I used their daycare services from December 2003 - May 2004 for my daughter Kirsten. The monthly daycare rate for my daughters age was $533. On the first day of service in December 2003, I presented my American Express Card for payment and it was processed for $533.
On the first day of January, I again presented my American Express card and it was processed for $533. In mid January, I received my statement for December and noticed that there were no charges for $533 in December from Tilley Time Daycare. I advised TJ, the manager and the owners son, of the daycare located at 3337 West 6200 South that the charge did not show up on my statement. He said that they sometimes have problems with the equipment provided by Wells Fargo and it cannot process the full amount. He said he was going to check with someone and would get back to me. A few days passed and I asked him again and he advised that he needed to reprocess my American Express card for two amounts of $266.50. I allowed him to reprocess my American Express card for December 2003 in the amounts of $266.50.
In February, I received my January statement and I did not see the $533 payment or the two charges reprocessed in the amounts of $266.50 for December. This time I called American Express and explained the situation. The first thing they advised was that I should not have allowed my card to be reprocessed because now there will be a duplicate charge for December on my card. They further advised that it sounded like they were not closing out their day. They advised that for the American Express card, merchants have one year to close out the charges. Once they close their charges, my card would be hit with everything.
The next day when I went in to Tilley Time, I advised that American Express said they weren't closing out their day. TJ advised that they were closing their day and it was something with the equipment and Wells Fargo. I advised that American Express told me that we should not have reprocessed my card again for December 2003 services because when the charges closed I would be charged twice for December. TJ advised that if that happened to let him know and the charges would be reversed.
So, I continued to present my American Express Card for payment each month and T.J. processed it for two amounts of $266.50 because he believed it would help it go through. In May 2004, I gave notice that we were withdrawing my daughter from Tilley Time. I provided sufficient notice of her withdrawal so that I would not incur any penalties. My son was going to Small World and we were unable to move Kirsten there until she turned 12 months so I was only using Tilley Time for the interim.
On November 23, 2004, Tilley Time finally closed their day and as American Express warned me, I was double charged for December 2003. I advised American Express of the dispute and I sent a formal letter to Tilley Time and American Express advising of what I've told you above.
On the night of December 6th, I called (801)965-1216 and left a message in the box that the message said was just for the owner Debbie Tilley. My message just reiterated what I put in the letter and I advised that I was sending the letter. In the morning, Samantha, the owners daughter, called me at the work number I left on the message. I called her back and she was beyond rude and would not listen and just made accusations against me. She told me that they had no idea that the credit charges were not going through until two honest parents came in and told them. I told her I resented her saying that I was dishonest because I did tell TJ that it did not hit my card which is why I ended up with the duplicate charge in the first place. Samantha went on to tell me that Tilley Time is going to press fraud charges against all the rest of us and we will be charged a $2.00 a day late fee. She advised that most were American Express cards and were were all going to be taken to court. She further advised that the two honest parents were now receiving free daycare through the end of the year and the rest of us would be going to court. The conversation went back and forth and we were getting nowhere. I asked her how they could claim fraud when in good faith I gave them my credit card every single month for processing and I maintained a limit so that when the charges went through they would process. Additionally, according to the American Express Merchant Terms and Conditions, they have a full year to process the credit charges. Had I gone in and paid cash as Samantha suggested, when they processed the cards, I would end up being double charged for the full six months as Amex advised. In the end, she advised that I should probably just talk to the owner, which is actually who I left the message for in the first place.
I talked to the owner, Debbie Tilley, and she was actually very pleasant. She advised that they did not know that the charges were not taking and personally she could not figure out why that location was doing so poorly. She advised that they had over $36,000 in credit card charges that were not processed. I advised that I had told TJ way back in January 2004 that the charge was not hitting my statement and he simply advised that it was between the equipment and Wells Fargo. Debbie advised that they did not know that there was some nightly download between the equipment and Wells Fargo so none of the charges were processed. She advised that once they reprocessed everything, they were actually making a profit and she was going to be able to do Xmas bonuses. Debbie herself did not mention anything about pressing charges and just advised that she'd research my claim that I was over charged $533.
This evening, I pulled up my online statement to see if Debbie had time to research and recredit my account back. I was very dismayed to see that besides the $3,731 charged to my card on November 23, 2004, they have reprocessed my ROC's again from their Taylorsville location for an amount of $1,850. I know that it's the Taylorsville location because the credit card statement shows the number (801)265-2489 next to the charge. I called the number and was told the location name. The entire six months my daughter attended their daycare, it was always at the Kearns location on 6200 South. I'm now very concerned about employee fraud if they're processing my card at two locations on different days resulting now in an over chare of $2,398.50.
I've already called American Express and disputed all the charges in December. We did use their services from December 2003 - May 2004 and I'm not disputing the $3,198 (6 months at $533). But, they seem to have problems internally and they're making consumers suffer for their lack of training on processing credit cards and/or creative accounting practices.
I'm concerned because if they had over $36,000 in outstanding charges, I'm not the only one that is impacted by their training issues. As I said above, I'm not disputing the $3,198, I'm disputing the other $2,398.50 they've processed to my card.
When I called the Taylorsville location, they did give me Deborah home phone number (801)254-7713. I did call Deborah on Tuesday and she assured me that she'd look into the situation but I've seen no results. Now, I'm looking at a total of $2,398.50 overcharge. I've also filed formal complaint charges with the Better Business Bureau.
Carma
West Valley, Utah
U.S.A.