Perhaps a more important question to ask is, "Am I pissed off? If so, why?"

Well, I just found that half a container of sour cream in my fridge went bad on me. Tried dipping a chip in it, and it was... sour. In a bad way. Damn thing said "Best Before May 16" on the lid. I just bought it last week! And I haven't been leaving it out for any long periods of time. Certainly no more than 20 minutes every now and then. So much for Truth in Advertising. Yuck.

Got an unexpected phone call at work today. A credit card company, informing me that my "past due balance" had been sent to a collection agency, and damn near demanding that I give them a router number for my bank account over the phone from which they would extract the "amount that's due," including some ridiculously excessive late fees. WTF?

I had been wondering why they hadn't sent me a bill lately. (Looking at my gnucash now, I see that the last time I sent payment was... January!?! Yikes.)

Of course, even if I had had such information on hand, I wasn't about to give it to them. I asked why I hadn't been sent any bills, and said I would be happy to pay "what I owed" (ignoring, for the moment, any late fees caused by their lack of competence in billing me), if I could simply be sent a statement.

"You haven't gotten received the bills? Let's verify your address." So she proceeded to read what was in their records for my account. Well, the street name was almost right. "Avenue, not Drive", I corrected. The post office may or may not have been able to figure it out, had that been the only error. But the street number was an entire digit off. 9, not 8! That would certainly keep it from being delivered.

I can just envision the scenario. Some minimum wage data entry drone received my change of address form, didn't give a rats ass about doing a decent job, hit a key directly adjacent to the one that was required, which then triggered a chain of events leading up to the phone call I received today.

Now, ignoring the incompetence of their own workforce, the company (Target Visa, aka Retailers National Bank, if anyone is interested) thinks that I should not only be inconvenienced, but be required to pay them some ridiculous amount for each month that they did not send things to the correct address.

She said she would send a statement to the updated address, but warned that it might not make it in time to avoid incurring another late fee. Hence, the request for direct access to my bank. This was AFTER she realized that THEY had screwed up the address. Plain as day. Still threating me with MORE bullshit? The NERVE of that BITCH.

Ahem. [Bitscape takes two deep breaths.]

I requested that my account be canceled, but said that I am willing to pay the amount I owe. (I strongly suspect it differs significantly from the amount they think I owe.) I gave my "new home phone" on my cell. (It occurred to me that they may have attempted to reach me at my disconnected QPest line, although I don't remember if I gave that information.)

In fairness, the situation could probably have been averted had I been more proactive upon not receiving any bills in the mail. I do remember absently thinking a few weeks ago that it had been a while since I got a bill for that card, but I didn't realize it had been that long.

My theoretical plan at this point is that I will, when I receive the statement (and it better be within the next week, or THEY will be getting a call from ME), I will review what's on it. After checking the statement, I will likely be making a call to their customer service department. This time, being prepared in advance, I will attempt a bit of diplomacy. If I am lucky, maybe I will get to talk to someone who is slightly more reasonable, and convince them that since someone in their company made the error, at least knock off the penalty fees.

Haha, likely story, I know.

What pisses me off about the entire situation is I am virtually in a position of zero power, regardless of who screwed up. It's lose, lose. Assuming nobody at the company will see reason, I have two choices: Pay late fees, or don't pay them. If I pay, I get screwed up the ass out of $$. Don't pay what I morally shouldn't owe, and a big black mark appears on my credit report (in fact, that may have happened already, before they even contacted me, which is REALLY fucked up).

If I wanted to get ridiculously pedantic, I could take them to court. But even if were to win in small claims, the mony saved would be nothing compared to time spent and legal fees. (Besides, the only evidence in existence that I sent them the correct address would be in their possession.)

The only card I can play is: Do they want to keep me as a customer? I intend to use what miniscule (if any) leverage that may provide. But in the cynical truth, anyone I talk to on the phone probably doesn't care one way or another, and neither do their superiors. Blah.

The lesson learned here: Stay the fsck away from credit card companies whenever possible! Keep your dealings with them to a bare minimum. They are evil. They are the mob.

Moving on...

[Bitscape suddenly realizes that it's time for the brand new Buffy to start. Runs out of the room, and turns the tv on just in time to see the end of the recap, followed by a shot of Willow and Tara smooching naked under the covers in bed. Yum yum. (Am I a crude perverted virgin, or what?) Returns during the commercials to type this.]

Looks like the beginnings of another killer episode. Buh bye.