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Back in October, I applied for a loan with Spring Financial. I didn't get the approval, which was eye-opening. I was also thankful that I didn't. I ended up getting a consumer proposal and focusing on fixing my finances.

Spring Financial recommended that I go with its plan of taking out a tradeline. It is kind of a loan, except that you pay a monthly fee to have this company report good things to Canada's two credit bureaus about your credit history.

I remember getting digital forms from Spring Financial. I declined signing them. I felt that this tradeline was a waste of money. I'd rather get a secured credit card and have that credit card company report my progress to the credit bureaus without paying a fee.

I went on Spring Financial's site and chatted with someone. I asked whether not signing would confirm that I didn't want the loan. The person said yes.

I had a feeling that it wasn't the case. Sure enough, I looked at my credit report that I get through Credit Karma. It's free, which is why I like it.

Spring Financial created a tradeline account for me on October 11. It reported that I was late with my payments for both November and December.

What?

First, I don't have a loan with this company. I never signed any paperwork. Second, it claims that I have a $5000 loan. I don't. Funds were never deposited into my account. Third, I missed payments for two months. I didn't know that I needed to because I don't have a loan.

A couple of days ago, I went back on Spring's chat. I got disconnected the first time. I got the same representative the second time. I wanted this alleged loan closed. I also wanted this company to fix the erroneous credit reporting to both bureaus.

Well, I got a response from Spring Financial yesterday:

We are reaching out to notify you of an issue we have identified regarding a tradeline created on your credit bureau from Spring Financial.

When you applied with Spring Financial, an account was created under your name; however, due to an error, the file submitted to the credit bureaus included inactive accounts. We have since corrected this and will be sending a revised file to the credit bureaus, informing them of the error. We have directly contacted both Equifax and TransUnion with an urgent request to address this matter promptly, however we have been informed that the update can take up to 30-60 days to reflect on each respective credit report.

We sincerely apologize for this oversight and want to assure you that once the incorrect tradeline is removed, it will have no adverse impact on your credit report or history.

We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this matter. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly.

Thank you,

Customer Service

The wording is poor. I identified Spring Financial's issue that directly affects me. I had to tell you about it so that you could investigate it further. Let's be clear. Had I not reported it, Spring Financial would be ruining my credit rating and other people's credit ratings.

I'll be watching my credit score and report like a hawk to make sure that this issue is fixed. Otherwise, I have no problem following up with Spring Financial. It should not be erroneously reporting to credit bureaus when I don't have any products from this company.

I recommend checking your credit score. You don't want a company ruining your score because it is erroneously reporting details to credit bureaus.

Spreadsheet nightmare and next weekend's plans

I have a deadline of Wednesday to get two documents delivered. It's involves in regards using ugly spreadsheets as my source. They went through massive updates since I last used them in December.

I spent Sunday working on these documents. I have made good progress, but need to go through roughly 2,000 rows of data. I've already gone through that may rows! We'll see if I can get through this nonsense.

Next weekend will be better. I'm getting together with a friend on Saturday now that our lockdown has been lifted once again.

Contractor nightmare is over and my spanking is coming

The nightmare at work (that is, the male contractor who yawns and is nonproductive) ended on Tuesday. My manager gave him two weeks to complete an assignment remotely and declared him terminated from the company after he hands in his work.

Part of me felt relieved. I was having my lunch when my manager escorted the contractor from the building. It has been highly stressful to work with someone who is clearly there to earn money and to not learn. The other part of me does not like to see him lose his job less than a month before the holidays.

He spent nearly a week editing a single Word document that was well under 100 pages. He had a deadline originally set for two days to get it done.

He doesn't retain much that I have taught him. Oddly, my manager told me that this contractor remembered that I had said that he was doing a good job. Um, that was during his second week. It wasn't as of late. My boss said that he is clueless. I have to concur.

My manager stated that everything that he does ends up having mistakes. He is right. Every time I had to review his work, including early Tuesday morning, I found mistakes.

He could not get processes in order. They were not difficult to follow!

Frankly, I wasn't too thrilled after interviewing him with my manager nearly two months ago. I didn't like the idea that he wanted to learn what everyone else was doing around him. My boss regrets hiring him. I also didn't get how this contractor scribbled notes on the side of his writing test that he had completed just before his interview with us. Why?

My manager left the contractor's training manuals and his notebook. I leafed through the latter. He included his monthly expenses. He had thirty bagels going for a dollar each. As someone who loves bagels, he was paying too much for one. I ended up ripping his notes out of the notebook and shredding them. His notes were not detailed.

My guy wrote the training manuals. He is always helpful when I ask him for them for my co-op students and new hires.

My guy is busy preparing for his trip. He flies out on Friday. It's the same day where I receive 34 x 4 smacks across my backside. And, yes, it makes me happy just thinking about it.