CC refund

[baking23]

I cancled a Costco Amercian Express card a month about and got a bill in the mail today. I didn't owe anything, in fact it was a credit. I called the company's general question line and they were very polite (comparied to the guy that I had cancel the card) and sent me a check for the money.

Always call and ask, the worst they'll say is no.

[Budgeteer]

You mean as opposed to letting them keep the money? They *have* to send you a check. If you hadn't called, you probably would have received one in about a month.

I just recently discontinued my phone service (cell only now), and on my last bill I had a credit. A few weeks later I got a check from them.

If they say 'no', or don't send you a check, you can sue them. It's your money and the terms of the credit agreement (and probably state law) will stipulate that any balance must be returned to you.

[baking23]

Originally Posted by Budgeteer

You mean as opposed to letting them keep the money? They *have* to send you a check. If you hadn't called, you probably would have received one in about a month.

I just recently discontinued my phone service (cell only now), and on my last bill I had a credit. A few weeks later I got a check from them.

If they say 'no', or don't send you a check, you can sue them. It's your money and the terms of the credit agreement (and probably state law) will stipulate that any balance must be returned to you.

I didn't know that. I figured the money would just sit there until I called, or reopened the card. It's nice to know it's not that way.

[neatdesign]

If the credit amount is less than $1, they typically won't bother sending a refund, because it costs them more money to print up a check and mail it than the refund is actually worth.

I remember when I worked at Capital One getting calls from customers every once in a while who wanted a refund of 41¢ or something. Not surprisingly, these were usually the people who had tons of notes on their account about how verbally abusive they were to the associates.

~ Jenney

[tinapbeana]

a lot of companies have a 'threshold' that is somewhere in the terms and conditions/customer service agreement/service level agreement you get when you sign up for service. the phone company i worked for had a $10 threshold: if you had a credit balance more than that it was automatically sent out. less than that, and they would cut a check if you called in and requested it.

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by neatdesign

If the credit amount is less than $1, they typically won't bother sending a refund, because it costs them more money to print up a check and mail it than the refund is actually worth.

Quick rhetorical question: While the CC company will not want to send you a small check for a positive balance, do you really think that if you owed them a similar small amount they'd just let it go?

[Raisecapital01]

Originally Posted by baking23

I cancled a Costco Amercian Express card a month about and got a bill in the mail today. I didn't owe anything, in fact it was a credit. I called the company's general question line and they were very polite (comparied to the guy that I had cancel the card) and sent me a check for the money.

Always call and ask, the worst they'll say is no.

Sometimes American Express will send you a bill if there is a 0.01, and charge you a late fee. It is crazy, but they see it as an opportunity that was signed on by the person who contracted the credit card.

[KellyJef]

Originally Posted by neatdesign

these were usually the people who had tons of notes on their account about how verbally abusive they were to the associates.

Oh my gosh, do companies actually "record" personal comments about customers???

[PRICEPLUS]

Ever hear of "Quality Control Purposes"?

As for the credit card companies.....they would nail me for a nickel so I can't see why I should not nail them. It is after all my money regardless of the amount!

[Raisecapital01]

Priceplus, you are right. But, they have the upper-hand. When you get the credit card, at their discretion, they can change the rules. They will normally send out a new agreement each year to your home with modifications.

[neatdesign]

Originally Posted by KellyJef

Oh my gosh, do companies actually "record" personal comments about customers???

Well, I can only speak for Capital One, but I would suspect that other credit card companies do something similar. Every CapOne credit card account has an "Account Notes" section, and technically every call is supposed to be noted with details about the call. That way, if the customer calls back, the next rep will know what was discussed, what was done (if anything) and who the customer talked to. The rep's ID is automatically noted if the rep adds an account note, as well as the date/time the note was added. There is a lot of abbreviated jargon that help keep the notes as short as possible.

Many reps don't note the more mundane calls -- like if a customer just calls to activate their card, or ask for their balance -- but otherwise they will usually note the account. This is to keep a record of what has happened on the account, and also serves as a CYA.

Just off the top of my head, here is a typical example:

"CO cto re CIT in last stmt. Adv CIT only if acct PD/OL. CO req CLI, adv CLIP policy, CO understood."

Translation: "Cardholder called about the Change in Terms notice included in her last statement. I advised her that the Change in Terms will only be applicable if the account goes past due or overlimit. Cardholder requested a credit limit increase, I advised her of the credit limit increase policy. Cardholder understood." This last bit is important because if the customer calls back and says she was never advised of the CLIP policy, the notes will inform the next rep that she WAS informed, as well as when and by whom.

