This is a continuation of this thread from a while back.
Son of a #$%^ing bitch but rhapsody is at it again.
It would appear that if a debit card is canceled, merchants have some mystical power to force the charge through ANYWAY!
Since the debit card is attached to a bank account, they have the power to run the charge through even though the card no longer exists since even though you change card numbers, the account number behind it remains the same.
When asked about it...our bank's corporate office told us that our only hope was to close the account and to reopen a new one. Also with sadistic glee telling us that since we are currently overdrawn the odds of us getting a new account are at the whim of the local branch manager.
In short they told us that we were F U C K E D !
My wife went to the local branch and told the manager the whole story. Manager said that in 17 years of her being in the banking industry, she has never heard of such. She made a few calls and found out that Yes indeed, agressive merchants like AOL and Real.com (parent company of Rhapsody) can decide to grab the rough hewn stick and anally violate us at whim.
The good news however.
When dealing with Real.com, demand that they send you to level 2 support in the United States Corporate HQ (I'll see if my wife still has the number and post it later). My wife talked to some guy there and politely but very firmly told them what was going on. The person verified that in the past 4 months I have not used the service at all and in fact only logged once in March for 15 seconds...not enough time to listen to a single song. He will be issuing us a check for the past 4 months of charges.
Our Bank looked at our past banking statement and found out that there were $80 in charges that we didn't authorize in just the past two weeks. No goddamn wonder we're bouncing checks left-right-and center. Our manager is giving us a new account and as soon as my wife's direct deposit hits the old account tomorrow, the full amount (not counting the overdraft we're running right now...all of it) will be transferred to the new account and we will be given a fresh start. Also as an additional bonus, they are going to pull a report going back to January 2007 so we can try to figure out what is a real charge and what isn't. We're not likely to get the money back, but she may be able to reverse some of the overdraft fees especially if those fradulent charges were responsible for running us over.
For anything that needs a recurring charge (Cingular and Blockbuster), we're going to get a pre-paid Visa card. That way if anything bites us on the ass again, we can drop the card and they can't get any money from our bank since the card is attached to nothing and Visa isn't going to pay a dime unless there is money there to spend.
End result? We're staying with our bank which is very helpful and doesn't think that we're irresponsible schmucks bouncing checks willy-nilly. All of the companies who are on us like a pack of table scrap pilfering grabasses aren't going to get another fucking dime from me ever again and we get a fresh start with an account we can not worry and can know that the amount in the check register is the same as what is in the bank.
Moral of the story? TRUST NO ONE! At least don't trust any company that requires a recurring charge. Cover your ass with a disposable pre-paid card.
Mongo
Son of a #$%^ing bitch but rhapsody is at it again.
It would appear that if a debit card is canceled, merchants have some mystical power to force the charge through ANYWAY!
Since the debit card is attached to a bank account, they have the power to run the charge through even though the card no longer exists since even though you change card numbers, the account number behind it remains the same.
When asked about it...our bank's corporate office told us that our only hope was to close the account and to reopen a new one. Also with sadistic glee telling us that since we are currently overdrawn the odds of us getting a new account are at the whim of the local branch manager.
In short they told us that we were F U C K E D !
My wife went to the local branch and told the manager the whole story. Manager said that in 17 years of her being in the banking industry, she has never heard of such. She made a few calls and found out that Yes indeed, agressive merchants like AOL and Real.com (parent company of Rhapsody) can decide to grab the rough hewn stick and anally violate us at whim.
The good news however.
When dealing with Real.com, demand that they send you to level 2 support in the United States Corporate HQ (I'll see if my wife still has the number and post it later). My wife talked to some guy there and politely but very firmly told them what was going on. The person verified that in the past 4 months I have not used the service at all and in fact only logged once in March for 15 seconds...not enough time to listen to a single song. He will be issuing us a check for the past 4 months of charges.
Our Bank looked at our past banking statement and found out that there were $80 in charges that we didn't authorize in just the past two weeks. No goddamn wonder we're bouncing checks left-right-and center. Our manager is giving us a new account and as soon as my wife's direct deposit hits the old account tomorrow, the full amount (not counting the overdraft we're running right now...all of it) will be transferred to the new account and we will be given a fresh start. Also as an additional bonus, they are going to pull a report going back to January 2007 so we can try to figure out what is a real charge and what isn't. We're not likely to get the money back, but she may be able to reverse some of the overdraft fees especially if those fradulent charges were responsible for running us over.
For anything that needs a recurring charge (Cingular and Blockbuster), we're going to get a pre-paid Visa card. That way if anything bites us on the ass again, we can drop the card and they can't get any money from our bank since the card is attached to nothing and Visa isn't going to pay a dime unless there is money there to spend.
End result? We're staying with our bank which is very helpful and doesn't think that we're irresponsible schmucks bouncing checks willy-nilly. All of the companies who are on us like a pack of table scrap pilfering grabasses aren't going to get another fucking dime from me ever again and we get a fresh start with an account we can not worry and can know that the amount in the check register is the same as what is in the bank.
Moral of the story? TRUST NO ONE! At least don't trust any company that requires a recurring charge. Cover your ass with a disposable pre-paid card.
Mongo
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