| April 10, 2001 It all started last September. When Medifast evidently converted their accounting system. Evidently not a failsafe process. Medifast accounting called me - seems they had a mix-up on a check number and they needed to clarify the numbers. It was a phone check. They couldn't cash it. I don't even know what that is. I do business with a Visa card. I told them so. It wasn't my check. It wasn't my order. Wrong product. Not only that, but since they were on the line, I asked about a wayward mail order that I HAD placed that I had never received. I have called about it before. They had no record of the order. I need to trail the check. (Different items, different amount.) This became even more confusing when an order arrived that I did not place. Four boxes of orange stuff. Not Medifast Plus. I finally got through to someone with a brain. I thought. Seems my account and another woman's - whose name was spelled differently but similar - a woman who lived down South (I am in California) - well, our records were crossed. This person had sorted it out, had identified the other customer, and told me they would send UPS to pick up the bogus order. She promised to straighten it all out. I put the box outside and it was picked up. I thought it was all taken care of. I was busy in November with my son trying to die on me a few times (cancer, Spinal Meningitis) so Medifast's problem was not, as you can imagine, a priority concern. Until we realized that I had gained 30 lbs. over the nine months of my son's incarceration in the hospital (stress will do that) and needed to get back on a radical diet. So I placed an order "same as last time". Last time was 14 boxes of Medifast plus and two boxes of snack bars (for when a mix won't work) and it was on Visa. The last order was months and months ago. I get an accounting statement showing I was billed and everything is paid for. Every time. I have them on file. Well, I got an order a few days later. Small box. Uh oh! I smell a rat! It was the match to that first bogus order. I called and left a message - I was ballistic. It was too late for a human. I was ballistic because I ALSO got a call that evening from a collection agency - looking for the amount of that "phone check"! Oh no you don't guys! I reamed out the collection agency too- sorry, not my check. Not my bill. And I already told them so. Etc. (What I did not say was that I will invoice at $200.00 per hour for all future calls. And I will.) Big clue - my name is not spelled right. I did not give my name's spelling to the collection agency. If they don't have it, they don't get it. Until they get a bill. I once before was called by a collection service, years ago, for some purchase at Wards, and they read off a social security number - not mine. I simply said it was not my number - and I never told them what mine was. It also helped that I didn't have an account there either. Can't ever remember having one. That first time those people call you is unnerving. Especially when you know you don't owe anything. End of that. Never "help " them. Not when it isn't your bill. They are paid to collect. From whomever they can intimidate. I pay my own bills, thank you. And I have enough of them all by myself. Don't need to take on someone else's. Try $6,000 for my son's hearing aides! And insurance doesn't cover that! (My visa is whimpering in my wallet again.) On second thought, I'll pay hers - if she pays mine! I simplified my wallet years ago - I carry three credit cards. I use one. Two are for back-up. Seldom used - unless I am tracking a purchase on purpose. Easy to check things that way. Damned easy to find tax records. And having an extra one is needed since I have been known to leave my credit card on top of the car at the gas station and drive off - strewing it on the highway somewhere. (Ever since I did that I put the credit card in my bra when I get gas - and sometimes forget it and it falls out at night! But, that's another story.) Well, I spoke to a human at Medifast the next day - and went through all of this. Again! The bogus order before. The call on someone else's check. The other phone calls to sort this out. etc. etc. etc. And had them set up a NEW customer order entry for me, (close the old, end the confusion), to check that my Visa was not billed for the bogus order, get my order placed (now a week late) and tell me how I was to return the bogus order, which had not come UPS this time but by priority mail. They set up the new account (she said), were heading to accounting to straighten things out, and placed my new order with my Visa. They would also see that I was not being called on the "check" anymore. I hadn't discussed the collection agency yet. That's next. My, my, but the order STILL is not here. And it should have been. Neither are the directions for the return. The bogus order is about 4 boxes - mine is 16 boxes - about $200. A big square box. Usually UPS Ground. You would think there would be a motivation to get this on track. You would think. But this time I have a phone number and extension. I kept them. And this time I am really, really pissed. Because I still need to lose 30 lbs. Stay tuned...... |
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