Harrassed by a fundraiser for the Junior Police Academy.

I received a phone call from someone identifying themselves as a fundraiser for the local Junior Police Academy. It sounded like a good cause but I stated that because of our current financial situation, I was unable to give. He continued pushing his case and asking for money and I politely responded the same way. This continued for a couple more rounds when suddenly he got frustrated and shouted an insult and hung up.

Even though our financial situation has seriously deteriorated with the downturn in the economy, we still probably give more to charity as a percentage of our income than 90% of the people. Now, however, because of this incident, I will no longer consider charities who contact us by phone.

Re-billed, for an additional $255, 15 months & more after services were performed and settled --
Allure Dental Center / Suzanna Lee, 570 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043.

I hadn't heard from my dentist in over a year when I received a bill for $255. In the bill was a statement which went back about 15 months. After spending a lot of time evaluating the lengthy statement I recognized that the $255 charge was for services prior to the ones listed on the bill.

So I called the dentist office and asked for a statement which went back further. The accountant told me that the reason for the bill was that he was correcting the mistakes made by the previous accountant. He also said that instead of $255, I now owed $205 (obviously he had made an additional mistake). He assured me that total wouldn't change any more.

I received a new "final" statement and looked it over. I discovered a $20 error in the new accountant's work. I called my HMO and while they couldn't help me straighten out the situation, they did tell me how the dentist had added to her profits by separating out a covered procedure into two procedures -- a covered one and an uncovered one, which I had to pay for.

I contacted consumer activist and legal advise radio programs for help, but their advise was that if I didn't have receipts from two years ago to prove them wrong, I should pay the bill.

One even proudly proclaimed "I keep all receipts!" I responded, "Do you keep every receipt from every dental appointment, every auto mechanic, every plumber, every service man that comes to your house?"

She said, "Well, I keep all important receipts."

I said, "That's what I thought I did." Apparently, the moral of this story is that a final bill is never a final bill. That business can come back at you any time in the future and you must be able to prove the business wrong.

Another poor soul who was snared in Allure's trap wrote:
I was so please to find your "Lesser Business Bureau" page today. I have been battling with Allure Dental now for over three months over a bill dispute. I ended up covering over 60% of my bill, when I should have been responsible for 15%. As with your experience, they split my billing out by covered and uncovered services. They promised to comp one of the uncovered services if I paid for the other, yet still attempted to bill my insurance. When my insurance did not pay, I was sent a bill. I called my insurance and found out that Allure incorrectly billed for my services. The insurance company suggested that Allure resubmit the bill with the correct codes. Allure was impossible to work with on the situation, even when I had the correct codes for them to submit; they flatly refused to re-submit. Additionally, I called them one week before an appointment to re-schedule, yet they billed me for a missed appointment (what a hassle it was proving to them it was their fault). On another occasion I had an appointment (with my appointment documented on one of their appointment cards), but they had no record of the appointment when I showed up; in fact there wasn't even a dentist on site. I brought up the issue about them charging me in the past for a missed appointment, and told them that I expected some sort of re-imbursement for my time (hey, they charge patients if they miss there appointment, right). You can only imagine how that went. To make a long story short, Allure dental is probably one of the most expensive Dentists in the Bay Area, they are not forthcoming with there billing practices, and they are impossible to work with when there is any sort of issue. I have made a point to evangelize there poor business practices where ever possible.

Regards,
Chris

A couple days later, he added this:
The story actually gets better. My wife called Allure the other day to have our Dental plans forwarded to our old Dentist in San Francisco, so we could complete our work there. Allure claimed that they would not service this request, but we could buy copies of our X-Rays for $30 each. Our Dentist in San Francisco informed us that it is our right to have copies of the dental plans (might have to pay for the photo-copies). They (SF Dentist) suggested that some Dentists are hessitant to give out dental plans, because they often slip in unnessary proceedures or have unethical billing practices.

Thanks for following up,
Chris

Classic Bait and Switch -- Best Buy Company.

This form of "bait and switch" is probably used by other companies as well, but Best Buy gets credit here because they happened to hook victimize me. Around Christmas time, I went to Best Buy on the first day of an ad a deal on a laptop computer that looked too good to be true. Of course, it was. We sold those out in the first hour the salesman told me as he handed me a brochure on their favored laptop which of course was much of a deal at all. "Can I have a raincheck?", I asked. He told me no rainchecks on this item.

Off to side of the laptop portion of the ad, in small print, it said 'Minimum 10 per store. No rainchecks.' Obviously, the minimum meant maximum as well. Of course they hid those words off to the side, away from the regular text of the ad. They never intended to sell that computer to 99% of the people who came in for it.

The next week I saw another ad for another computer that looked too good to be true. This time I called a couple of stores on the morning the ad came out. Of course, they were out of stock. At least that time, I didn't waste the gas it took to come in.

It should have been clearly stated in the ad that there were only a few available. In effect, getting one was like winning the lottery. You had to line up at the store very very early in the morning. I'm sure the ads misled many people. Don't bury important information, e.g. no rainchecks, isolated from all other information about the product.......................................... away from the text

Lied to for unnecessary services by 'Oil Changers'.

When quick oil change businesses first started doing business, I found them to be reliable, quick, and honest. Lately, I have found them to be staffed by people of questionable skills and prone to lying to try to generate extra business. One Oil Changers location in particular has drawn my attention.

Over a few years, I had relied on a local Oil Changers (780 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto) to perform most of my oil changes. However, the attendant started stating that everything he checked needed some kind of attention (on both of my vehicles). The air filter needed changing; the transmission fluid needed changing; etc.. Because "everything" needed attention, I just ignored him and later on checked things out and performed most of those services on my own when I thought they needed to be done. One time, however, I had just had the transmission serviced at another Oil Changers location the previous time I had the oil changed. The fluid looked fine and had none of the grit the attendant said he had felt.

I had enough. I was really annoyed that he lied about everything all the time. He was such a bad liar. I contacted the Oil Changers website and they responded that they were going to send me a coupon for a free oil change, but that coupon never came. I don't do business with Oil Changers anymore.

Dealing with Customer Support via e-mails -- Eforcity.

This segment of the Lesser Business Bureau concerns the wonderful world of Customer Support. After making a purchase on E-Bay from Eforcity, they sent me an e-mail containing a 20% off coupon (from the first e-mail) to make a purchase at their website www.eforcity.com. When I proceded through their purchasing screens which eventually didn't accept the coupon, I contacted customer support and the fun began.

Dominos Pizza Non-delivery.

I ordered a pizza from Dominos giving very specific instructions as the numbering at our location was confusing. After ordering a pizza, I decided to enjoy some of a nice summer evening in our beautiful front yard, while waiting for the pizza to be delivered.

After awhile, I saw the Dominos delivery driver walk up and knock on the door of a nearby apartment. He received no response and as he walked back to his car, I asked him "Is that pizza for Simpson?" "No", he responded. "Are you sure," I said, "because we ordered a pizza from Dominos awhile ago." He got into his car and drove off. After 10 more minutes, we received a call from the same delivery man. He had driven down to a gas station and called us saying he hadn't found our address.

He asked us if we still wanted the pizza. I said we had given specific delivery instructions, reminded him I was out in the yard asking about the pizza, and felt that we couldn't accept a cold late pizza without some incentive. He didn't budge - the pizza at full price. Later on, I contacted the Dominos district office, but they didn't budge either. I have never ordered from Doninos again.

Only 16K miles wear on 40K mile tires -- America's Tire Company.

Tires guaranteed for 40,000 miles should last more than 16,000 miles, shouldn't they? Well not really according to America's Tire Co.. The salesman took a look at both tires I had previously purchased. He claimed the short lifespan was due to a bad allignment. Well, just before purchasing the tires, I had new struts installed, which of course involves an allignment. One tire showed no abnormal wear and one tire showed a very,very slight extra wear on the outside (which of course means a very, very slight allignment problem). The tire with the "allignment problem" showed no measureable difference in wear from the tire with no allignment problem. The moral of the story is that a tire store may try to get out of warranty work by claiming the car was the problem, not the tire; if possible, buy from a business you trust.

United Airlines keeps sending me e-mail and the only way I can get out of it is if I have a "Mileage Plus number" and a password, neither of which I have:

TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR UPDATE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS
You are currently subscribed to receive information from United at CRAIGANDLYN@HOTMAIL.COM. You may modify your e-mail options or unsubscribe at any time by signing in with your Mileage Plus number and password.
...
Please do not attempt to respond to this message. We cannot accept electronic replies to this e-mail.

They may have gotten my e-mail address because I flew on United recently. I don't remember ever signing up on their mileage program and I know I never set up a password with United. This is the perfect way to viciously spam people! You give people an out that they can't possibly use.

How someone tried to fight back.

The letter, shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by a 96 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete.

I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:
1. To make an appointment to see me.
2. To query a missing payment.
3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.
7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact.
8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.
9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.
Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.
May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year.

Your Humble Client
(Remember: This was written by a 96 year old woman)