The Tennessean sent reader MP a bill for eight cents three months after he canceled his promotional subscription. MP has no intention of wasting a relatively expensive stamp to pay this trifle of a bill, but he would like to know: what could possibly costs eight cents?
Here’s a bill I received from The Tennessean several months ago that I just remembered about and thought might enjoy seeing. The story is that about a year ago, my sweet wife signed us up for The Tennessean at a promotional rate for six months. For the subscription, she used our debit card and had them auto-withdraw the bill every month. I used the customer service section of their website to view my account and was able to anticipate what the monthly charges would be, when they would be applied to my account, and when my six month promo rate was up. As sincere as the intentions were to have a newspaper subscription (I am quite the current events whore and keep a sharp eye on Google Reader for new posts throughout the day) the paper just wasn’t being read, and really, I get all the same content on their website (yay, i’m “going green”).
After calling customer service on the sixth month to inform them that this will be the last month and I do not wish to continue my subscription, I got the follow up call from the retention dept. the next day wondering why I was leaving and how they could continue to send me the newspaper, take my money, and kill trees. I politely said no to every attempt and thought I would be free.
About three months later, I get this bill in the mail from The Tennessean for the amount of 0.08. There’s no itemized list explaining what the charge is for (leftover amount from the subscription, unpaid fees, etc.) On top of this, about 3-5 times a week, I get calls from the retention department to get me back as a subscriber (which I usually use to prank them, honestly I don’t really mind it). So I’m wondering why they didn’t just take the eight cents out of my account like they were doing so smoothly before because I am not going to be sending them an eight cent check with a 41 cent stamp on it. I’d thought about sending them eight envelopes with one cent checks or even pennies, but I’m going to hold on to my precious copper and keep this bill around for a good laugh.
Next time retentions calls, tell them that you won’t consider returning until they provide a satisfactory explanation for this absurd bill.
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FYI, just because newspapers are made of paper doesn’t mean they ‘kill trees’. We plant trees for the purposes of making paper. Just like eating potatoes or carrots or whatever isn’t ‘killing’ those plants — we just grow what we need.
@AvWuff: Only there is more trees cut, than trees planted. Do the math.
@WraithSama: Can’t you pay online, but with your bank? Usually, when you have an account, you can register and pay bills, without going on company’s website.
Some banks it’s free, some charge x amount per month for x transactions. Check with your bank.
It would be really STUPID to ruin your credit score over 1 cent debt.
My mother-in-law gave my wife and me Starbucks gift certificates. So, I went to use one at my local Starbucks and came up four cents shy. The girl at the counter, without a smile or any note of the irony, took my debit card and ran a $.04 charge on it, then handed me back the receipt. A couple weeks later I was talking to the husband of the owner of my local bike shop and he informed me that CC charges are (If I remember correctly) $.35 per transaction for Visa. Way ta go, Starbucks. I kept that receipt with me to show people until last week when my wallet accidentally got washed.
@redragon104: The person who opened the envelope, got a great laugh. You are probably an urban legend in this hospital
@Spoondizzle: If the girl would’t charge you, she’ll have to pay the difference HERSELF from her own salary. So don’t get all huffy. She gets a lot of customers like you.
(And since you had t pay by debit card, I suspect you left no tip, so stop acting, like someone owns you 4 cents).
And Starbucks, with all millions of transaction per day, has a good plan, which probably costs a lot less than 35 cents.
@FrugalFreak: Considering people usually work 8-hour shifts, you kept her past her shift for at least 2 hours (and that’s only if you’re her first of the day. If you caught her on her way out, you just made her work a 16 hour shift with no break). You try sitting on the phone for 8 hours a day every day then be forced to stay over your shift because of some asshat that wants to bitch about $15. It sucks.
Ass.
Since I had a cell phone, email, and only used my dorm room phone to order the occasional late-night take out, my phone bill when I was in school was usually in the 5 to 10 cent a month range. So, after one year of this, when the first bill of the next year came I just sent a check for $5, and that covered all of my dorm-room calls for the rest of the time at school, with $2 and change left when I graduated. I’m fairly certain that they paid more out in sending bills to me than I paid them for actually making phone calls for 4 years. You would think, in cases like that, it might be more cost-effectve in the long run to send out a a letter saying “Your bill for this period is so small that it is easier for all involved to wait until you’ve accruded $x in charges, at which point a bill will be sent. Got to be easier in the long run to send out one bill every 3 months for $5, as opposed to a bill every month for $.08
@chouchou: How about you stop the bitter, probably worked a service job that you hated train for a second. She might have a bunch of customers like me. Guys who come in maybe once a week, asks how everyone’s doing, bothers to learn the names of the people I deal with regularly, leaves ridiculous tips when I have cash. Thinks it’s funny that Starbucks would lose money on a $.04 transaction.
Don’t get all offended that I think that charging someone $.04 (and losing money on it) is funny. Charging someone $.04 (and losing money on it) IS funny.
@Spoondizzle: I’d also like to point out that the girl was new and that any of the three usual people I deal with at that Starbucks would have laughed at the situation, even if they ran the card (and there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t just say “ah, forget it.”).
Wait’ll that gets sent to the collection agency and your credit score drops like a Rock.
I can’t wait until they send your account to collections
@BrokenNut: I also read that doing something somewhere at sometime could cause something somewhere else to sometimes be other than the first something but not nothing where eveything is always elsethings and underthings are overundersidethings.
jk
@vastrightwing: Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Newspapers can’t count a subscription as paid circulation unless it is in fact paid. Papers that are given away don’t count.
Also, he’s not really looking for a “solution.” (To the poster who suggested small claims court? Are you kidding?) He just thought it was worth a laugh.
@BrokenNut: Thanks for the very informed comment.
8 cents? Must be the bill-printing fee…
@thesabre: Good idea! Actually, he should sent them a check for 55 cents. Then they have to issue him a check for 47 cents which would repay him the cost of his stamp and the gas to get to the post office!
@synergy: There goes that new math stuff again.
I’d cut them a check for 7 cents. Just so they would be forced to bill me for a penny.