Let's talk about late fees

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

This morning I went online to pay my internet service bill (AT&T). What a surprise when I saw a $9.99 late fee for previous month's service added to our bill! You see, our bill isn't due until the 14th each month and I generally pay it the first week of the month- in this particular case I had paid it on the 6th of October which is in no way late. I checked the screen shot I had made at the time of confirmation, then I grabbed Kdog's phone (which has our bank app on it) and confirmed it there as well. There was no late payment made.

I used the chat feature on the website to dispute the charge and was told I absolutely owed the late fee because payment was not made until October 18th- to which I replied they were full of bullshit! So I did the unthinkable and actually called them personally. Remarkably I got through to an actual service rep within a minute, unremarkable was the fact that the rep's English was nearly worse than my Spanish. It took "Juan" over half an hour to look at his computer screen and see that yes, the bill was paid on time and no, we didn't owe any late fee and then remove it from our bill.

Most people would rather just pay the fee than have to go through the hassle of getting through the automated system until you got to an actual live person and then dealing with someone who barely speaks your language. It is time consuming and frustrating. Kdog is one of those people and the main reason that I alone deal with AT&T- this isn't my first rodeo with them but they are better than other companies I have dealt with in the past. 

So I got to wondering- How much money are they making off of "accidently" charging people late fees that they don't owe? AT&T reports having 14.2 million broadband customers in 2022. If they charge erroneous late fees to only 1% of them that's 142,000 customers at $10 a pop. Let's say 25% of them (and that's lowballing) just pay the fee to avoid the hassle- that's 35,500 customers at $10 each for a total of $355,000.00!!! And if they do it randomly every month that equals $4,260,000.00 per year!!!

Over $4 and a quarter million per year just in "accidental" late fees- and we're not even talking about all those other little nickel and dime fees and taxes that are on the bills that nobody even knows what half of them are. Not even funny is the fact that we know if one corporation is doing it then they probably ALL are.

I hope there's a special place in Hell for thieving corporate executives, and I want to reserve a front row seat to watch them all get pineapples shoved up their asses!

*Rant over* 

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

This morning I went online to pay my internet service bill (AT&T). What a surprise when I saw a $9.99 late fee for previous month's service added to our bill! You see, our bill isn't due until the 14th each month and I generally pay it the first week of the month- in this particular case I had paid it on the 6th of October which is in no way late. I checked the screen shot I had made at the time of confirmation, then I grabbed Kdog's phone (which has our bank app on it) and confirmed it there as well. There was no late payment made.

I used the chat feature on the website to dispute the charge and was told I absolutely owed the late fee because payment was not made until October 18th- to which I replied they were full of bullshit! So I did the unthinkable and actually called them personally. Remarkably I got through to an actual service rep within a minute, unremarkable was the fact that the rep's English was nearly worse than my Spanish. It took "Juan" over half an hour to look at his computer screen and see that yes, the bill was paid on time and no, we didn't owe any late fee and then remove it from our bill.

Most people would rather just pay the fee than have to go through the hassle of getting through the automated system until you got to an actual live person and then dealing with someone who barely speaks your language. It is time consuming and frustrating. Kdog is one of those people and the main reason that I alone deal with AT&T- this isn't my first rodeo with them but they are better than other companies I have dealt with in the past. 

So I got to wondering- How much money are they making off of "accidently" charging people late fees that they don't owe? AT&T reports having 14.2 million broadband customers in 2022. If they charge erroneous late fees to only 1% of them that's 142,000 customers at $10 a pop. Let's say 25% of them (and that's lowballing) just pay the fee to avoid the hassle- that's 35,500 customers at $10 each for a total of $355,000.00!!! And if they do it randomly every month that equals $4,260,000.00 per year!!!

Over $4 and a quarter million per year just in "accidental" late fees- and we're not even talking about all those other little nickel and dime fees and taxes that are on the bills that nobody even knows what half of them are. Not even funny is the fact that we know if one corporation is doing it then they probably ALL are.

I hope there's a special place in Hell for thieving corporate executives, and I want to reserve a front row seat to watch them all get pineapples shoved up their asses!

*Rant over* 

Tis the season.

Two days ago I had a charge on my account from Amazon. I only use Amazon about 4 or 5 times a year. So I was immediately on alert. I too went the online route at first, and too, was not satisfied with the results.

I made the pesky phone call and if took a few minutes, but the lady that answered the phone sounded American. It took a hot second to find out the problem, and they fixed it right away, though I never found out how that "Prime" charge got there in the first place.

Less than 24 hrs later I got a suspicious email from Amazon claiming that they needed to check my account and it had a box in the middle saying "Click Here".

Not on your life.

