Customer who think because they don't like a charge, they don't have to pay the bill!

[greensinestro]

I work for the technical support department. Part of my job is checking our e-mail cache on issues that pertain to the internet and sometimes phone service. This week, I had an e-mail from hell that I wish I had simply referred to management. Had I known this woman would keep up her annoying e-mails and threats, I would never have responded to her.

This woman was upset because our repair department billed this woman $95 for having a technician out to her home after she had reported problems with her service. A Bellsouth technician came out, and found her problems were inside her home, yet he did no repairs being there was nobody home. This charge was for what is called trouble determination, and it is billed because it still costs companies time and money to send out a technician and see why you are having problems. If there is anything up with the facilities that Bellsouth owns, the customer is not charged, and it is the technician's job to make the repairs.

This lady called at the end of November, and around the beginning of December, the charge was placed on her bill. Around Christmas is when she got the bill for this, and she was outraged. However, there was no e-mail sent by her until this week, stating she did not authorize any repairs to her residence, let alone was not told about any charges. On top of that, she denied any knowledge that she ever called to report any issues with her phone. The notes all show calls were made to her residence with committment dates (which she acknowledged the day she called in the repair order, yet denied later), and then later on that she was billed for the repair visit (which again the notes show she knew about this, but now says was never told about).

The notes on her account show other departments explaining everything to her and that this charge was being sustained. Now, I can see refusing to pay one charge you do not agree with. I have worked in billing and have dealt with that. But, this woman has flat out refused to pay her bill now for three months and feels that she is not required to make any type of payment until this one charge is erased from her bill. And, because I replied to her e-mail and supposedly was the most polite rep she has had, she thinks I am now her friend with the exception of the fact that I also have refused to credit this charge. In her last e-mail, she demanded I give her the phone number to our CEO, to which I referred to one of our managers. I do not have the authority to do that and am not interested in risking my job to do that either. I politely advised her of this, to which her reply was "That's fine. I have dealt with CEO's before and have always proclaimed victory". I did not comment on that, but my feeling is this woman is used to getting her way on everything, even when it is pointed out to her how wrong she is.

As of right now, this lady's phone was shut off for non payment, and now she refuses to make any type of payment on the bill until the $95 charge is wiped off. So, I ask everyone out there this question: If you have a charge on any bill, such as your credit card, and you wish to dispute it, does your credit card company allow you to not make any payments? If you have a balance of $300 and are disputing $50, will they allow you to not make the minimum $20 payment? I don't think so. Or, how about your cable company? If you have a charge for a hard-core porn film you claim your child ordered without your knowledge and were billed $29.95 for it, does that mean you are exempt from paying the normal $30 or so that you are charged on a regular basis? Again, I don't think so.

[chainedbarista]

no, i think that would be transferred to their collections department, and it has some impact on the credit rating, something i'm not willing to risk.

i think her bill should also be transferred to collections; your company has notes proving she asked for the service, therefore, she needs to cough up the cash, period.

after that, a permanent shutoff of services is a good idea (although it'll never happen), since she's a long term headache that no tylenol will get rid of.

[greensinestro]

You are correct, and this is something I have dealt with for years in the telecommunications industry. You have people who won't buy the monthly coverage for repairs because they'll be damned if they're going to pay that monthly rate for a service they in their minds don't need. But, when it comes to having to call in a monthly repair, 99% of them all deny knowledge that they were ever offered this plan, plus these are the same people who always claim some unauthorized person always makes changes or calls in bogus requests on their account.

This woman is flat out not being rational, in my opinion. OK, if you want to dispute a $95 charge, get a supervisor on it, and/or if they refuse, pay it or take legal action. But, that does not give you an excuse to just quit paying the rest of your bill and all the legitimate charges that are on there.

[TNT]

I've lost count of the non-pay disconnects I've dealt with who claim they haven't paid their bill because of some minor issue. Usually, it's because of some "agreement" they invented. My personal favorite was the one who said, "I lost internet service for an entire day a few months ago. I clearly told the representative that I'm not paying another cent until I'm satisfied the service is reliable... and I'm not still entirely satisfied that I'm going to have the internet when I need it."

