A Failure, Municipally Speaking

Actual things people said to me today:

[With my little petek at the post office. Petek in mailbox means you have a package waiting for you. Or so I thought.]

Post office lady: It isn't here yet. See the date? (March 19, yesterday). You need to come two days after the date on the petek.
Me: So the petek, which clearly states my package has arrived and is waiting for me, is lying? There is no package?
Post office lady: [points again to the date, in case I am calendarically challenged.] Two days later.

Then, I go back to the old apartment to check our old mailbox. See, for some crazy reason, we don't trust the post office to do the whole mail-forwarding thing. We figured we'd just call the companies directly to change our address, and in the meantime, stop at the old place every so often.

Today I received an arnona bill. Arnona = property tax. The arnona bill was for our new place, but sent to our old place. Now, clearly they have our new address. They're taxing us for our new address! So why are they sending it to our old address?

I called the iriyah. I explained my situation and that I had changed my address on my teudat zehut already. They transferred me.

Me: My arnona bill for my new apartment is still coming to my old apartment.
Iriyah lady: You have to go to the arnona office in the mall.
Me: I did that. When I got the first arnona bill for our new place, I went and set up the account and paid. So why is the second bill coming to my old address?
Iriyah lady: AHA! But did you go to the other arnona office and change your address?
Me: Um, no. But it's changed on my teudat zehut already!
Iriyah lady: That doesn't mean anything! You have to go separately to the Arnona Address Change Window and change your address! B'emet!
Me: And what about the other iriyah mail that comes to my old address - absorption department notices, school notices, etc.?
Iriyah lady: You have to call each department separately and change your address, what do you think?

Silly me! Such forehead slapping that ensued! I am still enjoying some hearty chuckles over my backwards thinking.

So I called the arnona office:

Recording: We are busy with other customers. Your call is important. Your place in line is .... 6.
Recording: We are busy with other customers. Your call is important. Your place in line is .... 6.
Recording: We are busy with other customers. Your call is important. Your place in line is .... 6.

Finally, I got tired of being 6. And I was skeptical that my call was actually important to them.

It turns out that the easiest solution might be to show up at the iryah at 8:00 on Thursday and go from window to window, changing my address.

By the time I'm finished with that, my package at the post office should be released from its holding cell. Wish me luck.