bills and customer service, are we being robbed?

[Madman]

My mother is 82. She lives with my wife and I. She is in pretty good health for her age and has a decent retirement income. She likes to shop. Some time ago she purchased a very nice music box from a company (Ardleigh Elliott). She paid via her bank card. She received her merchandise. The next month she received another. She kept it and mailed it to her granddaughter as a gift. With the catalog, she purchased another and in turn mailed that to another granddaughter. Then she received another that she didn't order. She had me call and cancel the "automatic" orders and we sent that one back. Her bank card was credited - minus the shipping and handling. She then received another. Again we repeated the same process of calling, canceling future shipments, getting her account credited, etc... So what happens? She gets another one of these damn things in the mail yesterday! Now I have to call these shitbags again. This time I'm going to close her account. The next step is to change her bank card. Talk about a scam. Cancel all orders my ass. They just keep sending the shit and charging her. Then we have to mail the shit back. I'm taking a fucking hammer to it!

[glatt]

Did she join some sort of club where they send these each month? If not, and she didn't order these, they are free gifts from the company, and the company has no right to charge her bank card.

I'd change her bank card, and keep all future music boxes. (Assuming she didn't join some sort of club or agree to some sort of contract.)

[Madman]

Originally Posted by glatt

Did she join some sort of club where they send these each month? If not, and she didn't order these, they are free gifts from the company, and the company has no right to charge her bank card.

I'd change her bank card, and keep all future music boxes. (Assuming she didn't join some sort of club or agree to some sort of contract.)

That I can't be sure of. Even if I were to ask her directly. I'll just have to continue returning the merchandise.

[limey]

I think my mum got into a hole like this with a posh chocolate company. They kept sending her boxes of chocolates that she hadn't ordered and she kept eating them. Then they sent bills, then red bills, then threatening letters. I think she signed up to a "club" thing without knowing it

[richlevy]

As far as the modem thing goes, probably incompetence. However, there were quite a few scams which involved adding $1 or $2 charges to the phone bills of millions of customers on the theory that most people wouldn't bother to fight it.

If I remember correctly, this is why you have a line of text on your phone bill assuring you that your phone cannot be disconnected over a billing dispute. This is probably a combination of a response to a regulatory decision over the various phone scams and the fact that you can now move to a different local carrier.

[Guyute]

I know a guy who owns a corner store. He was taught by his Dad that when you get someone coming in regularly, you treat them fine for a while, but constantly give them lots of dimes and nickels. THEN after a while, when they stop counting the change BECAUSE THEY START TO TRUST YOU, start shorting them a nickel here, a dime there. Adds up very quickly, and if you get caught it all seems very innocent...

I have been offline lately due to a $1.75 charge from QWEST. I paid my bill from them for $73.30, and thought all was well. HAH! It was just the beginning of the most unbelievable nightmare. My phone got cut off, and I called customer service to find out why. They told me that I owed an additional $12.25 which hadn't posted on my first bill. Snarling, I went over to the customer service at the grocery store where you can pay your phone bill, among other things, and Western Unioned them their $12.25. They claimed my service would be turned back on in two days. It wasn't. I called again and THIS time was told that I owed $1.75 from an old cell phone bill (I no longer haver the cell phone) back in 2003. I said. "You're joking, right?"

They weren't. Back to the grocery store to send off $1.75. A few more days wait and still no phone service. I called customer dis-service again and was told that they never got their $1.75. I had the receipt in my hand and read them off all the numbers. They were not impressed. They said that I had to fax a copy of the receipt to some special QWEST Pay Center. By this point I was so filled with hatred and frustration, I considered just doing without a phone, but I finally went down to the US Post Office and sent off a special US Postal Service Fax with all the seals and receipts and numbers. I also got the QWEST manager's name who required me to do this.

Guess what? A week later, my phone was still not connected. I called and asked for a manager. I told them the entire story and read off all my documentation and serial numbers and asked them if they thought I was in a conspiracy with the Postal Service to rob QWEST of $1.75. This time I finally won, and am now typing this response on the Cellar.

Yeah, companies will rip you off any chance they get.

[WabUfvot5]

Sounds like degulation has worked wonders...

[footfootfoot]

Again. Today in the mail is an invoice from a lumberyard that I buy from. I have a cash account meaning I pay cash or they don't deliver the material. I like it that way.

Delivery. Pay. Done.

You'd think. The invoice is for the last delivery I accepted, and paid for, except it doesn't reflect the credit I had for some returned items, nor does it reflect my 5% cash discount.

After a ten minute chat with the bim from accounts rec'able, she informs me that she can't figure it out and will have to send all the paperwork to the dispatcher.

Yeah sure. And the coda?

If you don't hear back from us in a couple of days you may want to call us.


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Any astrologers out there? Does Mercury have its head up its ass?

[Griff]

Yar! Ye better be havin the script from the driver.