Before I get into this post I want to say one thing: Yes, I still use checks. Get over it.
You all know that I use credit cards and have a debit card as well. So not all of my financial transactions are using instruments that were very popular in the 80's. But I'm not going to give certain companies my bank account information for electronic payments -- I simply don't trust them. Plus, there are all sorts of "miscellaneous" bills that it's difficult to pay via credit/debit card. And auto pay programs have their own issues. So, yes, I still use checks.
I start with this because I know someone will comment "Really? You still use checks?" So I wanted to pre-empt that comment.
Now that I've got that off my chest, let's get on to the story.
In early February I ordered some checks for my personal bank account form Designer Checks. Chase wanted to charge me something like $30 for 200 checks. I looked through the TONS of check ads in the Sunday paper, selected one, and bought 4 BOXES of checks (each has 150 or 200 checks in them) for $16.50. I filled out the order form and sent it in.
I knew that most (all?) of these companies have a "new customer" price and then a different price for "return customers." But since it had been 2 1/2 years since I had ordered checks, I thought I was safe. Surely by now I was a "new" customer. Plus I had ordered from them multiple times previously, each time separated by a couple years or so, and all was fine. And besides, if they needed to charge me more they would simply call or email me and see if I was willing to pay the higher price (at which point I would have cancelled the order.)
Then on Saturday, February 23 I received an email. My checks were done. The final bill was $74.22 (way above my cost but, interestingly, cheaper than what Chase wanted to charge me). This was $60.42 for the checks themselves and $13.80 for handling. Ugh.
I called the customer service number and explained the situation: I had ordered checks for $16.50 and was billed $74.22.
"Tina" informed me that since I was a returning customer, I didn't get the new customer price. The returning customer price was $74.22.
"I don't want the checks then," I said. "Please don't send them."
"They have already been shipped," she replied.
"What? What sort of company would ship something knowing that I expected to pay $16.50 and then try and charge me $74.22 after the fact?" I asked.
"Well we didn't want to inconvenience you by slowing down your order, so we printed and shipped them as soon as possible."
I don't think this was their motivation for doing this, but it was a good/slick reply. IMO, they sent them because they wanted me to have the merchandise and then feel compelled to pay their demanded price.
"I don't want the checks at this price," I said. "I will send them back when I get them."
"But this is our returning customer price," she noted, seeming confused that I would simply not pay the price they wanted.
"I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them. I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house."
"Let me see what I can do."
She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.
"Sir, we can offer you a savings of 30% off the price, so your new price would be..."
"No. I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them."
"But this is a great savings off of our returning customer pricing."
"I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house and sending them back to you. You have a lot of competitors who will sell me checks for $16.50 -- I know because I see their ads in the Sunday paper. So if you won't honor the price, I will send them back and buy them elsewhere."
I also mentioned that the practice of filling an order at one price and then shipping them out and billing a much higher price was a deceptive tactic that the Better Business Bureau might be interested in (yes, I was pulling out all the classic lines.)
"Let me see what I can do."
She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.
"Sir, we can offer you a savings of 50% off the price, so your new price would be..."
"No. I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them."
"But this is an even better savings off of our returning customer pricing."
"I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house and sending them back to you." I also reminded her of the competition and the fact that I have many options for buying cheap checks. I also mentioned the BBB again.
"Let me see what I can do."
She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.
"Sir, If you would be willing to simply pay the handling charges, your new price..."
"No. No. No. Let me state this as clearly as possible." By this time I was putting emphasis on every word and speaking very slowly. "I...ordered...checks...for...$16.50. If...I...can't...get...them...for...$16.50...I...don't...want...them. I...will...be...sending...them...back...to...you."
"Let me see what I can do."
She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on and told me that for this ONE TIME that they would give me the checks for $16.50. But in the future I needed to remember that returning customers pay a different rate than new customers.
Uh-huh. I wanted to remind her that I was a new customer -- to her competitors -- and that they would fill my order at the new customer pricing. But I let it pass.
I asked her if they could confirm this agreement in writing. I said I'd like an email so I had a record that they had lowered the price.
"Let me get back to you," she said, and I was on hold again.
When she came back, she told me they would be mailing me a letter saying I had the $16.50 price.
"A letter? Like through the mail?"
"Yes."
"Like through the regular mail? You're not talking email, are you?"
"No, not email, regular mail."
I said "ok" and asked for her name and customer service number. I wanted to be sure I had some sort of backup in case they missed the fact that we had agreed on $16.50.
"I'm putting it all on your record. The change is made in the system," she replied.
"That's great," I said. "Can I have your name and customer service number too?" I have seen too many agreements get lost in "the system", so I still wanted backup.
She gave me her name and my order number, that was it. They didn't have customer service numbers.
I thanked her, told her I realized it wasn't her personally who was responsible for the company's strange policy of send the product and charging much more for it later, and that I appreciated the help she had given me getting it resolved. I also asked her to record my comments regarding the company's policy just in case anyone looked at customer feedback.
We hung up and all was well. That is until I got an email on Tuesday, February 26 saying that I owed them $57.72.
At this point I nearly hit the roof. Turns out, they also called my house and left a message for my wife to call them (it's a joint account.) My wife told me she would have called them back but didn't know what they wanted.
I explained the situation, she called them the next day, and they said we should ignore the email.
- Now some of you may think I'm the jerk in this situation. After all, I had ordered from them in the past so I should expect the higher pricing, right? But here's what got me worked up about how they handled it:
- I had ordered previously and all was well, why was this time different? Did they change their policy? If so, that's their right, but in the interest of customer service shouldn't they kindly explain it to me?
- Why didn't they contact me and explain they had to charge me more BEFORE they made the checks or BEFORE they shipped them. It galled me that they printed and shipped them and just assumed they could charge whatever they wanted (MUCH more than what I had offered to pay) and get that price.
- They tried to their utmost to get me to pay much more -- through a series of offers from their customer service people. I can't really fault them for this, I would probably do something like it too. But I would have done it on the front end, once I noticed a price difference and before I sent the products. They certainly made me work for my savings, so they didn't win any bonus points with me.
- Finally, after they said we had a deal they sent me another email (funny how they could email me a bill but wouldn't email a price break notice) demanding the rest of the higher amount. Certainly not cool in my book. (BTW, I never received the price change confirmation in the mail.)
Anyway, I am done with them. I will be using my checks over the next two years and at that point will be dealing with another company. Designer Checks is now on the list of companies I don't do business with.
What about you? What's your take on the situation? Where do you get your checks?
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