Unfiltered Story #67504

I am the customer in this story. We had our first child in August and had registered for all of his documentation (social insurance number, health card and birth certificate) online. His SIN and health card arrive, along with a statement of live birth but not the birth certificate so I decided to give them a call.

Me: Good morning! I’m calling for a status update for my son’s birth certificate. We’ve paid for it and have gotten everything else but that hasn’t arrived.

Clerk: Okay! When did you order it?

Me: About six weeks ago.

Clerk: Oh! Well, let me see what the hold up is. *proceeds to ask my name, his name, our address, phone number, his birthday, etc*. And do you have the registration number of the original?

Me: No, we don’t have the original. I’m not looking for a replacement – the first one didn’t come. We got his health card, social insurance number and a statement of live birth, but no birth certificate.

Clerk: Does the statement of live birth say “certificate of live birth”…?

Me: Let me check…oh…yes. Which would make it a birth certificate I suppose?

Clerk: Indeed.

Me: I’m so sorry! This is our first kid and we have no idea what we’re doing. Plus my husband’s birth certificate is much smaller and mine is from another province.

Clerk: Not a problem – this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this call.

Thank you to the lovely clerk who was surprisingly cool with the fact that I wasted 15 minutes of her time – the government is typically not really okay with that!