coulda woulda shoulda

A few weeks ago, I posted this picture of my college ID cards on Facebook:

I mentioned how crazy it was that I had to get a new card because 1) the old one could no longer accommodate more fall and spring validation stickers after accumulating 5+ years of the buggers already and 2) my last name changed after I got married and it'd be nice to not have everyone think I'm crazy when the last name I say doesn't match up to the one of the card. When I decided to take the plunge and finally apply for a new one, I was told I wouldn't have to pay the replacement fee because that only applies to lost or damaged ID cards and mine was only a name change. I merrily went on my way, filling out the form and dropping it off at Registrar. 

So you can imagine my surprise when I look at my September bill and see a lovely $20 replacement ID card fee stamped smack dab on the invoice. What?

I marched over to Business Services, ready to argue my $20 back into my bank account when they tell me I'm in the wrong place (What do you mean wrong place? You're the ones who sent me this bill!) and that I have to go back to Registrar, where this whole fiasco started. 

So then I march on over to Registrar and proceed to explain my situation to the poor innocent girl behind the desk. She then directs me to the lady behind a big desk in charge of all college IDs, the third person to whom I explain my sob story in the name of $20. The lady patiently listens, promptly opens the drawer containing all of the replacement ID card applications, and quickly locates my paper. 

This is the point at which I'd like to turn back time because it does not kindly reflect my usual attention-to-detail characteristic in which I take pride.

Apparently, at the top of the application, in gigantic bold letters, it plainly states that the student must turn in the old ID card when retrieving the replacement or else he/she will be charged the $20 replacement fee to his/her student account. Oh yeah, and I didn't even check off the box indicating that the reason for the replacement was due to a name change, so they just assumed I had lost my other one. Bam. Humility. 

Quite humbly I profusely apologized for not adhering to the bold lettering and promptly handed the lady my beloved, well-stickered old ID card. Luckily I got my $20 (and pride) back in the end. 

So that was the end of my ID card troubles, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday I went to a snack shop on campus to get a drink and something to eat in between class and work. Toward the end of the summer, Husband had surprised me with money towards on-campus points of culinary interest such as this snack shop as well as coffee and cafeteria-type places with the hope that it would help take some pressure off of me with grocery shopping and preparing food. He also did this last year and it was (and already has been for this year) a HUGE help and I am so incredibly grateful.  

(To be noted, I've only used this year's account about 4-5 times with a total expense of less than $25 overall) 

When the cashier rang me up yesterday, she mentioned that I had about $7 left on my account. This was confusing to me, considering the amount Husband had told me he'd deposited definitely did not match up with the few times I'd actually used the account. I actually asked her to repeat the number two more times because I swore I heard her wrong (…she must have thought I was either partially deaf or just crazy…). 

So today I took a trip to Dining Services to see what was up. When the nice lady behind the desk pulled up my account, she looked at me and said, "You're not Preston, are you." Um, no, I am most definitely not. Turns out the number on my new ID card somehow linked up to some random kid's account and I'd been spending his money all this time! So where did that leave me? The lady had to go through a list of expenses with me as I scrambled to remember when I had made purchases from the various places around campus and guessed to the best of my ability. She told me she would deduct those expenses from my account, refund poor Preston's account, and email him to let him know that he in fact did not only have a measly $7 left after all. 

Was this whole thing over now?

Nope.

She then sent me to Campus Safety to get yet ANOTHER ID card printed, this time with the correct number linked to my account. When I got there, the lady behind THAT desk took a look at my card and said I probably would have had to pay to get another one made anyway since the plastic backing was already starting to come off and the magnetic strip would have been rendered useless. 

MORAL OF THE STORY: I should have just kept my six year old ID card, copious amount of stickers and wrong last name and all.