Last year I bought a guitar from Musician’s Friend on a deferred interest plan (I had 6 months to pay the balance without accruing interest). The deadline was 12.29.03. My final payment posted on 12.29.03, but they charged the interest anyway and on top of that, they charged a “late fee”, because they had surreptitiously changed my payment due date other than the one posted on my statement. (They claimed they sent me a letter about it).
Okay. After I raised hell about it, they dropped the interest charges, but left the late fee: 20 bucks.
On the statement I had, I crossed out the interest charge and wrote in the 20 dollar late fee and sent them a check in that amount on 1.29.04. Out of curiosity, I decided to check my balance today. Guess what? They haven’t gotten my check and the payment is due tomorrow.
Again because I was curious, I did a search on them on GOOGLE, and there are a lot of stories like mine on the net.
I suspect they got the check, but are holding it past the due date so they can charge me another late fee. I plan to pay this late fee if that happens, but it will be paid via registered mail and a letter will be written to Musician’s Friend explaining why they lost me as a customer. (I spent about 500 bucks with them last year. That’s a chunk of change for me). I know they have no control over who does their financing and the methods they use, but I think they need to know about this.
So do y’all have a similar story?
Thanks
Q