I called Amazon again. They asked me to forward the email to them. Which I did. They checked, and my account had not been compromised, but a phishing scheme was in play.  Of course they told me to never click on anything in those emails, and to notify them right away, a pure case of preaching to the choir.

[ChiefD]

Oh, I hate AT&T! I had major problems with them years ago. It got so bad I was ready to get an attorney and file a lawsuit. They are beyond horrible. Good point you made with how much they can skim off people and rake in millions of dollars. It’s just appalling. And I believe you as to how many people just go ahead and pay it to avoid going through the hassle of fighting them. Such a scam. All the major huge corporations do this. 

I like that I can check my banking app and see the exact date something was paid.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Oh, I hate AT&T! I had major problems with them years ago. It got so bad I was ready to get an attorney and file a lawsuit. They are beyond horrible. Good point you made with how much they can skim off people and rake in millions of dollars. It’s just appalling. And I believe you as to how many people just go ahead and pay it to avoid going through the hassle of fighting them. Such a scam. All the major huge corporations do this. 

I like that I can check my banking app and see the exact date something was paid.

Before I leave the store, my banking app lets me know that a charge has been made to my account. Any charge that comes to my account, I get a text. So I am alerted.

My only credit card is a bit different. I have to check it regularly to see if any charges, other than the ones I have made, show up to my account. Which I do three times a week. I have about six more months and it will be paid off and the only loan I will have at that time will be my mortgage.

It will be a welcomed place to be, and it has taken too long to get there. I ran into some unexpected expenses due to a very bad tenant. It has been eight years since I was last debt free. I hope and pray I never have to travel the debt path again. But life does sometimes throw you curve balls.

[Brotherman]

This morning I went online to pay my internet service bill (AT&T). What a surprise when I saw a $9.99 late fee for previous month's service added to our bill! You see, our bill isn't due until the 14th each month and I generally pay it the first week of the month- in this particular case I had paid it on the 6th of October which is in no way late. I checked the screen shot I had made at the time of confirmation, then I grabbed Kdog's phone (which has our bank app on it) and confirmed it there as well. There was no late payment made.

I used the chat feature on the website to dispute the charge and was told I absolutely owed the late fee because payment was not made until October 18th- to which I replied they were full of bullshit! So I did the unthinkable and actually called them personally. Remarkably I got through to an actual service rep within a minute, unremarkable was the fact that the rep's English was nearly worse than my Spanish. It took "Juan" over half an hour to look at his computer screen and see that yes, the bill was paid on time and no, we didn't owe any late fee and then remove it from our bill.

Most people would rather just pay the fee than have to go through the hassle of getting through the automated system until you got to an actual live person and then dealing with someone who barely speaks your language. It is time consuming and frustrating. Kdog is one of those people and the main reason that I alone deal with AT&T- this isn't my first rodeo with them but they are better than other companies I have dealt with in the past. 

So I got to wondering- How much money are they making off of "accidently" charging people late fees that they don't owe? AT&T reports having 14.2 million broadband customers in 2022. If they charge erroneous late fees to only 1% of them that's 142,000 customers at $10 a pop. Let's say 25% of them (and that's lowballing) just pay the fee to avoid the hassle- that's 35,500 customers at $10 each for a total of $355,000.00!!! And if they do it randomly every month that equals $4,260,000.00 per year!!!

Over $4 and a quarter million per year just in "accidental" late fees- and we're not even talking about all those other little nickel and dime fees and taxes that are on the bills that nobody even knows what half of them are. Not even funny is the fact that we know if one corporation is doing it then they probably ALL are.

I hope there's a special place in Hell for thieving corporate executives, and I want to reserve a front row seat to watch them all get pineapples shoved up their asses!

*Rant over* 

well 20 bucks is 20 bucks you know about the story if you suck one dick and built 100 bridges. Truth is non of them are ashamed of sucking cock and they don't build bridges, they are about as smart as sharks eating dying fish hit by a fucking boat. LOL if 1000 people cancel their service in one locality they wont care they will up the price elsewhere by 1 percent. They are sucking your wallet cock and loving it just like the blistering balls of grimace from mcdonalds in the 80s. Fuck them and Kdog because he didn't give me a beer (JK)

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Oh, I hate AT&T! I had major problems with them years ago. It got so bad I was ready to get an attorney and file a lawsuit. They are beyond horrible. Good point you made with how much they can skim off people and rake in millions of dollars. It’s just appalling. And I believe you as to how many people just go ahead and pay it to avoid going through the hassle of fighting them. Such a scam. All the major huge corporations do this. 

I like that I can check my banking app and see the exact date something was paid.

