It doesn’t matter who you call. You can call a creditor, someone you owe money to; you can call your bank, who holds your money; you can call your mutual fund, who also holds your money. It doesn’t matter. You’re the caller and that makes you the dumb one. They didn’t call you now did they?

“Hello. I need a copy or something to show that the money I got from you is my own and not a loan”. This is after proving who I was and the techie had my account on the screen.

“We sent a statement verifying the distribution. Are you saying you never received it?”

“No, I got it. I didn’t know I needed it so I tossed it. Now I need to show a mortgage company that the money was mine. The electronic deposit only shows a deposit. See my problem?”.

“No, sir, I don’t. We sent you a verification statement.”

“Yea, and I tossed it out. My mistake. Can’t you send me a copy or, better yet, fax it for me?”.

“I don’t know if we can do that. We’ve updated our computers. I don’t know if we can”.

Now is when you need to make a decision. Blow up and piss her off or be humble until after you get what you need and then blow up and piss her off.

“Umm, you’re looking at it now. You only need to send a copy of what you’re looking at. That would do it. No big trick”.

Silence.

“Hello? You still there?”, I asked.

“Of course, sir. We don’t hang up on our customers”.

“No, I didn’t think you- uh, can you do it?”

“Sir, I’ll call you in the morning and give you your options. I need your telephone number”.

“Telephone number? It’s the same as it was”.

“I don’t see any number here for this account”.

A lie. They call me enough times. I gave it to her anyway.

“Thank you. Someone will call you in the morning. You sure you don’t have the one we sent you”.

“If I had we wouldn’t be having this conversation”.

“Of, you’d be surprised. People call about the dumbest things”.

Yea, like asking customer service for help.