Hypography Science Forums: niviene - Viewing Profile - Hypography Science Forums

Some of you know that I have been studying law for a few years now. Now that I'm nearing the end, I've been thinking about what I've learned in school - the ideals - vs the harsh reality. How I wish that things really went as they do in the books. But, reality isn't even remotely close. The worst of the whole thing is what it's done to me, I feel. The only word I can think of to describe my overall feeling of the world around me right now is "angry." I feel angry. About everything. When I sign a receipt and notice it's a contract, I feel angry. When I look at a EULA on something I install and read the contract's wording, when I get a product I feel isn't up to par with what I paid for, when I hear about my sister's landlord keeping her deposit for cleaning charges - all these things I didn't know were really 'illegal' before or that were binding, technically, in some way, now make me just feel... sooo angry. I keep seeing people getting ripped off or being violated, and I feel like I can see the problem now, but can't do anything about it. My sister, the broke college student, whose bank smacked her with three 32.00 overdraft charges when she was off by less than one dollar, and was then overdrafted because they took their fees out FIRST before paying her charges. That's not illegal, I know - but I just feel suffocated by all these stupid disgusting companies and corporations out to suck whatever they can out of the few remaining good people left on the planet. I've never felt so utterly hostile, it's like when I go out now I'm LOOKING for a reason to stick up for somebody, somehow. I am starting to think I was better off not knowing... anybody got the number for a good lobotomy doc? Am I the only one who feels so frustrated by these things?

I am starting this thread basically because I need to vent and didn't know where else to post. I apologize that this may be entirely inappropriate for this forum, so fellow mods, feel free to delete my post if you don't want it here.

I have recently elected to return to paid duty... while continuing to go to school. Don't ask me why the #^$^#@#) I did that. High pressure on both accounts. However, I was doing quite well handling it. Until.....

I decided that since I'm back working again (and on third shift.... which is normally a little quieter, except for Friday and Saturday nights when the bars close) I would buy a "new" (used) car, since I gave my nice one to my fiancee when his blew up a few weeks ago and have been driving my old backup. I went to my credit union and put in a loan request. I was called within a couple of hours and denied credit. Why is that, when I have a credit score around 750? Well, apparently some collection agency has slapped a few "open" and very delinquent collections on my credit, saying they are not new, but from 1998 or something. On my credit report they show as being open and currently paid as agreed, but show that around the turn of 2005 for three months I was 120 days delinquent. This somehow allows them to leave these things on there, although even if they were 'VALID' they'd have passed the 7 year limit for credit reports. They can't tell me what the charges are from, and every question I ask is met only with "We can only help you if you pay these off." After I argued for several hours yesterday, between them, their parent company, and Equifax, I seriously considered exactly how far of a drop it is off life's little edge. I thought of checking myself into the looney bin for a day or two because of how mad it made me that there's nothing I can do about this - at least not for thirty days until an "investigation" can be done (after that I can sue if I have the time and energy to go through with it...whoopie). Not to mention how embarassing it is when the credit union employees are people you work with and see every day and you get denied credit...considering also that I have liquid assets that should have pretty much guaranteed me a loan even if my credit score wasn't so high. The last thing I should have on my mind as I am struggling to restrain a man who has sworn to kill me (last night's events - even though the only 'weapon' he had was a couple of toothpicks) is this garbage. I should have just pretended he was from that collection agency.

However, if there is any silver lining from this, perhaps it is that it has given me a motivation to do some kind of pro-bono work after I graduate helping people fight things like this. It's not really that hard, it just takes some time. But think about the scam - how many people know what their rights are under the FCRA? A lot of people in my situation would think they had no choice but to pay for these things, which incidentally total nearly $2k. The agency might get a fine slapped on them and have to pay court costs... but most of the time they get away with it. So why shouldn't they pull this? Although I would love to just show up there and duke it out, maybe I can lobby for some kind of stricter penalties for false reporting... the FTC just isn't cutting it, in my opinion. Although, if I do get a response from them (the FTC), I'll be glad to share it. Grrr.

Bah Humbug, says I.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Just out of curiosity - do we have (can we become) paid memberships yet, or is that just a future "hopeful"? I really didn't see anywhere that went into this except for the one forum for paid members, that has zero posts

I'm curious to know... what do you think of the Socratic method? It's common in teaching law, but do you think it's a good method for all subjects? If not, which types of subjects do you think it would benefit more? (obviously, I wouldn't suggest teaching dodge ball using the socratic method... )

After reading the Happy Birthday Hypo thread and what people were doing 5 years ago when hypography was born, I was wondering... what is the worst job you have ever had?

For me it was a brief period when I had a job killing turkeys. It was awful and I still can't eat turkey or even smell it.