I've heard those stories time and time again. This is another example where the credit card companies need to get their act together. I mean, a zero balance turns into $60! Just imagine if she had a balance. I'm working with the Merchants Payment Coalition and we are trying to shed some light on the credit card industry's questionable policies and practices. They don't care about customer service or fees. Visa and Mastercard are making out like bandits on fees alone, such as interchange, which contributes to the increasing cost of products like gas and groceries.
Lancy
· 2 years ago
Once the company debited a 10th of the amount instead of the actual amount. The next month they charged me overdue interest and a late payment fine. We also have to look into amounts for items that we had never bought.
Ajay
· 2 years ago
The best thing to do is call and yell at them... it usually works. I haven't gone over the entries with a fine tooth comb, but I guess it is well worth the time spent to scrutinize the statement properly. I usually check for items I haven't bought, in case of abuse.
Raghav
· 2 years ago
Nice Layout..u gotta show me how to make some loot too ;)
Shine
· 2 years ago
Tell you what - I did laugh by the end of the post. Thanks!
Dave RH
· 2 years ago
Honestly, I doubt the validity of this particular story... just because I've heard it told so many ways, so many times. However, I think story is a great for demonstrating how bone headed big business can be.
Recently I moved my office into my basement, and I literally spent over 3 hours on 4 different calls over a period of 2 weeks to convince my telephone company that the brand new house in the brand new sub division was capable of accepting their top highspeed Internet plan. Each time I would be passed to a tech after about 15 minutes, who then needed to be convinced by me to re-run the line speed test. Once the test was rerun, the tech would say "Oh, you are right sir, we will upgrade you right away". Then nothing would happen...sometimes big business makes you want to smack your head against a wall.
Luke
· 2 years ago
Wow, it really is amazing how ignorant, and in this case, dim people can be! I mean, seriously it can't be the first time that has happened, and one would assume The Bank would have a policy for similar situations.
I must say though, it was a good read and I did laugh at the end :)
Vamsi
· 2 years ago
To me the best part is giving the cemetery address. Thats the way to deal with credit card companies.
Gili
· 2 years ago
Yeah, the cementery part is quite hilarious. Good one Ajay, hope to hear from you more frequently
Ajay
· 2 years ago
Well, I'm trying to blog the moment I can find time
Dave RH
· 2 years ago
I hear ya Ajay, it's always hard to find time to blog. I have the same problem with my blog DaveSaraiva.com
Shashank
· 2 years ago
It was really funny ...they don't even leave dead people..
Canucklehead
· 2 years ago
With death being such a new thing, it is no wonder wonder the banks systems have not been brought up to date with the modern inconvenience. Sadly, these stories are far-too-common these days. Not only about the idiotic customer service agents we have to deal with - but also this whole psople dying this - real bummer.
Daniel
· 2 years ago
When my mother died, the credit card company called a few days later, because, having been ill for some time, my mother had fallen behind on the credit card bill. CC Person: May I speak with Deanna, please? Me: No. She's deceased. CC Person: Are you handling her bills? Me: She died earlier today. (Hoping she might get thing hint that this is NOT a good time.) CC Person: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you handling her bills? Me: Um. I suppose. (annoyed tone) CC Person: The charges will stand, unless you can fax us a death certificate. Me: I see. And what if I don't? What will happen? CC Person: Sir, I'm trying to help you! Your mother had a bill, someone is going to have to pay it. (indignant)
I'm flabbergasted at this point. I just hung up.
I've worked in phone customer service most of my life. I've worked for Directv, AOL, various collections companies... I often dealt with the families of people who had passed. Usually, I would say something like..
Me: May I speak with Mr. Smith, please? Grief Stricken Relative: Mr. Smith passed away last week. Me: Oh, I am so sorry for your loss. Well, I'm calling from (wherever), He had a bill with us. I'll go ahead and let our accounts department know.
At this point, the person would say thank you. But often they'd ask if there is any info that we needed to close the account, whatever. I'd then give them the death certificate info, a fax number and let them know that the whole thing would be taken care of when we received that.
I think that's how it's supposed to work. if they asked what we'd do if they didn't send it, I'd say.."I don't know. It just makes things easier for us.."