This was far from my first time to have issues with AT&T and I'm sure it wont be the last but I have far less problems with them than I had with Spectrum. In fact AT&T has pulled this "late fee" stuff on us before- that's why I'm fairly certain they do it randomly to a certain percentage of customers every month. Thing is when you personally call them they actually do correct your bill whereas Spectrum would sometimes refuse even though it was their bad and AT&T internet is extremely more reliable here than Spectrum was. Even though we live in a large city due to being located where we are in it our options are limited- if we moved a few miles east we would have multiple options for service but our rent would increase dramatically as would the carjackings and robberies. Funny how living in a "blue collar" part of town is so much safer crime-wise than a more affluent part of town! Probably because more people own firearms for self defense.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Tis the season.

Two days ago I had a charge on my account from Amazon. I only use Amazon about 4 or 5 times a year. So I was immediately on alert. I too went the online route at first, and too, was not satisfied with the results.

I made the pesky phone call and if took a few minutes, but the lady that answered the phone sounded American. It took a hot second to find out the problem, and they fixed it right away, though I never found out how that "Prime" charge got there in the first place.

Less than 24 hrs later I got a suspicious email from Amazon claiming that they needed to check my account and it had a box in the middle saying "Click Here".

Not on your life.

I called Amazon again. They asked me to forward the email to them. Which I did. They checked, and my account had not been compromised, but a phishing scheme was in play.  Of course they told me to never click on anything in those emails, and to notify them right away, a pure case of preaching to the choir.

People can grump about Amazon all they want but I've never had anything but great service from them and problems are rare. In fact their delivery (they have their own drivers here) is by far the most reliable of all- USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL cannot hold a candle to them!

E-mail scams are a growing problem. Never click on a link from any e-mail you receive- go directly to their website yourself and log in to check for problems. Scammers are counting on the fact that if the e-mail looks enough like an official one from an actual business people will click without thinking and unknowingly give away their log in information. I know too many older folks who have had to learn the hard way, very sad! 

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

well 20 bucks is 20 bucks you know about the story if you suck one dick and built 100 bridges. Truth is non of them are ashamed of sucking cock and they don't build bridges, they are about as smart as sharks eating dying fish hit by a fucking boat. LOL if 1000 people cancel their service in one locality they wont care they will up the price elsewhere by 1 percent. They are sucking your wallet cock and loving it just like the blistering balls of grimace from mcdonalds in the 80s. Fuck them and Kdog because he didn't give me a beer (JK)

Sorry man! I have no control over the beer situation.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Tis the season.

Two days ago I had a charge on my account from Amazon. I only use Amazon about 4 or 5 times a year. So I was immediately on alert. I too went the online route at first, and too, was not satisfied with the results.

I made the pesky phone call and if took a few minutes, but the lady that answered the phone sounded American. It took a hot second to find out the problem, and they fixed it right away, though I never found out how that "Prime" charge got there in the first place.

Less than 24 hrs later I got a suspicious email from Amazon claiming that they needed to check my account and it had a box in the middle saying "Click Here".

Not on your life.

I called Amazon again. They asked me to forward the email to them. Which I did. They checked, and my account had not been compromised, but a phishing scheme was in play.  Of course they told me to never click on anything in those emails, and to notify them right away, a pure case of preaching to the choir.

People can grump about Amazon all they want but I've never had anything but great service from them and problems are rare. In fact their delivery (they have their own drivers here) is by far the most reliable of all- USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL cannot hold a candle to them!

E-mail scams are a growing problem. Never click on a link from any e-mail you receive- go directly to their website yourself and log in to check for problems. Scammers are counting on the fact that if the e-mail looks enough like an official one from an actual business people will click without thinking and unknowingly give away their log in information. I know too many older folks who have had to learn the hard way, very sad! 

I don't use Amazon that often, but I think my post was fair to them. I had a moderate wait for an operator, I reported the operator was not foreign, easy to understand, and handled the issue quickly.

I am not blaming them for the email that came afterwards that proved to be part of a phising scheme, in fact, I think the whole false charge thing was to make sure that I was in communication with Amazon, thinking it would give me a reason to believe the phising scheme was legit. After all. I initiated the interaction with Amazon.

The dead give away for me, was the email stated they needed additional information from me with a box to click. I had already been in communication with Amazon and with two departments. The issue was resolved and I received proof of that from both my bank and my credit card company. There would have bee no need for Amazon to need anything additional from me.

So that was a giant red flag for me. I never go to any of my accounts through an email. Even with my monthly statements and notifications. I always exist my email and even use a separate browser.

You posted good information. The police IT team have a great forensic team, and I just finished a class "Technology Abuse: For Non-Tech People" last week. It was good, but a bit overly techy, since it was supposed to be for non-tech people.

Talking about classes. I have to get ready to go into my class on "Intervening With Those With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities That Are Victims Of Trauma". Takes me about 30 minutes to get ready so I better make like a banana and split.