Ever get the runaround by your own city? I did yesterday. We got flyers taped to our mailboxes by a private citizen who wanted to paint our house numbers on our curbs. Sounds like a great idea: makes it easy for police/fire/etc to see our house at night, and it was only $18. But I got suspicious because the guy had a Hotmail email address. So I started calling to see if this was a legitimate service. Where's the first place I call? The Chamber of Commerce.

The young lady told me I would have to contact my homeowner's association. I explained to her that we don't have a homeowner's association.

Her response: "Ooooh." You know, that snotty sounding sort of "oooooh" that makes you feel like you're suddenly lower than dirt in her eyes? Yeah. I was thinking, "You know, lady, some neighborhoods do just bleeding fine without such an association." I just repeated, "Oooooh?" That's when she gave me the number to the city offices.

I called the city, and they said, "You need to contact the Public Works division," and they gave me the number.

I called Public Works, and they said, "You need to contact Community Development," and they gave me the number.

Now I'm on my fourth phone call, and getting increasingly frustrated with the way my city handles things. So I call Community Development. Finally I get to a really nice person. I tell her that the flyer was left: she said that flyers weren't supposed to be taped to houses like that. I responded it wasn't taped to the house: it was taped to the mailbox. She said, "Oh, really? Can you fax me a copy of that flyer?" Considering putting anything on or in the mailbox that has not been through the postal system is a federal offense, this really captured interest. We took the flyer to their office and gave it to them. She was just as nice in person as she was on the phone. She said that they would be contacting the person and having a good chat with them.

I never did find out if this was a legitimate business, but at least something happened.