charges

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Over on Elliott.org, a woman describes how her $29 Days Inn room ballooned to a $180 charge when the hotel’s owner refused to honor the deal, and what she did to get the difference refunded. [Elliott.org]

Tonik Insurance Sneaks 20% Premium Increase On Customer After Approval

Tonik Insurance Sneaks 20% Premium Increase On Customer After Approval

Tonik is the rad, x-treme! lifestyle health insurance for young people who can’t afford regular insurance—sort of the Poochie of health insurance, except it’s not going to go away. Aasma wrote to us to let us know that when she signed up for it over the weekend, she got a nasty surprise after she submitted her credit card information.

Don't Even Look At Your Hotel Room's Minibar Or You Might Get Charged

Don't Even Look At Your Hotel Room's Minibar Or You Might Get Charged

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.

Honey, Was That PotBelly's Sandwich $4.23 Or $858,432?

Honey, Was That PotBelly's Sandwich $4.23 Or $858,432?

Sorry PotBelly Sandwich Works customers, you can’t order the Chicken Salad Sandwich unless you qualify for a mortgage. Ashley’s husband thought his usual lunchtime meal cost $4.23, but, as his wife discovered when trying to pay their credit card bill, the sandwich actually costs $858,432.06.

Charges Filed Against Bed, Bath & Beyond Manager Who Refused To Allow 911 Call

Charges Filed Against Bed, Bath & Beyond Manager Who Refused To Allow 911 Call

Police have charged Elizabeth Miller, the manager of the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Lexington, Kentucky, who refused to let a couple use the store’s phone to call 911 to report a three-year-old locked in a van, and refused to make an announcement over the store’s PA system. The charge is “failure to report dependency, neglect and abuse, a Class B misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 90 days and a maximum fine of $250.”

Blockbuster Double Dips In PayPal Account; Naturally, PayPal Does Nothing

Blockbuster Double Dips In PayPal Account; Naturally, PayPal Does Nothing

Blockbuster debited Anthony’s PayPal account two days in a row for the same monthly plan. PayPal won’t help—they say it’s between Blockbuster and Anthony, offering further proof that PayPal is a great service only as long as nothing goes wrong.

California Declares Free Market Broken, Recommends Price Controls For Phone Services

California Declares Free Market Broken, Recommends Price Controls For Phone Services

“There is no indication of any change in the near future regarding the current state of competition. Market forces have not yet met the challenge of controlling price increases.”

What To Do When Citibank Charges You Interest On A Zero Balance

What To Do When Citibank Charges You Interest On A Zero Balance

A Consumerist reader was surprised to find that Citibank had applied a finance charge on a zero balance account. She did what every good Consumerist should do: prepared her evidence, jumped quickly ahead to a live person on the Customer Service side, and resolved the issue. Here’s what happened:

GE Promises Free Inspection And Repair, Then Charges You, Then Threatens To Send You To Collections

GE Promises Free Inspection And Repair, Then Charges You, Then Threatens To Send You To Collections

Reader Zack is frustrated with General Electric because they offered to inspect and repair his washing machine as a courtesy, then after they came by they stuck him with the bill. Now they’re threatening to send him to a collection agency.

JetBlue Can't Decide If They Charged An Unaccompanied Minor Fee

JetBlue Can't Decide If They Charged An Unaccompanied Minor Fee

JetBlue promised Catie’s husband in March that the $798 fare charged to fly his children from Austin to Boston included the unaccompanied minor fee. But when Catie recently called to verify the reservation, she was told that her children wouldn’t be allowed to board unless she paid an extra $200.

Bank Of America Treats Parking Meter Payments As Cash Advances, Charges $10 Fee

Bank Of America Treats Parking Meter Payments As Cash Advances, Charges $10 Fee

Reader Gary used his Bank of America credit card to pay $2 on a parking meter in Washington, DC. Bank of America treated it as a cash advance and slapped him with a $10 fee, as well as a higher APR. When Gary called to complain, he learned that it wasn’t an error: Bank of America has started treating payments to parking meters as cash advances and may even treat all payments to government entities as cash advances.

Listen Time Warner, The 60-Year-Old English Teacher Didn't Order $1,400 Of Porn

Listen Time Warner, The 60-Year-Old English Teacher Didn't Order $1,400 Of Porn

Time Warner wants reader Nancy, a 60-year-old English teacher, to pay $1,400 for ordering porn—including 17 flicks supposedly viewed on a single day. Nancy didn’t order the porn, and has no clue how the charges were associated with her cable box, but one useless Time Warner representative suggested: “maybe your dog ordered them.”

The New $199 iPhone Is $160 More Expensive Than The $399 iPhone It Replaced. What?

The New $199 iPhone Is $160 More Expensive Than The $399 iPhone It Replaced. What?

Apple’s new 3G iPhone might seem like a bargain at $199: more features, 3G speeds, and $200 cheaper than the original model. Great, except it’s not actually cheaper. The new $199 iPhone is actually $160 more than the $399 iPhone it replaces.

Paying Your Verizon Bill With Cash? That'll Be $3.99 Extra

Paying Your Verizon Bill With Cash? That'll Be $3.99 Extra

Employees at the Verizon store in Millington, Tennessee told reader Josh it would cost an extra $3.99 to pay his bill with cash. According to the employees, the charge was to offset the cost of “new money software.”

Bank Of America: Let's Charge Three Overdraft Fees To The Account Flush With Cash!

Bank Of America: Let's Charge Three Overdraft Fees To The Account Flush With Cash!

Bank of America charged Jason three overdraft fees for the hell of it, even though his account balance never approached $0. Jason called the bank for an explanation, and was told that due to some mathematical wormhole controlled exclusively by Bank of America, he now owed $105. Tired of the bank’s nonsensical jibber-jabber, Jason printed out his statement and headed to the local branch…

Sprint: Military, Eh? Here's Your $500 Bill

Sprint: Military, Eh? Here's Your $500 Bill

Sprint thanked Ryan for his tour with the Navy by charging him $0.75 per minute for airtime, resulting in a $500 bill. When Ryan complained, Sprint’s customer service representatives called him irresponsible, and gently explained that they couldn’t care less about his problem.

Microsoft And The $1,632 Copy Of Vista

Microsoft And The $1,632 Copy Of Vista

Microsoft charged Bill $1,632 for a single Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade license. Each time Bill, an IT Manager, tried to his enter his payment details through Windows Live Marketplace he was told that Microsoft could not be contacted, and to “please try again later.” What Microsoft really meant was, “Ha! Got your money! How ’bout some more?!”

Another Hollywood Video Employee Contests Earlier Claims

Another Hollywood Video Employee Contests Earlier Claims

A second Hollywood Video employee has written in to counter the claims made last week by an anonymous employee—he writes, “It sounds like whoever wrote in initially has a particularly evil district manager who is instituting his own policies,” and says that person should “go over his DM and talk to someone at corporate.” But for the rest of us, what matters is that “The EW [magazine subscription offer] never went away, they just stopped requiring employees to push it. They’re actively promoting it again. There’s no ‘silence is acceptance’ however, and we need to scan your credit card (an additional time) to activate the offer.”