Bad Consumer Smith finally paid off her American Express Optima card after 14 years, but couldn’t believe that Amex tacked on a $0.19 finance charge to her last bill. Smith summoned her lesser angels to work out a fitting response. Here’s what she came up with:
I sent AmEx two checks for a penny each, one for two cents, two for three cents, one for four cents, and one for a nickel.I didn’t want them to accidentally drop one, and I was still in a bad mood, so I folded the first check up. Then the second. Then I realized I could fold them all up… around each other.
Topped off with the billing slip, with “stupid bill” written in green marker on it.
Hit the jump for Amex’s response.
Smith writes:
Since at least 1994 I have had an American Express Optima card.We finally paid the darn thing off.
I waited patiently for my final billing statement, and sent in the payment electronically the next day.
Except AmEx doesn’t believe in Grace Periods, only Average Daily Billing.
So, AmEx decided my final bill of 340 odd dollars was an average daily bill of $23. So they sent me a bill for $.19 interest.
Unfortunately for all involved they sent me that in the middle of a really BAD week.
I thought about this.
What is the most evil way I can pay this thing?
If I do 19 payments of one cent each through my bank it will just go to the AmEx computers. That’s too easy.
I started to send in $.19 from my desktop piggy bank.
Then I realized I wouldn’t know they received it, and I really don’t want a LATE bill for nineteen cents.
So I started to send a check for one center and 18 cents cash. (I have sent in $1.00 or similar checks before with paper forms to other billers— then I know they got the damn thing).
Decided I didn’t want to pay for the postage to mail a nickel.
Realized my bank gives me unlimited checks, unlimited check cashing for free.
So I tear out a chunk of checks.
Realize that if I’m the person processing the check, 19 checks for a penny each is pretty easy.
So I sent AmEx two checks for a penny each, one for two cents, two for three cents, one for four cents, and one for a nickel.
I didn’t want them to accidentally drop one, and I was still in a bad mood, so I folded the first check up. Then the second. Then I realized I could fold them all up… around each other.
Topped off with the billing slip, with “stupid bill” written in green marker on it.
It just might have taken less time to wait on hold and be transferred 17 times trying to get them to waive a bill for $.19, but I have my doubts. AmEx has call centers in India just like everyone else.
Am I a bad consumer, or just sick of bull hockey? How hard would it have been for the computers to be programmed to say, “bill amount is less than cost of mailing, cheaper to waiver bill?” I have one medical laboratory I deal with who doesn’t bill below a threshold — it’s cheaper to eat the bill than send out and process a bill for some minimum.
Stupid conglomeramegacorporation.
-Bad Consumer Smith
Amex cashed the checks. Each and every one of them. We can’t say we’re surprised, but we do commend Smith for her creativity.
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Dumb.
A computer issued the bill not a human. Even if the amount is dumb she still owes it and is a whiner.. Why should Amex not get their 19 cents. Multiply 19 cents times 1 million people and you have a lot of money.
And she is ignorant for blasting the way AMEX calculates APR etc…. You don’t like it, don’t use Amex… they tell you up front that is how it works.
@manithemoneyman: i’d love to be rid of them if only i’d stop getting bills for pennies. and if i were even to bite and pay the pennies online, they wouldn’t let me pay the $7 fee for paying online until the next billing cycle… which puts me in an even worse place than i started.
@MartyF81:
She *paid her bill in full*, which is the sticking point. AmEx billed her *AFTER* her card balance was *completely paid off*.
Granted, she should have just called them. But still, they aren’t supposed to assess a finance charge after you’ve paid off your balance in full.
@RvLeshrac:
…except that Amex bills interest on an average daily balance (as stated in her complaint), which is why she was charged interest according to the terms of her user agreement. So Amex did exactly what they were “supposed to”, and she chose to be a spoiled brat about it.
I have some questions for Carey and all the defenders of this behavior. It seems that most of you are defending this tactic on the basis of a attitude that it’s such a small amount of money, the company should just waive it automatically. So:
1) How much is a “small enough” amount that companies should just waive it? Less than 20 cents? Less than a dollar? How long until people start complaining that $1.01 bills are ridiculous and should be waived? Where does your argument end?
2) If piddling little amounts mean next to nothing, how many of you would object to companies rounding amounts on your bill UP to, let’s say, make balancing your checkbook easier? Does your argument only apply when YOU are saving money at someone ELSE’S expense, or would any of you be willing to pay more for the company’s convenience? Why not?
