Let’s put this in the easiest to understand words, so your little tiny Neanderfuck[sup]tm (thanks, Esprix)[/sup] brains can understand.
I’m with Earthlink now. That means you cannot charge me four months of DSL service in one month just because your accountants think we haven’t given you enough money. It doesn’t work that way.
You didn’t charge us for those months because you owed us money. It’s called credit, dipshits. It’s what happens when you keep charging people when you already have their money.
Don’t threaten to ruin our credit for doing a chargeback, you little prick. For one, I don’t give a shit. I have a house. My mortgage company likes me. My 15-year loan will probably be paid in 7. I have a new vehicle. Ford Motor likes me. They had no trouble giving us a 3.9% interest rate despite never having bought a vehicle before. I don’t use credit cards. You can’t touch me unless it’s to cut out my weekly supply of “You’ve qualified for 0% interest” junk mail. And finally, it won’t work. We have proof that we’ve paid all the money.
See, here’s how it works, worm-felchers. You stole money from us. You made four unauthorized transactions on our checkcard. It’s called theft, and we have every right to do a chargeback. If you try to ruin our credit, we will get a lawyer and a real accountant involved.
Send your accountants to this thing called a college. Sign them up for those nifty accounting classes they hold. There, they will get the benefit of learning about these tools called debits and credits. I’ve heard they can be pretty helpful, but I only have a BBA. What can I know?
You know, I for one, am sick to fucking death of this tactic. I got into a disagreement with my cable company and they, too, said pay up or we will destroy your credit.
Fuck off.
Why this has become the new and popular way for large companies to deal with its customers who have legitimate gripes and concerns over a bill is fucking beyond me.
Kick 'em in the teeth. Call the BBB and drop the whole sordid story in their laps. Then, call a local consumer affairs reporter. Write a couple letters to the editor. Afterwards, send copies of all your activities to the company’s CEO.
It won’t stop the behavior, but you can bet some middle-level functionaries that should have been busy keeping things running smothly will get a major butt-chewing. It’s small vengance, but appropriate.
The BBB is actually not the best place to go for this. I forget which TV news magazine did a story on them, but in a lot of cases, the BBB tends to be on the side of the business involved, and does not always act to protect the consumer.
Years ago when I had a dispute with an on-line shopping service (shopping.com before the were sold), I wrote on-line complaints to the BBB, the state’s attorney general’s office, and the local office of the FTC. The last two got a response from the company.
??!!!
Well, ain’t that just a fine how-do?
OK, then go with Duck’s ideas. But under any circumstances, make sure they twist in the wind a bit. It’s the right thing to do, and will make you feel better, too.
I had a different experience w/ the BBB. I ordered a shirt on-line, and never rec’d it. I emailed the BBB and within a mo I got a call from the clothing co. and they sent me a check. hmph at may be a hit and miss with the BBB helephino…
I’m actually going to withdraw my previous comments. I went looking for a cite, but was unable to come up with anything except for a couple of defunct web pages.
IIRC, the chief complaint against the BBB was that it was an organization funded and run by the businesses, and that if you called asking if a company had a complaint against them, that they were not obligated to tell you, or would not tell you what the complaint was about.
We’ve done a chargeback on all $237 dollars and are in the process of changing to a completely new checking account to prevent them from being able to charge us at all.
In reviewing all the math multiple times and printing up all bank statements for a year, it looks as if we might owe them $47, but not the entire $237. They’re also claiming that they did not offer us a free month of service, which is utter bullshit.
Frankly, after doing their accounting for them, I think they should just drop the $47, but we’ll pay that if it comes down to it.
I also had a good (or neutral at the very least) experience with the BBB. I was getting screwed out of about $800 by SureTrade because of an admitted records mistake on their part. After getting jerked around for about two months (“Oh, you’re right, here’s the problem. Don’t worry, we’ll have it fixed within two business days” click), I wrote long, detailed, polite letters to the BBB, three or four regulatory agencies, and the consumer advocate desks of about 20 newpapers and TV stations, and CC’ed them all to SureTrade. Within 24 hours, the money was back in my account. About three weeks later, I received a letter from some middle manager, saying they’d received word that I’d filed a complaint with the BBB and they were very sorry for whatever it was that happened.
So while I guess the BBB might be effective, going public as loudly as possible can also get good results. After all, why use a flyswatter when a fully loaded B-52 is so much more satisfying?