The weird part was that she actually expected me to say, "oh, shucks... we seem to have stupidly forgotten our policy of letting customers make up their own whimsical agreements. Sure I'll turn everything back on, and we won't bother you again until you decide that our product meets your standards. In fact, please accept our gift of free cable service for life because of this horrid misunderstanding."

[digilight]

I totally call bullshit on that woman claiming that she was never told about the potential for a charge for having a tech come out. A few years back we started having problems with our line #1 (we have 2 phone lines and a separate fax line, DSL is hooked onto one of the lines also) we didn't have the inside wiring protection at the time either. The call center agent I spoke to was very careful to clearly explain the fact that if the problem was anywhere between the main block (3 story office building) and our phones it would be our responsibility and that the charges where billed at $xx.xx per hour or $yy.yy per 15 minute interval with a certain minimum charge. We went ahead with the service and it turned out to be a problem at the block so we weren't charged. But the point stands that Pacbells agent was explicitly clear about how it worked and that we would be charged if it was not on their equipment or wiring, and explained exactly where their responsibility ended and ours began.

[tollbaby]

In my defense, I was 17 and didn't know how stuff like this worked, but yeah, when my landlord refused to install the shower (I only had a bathtub, no shower fixture) or fumigate my first apartment (the walls moved when you turned the lights out *shudder*, I stopped paying my rent until he got around to fixing shit. I didn't know then that the proper procedure was to have a lawyer hold your rent in escrow and have them contact the owners of the building *blush* so I got evicted and lost all my stuff (not that I wanted to bring any of the roachy goodness with me anyway). *sigh*

But yeah, a full-grown adult who has been paying their own bills for more than a few months? She oughta know better, and golly gee, I love this victory she's won - no phone service!

[greensinestro]

In my defense, I was 17 and didn't know how stuff like this worked, but yeah, when my landlord refused to install the shower (I only had a bathtub, no shower fixture) or fumigate my first apartment (the walls moved when you turned the lights out *shudder*, I stopped paying my rent until he got around to fixing shit. I didn't know then that the proper procedure was to have a lawyer hold your rent in escrow and have them contact the owners of the building *blush* so I got evicted and lost all my stuff (not that I wanted to bring any of the roachy goodness with me anyway). *sigh*

But yeah, a full-grown adult who has been paying their own bills for more than a few months? She oughta know better, and golly gee, I love this victory she's won - no phone service!

You want to hear something funny about that story you told? Back in 2001, at my last apartment, my shitty attitude landlord told me they would not accept any more rent payments from me until I paid them for their having to clean up the mess made by my toilet. My toilet, which I had reported several times in 2000, was leaking every time I flushed the toilet plus the people down below had complained about it to them. One weekend, while I was away, the tank cracked and water spilled everywhere. The water department had to shut off my water due to this, and when I got back I found this huge blower fan that was being used to dry up the water.

The following Monday, I went to see my landlord who told me I was going to be held responsible for the $682 they spent to clean up my apartment. I told her what to do with herself, and told her had they paid any attention to the reports made earlier about my toilet, this would not have happened. It was quite ugly indeed, and it ended with I would pay this or they will not accept any more rent payments. I told them my attorney would be in touch, which she just laughed at and said, "Yeah, I hear that one every day!" Sure enough, when I paid my rent in the drop chute, they sent me a letter telling me to come pick up my check, which I refused to do. I sent them a reply telling them nowhere in the lease does it say they can do that. For two weeks, my rent check went uncashed, so I contacted my attorney.

Within a day of my attorney faxing them a letter saying that they were breaching the contract on the lease, my check was cashed! It also stated in the lease that since my complaints about the toilet went unheeded, it was their negligence that had caused this, and the lease stated that the tenant is not responsible for damages reported but went unanswered! I moved out four months later when the lease had expired, and I sent the landlord a really nasty "Go fuck yourself!" letter, sent by certified mail to make sure she got it. I also took every light bulb in the place as well as broke the key off in the keyhole before leaving for good! Last I heard, she was finally fired for all the complaints against her, and the last complaint was someone had contacted the state attorney's office. It turned out the ignoring of tenant's complaints about toilets and plumbing is a direct violation of sanitary conditions that must be provided by apartment complexes. Thank God there is justice somewhere.