Here's an amusing little story about ordinary people getting screwed, and having their bank wave bye-bye as they sink
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This is one of those adorably alarming (alarmingly adorable?) "human interest" stories you always find on your local news, or (as in this case) on AOL, only with some paranoid-leftist ranting tacked on:
Burger King Charges $4,334 for Four Burgers
PALMDALE, Calif. (March 29) - Four burgers at his neighborhood Burger King cost George Beane a whopping $4,334.33.
Beane ordered two Whopper Jr.s and two Rodeo cheeseburgers when he pulled up to the drive-through window last Tuesday. The cashier, however, forgot that she'd entered the $4.33 charge on his debit card and punched in the numbers again without erasing the original ones - thus creating a four-figure bill.
The electronic charge went through to George and Pat Beane's Bank of America checking account and left the couple penniless. Their mortgage payment was due and they worried checks they had written would bounce, Pat Beane said.
"We were thinking, 'No, not now!"' she said of the overcharge.
Terri Woody, the restaurant manager, said Burger King officials tried to get the charge refunded. But the bank said the funds were on a three-day hold and could not be released, Pat Beane said.
The hold is designed to prevent customers from spending money that no longer is available in their accounts and to let the bank confirm a transaction is legitimate before transferring funds, said Bank of America supervisor Joel Solorio.
Burger King did not charge the Beanes for their meal, and the couple got their $4,334.33 back on Friday.
"For those three days, those were the most expensive value burgers in history," Pat Beane said.
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Now for a touch of left-wing how-dare-they fist-shaking:
No doubt the reporter hasn't correctly explained the three-day hold on these funds-in-transit. But whatever the actual explanation is, one thing is clear: Whoever is being protected, it doesn't include the bank's own depositor! Seems it's open season on that poor sumbitch. You would think that this is one case where one of those phony-baloney "holds" might actually come in handy—enabling the bank to correct an obvious error, which Burger King seems to have been trying its best to facilitate, in order to spare itself even larger embarrassment. But apparently you would think wrong.
No, it appears that the official bank attitude toward its customer is: F--- you!
posted by KenInNY @ 2:04 PM
4 comments
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4 Comments:
I'll never get used to getting screwed and everytime I spend a dime I wince knowing somebody is fucking me. "I got your back" is gone from the lexicon and everybody I see looks like a con man. I despise what we stand for. I wonder will America return to sanity. I want to unionize every sorry ass company ripping me off.
I want to take the profits of every con-company and burn them with the ceo's on the floors of every bank in America. Suckers are paying huge dollars in interest and we act like it's business as usual. Well it is of course but it doesn't have to be this way.
The ugly ceo monster needs to get off the teat of the con.
Recently I refinanced my home to pay off a business loan and watched as the bank representative (who couldn't make it to the signing herself so I called her on the phone) acted confused when the terms of the agreement were different at the signing table than they were when we discussed the terms. Of course, at the closing attorney's office, the law firm "representative" (not the attorney) didn't catch the problem, didn't even know a problem existed even as she sat there and read the terms along with me.
When I stopped the procedure and told her the problem, she too thought it a bit off. But she and the loan officer on the phone were only there to have me sign the papers. The terms meant little to them and the charge for the attorney's service was about $450. So I looked at the sorry law clerk who sat across from me at the table and told her to get back with the bank's loan officer and fix it and maybe I'll return for another signing. Maybe being the operative word. My credit score is 798 average between the 3 agency's. But what they saw was a guy who needed to pay off a business loan to stop the bleeding. I'm thinking they consciously decided to put the terms in better favor for the bank and if I don't catch it, all the better for them. The point is, no matter what the credit score, the bank is going to try to leverage every move when making a loan and they'll deliberately fuck anyone. This loan officer from the bank had the personal experience and authority to act as the underwriter as well, meaning, she alone could decide on the terms as she saw fit, so long as the terms fit somehow into the banks extensive policy plans.
I signed on the line after the contract was cleaned up, which took all of about 20 more minutes at the table. I wanted to spit on the table. I wanted to tell them to go fuck themselves for what they tried to do. But I didn't. I simply expressed my displeasure. Essentially I got what I needed and that was enough. But the distrust I have for people in general is sad.
It's every man and woman for themselves now in America. Thank GOD we have a constitution to fight for because I can't imagine raising a finger to protect the conmen and women of this country.
Watch for them. They're everywhere. They come wrapped in the flag and they talk about how good a deal this is.
Thanks for sharing that, Tim. This is an even better example of Your Friendly Bank at Work. Thank goodness you had the attention to detail to catch what they were trying to pull and the wherewithal and stubbornness to have it put right.
On the political level, this is just another example of why "pro-business" Republicans (and Democrats, for that matter) AREN'T good for business, I'm sorry, but dealing with customers the way you were dealt with--working from the principle that the only test of acceptability in business practices is whether you can get away with it--just is NOT "good for business." (The Enron boys did way more than their share of "getting away with," but it didn't really work out all that well in the end for Enron or most anyone else. It would be interesting to see an attempt to tot up the total cost, including such incidentals as the rigged California energy crisis.)
Another demonstration of why and how American business needs protection from its "friends" in govenrment.
K
keninny,
ESPECIALLY in the banking business, ethics are falling apart. No bank should be allowed to charge ANYONE, no matter what credit score, those huge interest rates! It really is legal theft and robbery. I'm fortunate to have a great credit score but for the poor who don't, they only excell people into poverty while they get richer.
On a more positive note, an entire banking institution in my community was forced out of business and the executives are now enjoying the comfort of a 6x6 prison cell for making shady deals with an area home builder. Many unfortunate people were left with no deeds on their newly built homes. The owners now enjoy reading the sordid details in the paper about a family home building company and how even the family members turned on one another AND the bank! lol
This happened to me, in a little bit of a different manner. I ate dinner with my family at a restaurant and picked up the bill with my credit card. I left my tip in cash, so I left the "tip" slot on the credit card receipt blank. Well, apparently my server saw a golden opportunity, because it ended up that the charge on my bill was $35 more than the reciept I had. It took two months and a formal American Express chargeback before I got that $35 back; even though I had the carbon of the original reciept that shows I left the "tip" field blank.
As far as your friend that had problems with the terms of his business loan changing from phone-to-table, I would implore you to find ANY financial situation that ISN'T that way-- always read what your signing, because nine times out of ten, you are being screwed!!
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