Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Customer Service Rant

03:29, 2009-Jan-27 .. Posted in rants .. 5 comments .. Link

Last month, I opened my bill from Circuit City to find I'd been slapped with a 35 dollar late fee. The bill showed that my payment had been credited to my account one day after the due date.

Never mind the fact that I'd paid the bill on time. I'd paid it at the store, and I was fortunate enough that I'd kept the receipt, which proved the date and time I'd made the payment.

I called the toll-free number to sort this out, and while they readily agreed that I'd been improperly assessed a late fee, they told me to go ahead and pay it anyway, and that they'd adjust it on my next bill.

The hell with that! I told them that this was unacceptable; that it wasn't my responsibility that the store screwed up and credited my payment incorrectly. As I'd paid my bill by the agreed-upon time, I wasn't about to be inconvenienced by having to pay a late fee, even if they did credit it back to me next month.

I had to talk to a supervisor, but they eventually saw it my way.

I opened my bill for this month and guess what? They did it again! I'd made a point of saving my receipt this time, so I called the toll free number again, and was again advised to pay the late fee and that they'd credit it to me next month. And once again, I explained why this was unacceptable and why it simply wasn't going to happen. This time, I didn't need the supervisor to get my point across.

No wonder they're going out of business.

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08:12, 2009-Jan-27 .. Posted by DeeJay
Things like that absolutely annoy me. I'm sure there are people who wouldn't have paid attention to the bill and the company simply pockets that late charge money.

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08:47, 2009-Jan-27 .. Posted by littleMissConfused
It's sad how many of these companies feed on their customers with added fees. I just went rounds with our credit card company. They added finace charges twice!

I'm glad the call center I work for lets us make the desicion about credits. In a case like yours, you would have had the error corrected before the call was ended and a discount coupon for you next order would be sent to you in the mail.

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10:02, 2009-Jan-27 .. Posted by libertine
Dee Jay, I'm convinced they do this purposely, banking on the fact that many people won't check the bill carefully and just pay it.

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11:14, 2009-Jan-27 .. Posted by thebigp
I don't know if I would go tripping all over myself to pay it right away. They are going out of business anyway.

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12:27, 2009-Jan-28 .. Posted by Rubicon
I've had problems with Circuit City as well except it wasn't a billing issue but a service issue on the DVD player that came with a home theater system we'd gotten for Christmas. Thankfully the gift giver got an extended warranty so there was no cost involved. But it took over a month to get the damn thing fixed.....and you're right, no wonder that they're going out of business, they don't seem to know how to conduct business!