"Why am I getting charged a late fee?"

[SCSlave]

One of the things I picked up on in your post was the complaint about how hard 'your company' makes it to talk to a human. We got that all the time at the call center I worked in. HOW long have those automated systems been in place?? EONS! HOW many companies use them? ALL of them. You'd think people would grasp the concept of hitting '1' or '2' by now. Geesh.

Customers like her irritate me to no end. Her entire attitude, her inability to navigate the phone system, and her ignorance of how payments work. Derr...If it's due today, don't freaking pay it ONLINE today. Of course it's not going to post yet. I pay pretty much ALL my bills online, I know if I go in on the day it's due, it will be late.

But then, I have more than 2 brain cells to rub together.

[Lehk]

sucky attitude, but in a way she is right.

there really is no excuse for not allowing computerized transactions to carry on for the vast majority of the time, perhapse allowing 1 hour each day for systems to synch with older data warehousing applications.

she signed an agreement so the problem is her fault, but the situation really is silly.

[AFpheonix]

I really don't think it's silly,. There's a reason why "business days" and "business hours" are called that. That's when stuff needs to get done!

As for my CC, there's a grace period apparently after the due date, because I've managed to forget to pay for a day or two after and no charge showed up. Schweet.

These are the same people that have a script at another pharmacy, and then get irate because they want me to fill it and I can't because the other pharmacy is closed and I can't call to transfer. Not my problem, numbnut.

Puck: It's amazing to me when people sign up for something as complicated as insurance and they have NO idea what they signed up for. I am CONSTANTLY getting Kaiser patients over here that don't understand that they signed up for a closed system, and get all upset that they can't use their insurance here, and then proceed to tell me they're taking their business elsewhere even after I've told them that only Kaiser accepts their plan. Yep, you go to the Rite Aid down the street, and I guarantee they'll tell you the same thing, brainiac.

[csdrone]

Thank you for this timely thread. Please tell me that late payments do not report till they are 60 days out: I have messed up and sent out checks a couple days late out of stupidity or misplacing a bill. I do make sure we are not 45-60 days late though: the one time I did that was years ago and I realized the folly of my ways when trying to buy a car.

More relevant to the OP, being polite and saying "I was a dummyhead" and actually following the prompts does make it easier for a CSR to find you. There is NOT a psychic hotline to all CSR's so we "know who you are." It also makes the decision makers more likely to work with you than to take a hard line (and there are these things called account notes that follow a person around).

[Phone Jockey]

Spawned, how do remember the whole conversation? My commentaries are usually very short b/c I only remember the very end of a convo... Awesome getting the 100%!!!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This is why I pay my credit card bills online and print up the confirmation page. That way I know my payment will post on the day I scheduled it, without any delays from the post office.

[Gurndigarn]

One of the things I picked up on in your post was the complaint about how hard 'your company' makes it to talk to a human. We got that all the time at the call center I worked in. HOW long have those automated systems been in place?? EONS! HOW many companies use them? ALL of them. You'd think people would grasp the concept of hitting '1' or '2' by now. Geesh.

Unfortunately, when you KNOW that your conversation has special quirks that will NEED to be handled by a human, it can be tough to convince the phonemail system of that. And the ones where the humans are going to be upset already seem to be set up so that you can't get through to a human at all.

Or, alternately, you regularly encounter 20-30 minute wait times. "We're sorry, all of our representatives are currently assisting other customers. Please wait on the line. Your call is very valuable to us. But obviously not so valuable that we'ld actually hire more employees."

[Jetfire]

Not sure, but I think if you have enoguh credit on the card to cover the payment, or at least the interest, then they (in Canada at least) don't seem to bat an eye.

What I find annoying though is if you're just under the limit, they will charge the interest (which IMO should be the last charge of the month) BUT if the interest charge puts you over, they follow it up with an OverLimit Fee. They've hit me with that a few times *grrrr*

Anyways nice handling of the SC.

[angelicafire]

Most companies will work with customers when they're late once in a while, where they miss paying by a day. Since she was so clueless, she's probably never been late before. A better attitude might have solved her problem.

