HRS Best Buy Ripoff to consumers
I am so angry with Best Buy who does it's billing through HRS I am considering paying off what I owe and not doing business with them.
On January 10th, 2002 I called to make a phone payment of $20.00 on my account. I moved in November, 2001 and most of December and January, I was ailing with a swollen arthritic knee and my subsequently my back went out because of my knee. So with so much going on in my life, I failed to payoff two 90 days same as cash plans--one for the end of December, 2001 and the other the first week of Jan. 2002.
When I mentioned this to the representative I was talking to on the phone, she said she would talk to her supervisor about getting the interest waived. They asked me to pay off both accounts totalling $492.39 (plan 1, 04008-01 had interest accrued of $86.12 and plan 3, 04005-03 had $33.96 accrued. Before I got off the phone I asked the representative if she had taken off the interest and she said she would notate my account as soon as she hung up. I did not get a final amount that she was going to take off which was my fault. If I had asked that, I would have known their intent.
When I received my next bill, neither interest payment had been taken off yet they received my $492.39 and charged me more interest of $2.39. My account closed on 1/19/2002 giving them 9 days after my conversation to adjust my account. They didn't.
So today, Jan. 29th I called to inquire about the interest for the two accounts and the additional interest that was charged.
After talking with 3 representatives, being cut off 2 times and finally getting to a supervisor on the third call, they agreed first to take off 50% of the charges on the December plan. I told the supervisor that whether they take off any, I was lied to by the representative on the 10th of Jan. 2002. When she notated the account she specified that only one interest charge would be removed. The supervisor felt that because she specified a plan number (only one), I must have mistook the conversation and there must have been a miscommunication. I don't miscommunicate concerning money matters. I did not have to pay $493.39, I only had a payment of $20.00, $10 for plan and $10 for another plan. Neither did the representative on the 10th tell me that if I paid the $492.39, they would remove the Jan. 4th interest charges only. It was my decision to pay off those payment plans fully, but I was not given the full picture that only one accrued interest amount would be removed.
Today, they agreed to take all the accrued interest off. I am very angry about this because I was lied to as a customer and they were leveraging the total payment ($492.39) to wipe out the interest on payment plan 04008-01 only. This was underhanded. If I was presented with that deal, I would have taken it, but to lead me to believe that both were going to be take off is bad business; and alluding to the fact that because of the way the account was notated by their representative, I had to be wrong.
I am further mad because the supervisor only removed the accrued interest on the other account because of the length of time I had my account and because I have never had a late payment in 8 years. This is crap, they lied and leveraged the $493.39 to wipe out interest on one plan only; and used my credit history as a basis to determine if they wanted to live up to the agreement that I made with the representative on Jan 10th. My credit history and payment history had nothing to do with this perpetrated lie on the company's behalf.
My other problem with HRS USA is that they only have two ways for people to pay. Mail a bill or pay a $10 service fee over the phone if you don't get it in the mail on time. They need to join the rest of the world and allow web payments or in-store payments. Perhaps the decision to allow only these two forms of payment has to do with their rip off late fees strategy. You limit payment avenues by customers, you increase your coffers. What store does not allow customers to make a payment at the store? I love Sears, I can pay in the store or on the web or by mail. What I am attacking is a corporate philosphy that is not customer friendly. I have only used their pay over the phone method 2 times in 8 years across 96 payments, but I feel there ought to be other ways for customers to make payments (in the store and on the web). These two methods would wipe out their rip off late fees people complain about all the time.
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