After a night out, Krystal did the responsible thing and took a cab home. As a reward she had her checking account raided and was stonewalled and condescended to by customer service reps from both Yellow Cab and Chase.

Here’s Krystal’s horror story:

A few months ago I took a cab from a bar for about 1.5 miles to get home. The fare was around 12$ and I paid with a credit card. The cab drivers’ machine wasn’t printing and he didn’t have paper for his manual processor, so he swiped my credit card through his meter and left it at that.

A few days later, I had a pending debit of $170. I was outraged. I called Yellow Cab and the complaints department lady told me that oftentimes the cab drivers just put in any random number to make sure the card cleared and that the proper amount would be put through.

A few days after that I had been debited $156. I called back, but the seemingly only complaints rep was conveniently never at her desk and did not return any of the messages I left her.

I took it to WaMu/Chase. I called them and made a fraud claim. I explained to the rep that I had no receipt, and that my numerous attempts to contact yellow cab had failed. He told me to await a letter and to just respond with as many detail as I could recall. And I did just that. I told them the date and time, the pick up address and drop off point. They gave me a temp credit.

Then, out of nowhere, the amount was again deducted from my account. I called what was now Chase and dealt with an insufferable service rep. He just repeatedly told me that I needed the receipt. I told him exactly what the original rep had told me and he continued to insist that if I couldn’t get them to send Chase a receipt, that I would be stuck with the bill. I told him, this company won’t return my calls, I doubt very much they’ll send you a receipt to give me back money.

I’m a naturally foulmouthed person and had kept it under wraps up until this point where I said “This is f*cking ridiculous” to which the rep said to me in an extremely condescending tone: “Keep the call professional. Don’t use language like that.” Which just enraged me more. I wasn’t swearing up and down or in any way at him. I’m the customer, if I want to say “fucking” once because I just not only had to pay a ridiculous fee, but also the $33 overdraft fee they added on top. Granted, I know it’s never a good idea to start cussing out anybody, I also think he was a bit out of line to reprimand me like I’m a child.

Eventually, I got fed up and said “fine, I’ll call them again”. They gave me a huge run around and just gave me the number to the same woman I’d already been trying to contact and I have to wait until Monday morning to call them.

So, the list of frustrations here is:

1. Cab driver charged me far too much
2. Yellow Cab complaints department is extremely hard to get a hold of.
3. Wamu reps apparently lying to me about what I would need to get my claim processed.
4. Chase waiting months (The incident happen April 8th) before deciding to recharge me.
5. Not giving me any actual notification that the claim was denied. They just debited me.
6. Chase rep trying to be my mom.

What can I do? Help me Consumerist!

Krystal is right that it wasn’t in her best interest as a customer who needs help to start cussing out the personon the other end of the line. But nearly $200 is a little much to pay for a momentary lack of decorum.

Another cautionary lesson is to keep cash handy for cabs. Yet that doesn’t help poor Krystal. My advice is to keep on hounding customer service on both ends until someone corrects the error. How else should Krystal mount her plan of attack, oh wise ones?

(Photo: dooleymtv)

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