Actually, I believe the OP said:

DBC: Ugh. I am done with this bank (at which point I am looking at her unbelievable delinquency rate and secretly thinking "good we don't want your business anyway, costs us more to make you pay then we actually receive")

Not trying to be a jerk, but I honestly don't have sympathy for people who cannot afford the luxury items they sign up for. And yes, I think credit cards (and cell phones, and cable TV, etc...)are a luxury item, especially if it gets to the point where you can't pay the bill on time.

[trunks2k]

One of the things I picked up on in your post was the complaint about how hard 'your company' makes it to talk to a human. We got that all the time at the call center I worked in. HOW long have those automated systems been in place?? EONS! HOW many companies use them? ALL of them. You'd think people would grasp the concept of hitting '1' or '2' by now. Geesh.

To an extent, I agree with this complaint. Automated systems may have been around for a long time, but it's still a pain to get to talk to a person. Especially if your issue falls in a more vague area and you aren't sure which path to take. The worst is the voice automated systems. A few months ago I tried to sign up for DSL at my new apartment with Verizon. The number I called was a voice automated system, and it asked me to speak my current phone number. Problem was, I didn't have a number with Verizon, nor did I want one. I just wanted DSL. It took me somewhere between a half hour and an hour to figure out what to say to get past that first step. Saying "I don't have one" or "Help" or "Representative please" or "F@ck you" didn't help. In case you're wondering "NEW SERVICE!!! (raised, pissed off voice) is what you have to say.

[tollbaby]

Not trying to be a jerk, but I honestly don't have sympathy for people who cannot afford the luxury items they sign up for. And yes, I think credit cards (and cell phones, and cable TV, etc...)are a luxury item, especially if it gets to the point where you can't pay the bill on time.

Neither do I, which is why I phoned to cancel my cell phone and satellite service last night. Cell phone got cancelled, no problem. But the satellite... well, he asked me why I was cancelling, so I told him job had changed, and the money just wasn't there anymore. So he goes "oh, well you've always been such a good customer judging by your account history here, so I'll give you two months free!"... *stunned silence followed by a very emphatic THANK YOU from my side*

[Banrion]

Just don't forget to call in 2 months if you are still in the same situation. They do this hoping that you forget to cancel it later.

[tollbaby]

Just don't forget to call in 2 months if you are still in the same situation. They do this hoping that you forget to cancel it later.

Oh, the date is marked on my calendar (so is the cellphone deactivation date, since it requires 30 days' notice to cancel the account). By the time the 2 months are up, my employment situation will likely have changed. I'm currently working for a government office, but THROUGH a temp agency. By the end of March, I should be hired on full strength directly with the gov't office, effectively doubling my salary I was just impressed that they cared enough about keeping me as a customer to actually tell me that I was a good customer and they wanted to keep me LOL (I've never had anyone say that to me before)

[trunks2k]

It's not necessarily a lack of employees that's the problem....it's the fact that every single SC in queue ahead of you wants to waste five or ten minutes bitching about the wait times before actually getting to the point of why they called in the fist place.

I can attest to that. When I worked support, normally the wait was under a minute. The queue rarerly got longer than 10 callers. The longest wait I personally saw was 25 minutes. Which was because we were actually understaffed (holidays) and we were just dealing with nvolved calls. But when that queue and the wait would start to grow, I'll be damned if everyone didn't take three times as long with their call, most of the time would be complaining about how long the wait was. Of course, the longer the wait, the more complaining about the wait. Which meant the next person had to wait longer, which meant the next person would spend even more time bitching about the wait...

[AFpheonix]

It took me somewhere between a half hour and an hour to figure out what to say to get past that first step. Saying "I don't have one" or "Help" or "Representative please" or "F@ck you" didn't help. In case you're wondering "NEW SERVICE!!! (raised, pissed off voice) is what you have to say.

I deal with automated systems daily when I'm calling insurance companies for patients. The tried and true method of hitting 0 a lot does indeed work well.