Bill says:

I had a $500 billing dispute with T-mobile. Long story short: I lost my phone. Got a new one through their insurance program that was configured incorrectly (wasn't using WIFI to make free phone calls) and was charged for tons of minutes that should have been free.

After being rebuffed by customer service and eventually having my phone disconnected, I filed a claim with the BBB and then, when that seemingly had no effect, performing an EECB, emailing the CEO, VP of external affairs, and VP of customer service of T-mobile.

The result:

I received a phone call the next day (today) from someone from the T-mobile "Executive Response" team. The woman explained that she was calling because of the email I had sent (EECB = Success!). She then explained that she was surprised that the BBB said T-mobile did not response because they, in fact, had. In addition, she said that she removed the charges from my account almost 2 weeks ago and left me 2 voice mails (which I never received) saying as such. She was very appreciative that I forwarded her the email the BBB had sent me, because she seemed quite anxious to resolve the situation with them...even though they are not a BBB accredited business they still respond to their claims.

Summation: The BBB and EECBs DO work. Thanks for the tips, Consumerist!

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

(Photo: cmorran123 )

Elysse writes,

I'm having a bit of a problem with a 'Vision Therapy' place called Children's Vision and Learning in Versailles, Kentucky.

Earlier this year I was referred to this place for one of my 4-year old twins' strabismus by my mother-in-law's optometrist (who happened to be related to the proprietor of said problematic place, as I later found out). This new optometrist suggested I treat my kid's strabismus with Vision Therapy and then went on for about half an hour about how great it was, etc, don't I want the best for my child?, etc.. really trying to sell me this treatment. After I agree to try it he sends me to the front desk to make an appointment. The woman at the desk tells me it's $350 up-front at the first appointment and that Insurance didn't cover the therapy (first red flag). I specifically ask her if it's $350 for the entire therapy treatment and she tells me yes. I go back home and do a little research on the subject, still not exactly decided either way.

One month later I show up with my kid and am ready to start the "treatment". As I'm waiting I strike up a conversation with one of the other moms in the room and I ask her "Do you think this helps your son?" and she tells me "No, but medicaid pays for it." After my prior reading I noticed another red flag I wouldn't have otherwise picked out before: this place also claims Vision Therapy can treat dyslexia, ADD/ADHD and one or two other behavioral issues. Pretty soon it's my kid's turn to go in the back.

That first treatment? It was an entire appointment of being upsold on Vision Therapy and the woman actually said to me "Don't you care about your child's vision?". Oh, that $350 for treatment? That was just for this appointment, they actually wanted somewhere in the range of $1500, due at the next appointment in full, and also told me that at my kid's age I'd probably have to do it again in a year.

I said there was NO WAY we could afford that, and that I wanted to do a treatment that was a little more orthodox (and insurance covered). She hands me yet more VT literature, documents that I didn't sign (so I could sign them at home, naturally), a brochure for a Health Credit Card, followed with a lecture on how to send in insurance claims anyway ("We'll give you the codes, and the key is persistence: if you call and one person denies your claim, call again later until you get it approved.")

She then says "I'll pencil your name in for an appointment anyway, since we fill up so quickly normally. So-and-So has just finished her VT so that opens a slot for you next month!"

So I'm out $350 for basically being a captive audience to a salesperson, and she milked it.. even going as far as to try to convince my 4-year-old daughter that's what she needed so somehow my icy heart would melt or something.

By the way, if anyone else is in this situation: the American Association for Pediatric Strabismus (who knew?) does NOT support Vision Therapy as an effective treatment (which would be why my insurance didn't cover), and there are several places that warn about VT. VT does NOT treat any behavioral or brain-related dysfunction effectively.

The next month I get a phone call from Children's Vision and Learning. The receptionist was snippy and asked me "We were just wondering why you didn't show up for your appointment today.." and I told them that I hadn't planned on it; we couldn't afford it and I was getting a second opinion. The receptionist asked "When did you know this?" and I said, "Pretty soon after I left the last time". She snapped, "Well, I'm sorry you don't care about your child's vision." and hung up on me.

That was July, this last week (November!) I received a bill from this place. Apparently I'm now on the hook for a $50 "No Show Fee" for July. I've tried calling them but they haven't been answering their phones. What the heck do I do now?

We're obviously not experts on vision therapy, but the few reports we read online today seem to conclude that there's not consistent proof it works for treating learning disabilities that are brain-based, but that it can be effective for something like strabismus if the cause is muscle-related. However, that's not really the issue here—Elysse can always do more research on her own, get second and third opinions, find out what her insurance will cover, and then make a decision on treatment. The issue is that she found herself dealing with a predatory medical office where patients are treated like shoppers, and where the staff is focused on making a sale to the exclusion of everything else

So about that $50 bill, Elysse: send a certified letter to the office and explain that you in no way consented to a follow-up appointment, and that the pushy receptionist said she'd "pencil you in" anyway without your permission. There will be readers who will say that you didn't stand up for yourself enough if you didn't make her erase that semi-appointment, but we feel if you say "No" once and the salesperson still tries to force you into a corner, it's no longer your problem. The whole phrase "pencil you in" reeks of "Well I'll ignore your wishes and pretend you said yes anyway, so that I can continue to try to sell to you."

And after all, they could have easily called a week in advance to confirm that the tentative appointment would be kept, and removed it from their calendar if they couldn't speak to you.

You should ask the office to send a copy of the bill adjusted to show that you in fact owe nothing. Give them a two week window to do this, and make it clear that if they continue to bill you for this, you will be reporting them to your state's Attorney General. (You want a copy of the bill showing you're free and clear so that you'll have evidence, in case the $50 charge shows up on your credit report in the future.)

(Photo: Getty Images)

Please note that we didn't include a picture of the drawing because David might try to charge us for it. We really can't afford $233 right now.

Good Idea!: Man Submits Drawing Of Spider Instead Of Payment For Overdue Account [Geekologie] (Thanks to Anthony!)

aishel says:

I've been getting the Comcast internet promotion for $33/month (I only have cable internet service with them). This month, I noticed that my bill said $35/month instead of $33. I used their online chat support to complain, and even though my promotion was about to expire, he extended it for an entire year! I'll be saving $300/year!

I have the whole transcript, but here are the main parts:

First he told me that they had to raise costs

Comcast Rep > It has gone up to $59.95 [from $57.95] per month minus the promotion rate of $24.95 every month. We are highly focused on controlling our costs, but price adjustments are a necessity in view of the increased cost of doing business in this challenging economic environment, including gas prices, healthcare costs, increases in the cost we pay for programming, and technology and service improvements.

Me > So if its supposed to be $33/month for an entire year, that means that the rate doesn't just randomly go up
Me > So how can you help me solve this problem?

Comcast Rep> I was able to correct the rate.
Comcast Rep> You will still have your current rate of $33.00 for your Internet service for 12 months.

Me> do you know when the 12 months is up?

Comcast Rep> what I did was I reset the date your promotion will run. It will expire on November 2009.

So just like that, instead of my rate going up to $59.95/month in a few months, I got the promotional rate extended for an entire year. That's a savings of $323.40

Good work! Oh, and don't think this can't work with other cable and internet companies, too. If your promotional rate is expiring, call them up and ask them to extend it. What's the worst that can happen? They might say no?

