Wednesday, mid week, "over the hump day", commenced with my regular morning "thanks" and "family tree meditation"...another beautiful south Florida day...
The night before a review of my personal credit card statement revealed a charge of $19.95 for a Credit Bureau inquiry. As I didn't recall making such an inquiry, I checked online to find a telephone number for the company. There was none...just a web page e-mail. I called my credit card company. They said their transaction information was that it was an authorization to bill my card $19.95 daily! They said it sounded fraudulent, and I was given a contact number for the merchant with offices in California. When I called, I was asked if I had authorized a Mr. Panesh in India to make these charges? I had not even heard of the company! I asked the representative why their company hadn't been suspicious of such an unusual series? After ten minutes on hold, a manager told me that my credit card was being credited for the charges, and that I should cancel the card (which I did next, while asking why they hadn't notified me, a long-term customer, of the suspicious charges?)!
I was then transferred from the personal card to the business card "customer service" division. When I had purchased three years in advance at my health club three months prior, my monthly automatic card debit was supposed to be canceled. The monthly statements revealed that this hadn't been done despite frequent reminders to the local management...the corporate computerized billing department didn't seem capable of processing this cancellation...so I canceled the debit with my credit card provider! They offered to credit the debits for the recent months and address the issue with the club themselves...
The night before a review of my personal credit card statement revealed a charge of $19.95 for a Credit Bureau inquiry. As I didn't recall making such an inquiry, I checked online to find a telephone number for the company. There was none...just a web page e-mail. I called my credit card company. They said their transaction information was that it was an authorization to bill my card $19.95 daily! They said it sounded fraudulent, and I was given a contact number for the merchant with offices in California. When I called, I was asked if I had authorized a Mr. Panesh in India to make these charges? I had not even heard of the company! I asked the representative why their company hadn't been suspicious of such an unusual series? After ten minutes on hold, a manager told me that my credit card was being credited for the charges, and that I should cancel the card (which I did next, while asking why they hadn't notified me, a long-term customer, of the suspicious charges?)!
I was then transferred from the personal card to the business card "customer service" division. When I had purchased three years in advance at my health club three months prior, my monthly automatic card debit was supposed to be canceled. The monthly statements revealed that this hadn't been done despite frequent reminders to the local management...the corporate computerized billing department didn't seem capable of processing this cancellation...so I canceled the debit with my credit card provider! They offered to credit the debits for the recent months and address the issue with the club themselves...
As I approached my home for lunch, I noticed two local water and sewer utility trucks in my driveway and one in my front yard. I approached and asked the trucks to be moved so that I could drive to my garage, and I was signaled to drive on the grass to pass them..."But my irrigation sprinkler heads will be crushed! And what are you doing anyway?" "We are here to replace the storm sewer black cast iron grate at no additional cost to you." As I passed I noticed three men on their knees cutting the 24 by 36 inch perfectly good grate into hand-size pieces. When I went upstairs to look out I saw what looked like a rusted grate in one of the truck beds. "They must have taken that rusted grate from another yard, I assumed." After an hour they all left and I went outside to see a 24 x 18 inch (one half the storm grate size) rusted grate replacing one half of the black non-rusted grate! Imagine how good I felt to have the damaged replacement of nothing originally broken, provided at no extra cost to me?
I opened my mail to notice that I had been billed for two co-payments to a doctor's office because on the first visit I couldn't be given a complete report of the testing because the computer system was down! I also had a bill from my structural engineer for their mailings,that are not reimbursable by my clients!
My agent called to relate that no private company would provide interior contents insurance for my mother for her condominium, because a shower pipe had burst in her "party wall" two years before. If you receive a settlement payment on a claim, you are now put on a computerized do not insure master list, that is referenced by all providers! Insurance companies have been so historically profitable because they collect unreasonable premiums and limit their pay out liability by either refusing to issue a policy, or putting so many "riders" on it, that nothing is really covered!
And these were only a few of the absurdities experienced in one day....
No comments:
Post a Comment