Mistakes happen. I get that. And when you are involved in routine tasks, whether executing or receiving, you may not encounter many errors. However, after moving, I am about to conclude that our economy is fueled by rework! Just think of the dollars and hours required to handle these problems:

• Days after our mail forwarding should have begun, the USPS attempted to deliver a Registered Letter to the old address.
• When handed the deed transfer papers we were supposed to sign, I noticed that the sales price of our house was low by $200,000.
• When we called Mass Health Connector in February to let them know we were moving in March, they canceled our insurance even though we were paid and needed coverage through the end of March. More than two months later and a dozen long phone calls, the case is still open, we are still getting letters that make no sense, and our dentist wonders if he will ever get paid for our final checkups.
• The title on our property listed the percentage ownership of the condo association at three times what it should have been.
• There was also an undischarged mortgage on our title from the previous owner. I’m starting to think title insurance has replaced title search and maintenance.
• I purchased my own cable modem for use with our new Comcast service. My modem intentionally did not include a Wi-Fi gateway, which is the normal equipment Comcast would have installed. Had the technician pointed out the main wifi setup difference between a gateway and a non-gateway, it would have saved Comcast, Apple, and me a total of about 15 hours on chat and on the phone.
• When you link a bank account to PayPal, they make two small deposits and then withdraw the total. When you login and verify the transaction amounts, the account is confirmed and activated. When I linked my new account to PayPal, they never made any deposits, just the withdrawal. After several phone calls, I’ve finally gotten my account linked properly, however I am still out 18 cents. I wonder how much money they make this way.
• Despite waiting several days after opening a new bank account, bill pay didn’t seem to be available. It required two phone calls to get it turned on for my account.
  Our credit card rewards program deposited our rewards into our bank account twice. And then they had to reverse the deposit.
• I called to find out how to make a change to the bank account we were planning to close a few months after moving. I was assured a phone call when we were ready would suffice. When that day came, another phone call insisted we drive back to our old bank near our old address to sign the paperwork. Luckily we were headed that way for other reasons.
• We filled out a form to get condo documents from our property management company for our buyer. It took two phone calls and probably about eight emails before we finally got the documents despite having specified what we needed using their form, paying with a check that matched the request, and delivering that request in person.
• When we ordered a new range, the appliance installers could barely get the old range out and could not get the new range in. The opening in the granite counters was too narrow. The builders will fix this for us, but at considerable expense to someone and considerable inconvenience to us. (Have you ever seen what happens when you shave granite indoors?)

The post office, our purchasing attorney, our previous selling attorney, the title search service, Comcast, PayPal, TD Bank, Middlesex Savings Bank, Citi Bank, our former condo association, and the builders of our new home are all examples of a ridiculous number of costly, time-consuming errors during a very short interval. I didn’t include Mass Health Connector in that string because they are the absolute King of Errors whether you are moving or not.

By the way, our moving company comprised of Eastern European immigrants stood out for making no mistakes. And that was despite our giving only two days notice that we wanted to move a day earlier and add a night of overnight storage to avoid a snow storm.

My Challenge To You:

• Where are errors wasting the time of your customers and employees?
• What is the total cost of those errors?
• How many of your employees are effectively employed to do nothing but rework?

What do you think? Let me know what you conclude!