Do you read before you click?
I was at my parents’ after work today and they showed me something I couldn’t believe. My Mom had a clothing store credit card she wanted to make a payment on. My Dad logged on to make the payment. When he got into the account, he saw a message that said there was a charge of $5 to make a payment by telephone and a charge of $12.95 to make a payment online. You had to either accept or decline. He stopped right there, because who in their right mind would pay that much to make a payment. He printed everything on the screen. My parents called the customer service number for the clothing company that issued the credit card, and the customer service rep told my Dad to just ignore the message and continue on. My father refused, saying if he clicked accept to make the payment he’d be giving his ok to pay that money and he didn’t want to do that. After ten minutes the customer service rep took the payment over the phone. Upon further reading of the stuff my Dad printed we discovered that the clothing company owned the bank that was trying to charge that crazy fee to make a payment. How crazy, that the company is making money via the interest on their credit card and they’re making money by charging fees to take payments. My Mom is considering canceling. Do you read before you click? Have you ever had any unpleasant surprises as a result of not reading something or not knowing something about a button you clicked?
February 7th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I try to read everything before I click. Good thing your dad stood his ground. What a sneaky thing for that store to try. Grrr.
Karen’s last blog post..IzeaRanks
February 7th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I was standing right there when they called, I coudn’t believe the rep just wanted them to ignore it the message it would cost that much to make a payment.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:28 am
A great way to mess up your computer is to be a “mad clicker”. Hey a dialog box, *clicks ok* -screen goes blue- What did I just do?
The worst are pop up dialogs or such that pop up while you are typing, and because you are typing when they show up, you manage to hit enter before you realize it then you have no idea what it going on. Annoying!
This also brings out this: To err is human, to really foul up requires a computer.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Hi Chivalrybean! I hate when that happens!
February 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
A lot of companies want you to sign up for paying your bill online with them and then charge a fee when you go to make the payment. AVOID signing up with any company that changes a fee to make a payment. Instead, if you have a bill pay setup on your own personal or business checking account, pay the bill through your account. No fee! If you do not have bill pay set up, contact your personal banker at your bank and discuss setting it up (should be no charge). Ask for instructions on how to perform the task of setting up each one of your bills and how to pay each one. My personal banker helped me and it was all done in less than 30 minutes and bills paid for the month too! Went out of the bank smiling big time!
February 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Yes, I have clicked before I really read things. There were a couple of payments that I had no control over because of it. No more!!! That fee business is a ripoff for sure. Thanks for the heads up on that particular one. I will definitely be checking everything before clicking anymore.