ridiculous business practice

[rh71]

I moved into my house at the end of 2002 and signed an agreement with my oil company for free service & maintenance as long as I pay for the oil at a set per gallon price. That lasted all of 2003.

Last week, they send me an invoice for the maintenance and service = $217 for year 2004. I call up and ask why they're charging when this service is free with every oil company out there. The lady says, ok... what we're doing is have the customers pay only a portion of it... so it'd just be the $50. I continue to question why it isn't free like everyone else. She transfers me to sales and immediately they say ok we can take that off. I had to confirm it was completely free and that there's no contract to be signed for it.

Unbelievable. They went from trying to get $217, to $50, to free in a matter of 3 minutes. What gets me more is that on the bottom of the invoice, it says if we're on the budget plan (set price auto-deducted per month to round out monthly payments) then this price is already included.

Well it's a good g-damn thing I chose to pay per fill-up and only what I owe then, huh ? Fvkctards. They're one of the biggest oil companies serving LI too.

 

[Alchemist99]

nice negotiating skilzzzzs!!!!!!!!!!

 

[McCarthy]

Prof once brought up a study done on people paying bills. Can't remember the details now, dangit. Anyway the gist of it was say 1000 fake bills were sent out and 20% were returned with payment. There's no cost to try to do shady billing, little risk of losing customers, and little risk of legal action so the only surprising part is that every business doesn't do it.

 

[Fritoz]

I subscribe to an industry magazine at work, and they send us an invoice about every two months. The expiration date is nowhere to be found, and if you call the CSR all they can tell you is the month it expires and not the year. The scam here is that many companies simply forward invoices to accounting and if you don't have a sharp AP person they'll pay these without a second glance. I wouldn't be surprised to learn there are companies out there who are subscribed to this mag through 2027...! 😀

 

[apac]

Reminds me of when one of Buy.com's (I think it was) computer monitors had a pricing glitch that everyone took advantage of, and then sent out bills to every person who ordered one expecting them to pay the difference between the retail price and the glitch. I guarantee you that they got some people to send them money too.

Bastards.