Late Fees
August 14, 2008
There’s nothing I can’t stand more than for the first words out of a customer’s mouth to be “Why am I getting charged a late fee?” Okay maybe it’s the second most annoying thing, the first being “I hate your automated system!” (but that’s for another post).
I have to resist the urge every time to hide my snarky comebacks in my head. But usually I get the customer’s information and then calmly explain to them that it was because a certain bill was paid late and outside of their grace period. It’s not that difficult of a concept to grasp. Usually then this launches the customer into a tirade about how they don’t want to pay it and they shouldn’t have to and blah blah blah.
Honestly, corporate america, you know the drill. Companies need to make money so they do things like charge late fees. The solution? Pay your bill on time.
I’ve got two instances where people just didn’t get it.
Case A: A lady calls in questioning the 4 late fees they’ve gotten for 2008. I casually explain that the bills were paid late. The caller then launched into a long spiel about how their accounts payable person was out of the country for 3 months due to a death in the family and so they couldn’t get checks cut. I felt bad for the woman, really I did. But even so, what company is going to give you an extension for berevement. Is there not someone above her to cut the checks? Corporations don’t run on the schedule of one customer. They’ve got to make their money and hey, I don’t get paid without it. I went through the account to see if there was anything I could do. Looking at their history, it turns out they’ve had not one, but 5 different waives of late fees. Seriously. At that point, it’s just ridiculous. Pay your bill on time and you won’t get charged. They even lowered the charge for late fees for this company. Thanks for calling.
Case B: This call just started off on a bad note. I could barely understand the caller. She had me on speakerphone and refused to take me off so I had to hold my hands over my ears to hear her at all. She calls in requesting a late fee waive. I go through the routine and check the account. Already had the one time courtesy waive. It’s a standard business practice. I calmly explained to the woman that she’d already had her one time courtesy waive and that I couldn’t give her another one. Most people are okay hearing this. Her response? “That’s just f*****g retarded! I’ve never seen such awful business practices!” I explained that we offer the one time waive as a courtesy, but they did sign a contract stating that they would pay late fees. Thanks for calling.
Maybe this subject wasn’t that funny, but I had to rant a little bit. I’ve taken 5 calls in the past hour on late fees, so I’m not feeling a lot of sympathy right now. I’ve got funnier calls up my sleeve, so keep reading.
