Product RecallsA brush fire broke out at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday afternoon throwing large plumes of smoke into the air. The fire was not yet in control by 1:30 p.m. and firefighters were stationing themselves in defensible positions to stop it. Firefighters were calling in firetrucks from other parts of the county. The county’s drought index is 623 on an 800 scale, with 800 being desert like conditions.
Christina’s cousin is working to become a certified home stager. So, we agreed to allow her to stage our house as part of her certification process. Wow, what a difference!
So, we get an e-mail at work today alerting us to the fact that they put up these signs in the parking lot next to our building.
First of all, there are more people than parking spots at this building. Couple that with the fact that they are taking eons to implement the car-pooling scheme and the bus service in this town doesn’t support the working hours we’re expected to keep, you can imagine that the parking lot fills up pretty quickly.
So, now we’re not allowed to park in front of the always being closed down by the Board of Health Chinese Buffet and the you’re not allowed to shop here because we’re wholesale only Beauty Supply.
Can we park in front of the closed sub shop or the closed dollar store?! Sheez!
I couldn’t stand the suspense anymore.
I caved in and called Chase Bank and and played dumb. I asked them, I don’t understand what’s going on with my account. Some months my payment is $350 and then some months it’s $950 and some months I have a service charge and some months I don’t. Is this something I’m doing?
The representative I spoke to explained that the change in terms to my account was done in error. He kept using the word flipped as in your account was flipped over in error and we incorrectly flipped your account. I guess the word flipped is Chase’ish for screwed. But anyway, he said a letter was sent to me on 3/17 explaining this. I guess I’ll be getting the letter soon and as soon as I do, I’ll post it here.
Then, he said something even more interesting. And, I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something to the effect of it looks like you’re one of the lucky ones – a lot of accounts we flipped to go from 2% to 5% weren’t in error – and, it’s been ugly.
I wonder why Chase de-selected me for the flip. Being the cynic I’ve recently become, I can’t help but think the reason is that I called their bluff and made the higher payment without calling to complain.
I can’t wait to see the letter.
I checked my credit card statement online this morning and it appears I’m back down to a minimum monthly payment of 2% and I wasn’t assessed a $10 service charge on this statement either. My interest rate remains the same.
I wonder if Chase Bank has gotten spooked by the thought of the dozen or so class action lawsuits that have been filed across the country and decided to back down. Or, maybe it was the hundreds of angry blog posts by people like me. Or, maybe it was Dr. Lahm’s website. Or, maybe some government regulator told them to knock it the hell off. Or, maybe their own legal department realized that what they did didn’t really qualify as legal.
Or maybe, just maybe, this is just a happy mistake.
There was no notice included with the online statement about Chase resetting the terms back the way they were. I’ll see if one is included with the paper statement I’ll be getting in the mail this week.
Here is the information taken directly from my last four online statements. Click the image to make it bigger.
Update 3/17/09 Maybe Chase really is backing down. Today, I checked online at chase.com and I see that Chase has refunded me $20 in service charges. Presumably this is a refund for the $10 service/finance they charged me in January and February. Click the image to make it bigger.
Update 3/27/09 I got this letter in the mail from Chase yesterday. Click the image to make it bigger.
Related post : Chase: “Your account was flipped over in error.”
Conspiracy Theory Thought … If Chase really is backing down from their change in terms, was it really just a big, bad mistake in judgement on their part or was this whole horrible plan conceived in a board room somewhere by evil, evil people to increase revenue. I wonder. I wonder if Chase knew what they were doing wasn’t legal, moral, ethical or even human. Maybe they knew from the beginning they could only get away with it for a month or two. And, maybe they knew they could get most of the customers who called to complain about the illegal payment increase to agree to a higher rate of 7.99% in order to keep their lower minimum payment of 2% of the outstanding balance. And, maybe they knew some other customers would default, pushing their rates to around 30%. And, maybe they knew there would be some die-hards that wouldn’t call, would just make the new higher payment and presumably shut up about it (little did they know). Then, after a couple of months, the people that never called and never defaulted would have their terms reset back to the way they were. But, the people who agreed to the higher rate or who defaulted as a result of the payment increase are now well and truly now up the creek without a paddle and now pad Chase’s coffers at a higher rate that they agreed to. I wonder. I wonder…
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