Error leads to hefty finance charge

By NANCY PARADIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 4, 2000

I bought some items from Radio Shack in Holiday on Nov. 13. The gentleman who waited on us said we could get a discount if we got a Radio Shack credit card, so we filled out the form for the cards. To make a long story short, we never did receive the cards, nor did we ever get a statement from Radio Shack until May 23. Radio Shack had given its credit card company an incorrect address. I found this out after receiving a call on March 10 asking for our address. By that time, I had forgotten all about the purchase.

I immediately went to the store to ask the salesman to look up our application, and it did not have any mistakes on it. While there, I went ahead and paid the purchase amount of $217.06. The salesman said to not pay any interest as it was the store's fault. I had never received any statements.

The $217.06 payment was on the statement that arrived in May, but so was a balance of $50.53 from accumulated finance charges. I cannot get this corrected, even though I have spoken to several people who tell me I should not pay this and that it will be deducted. Thank you very much for whatever you can do for me. Dorothy Eastman

Response: You're welcome. According to Mindy Smith, spokeswoman for Associates, the credit card issuing bank, a mistake was made when your address was initially entered. This has now been corrected and the bank offers its apologies. You do not have to pay the interest.

Some disagreement

I worked for American Home Loans from around February to March. David Morris agreed to pay for long-distance phone calls I had to make to clients from my home. The total unpaid balance is $27.52. He agreed he would pay this amount within one to three days after receiving my phone bill. That was nearly four months ago. I have left several messages on his answering machine, but not once has he tried to contact me. Melisa Meade

Response: David Morris of American Home Loans said you entered into a business agreement with him on Feb. 26 whereby you agreed to interview people on the phone and he agreed to pay your long-distance charges. You also agreed that you would call "strictly" on Monday through Thursday evenings, starting at 6 p.m. and finishing at 9 p.m. He said that since he had to commit to train you for two days, he did not want to get involved with someone who was not committing to the work schedule.

He said he has no problem paying you for the long distance charges you incurred. He sent a check for $17.70 to Action which we will forward to you. He continued, however, that although he has been accountable for his side of the agreement, he thinks that you should be also. Having carefully reviewed your telephone bills, he said you came nowhere close to working the days and hours you agreed to, and upon which he based his decision to train you. He said you vanished and after he tracked you down, you said you were no longer interested in working for him.

Since you broke your side of the verbal contract, he said he feels you owe him $200 for the four hours of training time he incurred, at $50 an hour. At first Morris asked Action to hold his check to you until you made restitution to him. Then he said we could send the check, that he did not really care.

We noted a discrepancy in the amount you said he owed you for long-distance charges and the amount of his check. Adding up the charges for the calls you made, we came up with the amount of his check, $17.70. Although this does not include any applicable, and relatively minimal, taxes, we cannot account for the nearly $10 difference in the figure you supplied. We also noted that you worked on four days only, for a total of six hours and 40 minutes.

Action solves problems and gets answers for you. If you have a question, or your own attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, (727) 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, (800) 333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request.

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