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Do you review your bills? I go over mine with a fine toothcomb for charges that are mistakes.
I don't understand how you can miss being overcharged $80 on your phone bill. This woman did and was also about to be charged $120 for magazine subscriptions where the promotional periods had expired.
It's funny she's giving tips on saving LOL. See if you learn anything from this. :)
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/personal_finance/063009_savings_in...
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Wow, I won't be taking what the bottom line says for truth again. I don't do anything bigger than a glance. Her phone bill must be astronomical if she didn't notice an eighty dollar overcharge on it!
I wonder how many times that waitress did that before she got caught, micharch. You probably saved other people money there too that would have been there after you.
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I used to never check bills,,just paid the amount owed.BUT,,one evening for no real reason I double checked our phone bill.I asked my husband what these 2 charges were,one called 'Service billing' and the other was called"Account references"..something close to that.Anyway there was a 800 number under each and we were charged 45.00 on one and 23.00 on the other.The wording on the bill was something to make you think it was part of the bill.My husband called about the charges and was told it was something we had "charged" to our phone bill from online services.We didnt know you could even charge to your phone bill..but the phone company said they would put a hold on these charges till we could find out about it.
I called one of them and asked what the services was.We were told that we charged a 800 number to our phone so that all our family members from all over the USA could call us for free,,at the low price of 45.00 a month.We told them we didnt sign up for this and they immediatly took the charge off,,I mean FAST,,like they were worried to get in trouble,,,,hmmm,makes ya wonder dosent it.
Next charge I called was the 23.00 one.I was told this was a montly charge for something we ,once again,signed up for to habve our own website to produce movies.Can you beleive that!!!Well,,without trouble,we said no,,we didnt sign up for this,,and they took it off our bill.
Point to this is we now always double check our bills,,we always let each other know if we charge anything but never on a phone bill?!So its always good to check!
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Point to this is we now always double check our bills,,we always let each other know if we charge anything but never on a phone bill?!So its always good to check!
Nice to hear this kind of success story Donna, thanks for relating it here. Long ago a worked at a telemarketing job for a short while and there was a way for employees to enroll people (unknowingly) in the product or service that they were selling since the employee receives a commission and is often long gone by the time that it is discovered. IMHO, It's a rotten business to be in and full of thieves.
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Point to this is we now always double check our bills,,we always let each other know if we charge anything but never on a phone bill?!So its always good to check!
Nice to hear this kind of success story Donna, thanks for relating it here. Long ago a worked at a telemarketing job for a short while and there was a way for employees to enroll people (unknowingly) in the product or service that they were selling since the employee receives a commission and is often long gone by the time that it is discovered. IMHO, It's a rotten business to be in and full of thieves.
I would bet that's what happened, Donna. I worked in banking and we didn't get commission for anyone we steered towards the financial adviser but we did earn points towards our personal and branch target depending on what the customer bought. Some of my co-workers would add things, unknown to the customer, to the enquiry form for the FA to discuss. This was even though we had to have expressly asked the customer first before the appointment what they wanted to talk about so the FA didn't look pushy. It was a very gentle approach they had and it worked - when it was done right.
Both the customer and the FA would be mad! The customer felt he was being pushed to take something that the FA would never have brought up in the first place if they had known it hadn't been asked about. The FA would also have tied up a whole morning of their appointment time for the person, only to find what they really wanted to talk about would take 20 mins tops.
It was ridiculous and all for the sake of trying to get a few more points and not have to make more appointments for the FA. Lazy, lazy people and of course it would be the temps who didn't care that did it most. Commission and targets warp folk's minds into doing all kinds of nonsense if they're missing them.
Don't get me started on the supposed merits of employing cheap temps on three month contracts vs paying a little more for permanent staff LOL.
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Reviewing bills always makes sense. If one member of the household usually does the bill-paying, then it is important for that one to keep up on what is considered the normal range for that bill - and then look to see why it isn't when there is a discrepancy.
Not only do you have some crooks out there, but there are also some careless employees who sometimes compound the problem, too.
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Reviewing bills always makes sense. If one member of the household usually does the bill-paying, then it is important for that one to keep up on what is considered the normal range for that bill - and then look to see why it isn't when there is a discrepancy.
Not only do you have some crooks out there, but there are also some careless employees who sometimes compound the problem, too.
That's true. I hate hearing mistakes blamed on computer error. Someone had to put the information into the computer wrong! I think badly trained staff are more often at fault than crooks. Unfortunately the customer is the one that loses, whoever it is. You can never get through to the right person either to deal with it.
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I am too trusting I think! I never check them but I will after reading what's happened to Donna and micharch.
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You can never get through to the right person either to deal with it.
Try this site when you get frustrated with those automated phone services that never send you where you want to be.
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I don't have enough in the bank to blindly trust what any bill says. It's bad that we have to check them for mistakes at all. I compare my utility bills with the same period the year before to see what's different and why.
I check all of mine and if anything looks goofy, I call the company for an explanation. Last month I noticed that a charge on my Discover Card was $3 more than my receipt ($18 vs $15) and called DC who made an on the spot correction and gave me a $3 credit. I also called the brew pub that over charged me and complained. The manager agreed that the bill was wrong (ex-waitress increased her tip) and offered me a free beer the next time that I was in the place.