Here's M's letter:

This is a strange one. Citibank keeps trying to foist hundreds of dollars on my wife. And not in a good Robert Redford-Demi Moore sort of way.

This was her go-to credit card for a while, since before we met. Around the time of our wedding last year, she charged a couple hundred bucks worth of gifts on what was an otherwise zero-balance card. She went to pay it off a few weeks later, but, lo and behold, it said *they* owed *us* a couple hundred bucks, after some magnificent benefactor credited our account with $600. High times in Fat City, right?

Well, being the mensch my wife is, she called Citibank and told them that somehow their Intertubes were crossed. They transferred her to the fraud department, which promised they'd look into it. Sure enough, a month or two later, we got a letter saying, "We're on to you, suckers, and we're taking our money back. Nice try, though." (I'm paraphrasing.) They debited our account and we went back to the drudgery and monotony of our lives.

Of course, Citibank, being the warm-hearted blokes we all know them to be, never uncrossed their Intertubes and kept wiring money into my wife's otherwise unused account. A few hundred bucks here, a few hundred there (always in even increments), eventually we had a balance over $1,000 in our favor. It was like the Hannukah miracle, except on a credit card.

So, sure enough, my wife calls back. Sure enough, she's transferred to the fraud department. Sure enough, they promise to look into it, and sure enough they eventually take their money back. And, this being consumerist, sure enough, they start depositing money into her account again. Always a couple hundred bucks, every few weeks.

What to do? "That's all well and good, we thought I mean, we don't use the card, so we figured we could live to ignore it and let them deal with it. "Ha ha," we'd say to our friends. "That crazy Citibank! Always trying to give us money. What will they think of next?"

Only as of today, they've started sending us CHECKS. Just today, I went down to our mailbox and found a fat, juicy check for $600, that said it represents the balance in our account. I mean, it's like they're SCREAMING at us: "TAKE OUR MONEY! YOU LOOK LIKE LOVELY PEOPLE! WE DON'T WANT IT!"

Only I can just as loudly hear, like, 800 Consumerist commenters tut-tutting, "You can't spend it. It's not your money. You are NOT lovely people; you're obviously scammers of some sort and you have this coming."

So the question is, what the hell do we do now? We've asked them, PLEADED with them to stop sending us money that doesn't belong to us. They're not listening. What now? How do we make them listen? What do we do with this check?

Save us, Consumerist; you're our only hope!

-M+C

Well, you clearly are not scammers. If you are, you are the worst scammers in the history of scams and you should go back to scam school and take scam 101.

We're going to be honest with you here and say we have no idea what you should do, other than you should not spend the money. This is what we have learned from several years of summarizing those "Bank makes $100,000 mistake, man spends it, and has life ruined" stories that show up every few months. Once the bank realizes what they are doing, they will want their money back.

If we were you, we'd start by writing an EECB to Citibank. Perhaps you can attract the attention of someone who realizes that, while, as a bank, they are supposed to loan money, it is supposed to be a bit more organized than this. Send them a detailed account of everything that has happened, and tell them to cut it out. (Keep a copy of this letter for your records, too.) It sounds like the "fraud" department might not be equipped to handle this sort of problem.

For more information about launching an EECB, click here. Here's some executive customer service contact info for Citibank.

Anyone out there have any advice for M & C?

(Photo: cmorran123 )

Here's his story:

I have been an AT&T/Cingular customer for some time (5+ years). I own small business and have 7 phones with them on a small business plan, my normal monthly bill is well over $300. Shortly after Mother's day this year I started getting $2000+ bills for roaming in Nicaragua and Mexico. Neither I nor my phone have ever been to Nicaragua. I called AT&T and they actually fixed the problem in a few days and gave me a credit. So far so good.

However, the next month's bill came and the calls are still there, and the next month and the next month. Finally I had them shut the phone off completely, because they couldn't stop the billing. So the phone is now off, and I am still paying monthly service on it. However, they managed to rack up over $6,000 in charges for roaming in Mexico and Nicaragua before I forced them to shut it off.

Here's the kicker, AT&T says the phone is in both places at the same time. Their own bill shows a call being made from Nicaragua at the exact same minute it is incurring a data roaming charge in Mexico. When I point out that this is physically impossible they just respond with "pay the bill," I imagine it to be similar to what dealing with the Mob must feel like.

I won't get into the byzantine mess that is AT&T's dispute issues process (to be fair, in the 5 years before this incident, I always thought they were pleasant and helpful when I called for anything); suffice to say after over 12 hours on the phone with AT&T (who have a wonderful system that won't allow you to call anyone back), they finally shut my phones off today. This is despite swearing just last night that my service wouldn't be interrupted.

For the record, despite all these issues I was a "good" customer and continued to pay the portion of my bill that was legit.

Please help, or at least if you can't help publish this so other people can stay away.

Serves me right for buying an iPhone.

Thanks,
Chris

Hey, we didn't say it, he did.

Chris, have you tried these numbers?

My wife and I are there right now. We opened the minibar last night to put a piece of pizza in there in a pizza box. This morning, there’s a $26.04 charge for food on the bill slid under our door. Why? My wife just called to ask and was told, "If you open the mini bar door, there’s a sensor in there and if you move anything in there... you get billed for it." In our case, we must have jiggled a $20 bottle of wine.

Gregg adds, "Gee...I wonder how many people pay for the wine (or whatever) that they never ate or drank because they simply didn’t look at the bill???" Remember, if you so much as place the hotel's menu binder on top of the minibar, double-check your bill for charges. Double-check anyway because hotels can be sneaky.

(Photo: Getty)

It's instructive to see how Michal is handling the situation, though. He's set up a free blog at Blogspot, and posted scans of receipts and bills, transcripts of online chats, a timeline of what's happened so far, and his email to Rick Germano (SVP of Customer Operations) and the subsequent auto-generated response that was sent back. For anyone who has a problem with Comcast that they can't seem to get resolved, this is a great guide to all the ways you can attempt to communicate with the company.

As new information comes in, he posts it. As of Monday, Comcast's Twitter-monitoring team is on the case. We'll be checking Michal's blog in the coming days to see whether they can succeed where everyone else has failed.

Consumer Complaint (Thanks to Erica!)
(Photo: Getty)

The massive data splurge was apparently caused by a third-party backup module Adam installed alongside the widely-used open source website management software Drupal. Like a cancerous tumor, the custom module was unstoppably copying thousands of temporary files into Adam's account. GoDaddy agreed to slash Adam's bill to $969, supposedly the maximum discount they could offer under special circumstances, but because of the bug, they explained, Adam was going to get a bill next month for another $6,579.

Adam considered canceling his account and eating his prepaid hosting fees. GoDaddy claimed that they wouldn't send the matter to collections, but refused to put the guarantee in writing.

Adam started chronicling his issue on the Huffington Post, drawing the attention of GoDaddy's President. He directed his executive team to wipe out the $969 charge, and promised to kill any additional obscene bills that might pop up.

While GoDaddy's second resolution was the only action that made sense this week, will its billing system pour salt on the wound a month from now? What caused the influx of data in the first place? Was the refund a result of the Huffington Post blog or would it have come without it? Most important, will GoDaddy listen up, learn and install processes to prevent this situation and others like it in the future?

