I posted a query about refunds from the CofS to this group a couple of months ago, and wanted to follow up with an account of how the cycle turned out for me.

After many months, indeed years, of deliberation and self-debate, I finally took the plunge a couple of months ago and decided to ask for a refund of the money I had on account at the Orange County Org.

Apparently, my move had been anticipated by someone at the Org - after a brief initial call to Accounts to verify my balance (which was reported to me promptly by a helpful young man), my next contact with them was answered with a statement to the effect that someone was looking into my account, and could I please contact the Treasury Secretary.

A few days later, I called the Treas Sec, only to be told that queries about my account should be directed to the Director of Special Affairs (note that this response was elicited merely by my saying that I had some questions about my account). Well, I thought, the cat is apparently out of the bag. Actually, I was not surprised at this turn of events, since a Knowledge Report had been filed with the DSA at the OC Org by a Scn friend of mine back in Chicago, informing them of my conversion to the Dark Side, oops, I mean my involvement in the Freezone/ACT/ARS, etc.

Upon contacting the DSA of the OC Org, a lady by the name of Marie Murillo, I expressed a feigned surprise that I was being directed to her for information about my account. She responded that she thought she knew what I wanted to know. Not wishing to prolong our little cat-and-mouse game, I told her straight out that I wanted a refund, confirming her suspicions. I then asked her to confirm the balance I had been given earlier. To my surprise, the balance she quoted me was significantly less than the original quote. (I don't want to get into specific numbers, but suffice it to say that I am talking about an amount equal to a month's salary for me, so not an insignificant sum, but not exactly a king's ransom either.) It seems there were some monies that had been transferred from the Chicago Org many years ago which apparently had to be recovered from that Org. So the figure ahe gave me was the money the OC Org would be returning to me. I suppressed the urge to make some derogatory comment about the amazing efficiency of Scn accounting practices.

Within a few days of that phone call, I received the standard release/waiver form in the mail and was told that as soon as I signed it I would be given my refund. In fact, I was asked if I could fax a copy to them and mail the original to expedite the transaction. I guess it was approaching 2PM on a Thursday, and having me excommunicated would somehow raise their stats. In any case, I chose to think about the process for a few more days, then called Marie again. I told her I did not want to sign away all my rights on the waiver, and also I was concerned about how I would get the rest of my refund from the Chicago Org, after I had signed the waiver. Marie tried her best to get my agreement that it was just a standard form and there was nothing wrong with signing it, and she also wanted a statement from me to the effect that I would no longer try to contact any staff members at the Org. (This was prompted by a couple of long letters I had written many months earlier in response to letters I had received from two staff members I consider to be friends. Their brief missives were merely part of the usual Friday evening get-the-stats-up letter-writing/forced-labor campaign. My replies to them, however, were ten-page epics that went into great detail about ACT, ARS, the Pilot's writings, and my thoughts and feelings about the Freezone.)

Thanks to a tip from someone on ARS, I was able to contact a lawyer who has had extensive dealings with Scn in Orange County, Dan Leipold. He was kind enough to discuss the waiver with me over the phone, free of charge, and his advice was to go ahead and sign it because it was unlikely that I would ever want to pursue any other kind of legal or civil action against the church, and because the amount of my refund was fairly small. He contrasted it to a case he was pursuing regarding a mentally retarded individual who was suing the church for something like $1.5 million because they were refusing to grant him a refund. I figured Mr. Leipold had nothing to gain by advising me to sign, and therefore concluded this was probably good advice (that's the logic I use in dealing with lawyers - sorry if that offends anyone reading this, including you, Dan. I did appreciate your help.).

So I called Marie back and told her I was prepared to sign if she would tell me how to recover my money from Chicago, and if she would provide a signed statement saying the contents of my PC folders would never be divulged to anyone (actually I started out by asking if they would give me the folders, but that was clearly a non-negotiable demand, or at least one that would have required a much more protracted battle). She agreed, and even offered to help me recover the funds from Chicago. This began a rather lengthy cycle of action spanning several weeks, which also involved ASHO, where I had done a short course many years ago. Every so often Marie would call to tell me what was happening. Basically, Chicago was claiming that they were not responsible for the apparently missing funds.

The basic problem lay in the fact that the original records were from the era before INCOMM, Scn's computerized database/accounting program.

Finally, the issue was resolved via ASHO, and Marie called to say she had two checks for me - one from OC and one from Chicago. She asked if it would be a problem that the Chicago check had my address from 18 years ago on it. I figured it wouldn't be (and it wasn't) but again rolled my eyes at the amazing ineptness of the Church (I'm sure they dutifully send fliers daily to my old address).

The moment of truth had arrived. Marie was very anxious to get the deal done, but she was still waiting for the statement about my PC folders from a lawyer. I agreed to stay in touch, although it was getting late in the day. Eventually, she called me at home at about 9PM that night, saying she had the statement in hand. I told her I didn't want to venture out again that night, so we agreed to meet at a restaurant at noon the next day. I initially offered to come to her office, but she mumbled something to the effect that "that probably wouldn't be a good idea". I assume she was worried about exposing staff and public to an "evil SP", but again I bit my tongue and did not press the matter.

I got to the restaurant about half an hour early, and ordered lunch, keeping an eye on the front door. I had met Marie about a year ago, so I recognized her when she came in and waved to her. She was with her assistant, a young, perky woman who seemed much too bubbly considering the circumstances (hey, we're talking about my eternal soul being in jeopardy!). As she sat down, she asked if I waved to everyone who came in. Clearly, she did not remember meeting me, although in fairness I should mention that when we met previously, I was using a pseudonym because I was still "on the fence" regarding Scn, and was in the company of a critic of Scn.

I handed over the signed waiver form, and Marie gave me the statement regarding my PC folders, allowing me to read and approve it before she signed it. She asked me if I had any questions for her, and I said no.

Then she asked me if I minded a few questions, and I said no. All of her questions were about the Pilot. She wanted to know what I found so appealing about the Pilot's Self-Clearing book. She also wanted to know what I thought of his attitude toward the current ethics policies of the church - as she put it, he seemed to be "against" ethics, and she wanted to know why that was. Finally, she was interested to know what I thought about the fact that he did not advocate use of an e-meter. I answered her as honestly as I could, although it was difficult to tell what the point of the questions was. She didn't seem to be making a last-minute attempt to change my mind, and she argued very little with the statements I made in support of Pilot's work. Once I had answered her questions, she and her companion took their leave, and I was left with the daunting task of deciding what I was going to do with my small windfall.

It has been a couple of weeks now since the final transaction, and I am happy to report that I have not caved in or become a raving psychotic, much to my relief. In fact, life as an SP is pretty much just as it was before.

cheers, Tom

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