If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Last month, i got a bill with a tiny tiny entry in the itemized list of stuff I bought: “LATE FEE”. Hmm. I don’t even recall buying this product. Where did I buy this? I just cannot remember. Where can I buy this thing they call a “LATE FEE”?
In fact, this isn’t the first time Chase did this to me. Even though I pay 3-5 days BEFORE they’re due via my bank’s e-pay AND in full, they manage to charge me late fee every couple of months.
No problem. I’ll call and take care of this, I thought. Shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes to clear this up. 5 MINUTES? Wrong. More like an hour!
The first customer service rep just acted like he didn’t know what he could do. The standard “I’m too stupid to know what to do.” So I got his supervisor, who sounded like every other idiot customer service rep you’ve ever talked to. He just read the terms of service to me OVER the phone as if I’ve never heard of such a thing… WORD FOR WORD.
I told him to look at my payment history… and how 90% of the time i incurred a late fee, it was almost always their fault. He wouldn’t listen. Whether or not I was truly late, doesn’t my loyalty to this company mean anything? Does he not personally make any mistakes? Would he NOT feel ticked off like I was?
Apparently not. He even went as far as impling that maybe I shouldn’t their credit card service. Interesting. If you Chase execs are reading this, you might want to change your sales training program.
Hung up. Called again. This time, the customer service rep wouldn’t even let me talk. He was mouthing me off like I’m some 18 yr. old college kid who’s gone gung-ho with his first time credit card. He even said “Yes I have been late, but I did not mind paying the late fees because I knew I was late.” Ok buddy.. if I wanted your opinion, I would ask for it. Quite franky, I don’t give a damn what you think or believe. Just do your freakin’ job and reverse this assenine $39 late fee. This guy even had the nerve to say that his supervisor is not “reachable”. When I asked him what that meant, his response was “I told you. He’s not reachable.”
Now my blood is boiling at this point on a fine Saturday morning. But I ain’t giving up… so i called AGAIN. This time, I logged into my checking account online and checked the facts. When I called, I said
…. You guys took my payment on 4/3/2009 at 3:36 PM and 32 seconds. The transaction ID is (xyz)…
And guess what? This time it worked. This customer service rep
- let me talk
- ACTUALLY investigated the matter before flat out saying no to my face.
It turns out there are TWO dates associated with payment. 1) payment receipt date and 2) payment POST date. It turns out they took my payment but waited a couple of days to POST it to my account.
WTF?
What kind of scam is this? In fact, this is a pretty well known bank scam. Do a Google search on “credit card late fee scam” and you’ll see that it returns over 2 MILLION search results. Chase is not alone on this and probably Capital One’s the poster child for this scam. It was the same scam, except with paper. They’ll receive the checks in the mail, store it for a couple of days, then cash it the day AFTER the payments were due. Collect $29 in late fee… and multiply by a couple of million people. Profitable? Yeap. Scammy, you bet. In fact, Capital One’s probably the sleaziest credit card company out of all of them.
Long story short, the 3rd customer rep that helped me was good. I was so genuinely relieved after having talked to him that I’m sending his boss a commendation latter on his behalf. Yeah, maybe I should’ve backed up my statement with the first guy and maybe none of this would’ve happened or that maybe the first and second reps would not go through some “cusomter service review” (because I intend on reporting their rude asses), but tough. Life’s unfair. I know this because Chase tried to scam me.
I have lost respect for Chase. Chase, you will not be receiving businesses from me in the near future.
PS: If you’re the software developer who wrote the e-bill payment system for Chase, why don’t u apply the posting date and receipt date the same? Why do you even allow manual process to take place? That is insanely inefficient.
Related posts:
- Never too late to go for your dreams
- Credit crunch affecting student loans – how we can help
- How to disable previous days in DHTML JS Calendar
- Bailout IS needed
- Perfect example of why we should get rid of unions
Credit card ripoff scam – late fees
In fact, this isn’t the first time Chase did this to me. Even though I pay 3-5 days BEFORE they’re due via my bank’s e-pay AND in full, they manage to charge me late fee every couple of months.
No problem. I’ll call and take care of this, I thought. Shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes to clear this up. 5 MINUTES? Wrong. More like an hour!
The first customer service rep just acted like he didn’t know what he could do. The standard “I’m too stupid to know what to do.” So I got his supervisor, who sounded like every other idiot customer service rep you’ve ever talked to. He just read the terms of service to me OVER the phone as if I’ve never heard of such a thing… WORD FOR WORD.
I told him to look at my payment history… and how 90% of the time i incurred a late fee, it was almost always their fault. He wouldn’t listen. Whether or not I was truly late, doesn’t my loyalty to this company mean anything? Does he not personally make any mistakes? Would he NOT feel ticked off like I was?
Apparently not. He even went as far as impling that maybe I shouldn’t their credit card service. Interesting. If you Chase execs are reading this, you might want to change your sales training program.
Hung up. Called again. This time, the customer service rep wouldn’t even let me talk. He was mouthing me off like I’m some 18 yr. old college kid who’s gone gung-ho with his first time credit card. He even said “Yes I have been late, but I did not mind paying the late fees because I knew I was late.” Ok buddy.. if I wanted your opinion, I would ask for it. Quite franky, I don’t give a damn what you think or believe. Just do your freakin’ job and reverse this assenine $39 late fee. This guy even had the nerve to say that his supervisor is not “reachable”. When I asked him what that meant, his response was “I told you. He’s not reachable.”
Now my blood is boiling at this point on a fine Saturday morning. But I ain’t giving up… so i called AGAIN. This time, I logged into my checking account online and checked the facts. When I called, I said
And guess what? This time it worked. This customer service rep
It turns out there are TWO dates associated with payment. 1) payment receipt date and 2) payment POST date. It turns out they took my payment but waited a couple of days to POST it to my account.
WTF?
What kind of scam is this? In fact, this is a pretty well known bank scam. Do a Google search on “credit card late fee scam” and you’ll see that it returns over 2 MILLION search results. Chase is not alone on this and probably Capital One’s the poster child for this scam. It was the same scam, except with paper. They’ll receive the checks in the mail, store it for a couple of days, then cash it the day AFTER the payments were due. Collect $29 in late fee… and multiply by a couple of million people. Profitable? Yeap. Scammy, you bet. In fact, Capital One’s probably the sleaziest credit card company out of all of them.
Long story short, the 3rd customer rep that helped me was good. I was so genuinely relieved after having talked to him that I’m sending his boss a commendation latter on his behalf. Yeah, maybe I should’ve backed up my statement with the first guy and maybe none of this would’ve happened or that maybe the first and second reps would not go through some “cusomter service review” (because I intend on reporting their rude asses), but tough. Life’s unfair. I know this because Chase tried to scam me.
I have lost respect for Chase. Chase, you will not be receiving businesses from me in the near future.
PS: If you’re the software developer who wrote the e-bill payment system for Chase, why don’t u apply the posting date and receipt date the same? Why do you even allow manual process to take place? That is insanely inefficient.
Related posts: