Oh yeah, and the software/operators refuse to actually update my address. I've changed it but it reverts; I've told the operators and they say they changed it but notices end up at the wrong address anyways.
My situation didn't involve anything to do with fines, but for some reason the craft company I buy stuff from has this issue of insisting that I include the name of the apartment building I live in, along with the street address. Why my suite number and the street address aren't enough, I don't know. I don't have this problem with any other company I buy from. After the 4th time of me trying to correct my address myself (their system refused to accept the name of the building I live in and insisted on a name for a building that doesn't even exist in Red Deer) and two attempts to correct it with a regular customer service agent, I got really irate and demanded to kick it upstairs to a supervisor. I was told nobody was available ("because this is a holiday" - I think it was the 3rd Monday in February), and I pointed out that their website lists holiday hours for customer service, so there had to be somebody there.
Finally I got a person who could get it fixed. I asked her why that company insisted on this, and she claimed that Canada Post required it, to ensure that the parcels went to the correct address. I told her it was a recipe for lost parcels in my case, since my suite number and street address were correct, but the building name they insisted on doesn't exist in my city - it does exist in Edmonton, where I
don't live.
I can only hope that the next time I order something, the situation will remain fixed. If it's reverted to the incorrect name, I will have to find someone at Canada Post to complain to.
To take things meta -
This is how the poor get screwed over day in and day out. Yeah, this fine sucks but it's not a big deal for me. But for a poor person it would break their budget - and that's before you tack on the damage that the hit to their credit will do by locking them out of credit markets. Moreover, it's pretty clear that lenders in this country can do and will do anything they can to screw over everyone to keep them trapped in a cage of debt. Refusing to update addresses so that bills arrive late (if at all), changing the order of account withdrawals to maximize overdraft fees, conning people or forging their signatures to sign them up for credit products they don't want or need and deliberately undercharging on autopay systems to levy fines are all ways the monied class screws everyone over. It's no different than loan sharks except they have the backing of the courts and the credit bureaus.
I've had cell phone carriers fine me and take me to collections for ending service with them - even though I was out of contract. I've had a landlord hire a law firm to come after me for a single spot (literally, a single dime sized spot) on a carpet to force me to pay for whole new carpets despite California renter protections prohibiting this behavior. In both cases, I did not have the means to go to court and fight it and just had to pay up to make it go away. Now I do have the means to fight back but so many people don't. Corporate America is a freaking vicious predator that is eating our country alive to enrich the few at the top and they've rigged the entire system in their favor.
Not only in your country. There's no way I will ever trust automated payments for any significant amount, certainly not for something as important as rent or utility bills. All they have to do is change the billing date by one or two days, and I'd be screwed.
As it is, the company that provides electricity for this building had a cute thing going about 3 years ago. They mailed the bills out late, and so they arrived anywhere from a day to a week
after the due date... so everyone's was late. Complaints to the manager went nowhere (apparently it didn't click in her brain that since the rental company collects the money for the electricity bills, she should have inquired as to why the bills were late several months in a row). So I complained to the company itself, asking them why our bills were always late.
Turns out they were basing their timing on how long it takes to mail a bill within the city of Edmonton. They didn't take into consideration that it requires extra time to get the Red Deer bills to Red Deer, get them sorted and delivered, and for the customers to pay them.
After they promised to fix this, I went back to the building manager and informed her that I'd called the electricity provider and the billing situation would hopefully be fixed and she wouldn't have to put up with so many irate tenants.
"Oh. Thanks.
" was the response.
Thank goodness that one quit. Since then the only utility issues I've had have been with the telecom (there is a push here to have phones and internet designated as utilities, and most people think of them that way); it was a nightmare last year with them trying to overcharge me for services that I'd been promised by the rental company would be at no charge (since my moving to a new suite wasn't by my choice). After a couple of months of phone calls from me, emails from the leasing agent (who was on my side), it finally came down to a conversation with an agent who claimed I had signed a particular piece of paper. I told her that no, I hadn't signed any such paper, and the technician hadn't presented me with anything to sign. She double-checked, and said, "Oh. You're right. In that case, we can't charge you." So then I had to confirm that the charges, along with late fees they'd been tacking on to my bills for the last 2 months would be dropped and they wouldn't appear on my next bill.
I was dreading something similar this year when I renewed my lease. Internet and cable are part of the deal; the property management company is paying those, and I was afraid the telecom would get everything mixed up like they did the first year I had this arrangement; they overcharged me for something like ten months before I caught it and the leasing agent called them and told them to credit my account for the overpayments. So in that case I had several months of no payments, which was a relief.
@hobbsyoyo, sometimes you get lucky if you find a sympathetic customer service agent who genuinely wants to fix things.
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
but, due to anti-money-laundering laws, a person outside the US cannot open up a US bank account. Also anti-money-laundering laws forbid pension and social security benefits from being sent outside the US. So I'm stuck there.