I'm on the fence whether I'll be around to see GoDaddy through to my 2010 hosting renewal date. On Thursday, I said it wasn't a pleasure to meet you, Bob, and I'm sure you can understand why. Now that it's Friday, we've somewhat kissed and made up. Consumers deserve and demand more, Bob, and it'll take you and your machine time to earn back my trust and your credibility.

In the meantime, I know one lesson for sure: If you're in the right and you've been wronged, people hear you so long as you're loud enough.

As a result of Adam's experience, GoDaddy may now warn customers when their accounts are set to exceed their allowances, a basic precaution you'd think any responsible web host would have already implemented.

Adam's story reaffirms one of our core strategies: when reasoning fails, get the attention of the executive office and watch your previously intransigent problem melt into a surprisingly satisfactory resolution.

Update: Drupal offered an explanation for the surprising data use:

The user, Adam Fendelman, installed a third party contributed back-up module, and set it do infinite back-ups, a reasonable default for people who don't want to lose their data. The configuration of GoDaddy hosting server timed out the backup process, so back-ups were never completed and the temporarily created back-up files were not cleaned up. This led the failed back-ups to exceed the disk server limits.

Why I Don't Owe GoDaddy $6,579.51 (or $969) [Huffington Post]
Why GoDaddy Refunded My $969 (and Will Be Making 'Significant Changes') [Huffington Post]
*Urgent!* Drupal creating thousands of 75-meg temp files! [Drupal]

Bill, who sent us the tip, writes,

Note that to replace this service, a person would have to buy at least a $7.99 per month service from a Usenet provider. But Comcast is not going to lower the price of their Internet service to compensate customers for the loss of Usenet access.

(Photo: Getty)

"Verizon Wireless Going Contract-Free?" [Boy Genius Report via IntoMobile]

Laurynn says:

For anyone considering signing up for Verizon OneBill, DON’T DO IT!

I was told by several representatives that “it’s not ready yet,” and that Verizon “put the cart before the horse” (actual statements made by their customer service employees this morning).

How does it work? Well, Verizon gladly offers the option as a means for consolidating your services into one bill… the service is outsourced to a separate company, which pays your invoices for you for each separate Verizon service (wireless, FiOs, internet, etc.), and then collects the money from you on a single bill. Which means that they CANCEL all of your other Verizon service auto-payments or even the ability to pay online.

The issue? I can’t register my account, I can’t log in, and now I can’t pay my bills. I would cancel this, but it would void my bundle discount.

I was told today that a help ticket has been issued, and added to the “IR” (not sure what that means, but I’m assuming it’s a long list of other individuals who were sold this service prematurely). There’s no estimated completion date.

What it basically means is, I can either pay $3.95 a transaction and pay my bills by phone, or bite the bullet and send them via snail mail (who buys stamps anymore?!).

Come on, Verizon. Get with the times.

My main complaint is the number of times I was transferred around… I spoke to 7 different agents this morning, each trigger-happy with the transfer button, just waiting for me to let a hot word slip… God forbid I said the word “wireless” (OH! I can’t do anything wireless, I’ll transfer you!) or “payments” (you’re going to need to speak to someone in payments). By the third time I got wise to the situation and had to say, “I just spoke to them,” and “I’m not sure you understand my problem, please repeat it back to me.” Those seemed to help.

As far as we know, "IR" means "injured reserve." Your bill is apparently out for the season, and they don't want it taking up roster spots that could be used by other bills. Tell it to say "hi" to Tom Brady for us.

(Photo: Risiblegirl )

Rob writes (to Verizon):

Mr. Seidenberg,

I've been a loyal Verizon FiOS internet customer for more than a year, but am considering canceling my account [redacted] because of ridiculous and unacceptable billing practices.

Before I start, I'd like to point out that I don't get a bill for my account - neither paper nor electronic. The money is simply deducted from my bank account each month. During the six to eight phone calls I have made to Verizon over the last several months, I always request some kind of bill, and every time I am told I will receive a bill. I have never gotten one official piece of paperwork from Verizon about FiOS.

My current problem started in July, when I moved to a new apartment. I was told my FiOS account would be transferred to the new apartment with zero fees. I was very specific in asking about this and was assured there would be no fees. After my account was transferred, I was billed $158.32 as a cancellation fee. I was told that my account was cancelled and then re-activated. I called and was told that the account would be credited, and I wouldn't pay anything until that fee was paid off.

The next month, I was charged $21.33. I called again, and was given a complicated explanation about credits to my account. I was assured the problem would be resolved, and foolishly I believed that.

The next month, I was charged $58.00. Confused as to exactly what constitutes an account credit, I called again (this morning, in fact). Once again, I was told about various amounts being deducted from my bill, and what was being taken out up front. I once again requested a paper bill so I could review these issues. I also learned something incredibly shocking: My monthly rate had been increased.

When I got FiOS, my monthly rate was $39.99. It's suddenly $47.99, a charge I was neither notified of, nor accepted.

I asked the customer service representative to tell me why this had been raised without my consent. She responded by transferring to me a completely different department. That department sent me back to a new rep in billing, and after giving all of my information again, was given the following explanation: The increase should have been noted on my bill, even though people who only have a data plan with Verizon don't get a paper bill.

I wasn't getting electronic bills, either, because the Verizon system listed various incarnations of my e-mail address.

For July, August and September, I have been charged $237.65 for my Verizon FiOS internet. At the rate I should be paying, $39.99 a month, I would only have to pay $119.97, which means in the last three months I've been overcharged $117.68.

This is completely and totally unacceptable. I've copied The Consumerist, a consumer advocacy Web site, on this issue, so that your customers can be encouraged to double-check their bills and ensure they aren't being overcharged, as I have been.

I've also sent this e-mail to other members of the Verizon team, in the hopes of expediting this matter. I'm considering a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the New York State Attorney General for what essentially constitutes deceptive and misleading billing practices. I doubt that raising my rate with no notification, despite repeated attempts for notification, is going to bear out as appropriate.

Every time I call Verizon for help, I have to deal with an automated system that bounces between several departments before I get explanations that would spin the head of an economics expert. Your customer service representatives are, for the most part, accommodating and polite, and this is not an indictment of them. The situation, as you can imagine, is incredibly frustrating.

When I relayed this to the customer service representative this morning, the response was that I should simply accept the increase and the overall situation. That is not good enough. I would appreciate a refund of $117.68 - the money that I was overcharged - as well as a monthly paper bill so I can review my charges.

I would also like to pay the monthly rate of $39.99, the one I agreed to when I signed up. I will be more than happy to entertain an increase in my monthly rate at some point in the future, on the condition that I am notified of said change.

Regards,

Rob

We think you should go ahead with your plan to report them to the NY AG and the BBB. Why not?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

When Seth emailed to ask why they were just now contacting him, he received this surprising response (emphasis ours):

A software glitch prevented Buy.com from billing some customers over the last couple of years. Buy.com is going to bill them soon. The only customers that were affected by this were those who used partial payment with a GC and then paid the balance with their Credit Cards (which were never really charged).

So there ya go: if you used a gift card at Buy.com in the "last couple of years" and settled the difference with a credit card, Buy.com may be hitting your account later this month in an attempt to finally get their books straight.

