Stealth Inflation

prostoalex writes "The New York Times on the Web explores the topic of incorrect bills and numerous surcharges with names like 'assessment', 'handling', 'restocking', etc. David Pogue quotes Business Week magazine, where it says that such small charges $100 million annually for hotels, $2 billion for banks and $11 billion for credit-card companies. Users of landline phones, cell phones, checking accounts and credit cards are starting to suspect that such huge revenue might imply the mistakes are made on purpose. Is it just another conspiracy theory, or are we becoming victims to the stealth inflation?"

Comments

MCI Long Distance

[nojomofo]

My main experience with this sort of thing was with MCI long distance. I will never willingly do business with MCI, Worldcom or any related company again. Everything they did was entirely intentional and designed to prey on their customers.

I started out with a plan that was 5 cents a minute, no monthly fee. I never looked at my bills very carefully. About a year later, I noticed that there was a $2.95 / month fee, and daytime calls were 10 cents per minute. I thought about it, and decided that I may have actually started out like that it it might have been my imagination that I started out a 5 cents, no fee.

Another several months go by. In this time, I start online billing (no paper statement, charge to credit card (I think)). Eventually, I noticed that I was now paying $5.95 per month, 25 cents per minute during the day and 10 cents evening and weekends. So emailed customer service, and their response was something like: "We notified you of the change on the back of your statement. By not complaining, you agreed to the new rates.". I searched, and there was no notification on my online statement. There was a notification in small print about 5 clicks away on something called "paper statement" which was apparently different from the online statement, but that I had no reason to suspect had any information not contained on my statement.

That was enough. I called them to tell them to go to hell, at which point they offered to switch me to a 5 cents / minute plan with no fee. Gee, why on Earth would I believe for a second that they'd leave me on that plan? I said no thanks, and signed up for bigredwire, which charges me 4 cents a minute, no fee, and has continued to do so for about a year now.

Such shady business practices. Hoping that I wouldn't look at my bill closely enough to see how they were screwing me, and then lying about it when I called them on it. If that's how they treat their customers....

Re:MCI Long Distance

[mesocyclone]

After I switched my long distance away from MCI, they continued to bill me a few bucks a month for some sort of access fee - but they weren't providing any service.

A phone call resolved the problem but I didn't get back all the money.

Skunks!

Re:MCI Long Distance

[PhxBlue]

Funny you should mention a shoddy experience with MCI. Here's mine:

Back when they started their "Neighborhood" plan, I said, hey, sign me up! At the time, my fiancee lived about 1400 miles away, so this would be a score - $50/month for as long as my cordless phone battery would last. They set up the long-distance service right away, and said they'd have someone contact me to establish local service in a week or two.

No one contacted me; but I got my first bill a month later, which included $120 for my "free" long-distance usage. I called, navigated a maze of telephone numbers that involved at least one web search for a number that would put me through to a human being, and got them to drop the charge. Once again, they told me they'd get someone to contact me to rectify the problem.

Again, no contact; and again, I get a $100+ bill. When I call to contest this one, I'm told that they'll credit the bill. I also cancel my service. I got to endure almost nightly calls from MCI for a month after that, trying to collect on the money they think I owed them. . . but they do eventually give up. Fortunately I never opted to have them bill me automatically, as I refuse to trust my account to any service that bills me different amounts each month.

The real kicker is that I got a call from them a couple months ago, the first in a while. They were willing to erase what I owed them, they said, if I switched back to their long-distance service. I told them, just take the debt off your record and never call me again. Shortly after that, I changed my phone number (due in part to the harassment I'd received from them). Things have been pretty hunky-dory since.