Michelle
· 2 years ago
Love the bit about the cemetery. Recently I heard from a fiend that car insurance companies can't handle death either. They expect the deceased to keep driving.
veronica
· 2 years ago
this may help someone out there:
As a young responsible college student in the 80's i got a macy's card to establish credit. my mom, a former bank teller advised me to get one and i did not want it. So, she said, whenever you make a purchase, just got to the macy's customer service window and pay the cash toward the credit card. I did this with every purchase and therefore never ever received a paper bill in the mail. after about a year, i went to use the card and the cashier took my card very rudely and cut it up. she claimed that the system told her and she called their collections department and was told that i had never paid a bill! I got on the phone at that time with collections and was treated very rudely. I asked what do i owe and i will pay it right now. I was told that the computer showed a 00.00 balance but i had charged items and never paid a bill! this went on for years. i was denied a car loan, other credit cards etc and alwaays got the same runaround. that i could not pay off the debt but that i never paid a bill! 10 years went by. i could never fix the problem because everytime i called i got the same answer. i was also told that i had repeatedly ignored letters from their legal department. i had never recieved letters! ever. i always gave my addresss and requested the company contact me to clear it up. no letters ever arrived. finally in 1996, almost 15 years after my card was "confiscated" i had a knowledgable customer service clerk at macy's in manhattan. She figured out the problem. it seems i had either underpaid or the cashier had entered a wrong cash payment amount, but in 1981 i had underpaid my bill by less than a penny. hence,when their is a cash amount due under 50 cents the computer shows a zero sum due and rounds the number to zero. but another part of the system shows an unpaid amount due but no total when the computer checks the amount due in the system. therefore, i had to open an account, wait for a paper bill and then send in via check the payment. while she helped me, the macy's system would not allow her to let me open an account and when she called collections they were rude with her as well. Then she discussed the issue, gave some internal code to the department of collections head and they discovered the problem. and i never recieved a collection notice because collections will not waste a stamp on an item that is of less value then the amount demanded! What did i owe after 15 years with interest? 25 cents! people in line behind me all offered up whatever change they had to help me pay my "debt" people were laughing! the thing that screwed up my entire credit history took one smart caring woman from macy's and a quarter! and i had to pay in a check. they refused to take cash.
Tony
· 2 years ago
The family should have closed the card down when the decedent passed away. I work at a bank, and I understand the bank's point of view of this situation.
Today we live in a world that is tormented by identity theft and other fraudulent activities. I have dealt with customers before who have attempted to tap into deceased family member's bank accounts without following the proper protocol. They claim that the decedent was dead for well over a month and that all of the proper paperwork was filed. However, the account shows activity within the past couple weeks. When asked about it, the family member says that they have continued to use the debit card to withdraw money. (Which is illegal since the family member was not on the account)
This story kind of reminds me of some situations which about which I have heard. Unfortunately, I believe that this story is greatly exaggerated. Several parts seem to be a miscommunication error that was exaggerated as the story was told and retold. Exaggerations which resulted from the "whisper-down-the-lane" way the story was most likely told. Anyway, it sounds like a misinformed customer.
Kenneth D
· 2 years ago
ROFL really funny!!!
Baltor
· 2 years ago
I recently received a credit card bill with a forty something dollar balance. I paid the entire amount before the due date. The next month they sent me another bill saying I owed them 62 cents!!
How do you send a bill saying "this is what you owe us" and when you pay it they come back and say "you owe us more"?
donut
· 2 years ago
Actually the reason why people have heard this story so many times is that it really occurs quite often. I heard a similar story about a friend, his grandmother and her late husband. The dead husband still got analog spam and bills over 6 months after his death, so this lady of his called each instance to clarify a new billing address, the local cemetery. And it actually worked. No more paperspam or bills :)
Diana
· 2 years ago
You realize all these morons are basically rehearsing what scripts they are given and I guess they never go outside "the lines" to take time to be a TRUE customer service rep. But then again there are not many of those left it would be nice if they had more consideration and stopped to actually "listen" to the customer and to what is being said. They really are a disgrace!!
Rodger
· 2 years ago
I had a similar situation with Financial Aid. I'm 22 right now, so typically they want my parents informations. The problem is my mom passed away about a year and a half ago, so it wouldn't really do them any good. Took my six months of offering to bring in a small portion of ashes that I keep with me to them so that I could "Introduce" her to them.
All Comments
I usually check for items I haven't bought, in case of abuse.
Recently I moved my office into my basement, and I literally spent over 3 hours on 4 different calls over a period of 2 weeks to convince my telephone company that the brand new house in the brand new sub division was capable of accepting their top highspeed Internet plan. Each time I would be passed to a tech after about 15 minutes, who then needed to be convinced by me to re-run the line speed test. Once the test was rerun, the tech would say "Oh, you are right sir, we will upgrade you right away". Then nothing would happen...sometimes big business makes you want to smack your head against a wall.
