When Medicare refunds end up 'somewhere'

“Can you hold the line, I’ll have to talk to my supervisor..”

“No problem..”

Queue the elevator music that plays over and over and over for at least half an hour.

Finally, she returns and announces “Yes, I can confirm that we did receive the payment and we can refund it to your account but that might take a few days..”

I let out an audible sigh: “Well if you’ve received the payment can’t you just renew my mobile service, otherwise I’ll have to do all this again?”

“Ohhh, well, I’ll have to check with my supervisor again so I’ll put you back on hold, okay?”

“No problem!”

Finally, after another extended wait listening to the same mind-numbing tune, she comes back and informs me, “Yes, we can do that…”

Glory be! Then she asks if I can rate her service and switches me through to a survey.  I give her a reasonable score for solving the problem and that was that.

But why does our modern switched-on life have to be so bloody complicated. Back when I was a boy not even space traveller Flash Gordon had a computer and the nearest thing to a smart phone belonged to comic book detective-extraordinaire, Dick Tracy (except his was more a futuristic smart watch on which  he could make and receive calls.)

Do we really need to make life even more complicated with moves for a cashless society, digital currency and now a national digital ID which was rushed through the Senate just before Easter?

To all those who’ll say I should modern up and get with the 21st Century, I’ll close with a repetitive quote from a contemporary Destiny’s Child hit:

You'll be sayin', "No, no, no, no, no"

When it's really, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes"

 Let’s hope “No” prevails! (I expressed some similar views in another article, “No More cheques in the mail).