I am so fucking pissed right now, I don’t even care if some government agency spiderbot sniffs out the words “I’m going to bomb….etc” and comes knocking on my door. I will tell them to “take a few steps back and literally fuck their own faces” (to quote Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder). I’ve had it with companies who don’t even pretend to offer real customer service.
As I have absolutely no power against these huge companies, the only pathetic outlet I have for the rage bursting out from within me right now is simply to vent on my blog and facebook. It’s all so feebly pathetic, it makes me even more raging pissed how powerless I am.
A little over a year ago, Petra and I opened a joint checking account with Chase. The banker offered us a $10,000 dollar credit card along with it. He asked me if I wanted a Chase rewards package added to it. I specifically asked him if it would cost anything. He said no, it’s free. We agreed. A month later, I used it to buy $30 worth of groceries simply to activate it, as I was told to do by mister banker jackass. I then waited a week and went online to my Chase account and made a money transfer to pay it off. I received a confirmation of the payment in an email.
Done.
No plans to use this card ever again unless there was an emergency. I forgot all about it and continued to carry it in my wallet. 3 months later while online looking in my account, I see that I had been billed a late fee of $35.00 from my Visa credit card, because according to them, I never payed the initial $30.00 groceries off. I look back into my account and see that the transfer never actually took place.
Already this shit is not worth it.
So I finally say “fuck it” and just pay everything all over again ($65.00) through the mail with a fucking check (circa 1980 billing system) to make sure their messed up online HAL computer system doesn’t fuck it up. A week later, I see that my overdue balance from my Visa credit card is FINALLY down to zero and I figure that is the end of that.
I never use the card again and nearly a year goes by.
Then last night, I see that I am suddenly overdue AGAIN on my Visa credit card for another $65.00!! WTF? I call up Visa and they inform me that my card has a rewards package attached to it and that there is a yearly fee, which I have not payed twice since opening the account and have been charged late fees on top of my already overdue fees!
I explain to her that the banker who offered us the card said that it wouldn’t cost us anything at all. The Visa operator informs me that the free rewards package only lasts for a year and that the policy was changed about 6 months ago.
Apparently, I was sent a small notice in the mail along with all the other bullshit junk mail they’d sent me. Since I didn’t pay my two rewards fees charges, they have since billed me late fees as well.
My head was about to explode.
I explained to her that if she looked at my charges she would see that I only used this credit card once for groceries almost a FUCKING year ago to activate it and haven’t used it since. WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO PAY A REWARDS FEES ON A CREDIT CARD THAT I AM NOT FUCKING USING??!!
She informed me that I was notified in the mail and I should have cancelled the rewards package then. I told her that all of my bills are automatic deduction and I only look at my account online because I don’t want to deal with their constant stream of junk mail that may or may not be pertinent. She told me that wasn’t their problem.
She informed me that I had no choice but to pay.
So now, I’ve spent almost $100.00 for a credit card that I not only never use, but NEVER FUCKING ASKED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!
And it’s not really the money. It’s this feeling of complete dismissal and total lack of respect for people. It’s the operator on the other end who has this “Seriously? I don’t give a flying fuck about any of you people. I don’t even like my job; and NO you can’t talk to someone above me. This is just company policy. Deal with it and pay up, ass clown”.
The operator informed me that this was not Visa’s fault or problem, but rather my own mistake. “Yes”, I said. “The mistake was choosing Visa and expecting some sort of actual customer service.”
Feel free to vent your own frustrations to this note, as I plan to post it on my Blog and then send Visa customer service a link to it, showing them how many people think they SUCK MONSTER MONKEY BALLS. Not that it will make even the tiniest bit of difference.
FUCK VISA.
HOBBIT — OUT.
7 Comments
Cara Frankowicz
Go to http://www.consumerist.com. See if you can get a link to your blog post. Consumerist is great at helping people in these kinds of situations. 🙂
Shelly Burdick Hartigan
No visa issues. But do let me know if you decide to go after Dish Network or Whirlpool. I’d join you on those bombing missions
Karen Kish Brown
I have a Visa I used for house renovations a couple years ago. I had a $5,000 balance and used about $4,500 of it on appliances, etc. I made all of the payments (mostly double or triple) on time. When I called Visa and asked why I recieved a notice that my APR was going from 7.9% to 18.9% they said that my balance was too high in comparison to my credit limit. Huh???
So, I paid the balance in full and didn’t use the card at all. I get another notice that my APR is climbing to 23.9%. I call Visa and asked them to lower my APR so that I could use it if I needed it … I have perfect credit, long time customer, zero balance, etc. They said that it was raised so high because I hadn’t used the card in so long. Told me that if I started using the card again I could call back and they would evaluate my account again for a lower rate. I asked WHY IN THE HELL WOULD I USE A CARD WITH A 23.9% RATE???
So, do they WANT me to use the card or not? I use it, penalty … I don’t use it, penalty.
Karen Kish Brown
Uh, not to heighten your rage but you might want to pull your credit reports too and see if they reported these dumb ass charges as “late payments” which dramatically lower your score. Which is another fucking scam in itself but unfortunately is used for everything these days … renting an apartment, getting insurance, getting a job, not to mention buying things.
They force you to live on the grid and then bend you over it.
Simon Grinder
They need their ill gotten bonuses don’t you know that and you cant run a Lear jet on baby milk you know!!! Now have it from behind and be gratefully receptive.
V isually I mpaired S lippery A utomatons
Dom Mulvaney
Visa like all banking systems are run by rich ass fuckers who rip off the little people like you Rob, and all of us, with all sorts of little catches as Karen says about with the APR changes for using it a lot or not using at all.
I have had experiences with Visa before that just showed me how cuntish they could be. They laughed when I asked about getting a credit card cos I was only 20 at the time. I have great credit rating, especially for someone like me!!
Mastercard, never had any problems with at all, and had a Mastercard credit card for 4 years now, and another for about 7 months, and they’re fine with customer service, no hidden stuff at all.
Sorry to hear you got caught up in all this shit Rob, no one needs it!! Just hope Visa get their act together!!!!
Jill Bell
Ouch!