If you receive a random check in the mail, would you simply cash it? Maybe, but a credit card company sure as hell shouldn’t. When they receive a payment, they had better know where to credit it.
I bought something or other at Radio Shack a few weeks ago, and I paid for it as soon as the bill came in. Three weeks later I received a delinquency notice from them. According to their records I hadn’t paid. Bullshit, says I, so I decided to wait a few days until my bank statement came in. It’s always possible that the check was lost in the mail, in which case I would write them another one and whine until they rescinded the late fee.
So what do I find? The fuckers cashed the check. It was properly made out, with my account number written legibly on the memo line. So I called them to inquire about this little mistake.
“We have no record of your payment, Mr. Reznick.”
So I told them I would fax them the image of the cancelled check and an accompanying line item on my statement so they could fix it immediately.
“I will forward it to the research department to be investigated. It might take some time.”
Time? Whose time, you insipid fucking bitch? Radio Shack is going to keep excreting me bill after bill until they get around to working it out. And guess what? They don’t give a fuck! They already have my money, and they don’t give two shits about my credit record! Not one day before this malarky I applied for two real credit cards, which I badly need to get my independent financial life started. No doubt I am going to be rejected, and will have to wait months before I can apply again with a reasonable chance of acceptance. All because Radio Shack blindly cashed my check but didn’t bother crediting my account.
I know punching account numbers into a computer is boring fucking work, and mistakes can happen. That’s not what has earned my intense ire. If you fuck with someone’s credit, you damned well better fix it fast! To all the check-cashing assholes at Radio Shack, I give you a resounding Fuck You. Fix my credit record now or I am gonna hassle you so bad and use you for phone sex when I’m through.
Inform your bank of the situation. They too will fuck with Radio Shack.
You can also bother the piss out of some executives by writing letters and placing phone calls using the following publicly listed information from the SEC:
Richard L. Ramsey Vice President and Controller
Dwain H. Hughes Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
RADIOSHACK CORP
100 THROCKMORTON ST
STE 1800
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
817.415.3700
oops, sorry, too late I see.
Any credit card/credit account statement has a process by which you can rectify errors such as what you’ve mentioned. I’ve never had a problem with companies about this. Federal laws being what they are. It’s call a dispute. you give the the information in writing, to the specified place, and in the meantime, they are NOT allowed to count your account delinquint, nor can they charge you interest on the portion that’s being disputed.
I had a cc that I’d paid $75 to, they typed out the payment as $25, so charged me late fees etc. called, they put a flag on my account that there was a dispute, released my credit in the meantime and ultimately fixed their error. The only time I had a problem was with another company (FIgis), and they claimed to not recieve the payment, I sent the copy of the cancelled check, they sent another notice of non payment, I sent the whole mess on to my attorney general as a complaint on consumer fraud (a company that will send erroneous bills to consumers even after the proof has been submitted, can actually get into serious trouble themselves).
anyhow, stop playing on the computer, and deal with the jerks, quickly and it will all fade into a bad memory.
My mother-im-law may have a LONG list of faults, but I admire the way she deals with people who fuck with her.
She has had many problems in the past with companies, ranging from payment issues to customer service. She starts at the bottom, always making sure to get the name of the person she’s talking to FIRST, since part way into the tirade, many hang up, and you want to be able to bust them when you get to their boss. She gets as pissed as she wants during this phase, insulting mothers, making inferences about gene-pool depth, etc.
If the first couple of supervisors don’t get it done, she simply calls the office of the president and speaks to his/her secretary. You would not believe how well this works. And of course, she is always sooo sorry to bother them with something like this, but gosh golly, she knows that (insert president’s name here) would never want his/her company to be judged by this type of service, etc.
Wokrs beautifully. Evil, but you’ve got to admire the success rate. She has done this with Bill Gates’ office and many others. Try it.
Ordinarily I would not be in a hurry. I am perfectly aware that I have legal recourse. Perhaps you missed the part where I explained that I had just applied for credit cards. Federal law or not, they made it abundantly clear to me that the would not be able to comply in a timely fashion.
And don’t tell me to stop playing on my computer, you sanctimonious prick. I sent them a whole packet of information verifying that I had in fact made the payment. Now unless they drag their asses even more, all I can do is wait. And call over and over. And bitch. Thanks for your support, no thanks for your condescension.
wasn’t trying for condesention at all. was simply trying to point out that railing about it on the computer wasn’t actually fighting it.
DID see the stuff about you applying for credit in the meantime, and federal law prohibits the use of stuff in dispute against you, if they fail to issue the credit based on this radio shack gig, you have legal recourse.
Was in fact sympathetic. Although as I re-read my posting, my opening of knickers in a knot could have been misconstrued. I was attempting to get you to refocus your energy off of ranting about them and onto practical maneuvers that might help you out of this mess, instead of mindless “gee bro, sorry, that really sucks” stuff.
And, I find that if you point out the laws the folks are in violation of, generally they start to back down. which is why I mentioned the steps to take in the first place. Once you have put the issue into dispute, neither Radio Shack NOR the other company can use it against you, regardless of what the person told you. If they do, it’s a violation of federal laws.
RE: the “prick” comment. I can see, in re-reading that you might have thought I was being snotty, when trying to make a suggestion. Would have hoped that instead of assuming that I was trying to offend you, that you’d have seen some of the comments I’d made as being of a helpful nature. obviously, you didn’t.
and I did mean it. I’ll give them another call tomorrow, and get them to issue a statement to me or something. I just need to call the credit card companies where I applied now, and see if I can get this straightened out.
No, do not call the credit card co that you applied to. 1st, Experian, etc only report delinq. over 30 days, which it does not appear this is. Next, more “grantors” send in their info quarterly, which means it is very likely Experian(TRW), etc has no record, at all of this “late” payment. They then take a while to update your record. Things just don’t work that fast. You are stressing about something which is probably not a problem.
Now, timely file a “dispute” with RS. They, then, will be unable to reprt you as “delinquent”, assuming they were ever going to in the 1st place.
If, you are 'declined" credit, do not assume it is on account of the RS stuff. Simply write to the credit reporting co to get a copy of your report, and be sure to tell them it is because you were denied crdit, and by who. If you are impatient, you can ask for a copy of your report now, onlineor by phone, but it costs $8 or so then. IF, the RS thing is on the credit report (which i doubt), then write to the credit reporting agency, and dispute it, as well as radio shack. There is no use writing to the credit card co.
If there are other “DEROG” things, dispute them, even if they could be right. After the credit file is “fixed”, then re-apply. Again, there is no use writing to the credit card co., until the report is clean, or at least cleaner.
It seems to me that they never said anything about this going on your credit, or was that in the letter? It usually takes time before a company will put somethinfg on your credit - a couple of months even with something like a late car payment. Something like this would also take some time to show up.
You will be able to take care of it before that happens, and when you do get this resolved, make sure that you bring that up so they can reassure you that it’s okay.
To be safe, get a copy of your credit report (you can get one for free once a year from all three credit agencies) a month or two after it’s cleared up so you can see what others are seeing.
Yer pal,
Satan
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Another strategy that has worked like a charm for me is to ask to speak to RadioShack’s legal department. Everytime I’ve done this with a credit problem, the accounts receivable department has fixed the problem, rather than having to explain to the LD why they’re causing problems.