Earlier this week, we asked whether our readers had any experience with zombie refunds: items that you sent back to a retailer, only to have your refund later reversed for no clear reason. We heard from a surprising number of people whose transactions have risen from the archives and devoured their bank accounts. [More]
Zombie Amazon Return Rises From Dead, Gets Charged To Credit Card
By May 15, 2013
We’ve discussed zombie debt, zombie bills, and zombie accounts, and even zombie retail on this site before, but we had never heard of zombie returned merchandise…until now. Reader Michael reports that he returned something to Amazon in March 2013, received a refund, and that was the end of the story. Until it wasn’t the end of the story. [More]
EA Unveils List Of 8 Free Games It’s Offering To Disgruntled SimCity Customers
By March 18, 2013
UPDATE: Electronic Arts has announced that CEO John Riccitiello is stepping down. His last day on the job will be March 30. Maybe he didn’t want to have to accept another Golden Poo? [More]
Debt Collectors Keep Calling About Bogus Debt, Even After Being Threatened With Suit
By February 19, 2013
From calling at all hours of the day and night to contacting you at work, we’ve told you before about the large number of banned practices for debt collectors. But one man says he’s the victim of a tenacious debt collector trying to collect a debt he doesn’t even owe. [More]
Why Does Chase Keep E-Mailing Me About My Closed Non-Zombie Account?
By February 19, 2013
Elizabeth wishes that Chase would stop sending her emails. They’re not spam, exactly: she used to be a customer. But she’s getting e-mails as if she still had accounts there, and she closed hers more than a year ago. She was afraid that it has gone zombie: that is, that it’s been mysteriously re-opened without her permission to make unwanted payments and devour her credit score. [More]
Suntrust Checking Account Wasn’t Really Closed, Goes Zombie
By January 25, 2013
Stephen had an account at Suntrust, and decided to leave that bank behind and start a shiny new credit union account with his wife. He left the Suntrust account open instead of withdrawing all of his money and transferring it to the new account, spending it until it was empty, then going in to close it. This plan would have worked beautifully if Suntrust had actually closed the account when he asked them to. [More]
Chase Customers: Did The Bank Ever Re-Open Your Closed Account?
By September 13, 2012
Over the lifetime of Consumerist, we’ve written a number of stories about so-called zombie bank accounts, where a consumer finds out their closed account has been re-opened without their knowledge or approval, usually after some third party attempts to make a direct deposit or debit on the dead account. If you were a Chase bank customer and your account was resurrected from the grave, we’d like to hear from you. [More]
Bank Of America Says It Has Stopped Creating Zombies From Dead Accounts
By August 22, 2012
For years, we’ve been telling tales of terror abut bank customers whose supposedly dead bank accounts suddenly sprang back to life after some unwitting third party attempted to make a direct deposit or debit on the account. But realizing that this whole zombie thing is so overdone these days, Bank of America says it has put an end to the practice. [More]
If Bloatware Keeps You From Downloading Phone Apps You Actually Want, Should Carriers Offer An Upgrade?
By August 7, 2012
We’ve written before about the annoyances of bloatware — those apps you are never ever going to use but come with your smartphone and cannot be deleted no matter how much you swear at your phone. Consumerist reader Ryan’s got his own bone to pick with zombie apps that can’t be killed on his Sprint phone, because they’re interfering with his ability to use it in the way he intended when he bought it. In short: he can’t download apps he actually wants because the bloatware takes up too much space, even with a new SD card. [More]
How Can I Prevent My Wells Fargo Account From Going Zombie?
By July 9, 2012
Aaron is ditching Wells Fargo. Not out of any animosity toward megabanks or dissatisfaction with their policies, though. He’s just moving to an area where they don’t have any branches. He did what you do when breaking up with a bank: withdrew his money and closed out the account. Well, he tried to. He wanted to. Perhaps he did. But the employee who helped him couldn’t guarantee that a stray old check or a recurring charge he failed to change over wouldn’t bring the closed account back to life, resulting in overdraft charges and a zombie account lumbering around. [More]
DirecTV Account Closed In 2004 Goes Zombie, Creates Billing Nightmare
By July 2, 2012
Way back in 2004, Cameron had DirecTV service. When he moved, he ended his service and turned his equipment back in. At least, he thought he did. It wasn’t until this year that he learned the account had gone zombie back in 2005, charging the debit card of a bank account he didn’t watch closely for two years before going dormant–likely because the debit card expired. The zombie account had been slain, and a collection agency tracked Cameron down earlier this year to make him pay the balance on the account that he had never reactivated in the first place. Never mind that he had paid almost two years’ worth of bills without noticing it or even having a dish at the time. [More]
Debt Collectors Now Going After Former Hollywood Video Employees
By June 19, 2012
Zeke once worked for now bankrupt and defunct Hollywood Video. Employees had special accounts allowing them to rent older movies (more than a few weeks old) for free and not have to pay late fees when they didn’t bring them back. Zeke is sure that he wouldn’t hallucinate free movie rentals, but the collection agency that sent him the letter insists that this policy never existed, and that it’s up to him to prove that he didn’t owe the company $28.95 in late fees at the time he quit. [More]
Zombie Bank Of America Account Makes Me A ‘Delinquent’
By June 18, 2012
The last time that Jen had visited a Bank of America branch, her deposit of more than $3,000 had been credited to the wrong customer, and she was there to make sure that she got her money back. A branch manager denied her assertions, denied that there was a mistake, and told her that she must have deposited the money in another bank. There was no other reasonable explanation…or so it seemed until she pulled out the receipt from her deposit. Oh. She closed her account that day, and assumed that her relationship with Bank of America was now over. She was incorrect. [More]
Report: Banks Make It Really Difficult To Take Your Business Elsewhere
By May 30, 2012
Outrage over fees assessed by banks on checking accounts and other unfair practices has led to consumers attempting to leave their institutions in droves. But as a new report by Consumers Union points out, banks throw up a myriad of obstacles that can confuse consumers who are trying to switch banks. [More]
MetLife Hit With $500 Million Settlement Over "Death Master" File
By April 23, 2012
The Social Security Administration’s “Death Master” File sounds like something that is guarded by a specter resembling the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, but it’s really just a list of everyone who has recently moved on to another plane of existence. Regardless, the nation’s largest life insurance company is now on the hook for $500 million after being accused of using the Death Master File for its own benefit while ignoring it when it could benefit others. [More]
Game Company Apologizes For Failure To Upgrade Purchases Without Being Publicly Shamed First
By January 20, 2012
We love the rare instances where a company makes a proactive effort to fix a problem before customers have to resort to a barrage of complaints. In this case, Mojang apologized for an upgrade glitch for Minecraft users, and as reader Derick puts it, “You just gotta love it when a company assumes responsibility for a billing mistake without the need to be publicly shamed first.” [More]
Closed BofA Bank Account Mysteriously Reopened With 1 Penny Balance
By November 10, 2011
Chris was one of the many in October who closed their bank accounts with Bank of America, and other similar big retail banks, in protest over planned fees for using their debit card. But last week she found it had been reopened for no apparent reason, with a 1 penny balance out of nowhere. [More]
Microsoft Zombie-Bills Expired Credit Card For Xbox Live
By October 6, 2011
Earlier this year, we posted a handy tip to avoid zombie billing: for a service that you plan to stop using after your contract is up, use a credit or debit card with an expiration date shortly after the end of the contract. The idea behind this plan is that an expired card can’t be billed. This didn’t work so well for Rob, whose expired credit card was zombie-billed by Microsoft for his Xbox Live subscription. [More]
