Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Friday, July 14, 2006

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

What a crazy hour of panic.

Of course, I'm starting to move from panic to pissed.

Remember the big car repair bill? I paid half down and made a payment, but then fell behind between the need for a starter and some other financial issues I've been having. Today I get a phone call on my way to work where the man asked for half of the balance by today or he'll go down Monday and swear out a warrant for theft by deception, which at this amount would be a felony. He said they would arrest me (not that I see how this gets their money back, but I took him at his word).

So I panicked for about forty minutes.

Then I calmed down (thank you JoAnn!) and called our company's EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) which includes legal counseling. Once I got to a lawyer, I was told that at no point by not paying have I committed a crime, and that any charge against me would be untenable. Basically, the worst they could do would be sue me. If by some chance a warrant was made, and I was arrested, then I should hire a lawyer not only to get out of the mess but to sue them, according to the man I talked to. In other words, they were trying to scare me into paying. Well, they succeeded in scaring me.

So I'm calmer. But I'm actually rather pissed that they tried to strongarm me by threatening me with legal action they couldn't back up.

Still, all told, the lamictal seems to be working as a mood stabiliser--I didn't panic into doing something more stupid.

Argh.

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