It shouldn't be that hard to present 100 points of identification. Or should it?
Yesterday, I was required to go to Australia Post to present my ID so
that I could be identified on an application.
Well, that's easy, a passport is 70 points, a drivers' license is 40
points - that's over 100 points easily.
Oh, but no - because my passport isn't in my married name. So even
though it has my photo and my signature and my date of birth, and even
though my married name is hypenated, and therefore contains my whole
name on the passport anyway, it can't count as ID.
Well, that's still okay. My student ID is worth 25 points, my Medicare
card is 25 points, and my credit card is 25 points. Adding my drivers'
license, that's 115 points. Easy.
But no. The system that Australia Post uses was counting my student
card as 40 points instead of 25 so it wouldn't work as I then had *too
many points* and the computer wouldn't accept it.
Okay, scrap the student card, I have a debit card from a different
financial institution, that's 25 points.
Nope, it only had my initial "G" on it - not my full first name. So it
didn't matter that it had the same surname and signature as everything
else, I couldn't use it.
Oh, I found another debit card from my old bank, that's 25 points.
Nup - computer won't accept it. Even though the form says two cards
from different banks is acceptable, you can't enter it into the
computer without it appearing as a duplicate.
That took 45 minutes.
Not counting the time I spent in the queue.
The woman, who really was very nice but who had the whole system
working against her too, told me to come back the next day with a
different form of ID.
So today I have an electricity bill, worth 25 points.
Except that none of my bills have my full first name on them, just my
initial. And because we've just moved house, it's the only bill I have
with my current address on it.
So today, on me, I have my passport, drivers' license, student ID,
medicare card, electricity bill, credit card and debit card from old
bank, credit card and debit card from new bank. That is *grabs
calculator* - 285 points of ID.
Yes - I am me!
If Australia Post doesn't accept my ID today. I will scream. There is
something so wrong with the world when I can't even prove who I am.
5 comments:
WOW! What a crazy system! I've never heard of a points system. I'm sure you are quite relieved to be yourself after all that. What a shock it would have been to discover you were somebody else.
In the US, they usually have something like two columns of acceptable ID stuff, and you pick one from column A and one from column B. Sometimes one form of ID can count enough for all of it, but for the more serious needs to ID us, it's usually two forms.
My daughter lost her 2 forms of ID and could not get her permit to drive. Then, one day, she found it and was so happy. We drove out to the place Highway Dept to get the permit one Friday, and there was something wrong with their water pipes or something, so they were closing. We planned to get back the next week. Somehow, she lost the 2 forms of ID AGAIN, and we have yet to find them. I paid 12 bucks for a new birth certification but never have time to run two counties away to get the social security card...
Poor kid may never drive, lol!
Oh man...
...that's so fucked up I can't even attempt a demonstration of wit.
Australia is wierd.
Years ago in the states when personal checks were the main form of payment, stores accepted credit cards as a form of ID. Now some make you show other ID if you want to use a credit card. I've considered handing them a different card to prove who I am, but I know it would just confuse them.
I don't know if I am me or not...LOL
Good luck!
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