My husband had carefully laid on the table my share of the day’s mail: a statement from the insurance company and a plain, white envelope. It didn’t look very interesting, but I slit it open anyway and pulled out a single page with three or four paragraphs of greeting and explanation. At some time in the past, a credit card company, which I quit using many years ago, had charged me for a service from a third company. I had signed up for these services and later canceled said services. The letter concluded that they had failed to follow through on their end of the deal and they owed me the cash they returned with the check at the bottom of the letter.
The check covered about what I earn after a couple of days at the office.
Swee-eet! I was mighty glad I had opened that envelope even though it did not look any different than the dunning notes the other person had never opened.
I showed it to my husband.
“Maybe it is a trick? You cash that and you suddenly become responsible for a whole lot of other things?” he suggested.
My smile drooped.
I had done this once. As I placed an online order a box popped up offering me a few dollars back. All I had to do was click “Yes!” I forget the details, but I do know that a couple of credit card statements later, I noticed an charge that simply did not make sense. I knew that I had not shopped or ordered anything from that particular address.
I began making calls and quickly tracked down the origin of the bill. They politely explained that when I purchased Item B from Company C, I had clicked the “yes” button for a couple dollars savings and signed up for this charge.
I told them I didn’t want it. Of course, being a sales company I had to tell them “I do not want this” a couple of times before they would listen.
However, this check came from a credit card company I had not used in years. I only vaguely remembered having used their card. I went to the Internet and began searching for the specific companies they mentioned in conjunction with the overcharge or the extra services. In about 15 minutes I had found several websites.
“Look here,” I called to my husband. “This report says that the company has agreed to repay millions to customers in New York State for services not rendered. Interesting, but that is not Arkansas.”
I searched further and found a site explaining the company and the services. It still did not offer anything that I wanted.
A couple more searches and there it was: the company mentioned in my letter had agreed to repay $30 million to customers in 46 states and the District of Colombia for services that they said they would provide, but had failed to do so.
Perhaps that connects with an event many, many years ago. I noticed a charge that did not make sense to me on the credit card and called the company.
“Well, you signed up for a year of this service that lets you know about lots of ways to save money.”
“Oh. But I haven’t used it in a year, so I do not want it now.”
Of course, the company person wanted to discuss that. “Maybe if you tried for a couple more months now that you know about it?” She suggested.
Except for the charge on the credit card I literally never saw anything from that company, so I asked, “I haven’t used it yet, why will I in the future?”
We canceled the account and I kissed those misspent funds good-bye.
Over the years, I assume others discovered they had believed and agreed and began asking serious accounting and legal questions. However, no mention is made of a lawsuit in the new reports or the letter. Nothing is said about a settlement. All I really know is that Company X agreed to send me the check which filled in a spot or two in the budget. That works for me.
(Joan Hershberger is a staff writer at the News-Times and author of “Twenty Gallons of Milk and Other Columns from the El Dorado News-Times.” Email her at joanh@everybody.org.)