the agency reads this, good for them: They ought to know what kind of awesome job their people are doing and what kind of reputation the whole agency is going to get out of it, kind of like how the IRS got a bad rap from their (supposedly formerly) non-friendly personnel. I realize it probably doesn’t sound, from the way I’ve related the story, like this was such a big deal, but she was pretty mean, and I didn’t deserve that so early in the morning.

As of about 2 p.m., my business with the agency was settled for the time being. Hopefully, now that I’ve reconciled my accounts (again, totally the FCC’s fault, not mine) when I renew my license, I won’t have to interact with any real people. SO done with that.