Emily noticed that the weird puppet crap she was thinking of buying on Ebay would make her PayPal account explode:
I know shipping products can be expensive, what with the rising fuel costs and all, but this shipping charge from the UK to Utah is ridiculous! Maybe the seller’s just padding the fee, I don’t know. 🙂
ResortQuest hit William’s wife with over $285 in fees when she canceled less than a day after making her reservation. Over $190 ostensibly went towards taxes, which raised William’s eyebrow and led him to fire off an Executive Email Carpet Bomb demanding an explanation.
Gold Medal Travel, a UK-based travel agency, is holding a woman’s ticket hostage. Even though Northwest airlines says the ticket will be fine and they have no policy like what Gold Medal claims, Gold Medal says the ticket will be forfeited if the woman doesn’t give them an extra $200 to correct a…
Air Canada has heard you loud and clear, and they’re going to start making sure they have decent customer service reps on-hand to help you the next time your flight is canceled, delayed, or re-routed. And you’ll have to pay for it: “$25 one-way on short-haul flights and an extra $35 one-way on long-haul routes within North America.”
The Westin Casuarina Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas has begun charging an unpaid $50,000 convention fee to the attendees who already paid before they attended back in October. The company that set up the event, Austin-based The Coaching Center, hasn’t paid its bill yet, and “president Suzanne Black said she was trying to arrange a payment plan when she was told by Westin management that the hotel would recoup the bill from attendees.” Now people are finding charges anywhere from $600 to $1200 on their credit card bills. Even the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has said this isn’t standard practice, but Westin says it’s got fine print that proves it can hold you liable for any charges left unpaid on your visit.
Reader M has forwarded us a memo from Delta detailing massive fee increases for unaccompanied minors, pets, gate checked strollers, “administrative service charges,” curb-side check in and more.
Last year’s class-action settlement against Mastercard, Visa, and several banks over the fees they charged customers who traveled abroad came up to about $336 million, and of that, 31 law firms are claiming a total of about $86 million for fees. The federal judge responsible for determining how much they get paid wants to know why.
Reader Michael says:
I moved into a new apartment last month, and just received my first electric bill. It is run through a company called AUM Inc. (aum-inc.com), on behalf of my apartment complex. I went to pay the bill online (as I prefer to pay my bills) and I noticed something on the page. In fact, it’s on the page no less than 5 different times.
After hearing about Hannaford’s giant customer data breach yesterday, Brian decided to cancel the debit card he’d used there. That’s when he found out that Key Bank really wants you to have a debit card. In fact, they’ll charge you a small monthly fee to not have one linked to your “free checking” account. We figure that this means Key Bank makes about $12 a year more off of customers who have linked debit cards—and that if you want greater security on your account, it’s going to cost you.
I’m sick of paying ATM fees so I just finished switching to my USAA debit card for my cash money needs. They refund up to $15 of ATM fees per month and don’t charge you any fees for using other people’s ATMs. I’m still keeping my WaMu account but I took my WaMu debit card out of my wallet and just funded my USAA account with some money. Not that I have a problem but I think this will also help reduce petty cash spending. Plus, by using cash more often that means I’m getting more change, and all my coin change goes into my piggy bank (60% full at the moment, looking forward to the day I take it to the Commerce Bank “Penny Arcade” coin-counting machine). With the specter of a recession giving us all wet willies, are you making any changes to your personal finance system?
Allen Harkleroad of GMP Services writes, “A warning to all Sprint corporate customers that have dedicated access (T1’s, etc.) if you are out of contract Sprint may be gouging you and claiming outrageously high local loop charges as the cause.”
Retentions representatives are the cellphone company’s last line of defense between you and freedom. One brave retentions representative has come forward to teach us how to craft a direct, earnest request that will lead retention reps to do your bidding. Rivaled in effectiveness only by executive customer support, retentions reps are empowered to strike down nuisance fees and bargain liberally, all to keep you as a customer. If you were ever tempted to threaten your cellphone company with cancellation, this one is a must read.
In a letter to Sprint, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has asked the companies whether or not they’re going to start pro-rating their Early Termination Fee policies as promised, reports RCR Wireless. “Sens. Klobuchar and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) are co-sponsors of a sweeping wireless consumer protection bill” that carriers are against. In her letter, Klobuchar writes, “It is time for the wireless companies to adhere to the assurances they made to the American consumer and start pro-rating these fees.” In response, Sprint said by the end of Q2 2008, T-Mobile said the first half of 2008, and AT&T Mobility said nothing at all. (Verizon already pro-rates their ETF.)
Does AT&T really charge a $25 “activation fee” when you move your SIM card to a GoPhone? A father had to replace his child’s broken cellphone over the weekend, and the rep at the AT&T store told him the only way to avoid an ETF or plan extension was to buy a GoPhone and pay an activation fee, even though the SIM card was the same. Online, you can buy a new GoPhone and have the activation fee waved. Way to treat your current customers, AT&T.
Don’t say we never printed anything nice about you, BoA. One of your customers just had an experience with you that—despite still having an overdraft fee of $20 to pay—has left her feeling pretty good about you.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines will refund fuel surcharges to customers who booked their cruises before November 16th, says the Orlando Business Journal. Passengers who have not yet sailed will receive their refund in the form of onboard credit.
../../../..//2008/03/07/in-response-to-yesterdays-post/
In response to yesterday’s post, another AT&T employee writes, “Just to clear up some confusion, AT&T may charge an administrative fee when paying your wireless bill with a representative. There is no charge to use the automated payment systems. The source for this is the tagline on my bill.”
The Red Tape Chronicles reports bank fees are so hard to find that even the government can’t find them. A recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office released this week couldn’t find the fee schedules at 1/3 of the nation’s banks. Not only does this make comparison shopping impossible for the consumer, they’re breaking federal law, the 1991 Truth in Savings Act and Federal Reserve Regulation DD, which requires fees to be posted clearly and conspicuously. Violations are rarely punished with any severity, meaning, as Red Tape Chronicles writes, “it’s far more likely that you’ll get a parking ticket for breaking parking rules outside a bank than it is the bank will be fined for disobeying federal lending laws.”
Part of 