I must say though, it was a good read and I did laugh at the end :)
CC Person: May I speak with Deanna, please?
Me: No. She's deceased.
CC Person: Are you handling her bills?
Me: She died earlier today. (Hoping she might get thing hint that this is NOT a good time.)
CC Person: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you handling her bills?
Me: Um. I suppose. (annoyed tone)
CC Person: The charges will stand, unless you can fax us a death certificate.
Me: I see. And what if I don't? What will happen?
CC Person: Sir, I'm trying to help you! Your mother had a bill, someone is going to have to pay it. (indignant)
I'm flabbergasted at this point. I just hung up.
I've worked in phone customer service most of my life. I've worked for Directv, AOL, various collections companies... I often dealt with the families of people who had passed. Usually, I would say something like..
Me: May I speak with Mr. Smith, please?
Grief Stricken Relative: Mr. Smith passed away last week.
Me: Oh, I am so sorry for your loss. Well, I'm calling from (wherever), He had a bill with us. I'll go ahead and let our accounts department know.
At this point, the person would say thank you. But often they'd ask if there is any info that we needed to close the account, whatever. I'd then give them the death certificate info, a fax number and let them know that the whole thing would be taken care of when we received that.
I think that's how it's supposed to work. if they asked what we'd do if they didn't send it, I'd say.."I don't know. It just makes things easier for us.."
As a young responsible college student in the 80's i got a macy's card to establish credit. my mom, a former bank teller advised me to get one and i did not want it. So, she said, whenever you make a purchase, just got to the macy's customer service window and pay the cash toward the credit card.
I did this with every purchase and therefore never ever received a paper bill in the mail. after about a year, i went to use the card and the cashier took my card very rudely and cut it up. she claimed that the system told her and she called their collections department and was told that i had never paid a bill!
I got on the phone at that time with collections and was treated very rudely.
I asked what do i owe and i will pay it right now. I was told that the computer showed a 00.00 balance but i had charged items and never paid a bill! this went on for years. i was denied a car loan, other credit cards etc and alwaays got the same runaround. that i could not pay off the debt but that i never paid a bill!
10 years went by. i could never fix the problem because everytime i called i got the same answer. i was also told that i had repeatedly ignored letters from their legal department. i had never recieved letters! ever. i always gave my addresss and requested the company contact me to clear it up.
no letters ever arrived.
finally in 1996, almost 15 years after my card was "confiscated" i had a knowledgable customer service clerk at macy's in manhattan. She figured out the problem.
it seems i had either underpaid or the cashier had entered a wrong cash payment amount, but in 1981 i had underpaid my bill by less than a penny.
hence,when their is a cash amount due under 50 cents the computer shows a zero sum due and rounds the number to zero. but another part of the system shows an unpaid amount due but no total when the computer checks the amount due in the system.
therefore, i had to open an account, wait for a paper bill and then send in via check the payment. while she helped me, the macy's system would not allow her to let me open an account and when she called collections they were rude with her as well.
Then she discussed the issue, gave some internal code to the department of collections head and they discovered the problem.
and i never recieved a collection notice because collections will not waste a stamp on an item that is of less value then the amount demanded!
What did i owe after 15 years with interest?
25 cents!
people in line behind me all offered up whatever change they had to help me pay my "debt" people were laughing! the thing that screwed up my entire credit history took one smart caring woman from macy's and a quarter! and i had to pay in a check. they refused to take cash.
Today we live in a world that is tormented by identity theft and other fraudulent activities. I have dealt with customers before who have attempted to tap into deceased family member's bank accounts without following the proper protocol. They claim that the decedent was dead for well over a month and that all of the proper paperwork was filed. However, the account shows activity within the past couple weeks. When asked about it, the family member says that they have continued to use the debit card to withdraw money. (Which is illegal since the family member was not on the account)
This story kind of reminds me of some situations which about which I have heard. Unfortunately, I believe that this story is greatly exaggerated. Several parts seem to be a miscommunication error that was exaggerated as the story was told and retold. Exaggerations which resulted from the "whisper-down-the-lane" way the story was most likely told. Anyway, it sounds like a misinformed customer.
How do you send a bill saying "this is what you owe us" and when you pay it they come back and say "you owe us more"?
story so many times is that it really occurs
quite often. I heard a similar story
about a friend, his grandmother and her
late husband. The dead husband still got
analog spam and bills over 6 months after
his death, so this lady of his called
each instance to clarify a new billing
address, the local cemetery. And it actually
worked. No more paperspam or bills :)