(Photo: Getty)

Joseph R. Vaccarelli worked for Verion for 10 years but only started making the calls within the last 10 months, which makes us wonder what exactly happened last November or December to make him launch his non-stop telephone orgy of fraud—and how he got any work done during that time.

Verizon would like everyone to know that not all of its employees regularly call phone sex hotlines and charge the fees to customer accounts:

"We believe this was a highly isolated incident by an errant individual," Young said. "It should not reflect on the overwhelming majority of our workforce, who bring pride and respect to their jobs every day."

"Verizon Worker Charged in 5,000 Illicit Sex Calls" [redOrbit] (Thanks to skokieguy!)
(Photo: ernop)

Patrick says:
In May, I broke my iPhone. I dropped it and it cracked. I sold it on eBay, expected new iPhones to be announced June 9 at the WWDC. When I found out I’d have to wait until July 11, I bought a Motorola Q, because all the stores were sold out of iPhones. I would wait for the 3G on July 11.

As the date got closer, I went back to the store and asked about my upgrade eligibility for the 3G. They informed me that since I just purchased a Motorola Q, I couldn’t get an iPhone – not at any price. This, we know now, is incorrect, but to fix matters I returned the Motorola in under 30 days and popped my SIM card in a buddy’s old RAZR for a couple weeks awaiting the new iPhone 3G’s. The sales guy at the store said this would cancel my contract obligation from the Motorola and I’d be eligible to get the new iPhone at the subsidized price.

On July 11, I went to my local AT&T store because I knew there would be trouble; my account online was showing me as upgrade ineligible. Despite everything they could see at the store (that I was, in fact, perfectly eligible to upgrade and get the new iPhone), the computer wouldn’t let the transaction happen. Someone at the other store didn’t do the right paperwork when I returned the Motorola Q, and it was causing an issue.

iPhones we’re selling out all around me, so the salesperson and manager said in order for me to get an iPhone that day, they would create a new line on my account, and then I was to return the following week when they’d have the block on my account removed, and move the iPhone over to the correct line, and delete the newly created line. I begrudgingly accepted this solution, and dealt with the hassle of having a different number for a week.

The next week I went in and they moved the iPhone to my old (correct) number, and said they’d do the paperwork to get the billing right – delete the new line, cancel the charges, and fix my bill.

In the interest of keeping this story simple, I’ll summarize it like this:

This never happened. To this day – nearly two months later and spanning three billing cylces – my account has a huge balance because I continue to be charged for the extra line they’ve added, and a family plan which I don’t need, and an iPhone data plan on the line they created (which, consequently, has no phone even associated with it – the voice and data usage is ZERO!).

I’ve spent countless hours in the store and on the phone and nothing has been done. They say they don’t know what to do. Customer service can’t change or modify my bill. They all say the same thing – the computer won’t let them remove the line or fix the billing. No one – managers, regional managers, etc. – can tell me what I need to do. My bill is climbing at three times the rate it should. The store has told me not to pay the bill until it’s fixed. I’ve never missed a payment but now my account is past due.

I’m just a regular guy, trying to pay my bill and be current. NO ONE IS HELPING ME. I leave messages and call for help and just continue to get the runaround. I want my account fixed so I can move on. I feel like I’m going to be shut off soon, and this will never be right!

Thanks for any help you can bring to this issue.

Patrick

Even though we're sure that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is currently quite busy machine gunning terminators in his executive bathroom, you should probably send his team an EECB. Perhaps there is still one man who can regain control of the computer before it shuts down the life support systems at AT&T...

Here's his contact information.

Here's Noah's letter:

I had read your articles on United Airlines for a while now, but always thought "that couldn't happen to me". In fact I've had positive United experiences over the years. Nevertheless, this current situation has me recanting any nice thing I've said about them. Here's the quick version:

1. Girlfriend and I are trying to make Thanksgiving holiday travel plans. I have a pair of vouchers for United, a $100 and $200, from a previous airline error where United stood up and took responsibility. We wanted to apply both of these vouchers for the single ticket, from Seattle to D.C.

2. The United website bizarrely does not let you enter voucher codes. You get a message telling you to call their reservations department and read numbers to them. As we'll soon see, this is not a foolproof system.

3. I call the reservations department and speak to a nice fellow. I tell him the information on the flight I want and tell him I have two vouchers I'd like to apply. He says that two vouchers cannot be used on a single ticket. Fair enough, but I ask for an exception in this case. It never hurts to ask, and sure enough the gentleman puts me on hold for a few minutes, then comes back and says he can allow both vouchers to be used for the ticket. The process involves physically mailing the vouchers in(scary!), but they're not doing me any good in my apartment. I give him the credit card info to be charged, which he says will occur at the price quoted when United receives both vouchers. Both are mailed in.

4. A week later the credit card was charged, $100 higher than the price originally quoted. It was obvious only a single voucher was used. Annoyed but not overly so, I call customer service and explain the billing error.

5. No luck. Each person, supervisor or otherwise, goes through the same dance. They were very sorry for the misinformation I was given, the offending reservation agent will be swiftly disciplined, under no circumstances can two vouchers be used, and the credit card will not be credited the difference. Disturbingly, each department I speak with(reservations and customer relations) says the other department has the authority to make the change, but it comes to the same effect as no one does. I suggested that if policy prevents two vouchers from being used at once, they cancel the flight and issue a single $300 voucher. To this a supervisor lightly laughed, said the ticket was "confirmed", and could not be canceled or altered in any way without incurring heavy fees.

6. Undeterred, I fired off an EECB to four high ranked United executives. I talked about "rare missteps" and "working together", because after all, I had liked United and I presumed they liked me. The response came back not from any executive but from customer relations, again apologizing that the original rep had given me the wrong price, again saying he would be disciplined, again saying vouchers could not be combined, and (again) saying I was screwed.

7. I write a cathartic letter to the Consumerist.

I know some people would give up at this point, but my girlfriend and I are not wealthy people. $100 is not chump change to us. Also problematic is United having no accountability for outright lying to me about the price of an airline ticket. Confusion I can understand when two vouchers come in nominally against policy, but that does not give them the right to simply charge a credit card for more than the price quoted and hope no one says a thing. A call for clarification would have taken 60 seconds, and after no one would be in this mess.

Strangely for this kind of situation, United has admitted fault every single time I've interacted with an employee on this issue. They simply don't think their fault extends to, you know, doing something about it. Why in the world would I care that the ticketing agent is going to be disciplined, and why are you telling me about your company's internal employee policies anyway? I want the price we agreed to when I gave you two vouchers and a credit card. Take some responsibility for your agent's mistake. At the time anyway, he represented United Airlines, and was relied upon as such. Sigh.

Noah didn't give up after sending this letter to us. He kept corresponding with United until eventually they offered to refund his $100.

Noah says:

After receiving [another] letter and sending my response, I received a call today from an assistant to the VP of United. She again apologized for the employee's error and offered to refund $100 to the credit card, to match the price originally quoted. She did claim it was against policy, but "I had put in so much work" that it seemed fair. Well, whether it was the EECB or name-dropping consumerist.com, United eventually stepped up and did the right thing. Thanks for being such a good ace in the hole.

Congratulations, Noah!

