"what do you mean I get punished for NOT paying?!"

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I am done my call center job now thank goodness, but quite frequently during my time there I ended up on a call that went something like this:

SC: You have my charged here for extra minutes, I NEVER go over my minutes, you need to take those charges off!
Me: Well sir this does indicate you used 212 minutes over what was in your plan.
SC: No I didn't! That's bullshit, I never go over minutes, your system is messed up.
Me: Ok, let's take a look here.... (at this point I check to make sure mobile to mobile and evening and weekend minutes are billing correctly since setup errors for these items are a common cause of disputed overage, inevitably both seem normal). Well sir, everything appears to be billing correctly, it looks like you did actually use that many minutes.
SC: NO I didn't, I told you I never go over my minutes and I meant it!
Me: Sir these are valid charges, I can't give you a credit for them.
SC: Now you listen here, my bill without these extra minutes is $65, that's all you'll be getting from me, not a penny more. I'm not paying for minutes I didn't use.

Let's pause here a moment. The "I'm not paying" line was always said really sternly. I think the customer was hoping that by taking a stand and deciding not to pay, I'd magically credit them the charges just to break the stalemate, unfortunately they were wrong..


Me: Whether or not you pay is up to you sir, but if you choose not to pay those charges, you will accumulate late fees and if you continue to not pay, your account will eventually be sent to collections and your credit rating will go down.
SC: WHAT??? You can't do that to me, these charges are a MISTAKE!
(You mean you didn't realize that not paying would have CONSEQUENCES?? Shocking)
Me: No they are not sir and if you choose not to pay them you will be penalized accordingly.
SC: You can't do this to me! Get me your supervisor!

Sup gets on the call, repeats to the SC basically verbatim everything I said, SC gets angry and hangs up.

It never ceased to amaze me how many people were stunned that they would face late fees and other penalties for NOT paying a bill. This is one of the most basic concepts of society and yet it seems to slip past a surprisingly large group of morons.

[lightmylamb]

Late fees seem to be some of the worst news you can give people. It's always adults that have the problems, too. If a kid keeps a movie late (note:Kid, not teenager) they come in and pay it, but adults will just whine whine whine. "I was only a day late!" "That's ridiculous! You never mentioned the price of late fees every single time I've rented, or even when you made me sign that contract when I first signed up!" or the one I got today "I came to your store [an hour after it closed as posted on the door] and dropped off my movies, but the store was already closed!"

Bah. These people are adults, I tell them specifically when they need to have their movies back, let them know of the late fees they may accumulate, and still they don't see why they should pay.

People are dumbasses.

[marasbaras]

SC: NO I didn't, I told you I never go over my minutes and I meant it!
Me: Apparently you did, sir.

[Bright_Star]

You have to be some kind of moron to think that if you go over your minutes that you don't need to pay it. It's all spelled out in your contract BEFORE you even get the phone.
Ignorance is not an excuse.

[depechemodefan]

Late fees seem to be some of the worst news you can give people. It's always adults that have the problems, too. If a kid keeps a movie late (note:Kid, not teenager) they come in and pay it, but adults will just whine whine whine. "I was only a day late!"

We let people borrow books for 2 weeks. That is 14 days, so if someone checked something out on a Wed then technically it should be due back on a Tues. But someone can argue about that. Ok, woman comes in, returns something and says she checked out the book at 2pm on Wed. (whatever date) so really, it should be 24 hours after 2pm that it was due back (two weeks latter), so it should be due back before 2pm Thur. I felt like counting the hours for her, showing her how many hours 2 weeks had.

Another time a person called on Sept. 1 and said that there was a book he wanted but it was due Sept. 15. Why did the person who checked it out get an extra day? Um, because Sept. 1+14 days=Sept. 15?

[smileyeagle1021]

Late fees seem to be some of the worst news you can give people. It's always adults that have the problems, too. If a kid keeps a movie late (note:Kid, not teenager) they come in and pay it, but adults will just whine whine whine. "I was only a day late!" "That's ridiculous! You never mentioned the price of late fees every single time I've rented, or even when you made me sign that contract when I first signed up!" or the one I got today "I came to your store [an hour after it closed as posted on the door] and dropped off my movies, but the store was already closed!"

Bah. These people are adults, I tell them specifically when they need to have their movies back, let them know of the late fees they may accumulate, and still they don't see why they should pay.

People are dumbasses.

in all fairness to the guy who came in and dropped it off after closing... I can see that being not sucky, if they are usually good about getting it in on time and they are nice about it (and I'll admit I've done it before, but I went in and didn't demand anything, just asked if it was possible to pay a reduced fee for getting it in after the store closed... and here's a newsflash to SCs because I was nice about it the store employee said, you know what, we wouldn't have been able to rent it out last night anyway had you gotten it in on time and only charged half the late fee... I can guarantee though had I gone all SC on him he'd have not budged an inch and charged the full amount).

all the other people just suck and have no excuse

[Andara Bledin]

the one I got today "I came to your store [an hour after it closed as posted on the door] and dropped off my movies, but the store was already closed!"

I don't think I've ever rented with a company that didn't count before opening the next day as the same as the day before. I know that Hollywood didn't charge me when I did that.

Although, to be honest, I was usually late with my returns. And, guess what? When I went back to get more movies, I'd just ask how much I needed to pay to get more movies, and they'd usually knock it down to some pittance and I'd pay it, and we'd all be happy.

These days, though, I just do Netflix. They don't care if I keep a movie for a month because I haven't gotten around to watching it.

^-.-^