how much would you pay for convenience?

[dragonlady7]

For over a year now I've been getting intermittent letters from the NYS Dep't of Labor. I collected unemployment for a large swathe of 2004, which, let me tell you, was pretty awesome. Getting fired totally rules. But. I digress. (This has nothing to do with my profound desire not to go to work today.)

The DOL wants money out of me. Apparently they overpaid my benefits in some bizarre way. I would strongly suggest that this is not true: I got the letter that they had overpaid me, and then I got one more check, and then they just didn't send the next two checks, and then they gave me a notice that I had only one week left of benefits, and then they never sent that check either. So as far as I can tell, they owe me three weeks' worth of benefits. I wrote them and suggested that they simply withhold the overpayment from the three weeks' worth of checks they never actually sent me.
But the people I wrote/spoke to were just Collections: they had nothing to do with that. Nor could they tell me who would have anything to do with that.

Given that I had a job and other things to worry about, I let it go. They stopped calling me. I thought, "Maybe they've realized they might have to pay me the $600 they owe me if they demand that I pay them the $125 I owe them."

But no, they've just now finally sent me another letter saying that they'd be withholding it from my state tax refund. BUT-- this one had a phone number! Saying that if I had a dispute I could call it!

So I did, just now. "Oh, we don't know anything about that," the guy said. "We're just Collections." For fuck's sake. Why's your number on there then? "You have to write these people a letter," he said, and gave me the address. "And they'll have to hold a hearing." In Albany.
Albany.
300 miles away, Albany.

Where my folks live. Hmm... it'd be a good excuse. But these people are morons. Anyone in state government is a moron. I know, my dad worked for them for 30 years, in Albany.

So the question arises:
Just pay them the fucking $125, which I could easily afford, and not challenge them on their administrative incompetence?
Or hold out as a point of pride and point out what morons they are, at considerable expense of my own time?

I ponder this dilemma now, puzzling out my own handwriting.

Comments

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

Write the letter. You probably won't have to attend the hearing.

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

Personally don't know whether you'd have to attend the hearing, but get it taken care of in case you ever need unemployment benefits again.

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely write the letter. If you pay them you're rewarding them for their incompetence. Or something. Besides, if they did make you attend a hearing, wouldn't that be a legitimate reason to get a few days off work?