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

(Photo: Travelin' Librarian )

From NBC 10:

Fire victims from the Riverwalk at Millennium condominium complex told NBC10 and the property management of the apartment complex that Comcast is going to charge residents to replace any cable boxes destroyed in the fire.

NBC 10 contacted Comcast and the company said it's true.

Fire victims will have to cover the cost, but residents should get reimbursed by their insurance companies, whether they are renters or homeowners.

How much will fire victims have to pay?

"We don't share specific information about our costs, but they can vary depending on the type of box — HD boxes, Digital Video Recorder, etc. We're doing all we can to accommodate our customers who were affected by the fire," a Comcast spokes person said.

“They have agreed to extend the due date for charges related to the damaged boxes until Nov. 15, which does allow the insurance companies for these residents time to process the claim and provide residents with funds for which to pay that due," said Lauren McDonald from Riverwalk Property

Comcast says they're not going to bill the fire victims for the cable they're not watching and will waive future installation fees.

Comcast Charging Residents For Equipment Lost In Condo Fire [NBC 10] (Thanks, Steve !)
Conshohocken Apartment Fire Ruled Accidental
[MyFoxPhilly]
(Photo: WTXF )

ForceTrainer says:

First off, many thanks for posting my experience with XBOX Live billing on your site. About 6 hours after the post went up I received a phone call from XBOX Live support asking about the situation. Unfortunately I did not speak with support list night, and after calling them back today I got in touch with one of their reps.

I spoke with James in their escalated support for about 20 minutes. Right off the bat he explained to me what MS would be able to do, and I was offered the option of a full refund of the amount that I paid or they would provide me with a 12-month XBOX Live Gold membership code that I could redeem. I opted for the full refund since all I wanted originally was to downgrade to a Silver membership.

After getting that cleared up, James asked me to explain the entire situation to him, and I gave him the story pretty much verbatim from what I sent to the Consumerist. When I finished James apologized for the confusion that occurred, and he explained a few things including why he thinks the situation occurred:

- His first comment was that I was absolutely right that I should have received a full credit for the time paid for (vindication!).

- My case should have been escalated by default when I first spoke to billing because my request and situation were non-standard. My account was in a decline state which the billing department can handle, but since I wanted to downgrade to a Silver account while in a decline state I should have been escalated immediately.

- James believes that the major confusion occurred because my annual account was in a decline state, and that it is very rare for a billing CSR to deal see. Decline states are common with accounts paid on a monthly basis (which makes sense), and the CSR treated my annual account like it was a month-to-month. With month-to-month billing if you get declined your payment to bring your account current gets you paid for that month. Basically you're just paying for time that you've already used. However, with the annual membership, when you pay your balance there is time that is owed to you. The CSR that I spoke with just pretty much screwed this part up.

I absolutely believe that James was sincere in his evaluation of the situation, and his point that decline states don't occur often with annual accounts means that the CSR I talked to may have never had that exact situation before. While that doesn't mean that what the CSR did was right, mistakes happen and MS worked quickly to fix the mistake. James said that they will make sure to address this in training with their CSRs. Whether that happens or not I don't know, but the fact that they called me directly speaks volumes.

I did ask James if he knew why I received a call from their department, and his response was that he was just told by his boss to call me and not given any other information. This to me was a pretty big clue that it was the Consumerist post that sparked the phone call. I'm definitely not going to complain about that!

Most importantly (because I want to help other readers that have been trying to deal with XBOX Live billing) I brought up to James that there were other Consumerist readers that were having similar problems, and I asked if there was anything they could do to make getting their situations resolved a little easier. This is what I was told:

1) If you are having billing related problems with your account, call XBOX Live support at 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

2) When the IVR (known as Max) answers, wait for the option to speak with billing. This option is AFTER the choice for XBOX Live support. He said that many users choose the option for XBOX Live Support when in fact they need to speak with billing (obviously they should be changing their prompts).

3) If you account is in a decline cycle (meaning your credit card expired, etc.) tell the CSR that you know you are in a decline cycle, and explain exactly what you would like to have happen. This could be anything from just paying your bill to downgrading to a Silver membership. Be clear and things should hopefully shake out.

4) If at any point you feel uncomfortable or confused with what the CSR is saying, ask to be escalated to the next level of support. They should do this immediately without any objections.

5) At this point the escalated support should be able to help you out. They have authorization and additional information to handle most requests including refunds if necessary.

The main reason I didn't escalate my call was because I was rather angry, and I didn't want to yell at someone that was just trying to help me out. In the end everything worked out, and I thank the Consumerist for that! With the information that I got from James as well I think that other people with billing related problems should be able to get squared away. If not, just write in to the Consumerist :)

Thanks!
ForceTrainer

Let us know if ForceTrainer's instructions work for you by emailing us at tips@consumerist.com. Good luck! And remember that you shouldn't ever be afraid to ask for your complaint to be escalated! There are limits to what your basic CSR can do. If your issue needs TLC, ask for someone with more authority.

(Photo: Maulleigh )

I've been a faithful Xbox Live Gold member since I first bought my Xbox 360 a few years ago. When I first signed up for my account I chose the annual option, so for the past two years I've paid my $49.99 like a good little gamer.

This year was probably going to be no different, but my billing ran into a little snag when my credit card on file was replaced. I started receiving emails from Microsoft telling me that I needed to update my card info so that I could be charged for the next year, but I kept forgetting. I finally received a final email saying that my account had been closed and at that point I could no longer sign onto Xbox Live. Honestly I couldn't care less about having a Live account, but I have a good amount of DLC, so I immediately gave Xbox Support a call so I could at least get switched to a free silver account so I wouldn't bork what I had already bought.

After a minute or two on hold (I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX) I got through to a very nice woman. I explained to her that my account had lapsed and that I just wanted to convert my Gold account to a Silver one. She said no problem, but informed me that I would need to speak with billing. "Not a problem," I thought, and I got forwarded immediately.

After another minute on hold I was through to the billing department. I was pretty impressed at the lack of hold time, considering it was a Sunday night, and I even made a comment to my brother over IM saying, "Wow, Xbox support is pretty good." Needless to say my comment was a bit premature.

I again explained my situation to the billing rep, and he asked me to sign on to http://billing.microsoft.com so I could update my billing information there. That seemed like a pretty simple request, and he said he would stay on the line with me to make sure that everything got updated properly. Again, I was impressed because most reps would just tell you where to go and hang up. He verified that my billing information was updated, and he told me that I would be charged $49.99 because I had an owing balance on my account. While all I wanted to do was convert to a Silver account (hopefully for no charges), I was half expecting this since my account had technically lapsed in June. I asked if it was possible to just pro-rate the two months that I was given service after my account lapsed, and I was told because I'm an annual member that wouldn't happen. Alright, fine, no big deal – it's just $50. The charge was put through and I figured all was set. Here's how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: Alright, so my account is settled. Since my account lapsed in June I'm assuming I should have about 10 months left of Xbox Live Gold service, right?

Rep: No.

Me: Ummm… what do you mean no? When I paid the $50 I was paying for service from June 2008 to June 2009. I understand that I won't get a full year of service from today, but how come you're telling me I'm not going to get Gold service at all?

Rep: By paying the $50 you settled your account. Your account has been reactivated as a Silver account.

