One of my non-communications suppliers apparently found a creative way to manage its cash flow: take extra cash from its consumers.<\/p>\n
Last month, I received an extraordinary bill from the supplier. They had charged me a the equivalent of two full years in advance on my maintenance plans. When I called to inquire, I was told that credits were being applied – don’t worry, they will show up as a credit on next month’s bill. However, in the meantime, the full amount was deducted from my bank account.<\/p>\n
So I was supposed to have a credit balance for $772.44 sitting on my account, that they get to use instead of me. I was told that the company doesn’t issue refund cheques and they don’t pay interest.<\/p>\n
Of course, that was before they ran this on me.<\/p>\n
The best line was from their outsourced executive support centre telling me that this isn’t really cash out of my pocket, because there is a credit on my account.<\/p>\n
No ombudsperson. No Commissioner of Complaints to go to. Telecom consumers have a variety of means to seek recourse; this company doesn’t seem to answer to anyone. I had money grabbed from my account and I was told I had no recourse. Their CFO had found a cheap line of credit – take the money from the consumers.<\/p>\n
Instead, I searched the company website until I found a real name and phone number – and told my story to the head of media relations. I started off with a line like “I guess you folks are having some financial problems, eh?” and that seemed to get his attention.<\/p>\n
Media relations triggered a call from the real executive offices who agreed that they should be couriering a refund cheque to me.<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t have been that hard. Of course, with the cool and rainy summer we are having so far, I may have had more cottage time available for research in customer service methodologies.<\/p>\n