The Importance Of Following Up

"Mind you own business" is always good advice. No one will ever care about your company or your finances as much as you will, so you need to be extra diligent in these matters and not assume people will get things correct, done on time, etc. A perfect example is my current issue with the Danbury Connecticut Tax Collector's office.

Yesterday, I faxed over a copy of my 1998 Connecticut state income tax return. This was a Part Year Resident return and showed I moved out of CT on January 21, 1998 and therefore could not have incurred any tax on my car from living there from October 1998 to September 1999. I included a cover letter and my phone number in case there were any questions.

I called again this morning to verify not only that they received the fax, but also that the tax return was sufficient proof for them. The first time I talked to them, they suggest a utility bill as proof. I only keep my utility bills for 5 years, so I didn't have any from that long ago, however, the tax return seemed like a good alternative.

This morning I spoke with the same person I spoke with yesterday. She put me on hold while she verified she got my fax. When she came back on the line, she said she did receive the fax, but since it only covered one year, she was not able to cancel the additional years taxes I owed. Huh? I didn't owe any other years. She said I owed tax on a Pontiac. I told her I never owned a Pontiac. She asked for my wife's name. I told her I wasn't married when I lived in Connecticut. It turns out, she was looking at the wrong record. I gave her my name, old address, and birth date and she found my record said she would be sure my account was credited correctly.

Had I just assumed the fax was handled correctly, I would still have a delinquency on my record and my credit report would get dinged.

Next step is waiting one week, then calling the collection agency back to make sure they have gotten the update status.

On a side note, I have to smile at the timing of this post - one day after Kenric made a post about following up too much!