Recently I made a monthly payment
plan for a medical bill online. The first installment was paid on the 11th
and payments would be automatically taken on the 10th of each month.
This was fine. Now I get a letter saying the next installment will be taken on
the 29th then on the 29th of each month. What? No! I
specifically signed up for the 10th because it’s when I have some
extra money. The end of the month is rent time paycheck. Now I have to call and
fix their error.
This actually all started a couple of
weeks ago, we I called and left a message that I wanted to set up the payment
plan. Did I get a call back? Of course not, so I decide to set it up myself on
their website.
Back to today. I make my first call
at 2:30 pm, they close for the day at 4:30 pm; no one answers, I have to leave a
message. I wait 30 minutes then call back, again no answer. Now they are interrupting
my Judge Judy time. About 20 minutes later, I call again, but decide to try a
different extension, no one answers, another message is left. Now it’s about an
hour before they close. I call the general hospital number and tell them I need
to talk to someone in financial service today because I’m going on vacation and
I need to get the issue resolved before I go. I don’t want money taken out
while I’m on vacation, and I don’t want to have to be dealing with this when I supposed
to be time for relaxation.
The operator transfers me to one of
the finance counselors, same thing. I call backed, she tries another, same
thing. I call back and ask for the manager of the department, same thing. I
call back, and ask to be transferred to the next higher up. She transfers me to
the Finance Director. She doesn’t answer, but I leave her a message about the
time wasted trying to get an actual person on the phone. I let her know I have
left multiple messages, only to have no one call me back. It’s ridiculous. It’s
now after 4pm and I try again to get in touch with the original person (the one
who is assigned my case). Finally, someone picks up the phone, “Hello”, is all
that is said. No greeting to let you know who and where you are calling. “Is
this Lupe”, I question. It is. Finally, an actual person on the other end of
the line, and it only took just over an hour and a half. I explain why I was
calling and let her know the terrible time I had to get someone to answer the
phone. When she says that it’s been a busy day, I let her know I called her two
weeks ago, but never received a call back.
In the end, I was finally able to get
the payment date changed to the original day I had chosen. We shouldn’t have to
work so hard to talk to an actual person and not just hear recordings and their
voice mail prompting to leave your message and we will return the call shortly.
There were six people who could have answered a phone, plus the supervisor and
director. No one could be bothered.
Yes, I wasted time and energy, but I’m
glad I was persistent and got the problem fix before my relaxation time.
This is often what businesses do because inevitably people miss a payment and then they can charge fees. Report the business to BBB
ReplyDeleteDang...thank goodness you were persistent! I hate it when I have to deal with calling companies to modify or correct something. It always takes forever!
ReplyDelete