Credit Tips: Credit Card Account Confusion

Posted On: March 1, 2005

Author: Ira
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 837
Location: NJ
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:20 pm
Post subject: Corporate stupidity

This story would be funny if it weren’t such a sad statement on the way our society bows down to and genuflects before the Great Programmer who, of course, can do no wrong. Yeah, right!

I have a Ford Quality Care credit card which is administered by GE Credit. I use it once in a while for repairs because it has a 90 same as cash feature. Back last November I charged $103.00 to the card. While paying bills one late night (NEVER pay bills or buy something on line at 3:00 AM!) I accidently made my payment to my LensCrafters account, another card that’s administered by GE Credit.

I was puzzled when I got a GE statement showing a credit balance of $103.00. It was the LensCrafters statement. Thinking it was my Ford account I was trying to figure out why they would want to refund my money. A day or so later I got the “other” GE statement, the Ford account, showing payment overdue and adding a late fee and finance charges. That’s when I realized what had happened.

I called GE Credit, explained the situation, that they actually had my payment, wrong account, etc. etc. The CSR quickly looked up both accounts, agreed with me and said no problem, she would have the balance transfered to the correct account and would kill the late fee and finance charge. Excellent. The story should have ended right there, but it didn’t. Read on….

I got my next Ford statement and it showed that my payment was properly transfered, it showed the credit for the late fee, it showed a credit for the finance charges, then it showed another late fee added, another finance charge added, a credit for the new late fee, a credit for the new late fee, and a credit for the new finance charge, plus a credit for the new finance charge. No, I didn’t stutter, that’s exactly what the statement showed, and iit also showed a CREDIT BALANCE of $29.51!

I called customer service to explain that they really didn’t owe me $29.51 and would they please get their books in order. The CSR looked up the account and I couldn’t believe her answer: she said that the statement was as correct as she could make it!!! She couldn’t reverse the incorrect credit because it was valid. (Excuse me? Is this some exotic new definition of “valid?”) The only way to clear it was for them to send me a check for $29.51, but thank you for your honest attempt at being honest. (Honest! That’s what she said!)

When I get the check I will create a new category in Quicken to account for it: CORPORATE STUPIDITY!!