@MartyF81: Don’t be angry she finally got to have some fun with the conglomeramegacorporation.
@sncreducer: Less than the cost of postage and man-seconds (for processing payment) would be a start.
Belief in Karma, you had a chance to be the bigger person and resolve it in a fast simple manner, but you wasted your “opportunity cost” (time could have spent to make more money) and plot your revenge on someone who really didn’t start the problem in the first place and he/she had to spent extra time and put up with your bullshit. This kind of behavior is juvenile beyond words could describe.
@MartyF81: Rule number one: When calling someone dumb, remember not to end your sentences in a
@EtherealStrife:
OK then, but according to that value system, the OP is the party most at fault here for inflating the processing cost in man-seconds with her juvenile trickery. She could have paid online and minimized her own wasted time and the company’s, and this transaction would have been much more productive for all involved.
@sncreducer: @sncreducer: True, except that the customer is not obligated to minimize expenses for the company. That’s the company’s obligation (assuming they are interested in maximizing profits) and you would think they would act accordingly.
To answer your first two questions:
1) As etheral strife pointed out, the point where it is not cost effective makes a lot of sense. If you owe me five bucks but it would cost $100 to process the payment, you bet I’d write it off.
2) Consumers can and do pay extra for things like this. That “convenience fee” that gets charged if you pay your utility bill online? People are willing to pay that to avoid having to deal with paper checks and mailing things. So yes, given a reasonable benefit people will pay for it. More to the point, if AMEX owed you a $0.15 refund but you had to send them a self-addressed stamped envelope to collect, would you?
Lordy there is a lot of bitching in the comments.
The story is simple: people find that kind of bill annoying, consumer had fun with the idea, move on.
Do I think it’s worthy of consumerist article? No. Do I think it’s amusing? Yes.
I’m guessing that it doesn’t actually cost any large company 41 cents to mail out a letter because the USPS gives them bulk deals. Knowing this government, it may even be free, or they may even get paid for it.
@kamikazee770 — USAA.
Whenever you receive a utility/phone bill that is extremely small, such as less than the cost of a 1st class USPS stamp, then I would suggest calling their billing department and offering to pay via credit card.
They will usually waive the fee. They can’t refuse your payment method if they accept credit cards, but with the card fees, it will actually cost them to charge you. If they don’t waive the fee, then you have the satisfaction of knowing that you did the right thing, and it cost them more than if you hadn’t even paid your bill. If they waive it, then obviously you’re done.
If it’s your CC company sending you a $.15 bill like the OP, I’m guessing this doesn’t work.
In college we all had default long distance plans attached onto our dorm phones. You could call and get a better plan, but a lot of students just never used it at all. Every few months, I would get a phone bill for about $.17, and I would just let it ride and collect late fees (which were percentage based), until a few more months of calls had accrued, and the bill was maybe $2.50. Then I’d pay it off. A classmate of mine said “just call them every month and offer to pay it via CC. They always waive it.”
If it took this person a maximum of 14 years to pay off a credit card Im going to say they are probably not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Im all for punishing bad companies with horrible customer service, but I dont see that here. I see someone who wasted 30 minutes of their life getting revenge on a banking mainframe…
I’m not sure I should laugh or cry… Not sure this is the best way to “stick it to the man”. It does annoy one of their employees, but it won’t do jack squat to AmEx.
@Mr_D: And a hell of a good and cheap way to retain a customer that has just paid off their balance.
Seriously, for all the money these companies spend to advertise and otherwise create and maintain customers – *NOT* programming the computers to “write off” piddly amounts that cost AMEX more just to mail the bill is kinda nuts. Mailing something to her saying something like “thank you for being such a great customer, we are giving you a small gift this month and paying your total due as a goodwill gesture.” If it costs customer 41cents to mail them a check that costs AMEX 20cents plus their overhead – then all that corporate branding has taken a dump straight into the toilet right there. It’s freeking petty cash, usury interest that AMEX is collecting, and it costs them more to squeeze it out of the paying customer than they make. Probably the same geniuses running AMEX that designed the “no doc” home loans.
Yeah customers think this stuff is cute, but the people responsible for it don’t care and place it on staff lower on the ladder. So all she did was punish the guy who had to enter them.