Credit Card Demons

Here’s another reason to avoid store cards (as if you needed one). So this happened to me a few months ago. I had canceled a store card from awhile ago, a really long time ago, probably at least two years ago. I had cut it up. I didn’t use that card anymore. Then, I get a bill from the store for $250.

Eh?

The bill was for a $50 purchase from a year ago. And because I hadn’t paid this $50 purchase, I had accrued $200 in late fees. Nice. The thing is, the purchase made a year ago was not me. How could it be? I’d closed that account two years ago, right?  So I called the company, and I said, “Hey, I’ve closed this account.” To which, they said, “Uh, we have no record of that.” No record??? I explicitly remember closing the account. I remember cutting up the card. I remember it! But they had no record, so the person I had closed the account with had obviously lied, didn’t close the account, b.s.

Then, I explain to them, well, there’s no way I used the card a year ago, it’s been cut up and dead for at least two years. The guy on the other end tells me this little fact: you don’t need the store card to make a purchase with the card; all you need is an account with the store, and then if you give them your name, they will charge the card. That seems illegal on soooooooo many levels. So, anyone can just walk into your store, pretend you’re me, and if they luck out and I have an account, they can charge to it? Wow, talk about consumer protection.

So they tell me my only recourse is to file a complaint, and they’ll study what I’ve said, and if it seems the card was misused, they will strike the bill from my account. So I write up my complaint, and I send it in. I get a call 30 days later. The person says I was two weeks late in filing my complaint. That because I was late, there was nothing I could do, so they were going to have to just charge me the $250 no matter what. Was this some kind of crazy scam? I sent them the complaint as soon as they told me about it. How is it my fault it took them 30 days to look at it instead of within two weeks? Do I have to personally go down there and order them to read my complaint on time?

At this point, I’m so fed up with this company. I tell them, look, you just lost a customer for life. Even though I didn’t use your card anymore, I still made regular purchases at your store. But now I won’t. Not ever again, and that’s a bigger loss than this $250. They didn’t care. Said it was $300 because another 30 days had gone by. I was going to scream. I contacted the Better Business Bureau, and I filed a complaint.

I wanted to warn others not to fall for this trap. After only a few days, a representative of the company called me. They apologized profusely. Oh, you didn’t need to contact the better business bureau. We could have worked this out. There was no need to do that. They removed the $300 bill I owed them. Then, they asked if they could do anything for me. I told them, close my damn account this time! And this time, they sent me confirmation the account was closed.

So, I guess the moral of the story is, cry and complain and tattle-tale, because it’s the only way these companies give a crap.

M.