Me: Okay, I understand that my account is now settled, but I just paid for 12 months of service. If you date that from June 2008 I should have a Gold account until June 2009.

Rep: No. When you paid the $50 that was just to settle the account and bring it current. Your account was almost sent to collections, so your payment stopped the process.

Me (Getting very pissed off right now): Okay, so what you're telling me is that I just paid $50 so you wouldn't send me to collections? With Xbox Live service you PRE-PAY for the service! If I'm paying you $50 I just PRE-PAID for services that you owe me. Now you're telling me all I did was stop you from sending me to collections?

Rep: Yes. However, now that your account is settled you can go ahead and purchase a Gold account if you want.

Me (To the point of ripping my hair out): So what you're telling me is that I just paid you $50, and if I want to get a Gold level account I will need to pay again for it even though I just paid you $50?!?

Rep: That would be correct sir.

Me (Trying not to yell at the guy so I can ask pertinent questions): Okay, that makes no sense, but let's continue. Can you tell me exactly what I was charged for? Was the $50 I just spent for Xbox Live Gold service, collections fees, account reactivation… what?

Rep: The charge will be for Xbox Live Gold service.

Me (Ready to rip his throat out through the phone): You just said that I was being charged for Xbox Live Gold service. If that's the case then how come I am not getting the balance of the months?

Rep: Because that charge was to bring your account current.

This ordeal continued for another 10 minutes. He told me that my payment was solely to bring my account "current." His rationale for not giving me the balance of the months on my account was that my account was almost sent to collections. Well, first off, my account was never sent to collections, so that's the biggest BS story I've ever heard. Second, how can you send me to collections on a debt for services that I was never given? Microsoft cut off my account when it went delinquent, and at the very least I got a free month out of them. I absolutely understand them wanting me to pay for that, but how can you send me to collections for an entire year of service that I haven't even used yet? I also asked him that if I had called last month to settle my account would I have been given the balance of the months. His answer? Yes. Rationale? Because my account wasn't being sent to collections last month.

After all of this I informed the rep that I would dispute the charge with my credit card company. He told me, "Fine, we get that all the time. However, we always win because we will show that it's a legitimate charge." I tried to argue with him saying that yes, while the charge itself is legitimate (I did authorize it), Microsoft is refusing to give me the services that I paid for, and that is grounds for a dispute resolution in my favor. He didn't really seem to care and I knew I was getting nowhere, so I just hung up at that point.

So where do I stand? Yesterday I was charged $50 for 12-months of Microsoft Xbox Live Gold service which should have been dated from June 2008. However, my account is currently at a Silver level, and the only way to upgrade the account is to pay again for Gold service.

There are several problems that come up with this entire phone call. First, I only had the choice to pay $49.99 to bring my account current even though there are monthly and quarterly payment options available. If I had been a month-to-month member I probably would've just paid for a single month and lost a month of service, not 10. If I had been paying via Xbox Live Cards that you buy at retailers nothing would've happened because there are no recurring payments. So for the most part, a dedicated customer who makes an annual commitment to the service gets screwed the hardest. Thanks Microsoft!

Yuck. You should probably call your credit card company and talk the issue over with them. We wouldn't be surprised if you were able to do a chargeback.

(Photo: Tengaport )

UPDATE: This complaint has been resolved.

Hello!

Today, I got a nice little email reminder from my bank that I had a new bill from Citicard! This was very surprising to me, as I had just paid off my balance last month. So, I log in to my online bill pay and sure enough, there is a new bill from Citicard for $12.39! Hmmm.... I wondered what that could be for, as I had cut up my card months ago, and I knew I had just paid off the balance. So, naturally, I logged into my online account with Citicard and took a closer look. And to my sheer amazement, I found I was indeed charged a $12.39 finance charge on my account. "Did they not get my payment!?!?", I wondered. So I look a little closer, and pull up my latest statement, and this is what I found!

Now, even though it didn't exactly show what my "previous" balance was at the time this statement was generated, it does show that I made two payments in that billing period. One, which was a balance transfer that I decided to make, (thanks to a lovely post about saving money with lesser- or no-interest balance transfer cards that I saw a couple weeks back on Consumerist.com), and a smaller payment that was the difference in the balance on the card and the amount of the balance transfer payment. I also check the statement from the previous billing period, just to make sure that I had paid the correct amount.

The two amounts matched up, so I quickly snatched up the phone. I called up Citicard, and just held on the line without entering my account number or anything, ( I learned several calls ago, not to enter in my account number and I will eventually get a real person on the line,) and told the customer service lady what my problem was. She was very courteous and even though I had to be put on hold for about 3 minutes, she was able to see the error on Citicard's part and take off the finance charge with no hassle whatsoever.

Being an avid reader of Consumerist.com, I just felt it was worth the time to share this story with the rest of your readers, and to remind them to be vigilant in paying attention to all those little things. Had I not paid close attention to my accounts, I might just have sent another payment in. Thank you Consumerist.com!

Sincerely,
Thalen's Mom

(Photo: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com)

Adrienne writes:

In April, my boyfriend and I moved to an area where Cox is the cable provider. When we moved, we signed up online for HD digital cable and internet. There was a problem with our apartment and on June 1 we had to move to another apartment building in the same complex. When we called Cox to have our service moved to the new address we were told that we would have to pay a $60 transfer of service fee. We were then informed that they had a package including HD cable, internet, and digital phone for $100 a month (versus the $105 we were paying), and that if we signed up for a one year contract they would also waive the transfer fee. We told the rep that we really didn’t need the phone service since we only use our cells and asked if that price included all the fees and taxes (which our $105 did). He assured us that it did so we added digital phone to our service to get the lower monthly rate. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

We got our first bill reflecting the new service in July and were understandably upset to see the total was $130, much higher than what we were quoted. Cox added services we didn’t authorize and weren’t even receiving including caller ID, a service assurance plan, and sports and movie tiers. We called Cox to get our bill corrected and were told they would have to research what packages were being offered when we signed up and that we should receive a call within 72 hours. No call came.

Two weeks passed (for some reason they didn’t have my name on the account and my boyfriend had to work overtime) and in that time we got our August bill. Not only were the incorrect charges still there, but they had added Starz to our bill too! We called again last night and after explaining our situation to three different people were informed that the price quoted in June was indeed incorrect and had the telephone service as well as the unauthorized fees and services removed from our bill. Cox told us that they would be correcting our bill and we would receive a call when it was viewable online.

Hopefully everything is now taken care of, but I just wanted to share this with you and your readers as a reminder to always check your bills!

Thanks,
Adrienne

After his bill kept increasing mysteriously each month Adam and his wife decided that they'd better downgrade their package and get rid of Comcast's digital phone service. It only took 3 days and 9 phone calls before Adam's wife gave up and just went to Comcast's office. And, naturally, when she got home with her new modem the internet didn't work. And when they fixed the internet the cable stopped working. So far, Adam and Crystal are up to 13 calls to Comcast...

- Monday, I got on the phone and called at 9:30pm to find that their offices were closed at 9pm.

- Wednesday, I called at 8:15pm, got the run around and had to hang up to take care of other obligations. I promised I would call back the following night to discuss the matter further.

- Thursday, I started calling at 8pm...

