Hi! I used to be a member here about 5 years ago, I can't remember any of my login info so I had to make a new one, please don't mind ... anyway. When I was here I identified as FtM, and was beginning my transition. I had legally changed my name to reflect that and started a cellphone account under that name with Fido, in Canada. So this is kind of regionally specific, unless other companies are like this too.
So, Fido is a company that will make it's Facebook logo rainbow themed and will show up at Pride events. Seems safe, ya? So when I changed my name back to the name my parents gave me at birth (Amanda), around 2012, I called Fido and told them I needed to change the name on the account. I had called a couple of times, and both times I got the same perplexed response. They thought I was asking for a Transfer of Responsibility to another human being, someone else. So I explained that I changed my name. They thought I'd gotten married and that my last name changed. I told them that both names needed to be changed, from a male-sounding (unisex) name to a female-sounding name. Same Social Insurance number. Same fingerprints. Same DNA. Different name. Easy ya?
So they end up back at Transfer of Service, insisting that I'm trying to transfer my account to another human being. Like they actually believed that was what I was trying to do and it was this long, circular ordeal. At the time, I gave up... Just kept the traditionally male-sounding name on the account.
Four years later I'm trying to set up internet as well and need to show my ID to prove my identity. Which has a different name than the name on the account. This is the cheapest internet I can get so naturally, I want it. So I call again for the first time in some four years to deal with this.
This time I just went right to Transfer of Service. I get a white anglosaxon guy on the phone, I'm assuming cisgender and probably straight. Sounds like a little league coach kind of dad. Totally just making that image up in my head, I have no idea who he is. I say the name on the account. He says, "Are you sure this is ___? That's a ... man's ... name." He said it slowly as though I would have trouble understanding the concept. I told him to Google the name, that it's a unisex name and he'd find plenty of women with the name. Decided not to get into a discussion about non-binary/transgender identities on the phone with the guy. He set it up with a note on the account so that "Amanda" (my current legal and birth-name) can call in later when she's done work. (I pretended we're two different people. Figured this time it would be less frustrating than trying to explain my own transition/retransition to complete strangers).
anyway... now I'm thinking, when I give my social insurance number, what will happen? It's the same number. They'll have the old account open as well as the new. Am I going to have to go into the whole story, explain yet again that I have a legal Change of Name certificate issued from the Government of Canada showing that both names belong to the same person, only to be told I can't change the name? Will they flag my account as fraudulent?
I've tried looking on their website about how to change the account holder's name and they don't even give information in the case of a last name change for marriage, one of the most common reasons to change a person's name. I mean, that seems a little weird. I'm not sure how to navigate this and the people I usually talk to for good advice these days don't know about my name change or that I even identified as trans ... so I mean. I don't know who to ask, and I'm not sure if anyone else has ever dealt with something like this?