If the customer is verbally abusive, the rep will definitely note the account regarding this. It warns the other reps that this particular customer is not cooperative, not willing to listen, is a screamer, is a liar, etc. It will let other reps, managers, etc., know if the customer made threats against the rep, and what kinds of threats, if the customer used excessive profanity, etc.

Since most people are NOT abusive to customer service reps, it may be difficult to imagine the sorts of things that customers who ARE abusive say and do. While working the phones at CapOne, I was harassed every day. People calling me a bitch, a whore, a liar. People who screamed into the phone for an hour or more (no exaggeration), asking me questions and then cutting me off before I had a chance to answer them. People who would sit in silence and refuse to speak for a half hour until I gave them what they wanted, knowing that it was against company policy for me to disconnect a customer. People who called in drunk or high. People who said they hoped my entire family would be killed by terrorists because I worked for a company that outsourced to India (again, no exaggeration). There was one guy who told me how he was going to find me and cut me up into little pieces, bit by bit, until I gave him the higher credit limit that he wanted. I knew HE was abusive before he even opened his mouth, because he had made similar threats to other reps before me, which were noted in graphic detail on his account.

These calls can and DO happen, every day. You'd better believe that sort of behavior is getting noted on these customers' accounts. The most abusive customers will have a permanent note that shows up on the main page of their account that says "ABUSIVE CALLER" or something similar.

Then there are the fraudsters. Like the account where three different people -- a man, a woman and a child -- called within 20 minutes, trying to gain access to the customer's account. The customer was a man listed as being 70-something years old, and yet the callers were all young people who failed the security questions. These sorts of things are noted on the account.

Or the people who call with strange requests. Like the guy who called about 3am on a Saturday night, who wanted to stop a charge from going through because the service he'd received was less than the merchant had promised. When I told him that only the merchant could cancel a pending authorization, he said that was impossible because the merchant had threatened to call the police on him if he complained. I looked to see what kind of merchant this was and discovered it was an escort service -- you do the math!

~ Jenney

[tinapbeana]

jenny, it's not just CC companies that have account notes. phone company i worked for also had account notes, acceptable shorthand, and what was/wasn't acceptable in notes. remember the line 'just the facts?' didn't always work that way, but that was the intent.

An OK note:

"mr. smith ci re: est new TN service, edu X day tmfrm, $x ln cnxn $x tech chrg. cust began yelling & cursing re: install charges too high. edu cust chrgs broken into 2 pmnts on 1st 2 invs, not payable upfront, cust AOK. edu cust $x for pln not incl tx/srchrg, edu 500 incl LD/LT min, 5c/min over, no int'l cover. edu 900/976 blk, callwait call id 3way & VM incl, prorated 1st billing. cust AOK, reserved TN 864-555-1234 validated addy 123 main st anytown SC 29123, submitted newTN order edu cust on confirm postcard/call, cust contact ANI = 864-789-9876, gave cust CS ANI trans to TPV."

Not so much:

"customer called in to setup service. customer got mad, yelled at me and called me a bitch when i told him the install fees.... "

one rep ntoed an account "customer called me a name which was very hurtful and only somewhat true". i've always wondered what it was!!!

the account notes are there to protect the customer, and at least for our company they could be subpoenaed for court and therefore we had a lot of regulations about what could/couldn't be in a note. no cursing, nothing perjorative about the customer (i.e. customer acted stupid and refused to understand the explaination he was given), no inferences about the customer (i.e. you could say the customer yelled and cursed but couldn't say the customer was irrate, irritable, upset, mad, or argumentative).

a bad note could result in anything from a loss of points on a quality monitoring form to loss of your job. depends on what you typed...

and jenney is also spot on about the threats. i received a death threat from a man 20 minutes into a phone call: said he was going to come find me and slit my throat. at this point in the call he already had my full name and location because i was required to give it if asked, and he lived less than 2 hours away. why the threat? b/c we couldn't put him onto the national Do Not Call list, and because our internal DNC list didn't update immediately...

[PRICEPLUS]

Raisecapital01,

They always try and sneak something by folks. I always read the darn inserts as I don't trust the CC folks. I'll cancel before I'll submit to something outrageous. It costs the CC money to sign folks up and they can't make money unless you are using their card!

[instantinfo4you]

You are definitely right price plus, they are always trying to sneak something by us. Always got some kind of new perk or reward that is really just a trap to get us to promise away our income, month after month after month. They will do whatever it takes to get your money and everyone should know how evil they really are.