Phone Calls Saved Me $185

JD over at Get Rich Slowly recently wrote a blog article about how his friend saved $57 by making a phone call. Well, I just made three phone calls and made $185 dollars. One call was pleasant, one was eye-rolling, and one was infuriating, but they each offer a lesson.

$20 IN FEES RECOVERED FROM WELLS FARGO

I want to preface this one by saying that I've had some serious gripes with Wells Fargo in the past, and I know of one incident where a woman who overdrew her account to pay for her husband's funeral was told by a customer service rep that "cancer is not a bank error." I kid you not--the customer service rep bragged about this to me over a beer (our last beer). That said, Wells Fargo customer service has improved immensely. Within the last year, and I think within the last six months, the customer service staff has obviously gone through some serious soft-skills training. I know this, because for a while I was getting the same tag lines from each rep: "That was a very good suggestion," or "I really appreciate that input." And even though it was obviously prescribed, how much nicer is it to have a human being tell you "I appreciate your input," rather than, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but cancer is not a bank error"??? So my grudging bravo, Wells Fargo. You don't suck as much as you once did. You actually were the "pleasant" call!

So, how did I save $20? I called Wells Fargo because my account had two phantom overdrafts that the system wasn't savvy enough to pick up on, and my overdraft protection account dipped into my credit card, charging me $10 a pop. I was transferring money between two Wells Fargo accounts (a checking and a savings), I didn't carry the 2, and accidentally moved $2500 instead of $2400 from my checking to my savings. This happened at 2AM. I figured it out immediately and had the accounts straightened out by 2:05, but it still dipped into the overdraft kitty (this was only one of the two incidents, but the other was similar). The bank is supposed to figure this out automatically and correct it, I've been told, but there's a glitch in the algorithm and it never credited my account for the mistake. Anyway, I called and after a few minutes of explaining, they (pleasantly!) agreed to drop the charges. I also asked them to pass along to there tech people that this glitch exists, and they pleasantly demurred, so I doubt the glitch will get fixed, but oh well. FYI, watch out for this glitch if you're a Wells Fargo customer!

$35 IN FEES RECOVERED FROM CHASE

I cancelled a Chase credit card four years ago. I paid off the card (actually, I transferred the balance, still being in the 'dark' financial years), called the company, said See Ya!, cut the card up, and then went on my merry way. I didn't hear anything from them, until about a week ago, when I got a bill in the mail.

Huh?

I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck was going on. It was a $35 charge on an account I had no recollection of opening, with a horrible interest rate and a yearly fee (hence the balance). Um... no. Then something starting nagging on my memory, and I realized I was guilty of a very errant lapse in judgement. I may have screwed up the card closure, but that was years ago and I'm not going to get down on myself for that. This is where I screwed up: the last time I was looking at my credit report, I saw that damn card listed as a open account, squinted my eyes, shrugged, and didn't follow up on it. This was a serious lapse in judgement. It turned out to be a card that I opened, but it could have been a case of identity theft and should have triggered four alarm emergency action on my part. I should have called and called until I got things figured out. But I didn't. I squinted my eyes, shrugged, and congratulated myself for having such a nice credit score. Argh. How foolish was that? All is well, but it could have been disastrous.

I called the card company and got things straightened out. We don't know why my card didn't get officially cancelled, but Chase lost track of me for a few years and then my address came back up on the radar, hence the re-initiation of the account, and the odd bill. I laughed (kindly) when the guy said I was responsible for the charge, and told him (again, kindly) "not a chance in hell." His attempts to get me to pay up were kittenish (the eye-rolling call), and eventually he agreed that it was near-impossible to justify the charge. As a side note, however, I actually kept the card. Because of it's phantom status, it survived the Great Credit Card Purge of '05, where I repositioned all my old loans into cards with better interest rates, and cancelled the old cards. Because of its incognito status, it's my oldest credit card, and a surprising lynch pin in my credit history. I had them change me over to a card with better terms, and Chase and I will probably live happily ever after.

FRS and I, alas, will not.

$130 WON IN AN UGLY ARGUMENT

I ordered a sample product about a month ago from a company called FRS. Confession: I'm kind of a sucker for health gimmicks. FRS makes a drink with tons of antioxidants and a tiny amount of green tea extract (equal to half a cup of green tea). Lance Armstrong either runs the company or chairs it, I can't remember which. If you happen to order the free sample, which comes with a variety of different forms of this drink, and wonder why they have a little medicine cup firmly attached to the concentrate, it's because I didn't think it was concentrate and downed the entire container in a few gulps, and then proceeded to vomit profusely. At work. I wrote them a letter and explained the labeling issue, and they started putting those little cups on the top of the concentrate. Anyway, whereas I thought I was paying only for shipping on the free sample, it turns out I missed the fine print that said I was also agreeing to have them ship me $65 worth of product every month (unless I called to opt out). Or maybe I did read the fine print, but forgot after all the back and forth with respect to the vomiting conversation with their customer service (who weren't very nice about the whole thing--I wrote them a humorous email explaining that it was my fault, but they might want to look into the labeling issue, and they replied back that they had professionals design the original package, thanks for the input. I wrote a more pointed letter in response).

So a few weeks later I got this package in the mail and saw the bill on my credit card, and I called the company. I got an answering machine and left them a message, telling them to get back to me so that we could get this figured out. The didn't get back to me. Over the next month I called twice more, left two more messages, and didn't get a reply. I did, however, get another package in the mail and another bill on my card. I called again today and finally got an actual person, who tried to cheerfully tell me I was going to have to suck up the charges. That one degenerated into an ugly argument right from the start, with vague hints of legal action on my part and a hurried escalation to management. They said, "I'm sorry, I can't...", and I said, "I'm sorry, yes you can...". Etcetera.

Fifteen minutes later (and I seriously wasn't going to give up), they credited the money back onto my account. Then they had the nerve to ask me what I thought of their product, and would I like a discount on future purchases? I paused, breathed a few times, and said I was fine, thanks, but they should probably cancel my account.

It's a pity, really, because I like the sugar free powder drink. Awesome pick-me-up in the morning.

SO THAT'S IT!

$185 dollars. Some of it wasn't easy, but in the end, it wasn't about the money. In the last instance, I wasn't nice, but then I've run into too many customer service reps who are beyond "not nice." They smile and send you through hell, hoping you give up and go away. I understand it's not an easy job being a customer service rep, but then it's not an easy job living in an economy where companies try to take your money through technicalities, and every time you turn your back you find yourself burdened with another $5 fee or fine. So talk back, be strong, and keep an eye on your money. It is your money, no matter what they try to make you think.