In our current economy, many people are making late payments or no payments at all on their bills. Some are getting way behind because they've lost their jobs or their interest rates have risen on their lines of credit.
Fortunately, I am not one of these people. I have always paid my bills on time, and in many cases (with the exception of major purchases like the house, a car) paid in full within a 30 day period. I am also one to take advantage of same as cash deals on larger purchases so that I don't have to deplete my savings account to make the purchase.
Since some of you only know me through the blogging world, I will note here that the only reason I would pay a bill late is if I didn't know about it. This happened to be the case with my January bill from Eddie Bauer. Somehow I had inadvertently change from a paper bill to an electronic bill. They contacted me via phone to ask why I hadn't paid my December bill and I told them that I hadn't received my statement in the mail and just hadn't thought about it after the holidays. I immediately rectified the situation over the phone by paying the entire bill with my credit card. I also requested that any further bills be sent as paper statements.I thought that was the end of it.
I received a bill the other day from my Eddie Bauer Credit Account. When I opened the bill I was
surprised to see that I had a 54 dollar balance and it was a "past due" statement. I have not made any purchases on the card since December and had paid off the previous balance. When I started reading the statement more closely it said that I was being charged a late fee. I was irate. I called the 1800 number and politely asked why I was being charged a late fee on an account that had no balance.
Upon further inspection, the representative told me that I had been charged a late fee in January for not paying my bill on time. I asked the gentleman why I wasn't informed of that fee when I paid the bill over the phone. Of course, he had no idea. It was noted on my account that I had requested paper statements be reissued and that there had been some type of miscommunication over the December bill. He read it to me. He then told me that as a one time
courtesy he would wave that late fee. I thought THAT was the end of it. Then he told me I'd still have to pay the late fee on the late fee. WHAT?!?!?!!
I asked him if he saw the logic in still charging me a late fee on a late fee he had just waved. He agreed that it didn't make much sense, but that he was only allowed to wave one late fee. I asked to speak with his supervisor. He told me there was really no point in speaking to them because they would tell me the same thing. I told the young man that I wanted to hear it directly from the supervisor's lips.
At first the supervisor was adamant that they had a policy. Then I explained that it made no sense to make me pay a late fee on a fee that was just waived off of my account. That if they had waived the first fee or asked me to pay it at the time that I had
originally rectified the late bill, we wouldn't even be in this situation. She was silent for a moment (making the connection,
maybe?) and then said, "Fine, I'll waive the second late fee, even though I'm not supposed to." While I think she was rude because my logic made more sense than her policy, I still won. And that makes me happy. :)
