Article: 3478 of alt.sysadmin.recovery From: logan@cs.utexas.edu (Logan Shaw) Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery Subject: Re: Variety, the spice of programming recovery Date: 15 Apr 2001 01:54:57 -0500 Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin Lines: 68 Sender: logan@charity.cs.utexas.edu Approved: I think I do... Message-ID: <9bbgk1$cat$1@charity.cs.utexas.edu> References: <9b71rq$mqt$3@news.panix.com> <9bb258$7j5$1@atlas.dgp.toronto.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: charity.cs.utexas.edu X-Trace: news.cs.utexas.edu 987317727 29425 128.83.144.122 (15 Apr 2001 06:55:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@cs.utexas.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 06:55:27 +0000 (UTC) Path: news.meer.net!sea-read.news.verio.net!dfw-artgen.news.verio.net!dfw-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!newsfeed.mathworks.com!newsxfer.eecs.umich.edu!news.cc.utah.edu!newsfeed.cs.utexas.edu!news.cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail Xref: archive.mv.meer.net alt.sysadmin.recovery:3478 In article <9bb258$7j5$1@atlas.dgp.toronto.edu>, Alan J Rosenthal wrote: >Just as a data point, I personally have no fucking idea when my credit cards >expire. Before one expires, the credit card company will send me a new one. s/will/should/ They're also supposed to send you bills, but that didn't stop one company from failing to send me two months' bills and then sending me a couple of nasty letters saying my account was past due, they were going to send it to a collection agency, etc. Of course, when I got the nasty letters, I called them up and asked them why they thought I owed them money, and if so why they hadn't sent me a bill for the last few months. I also told them I'd be happy to pay any money I owed them if they would send me a bill detailing what charges I had made and so on. They answered that they had sent the bills, but they didn't get there because apparently I hadn't given them the right address. I asked them how they reconciled this with the fact that I'd received several bills from them at the same address in the past and that obvously I'd recently received two more letters, since that was the reason for my phone call. They didn't seem to have much of an explanation for this. I suggested it might have had something to do with their having been bought by another company and reorganized during those two months that I did not receive a bill. They acted very surprised that I had suggested this, as they were confident it was well beyond the realm of possibility. Then, they announced a dollar amount and that they expected me to pay it right away. I can't recall, but I think at this point I may have said that lots of people expect many things, and that for instance I had expected to receive bills from them, but that lots of people are often disappointed when the things they expect do not come to pass. I eventually did pay the money, since after all I owed it to them, but not exactly right away. On the other hand, there is my NG&G Havirefny Pneq. I can't recall any kind of accounting or billing mistake at all so far in the 6 or 7 years I've had the card, and not only that, but their customer service is often pretty helpful. Just last week, I called them because my payment was due in only 5 days, and I was definitely not confident the US Postal Service would get it there in time, so to avoid the late penalty, I was going to pay by telephone[1]. While they could have had their $4.95 fee for the pay by phone service, instead they volunteered to give a five day extension on the due date. Maybe I'm not cynical enough, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. They could be doing it to make it easier for me to slip into the habit of paying bills late, which would get them more revenue from penalties and interest in the long run, but this seems a little far fetched. (Or at least I hope it is.) And once in the past, they waived the late penalty because I usually pay on time. I'm starting to conclude that they are actually trying to keep me as a customer by providing better service than the other guys. Boy, that is such a weird and alien feeling. - Logan [1] In the US at least, you can pay by check over the telephone. You just tell them the account number, routing number, and amount and they do it. Just how exactly this is supposed to be secure, I don't know, but since not using it isn't going to make it any more secure, I sometimes do use it to avoid a late penalty. -- my your his her our their _its_ I'm you're he's she's we're they're _it's_