Call #1-2: The first two calls I was put on hold for ten minutes before getting a tier 1 representative. Tier 1 reps can talk about what is on your bill and why it is there, but can not change anything. When the tier 1 rep put me on hold for a tier 2 rep who could change my account (see above: account specialist) I was disconnected both times.

Call #3: My third call landed me a tier 1 rep again who sent me to hold for a tier 2. When what I thought was a tier 2 rep picked up it turned out to be a tier 1 again. I Expressed my frustration to this rep and was assured that I would be put in touch with a specialist this time. I held for 5 minutes and was disconnected.

Call #4: Call #4 had me back on the line with a tier 1 and begging to talk to someone who could actually help as it was 8:52pm and I knew they closed at nine. I was put on hold for a tier 2 and finally someone from sales picked up. The guy from sales said he could not help me, but would transfer me to a account specialist who could. I told him the department closed at 9pm and that I wanted to make sure I got someone on the line. He assured me that the department was open 24 hours a day even after I told him about the prerecorded message I had heard Monday. At 8:56pm I was transferred and got the message about the department closing at 9pm.

Call #5: While on hold for call #4 I asked Crystal to call as well in an attempt to double our chances. The tier 1 rep transferred her to the tier 2 department at 8:55pm and she got the closed message.

Call #6: Crystal's final call of the night was made at 8:57pm where upon she got to a tier 1 rep who told her that the account specialist office was closed at 9pm. My loving wife pointed out the simple fact that it was 8:57pm and wondered to the rep if every account specialist left early that night. The rep repeated herself again (in her best monotone put out robot voice) and tried to end the call. Crystal asked to speak to a manager and the rep told her that a manager would tell her the same thing and could not make account changes. The rep then wished Crystal good night and hung up.

- Friday came and Crystal had the day off. She called mid day and went from a tier 1 to a tier 2 the first try. She decided to downgrade our package and drop the digital phone. When the phone call was nearly complete the line disconnected. Having had enough phone calls to Comcast in one lifetime she decided to drive up to the Richmond office. When she arrived she got in line exchanged the combo internet/phone modem for just and internet one and got an estimate for what our monthly bill would be ($125 by the way).

When she arrived home she hooked up the new modem and the internet did not work anymore. She called Comcast repair and was told she had two options.

1. Remove the plan downgrade, get a chance to fix the internet and be transferred to a tier 2 rep who could reapply the downgrade.

2. Wait till August 5th (4 days without internet) for the plan downgrade to go through their system and then get a chance to fix the internet.

Frustrated she choose door number two in the hopes that I could fix it when I got home from work. When I did arrive home I made sure everything was hooked up properly (it was) and called the same repair department she had earlier. I actually got a competent person on the phone and had the internet fixed in 20 minutes, without any mention of downgrades.

The cable TV in our office stopped working later that night and has not worked all weekend. Crystal called and they assured her that the only way to fix it was by sending out some one to repair it. I am going to call tonight and roll the dice (more like Russian roulette) that I get someone smart on the phone. That or yell at a twenty something who makes $10 an hour.

The icing on this crap cake... Verizon sent us a postcard in the mail starting a two month count down for Fios in our area. You bet your sweet ass I am switching!

UPDATE: Comcast Frank sent us the following statement:

We already reached out to Adam on his blog and we are reviewing this experience with our leaders in Richmond. This was unacceptable and we will make sure we learn from it and work to make sure it is avoided in the future. We have apologized to Adam and we will also make sure he is cared for based on the trouble we created.

Comcast is an Asshole [A2W]
(Photo: Spidra Webster )

Dear J Crew,

Re. my recent order:
1. Invoiced for $9208.50 in shipping charges. Scan of invoice attached.
2. Baby sized shirts shipped. I ordered men's medium sized polo shirts. (Size M as in the invoice). Photo attached.
3. Cannot sign into website, JSP_EXECUTION_FAILED, screenshot attached.

I would like to
1) Return the shirts for a refund - they are completely the wrong size.
2) Not be charged $9,208 for shipping
3) Not have to use the website to do this, as I can't log in

Can you reply to my email at as soon as possible? I am worried about my credit card being charged for the incorrect shipping cost.

Thanks
Per

He also attached this image of the tiny, tiny shirt that he received. How sad.

We're reasonably sure that no self-respecting credit card will allow a shipping charge of over $9k to go through without calling, but if the charge is incorrect, Per can call and do a chargeback.

J Crew Customer [Blogspot]

I want to point out the timestamps. Yup, that's more then 6 hours from when "someone will be with me shortly". And to think, when I connected I was only number 14 in queue!

Way to keep the whole world moving at Sprint Speed!

"He basically pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid, poured it all over his body, pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit himself on fire," Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul said.

The man, 62-year-old Emilio Saladriagas, entered the Bloomfield Rent-A-Center location Tuesday and asked to speak to a supervisor about the late payment notices and collection calls, says the Star-Ledger. When a manager was not available, he pulled out the lighter fluid.

Employees doused him with water and he is now in stable condition at the burn unit of a local hospital. He has not been charged with a crime because he did not make "overt or criminal" actions to harm anyone but himself, according to police. The employees are receiving counseling.

"We don't know if he had mental health issues or what sparked it," [police] said. "Employees said he'd always been a nice man."

If you're in debt and having a hard time dealing with the collection calls and notices, there's help available. The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (PDF). If you're being harassed, you can sent a letter to the debt collector demanding that they stop contacting you. They do not have the right to keep contacting you simply to try to get you to pay. You can also do a little research and locate some free or low cost legal help in your area. If you have a lawyer, the debt collectors are required to contact the attorney instead of you. If the debt collectors don't follow these rules, you can sue them! Not being able to pay your bills can be a humiliating experience, but don't give up.

Newark man sets himself on fire [Star-Ledger] (Thanks, Andrew!)

I recently moved to a new apartment, and since I could actually get a decent speed on AT&T, I went with them instead of Comcast. I knew from the beginning that having an address of 914.5 (yes, ½) would pose problems, but I never realized how bad. Let’s go through the phases:

First phone call – I tried ordering AT&T internet, but the salesperson on the phone had a really difficult time finding my address in their system. She thought that we were listed as simply 914, and we set up the order as so with a note specifying that the address was actually 914.5, and the installation date was set for the next week. Okay, not so bad.

Second phone call – Two weeks later, still no internet. I called again, asking about service, and they told me a serviceman had been out and installed everything necessary. They offered to send another guy out to try and fix the problem, so that was the end of that.

Third phone call – I get the basic introduction letter in the mail, welcoming me to AT&T service. However, it originally went to 914, and somehow ended up in my mailbox. I tried calling AT&T again, mentioned the problem may just be the fact that they keep going to the wrong address. This time, they actually managed to get the address right in the system, and opened a new work order and dsl number for me. It would take another week for them to get a service tech out, but I waited patiently because I didn’t need internet that bad.

Fourth phone call – I got a bill in the mail for 914, the original dsl service that I never had. Call in and they say don’t worry about it, it’s just a mistake in the system and it’ll be taken care of. By this time, my internet is working on the correct dsl service, so I believe all is well.

Fifth phone call – I get an overdue notice, and a letter from collections from the original service. Now they told me to not worry about it, but a letter from collections just slightly bugs me. I call in, attempt to explain my story about having a new service number, and get treated like a liar and a criminal. She was the rudest person I have ever talked to in my life, and I don’t think she even looked at my file on their computer, just demanded payment. I asked to be transferred to someone else, and actually talked to someone helpful. She took a look at it, noticed the countless notes saying my service had been cancelled due to the wrong address, and corrected the bill. She also offered me a $50 gift card because of everything I went through, which I thought was good retribution. But yeah, I also think they lied about that because it’s been a couple months and that has never shown up.

Moral of the story – Get a good address. The ½ detail can really throw a company off for two months, and don’t trust any telecom company, they’re all a bunch of liars.

Michael

Hey, AT&T, where's this guy's gift card?

Do all companies freak out when your address has fractions? Or did AT&T never get past integers in grade school?

(Photo: jetsetpress )

Meet Andy Fanelli. He's a Lhasa Apso who apparently doesn't have enough personal responsibility to pay his debt to Verizon. Sure, Andy's owners, Steve Fanell and Shawn Donovan, say that Andy has never been a Verizon customer, but should we believe them?

From KCRA:

"The point is that Andy has never had a Verizon account. We were just curious why this showed up," Steve Fanelli said.

KCRA says the debt actually belongs to another Andy Fanelli who lives on the east coast. So how did the bill end up at the wrong Andy's doorstep? Well, it's probably because Andy has his very own American Express Card.

"It's an active card. From time to time I take my girlfriends to lunch on Andy," Donovan said. The dog's debt has been canceled by Verizon, but it seems there are lots of complaints (to the Illinois Attorney General and posted online) about the debt collector, AFNI, trying to collect outdated or incorrect debts. AFNI says that it is diligent about debt verification.

$142 Collection Bill Sent To Couple's Dog [KCRA](Thanks, Anna!)

Meet Dennis Hallet and his wife, Sandra. "In thirty years I've never crossed up bills. I managed to send Dell my AT&T check and I sent AT&T my Dell check," Sandra told CBS 13.

Dell cashed the check made out to AT&T and applied the $235.00 toward Sandra's balance. AT&T cashed the $1138.33 check made out to Dell and applied the entire thing to the Hallet's phone bill. This left them with a credit of $903.33.

Meanwhile, interest was piling up on her Dell account. When she called AT&T to see about getting her money back, they told her it was her fault they cashed a check made out to another company and told her they'd give her money back in two months.

CBS13 called and got AT&T to apologize and refund part of the money in 7 days— with July's bill deducted. When asked why they cashed a check made out to another company, AT&T had no answer, so if you're mailing a couple bills at the same time — make sure you put the checks in the correct envelopes and save yourself a huge headache.

Call Kurtis: Check Switcharoo [CBS13]
(Photo: jetsetpress )

He didn't think it would work, but he launched an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) anyway...

Nick says:

For the last 8 months I've been submitting claims online to United Behavioral Health (one tentacle of the evil squid that is United HealthCare), for out-of-network service that I'm supposed to get partially reimbursed for. When they don't go through, I have to call customer service, talk to one of their incompetent reps, be patient while they act like I'm the one who did something wrong, and then wait even longer for my eventual payment. There's absolutely no reason for this — nothing complicated about the claims, they're the exact same kind that have been reimbursed before — except, of course, that no insurance company ever wants to pay anyone anything ever. I don't think I need to elaborate any more than that, since it's the same crap that everyone with insurance goes through.

Anyway, last week I got another one of these EOBs that claimed I was owed exactly zero percent of the several hundred dollars I'd spent. This was even more frustrating than usual because I'd had an expensive month and could really use the money. So, rather than spending time at work on the phone with another prickly-yet-stupid CSR, I decided to check Consumerist to see if there was any executive contact info for United HealthCare.

And there it was!

I fired off a non-threatening but firm email to the CFO, COO, and Senior VP/Treasurer in which I told them what was happening and that from now on, I would be corresponding directly with the three of them about any such issues rather than waste time with their phone support. While it was a satisfying note to write, I didn't really expect anything to come of it. After all, these are some of the most senior people in charge of screwing customers, so they have more incentive than anyone to ignore me.

But lo and behold, I checked my claim status online the very next day (in fact, the same day they would have received the email, since I sent it on a Sunday night) and my reimbursement status for my most recent claim had already been modified. I figured the check would still take a while, but hey, at least I didn't have to get on the phone. Wrong again! I got my checks in the mail yesterday, only a week after sending the email.

And yes, you read that right — CHECKS. A total of three. Not only did they reimburse me the proper amount for my most recent claim; they even sent me EXTRA MONEY from previous claims that they realized they'd screwed me on. Rather than get a couple hundred dollars in exchange for hours of bureaucratic frustration, I got almost $700 for a single email that took me three minutes to write. Frankly, I'm still in shock. If the EECB can get United HealthCare to voluntarily cough up money I didn't even ask for, then its powers truly are limitless.

Thanks for posting that contact information, and for all the other valuable services that Consumerist provides.

—Nick

Good work, Nick! Sometimes all your problem needs is a little TLC from someone higher on the food chain. For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

I'm writing cause I'm at my wits when and don't really know what else to do. Approximately 4 months ago I called up comcast and explained to them that I needed to have the movie channels discontinued since I don't watch them anymore. I also told them I wanted to add the Baseball package which I really missed the year before when I didn't order it. The guy explained to me that my bill for everything I had would go down to approximately $115+40 for my baseball package (for the time it was on). Sure enough my next bill was 115 since the baseball season hadn't started yet.

The following month I got this bill for $380. I called and talked to a couple people including a manager, who's names I wrote down, they all insisted that I owed comcast $380 or else. Finally, I got in touch with a sweet old lady from the billing department to whom I explained that I had spoke to a rep the month before who had told me I would only owe $115+40 for the baseball package. She asked for some time to look into the issue and through the call logs and said she would call me back. Sure enough she called be back and said that she couldn't put me on $115 a month but could put me on $120 a month package which I was fine with she said she'd fix it and everything would be fine by the next bill.

May bill comes in and again the bill is for $320. So I called comcast again to find out what the issue was and they insisted that I had not fully paid my bill in past couple months. I told them the names of the people I spoke with and to look into the account notes in the system. Again we went through the whole song and dance and the lady said she'd fix it and I should call back in a couple days to verify that the problem had in fact been rectified in the system. She even gave me her extension and name and said I should ask to speak with her. Well I call back and when the comcast agent picks up the phone I asked to be transferred to Debbie. He responded that he couldn't and that he would help me with my problem today.

Well, we got in to a discussion on how I had already told this story a million times and didn't want to have to tell it a million and one times and that I had dealt with Debbie and that I wanted to speak directly with her cause she was familiar with my case. He informed me that their system was not capable of transferring people from one agent to another and that he didn't know who Debbie was, which was funny considering that the gentleman I had spoke with earlier that day said no problem but she wasn't at her desk and to call back. So I told him I wasn't talking to him and I wanted to speak with his manager. The agent again informed me that he couldn't transfer me to his manager cause the system wouldn't allow it without me telling him my problem first and that even if he did his manager was working with the same tools as him and couldn't transfer me back to Debbie. After this round robin of me say I wanted to speak with Debbie and him saying he couldn't transfer me cause the system wouldn't allow it, he said that he