We have a customer who is terrible at paying on time. If it was decent money, maybe it would be okay, but we’re talking less than $100 a month. Our credit terms are thirty days following invoice month.

In June, I notice that this customer hasn’t paid an April bill for $25. I call and email and get no response. This gets the account put on stop credit. I continue to call and email, chasing payment. I finally receive a response at the end of July.

Customer: “Travelling in the states — will pay when I am back.”

Fast forward to September after many more calls and emails chasing payment. A man walks up the stairs and asks the receptionist why the sales staff sent him to us.

Receptionist: “Oh, it’s because there’s a small overdue balance on your account.”

Customer: “Yes, I know. I got your emails. Why is my account on stop credit? It’s only $25! This is pathetic! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SPEND HERE?!”

Receptionist: “Well, I’m sorry, but it’s company policy. If you settle the bill, we can take the account off stop.”

Customer: “But it’s such a small amount, and I told you why it wasn’t paid, so why am I on stop?!”

At this point, he is yelling very loudly at the tiny little old lady receptionist and I’ve had enough, I don’t think he’s noticed me at my back corner desk in the office. Also, I’m younger, stockier, and taller than him, and I was printing his invoice while this was starting.

Me: “Actually, that was me. I was the one emailing you, and I put the account on stop. Since you were out of the country, I thought it best to avoid any fraudulent activity until we knew you were back, so now we can reopen it. We just need the balance paid and you’re all set.”

Customer: “HOW DARE YOU EVER PUT MY ACCOUNT ON STOP CREDIT?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SPEND?! I’VE BEEN A CUSTOMER FOR FIFTY YEARS! I’VE SPENT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HERE! THIS IS DISGRACEFUL I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! I’LL NEVER DARKEN YOUR DOORS AGAIN!”

Me: “I’m very sorry about this. Let’s go downstairs and process payment of this account so we can close it for you.”

This whole thing started at 4:55. We are supposed to finish at 5:00, but we got stuck at work being yelled at by this man-child until 5:15. None of the men downstairs came up to try to calm him down. (Both of us office staff members are women.)

And after two months, the man came back and the manager took his account off stop credit, which meant I had to call him repeatedly for the next year that I stayed with the company. 

He was and still is a jerk.

My electric bill is automatically pulled from my bank account on the fifth of each month. On the seventh, I get an email saying I have a past-due balance of $0.70 and will be charged a $5.00 late fee with my next billing cycle. I call the company.

Employee: “Thank you for calling [Electric Company] billing department. This is [Employee]. Could I have your account number and the account holder’s name?”

Me: “I am [My Name], and the account number is [number].”

Employee: “Thank you. How can I help you?”

Me: “I got an email saying I had a past-due balance, but—”

Employee: “Yes, I see that. Would you like to pay now?”

Me: “I was billed for [amount]; I paid [amount] through automatic billing. Where is this extra $0.70 coming from?”

Employee: “You must have paid less.”

Me: “Okay. I’d like to talk to someone else.”

Employee: “I can do that, but they’ll only tell you the same thing.”

Me: “I’ll hold.”

I listen to ten minutes of hold music.

Supervisor: “Hello, thank you for holding. How can I help you?”

Me: “Yes. I was billed [amount], which I paid by automatic withdrawal from my banking account, but now I have an overdue bill of $0.70 and a fee of $5.00.”

Supervisor: *Heavy sigh* “I understand. Our system went through an update around the time the automatic billing was drafted. I am so sorry. I can’t give you any credit for future billing, unfortunately, but I can erase this issue.”

Me: “That’s good enough for me. Thank you for fixing this.”

Supervisor: “Thank you for being so understanding. You’re not the first to have this issue, and I’m sure you won’t be the last.”

Me: “Well then, good luck with the rest!”

The next billing cycle came around, and I was credited $10! I don’t know how the supervisor made that happen, but I’m glad he did.

I fall behind on a retail store’s credit card bill — my fault — and get a letter threatening my credit score if I do not pay in full by the following Friday. I send a check and date it for the following Thursday so that it is before the deadline.

On Thursday, I receive an email with a ten-digit confirmation number showing that my account has been brought up to date.

The Monday after, I receive a call from the company I have just paid. The caller’s tone is no-nonsense, getting more aggressive as the call goes on.

Me: “Hello?”

Caller: “Are you [My Name]?”

Me: “Who is this?”

Caller: “Miss [My Name], this call is being monitored and recorded for quality assurance and training. Are you aware of your account with [Company] being past due?”

Me: “That account was paid in full last week. What is your name?”

Caller: “We have no record of you paying in the last two months. If you do not bring your account up to date today, [Company] will have no choice but to send your debt to a collector, and your credit score will be negatively impacted.”

I give up on getting this woman’s name.

Me: “I paid. I have proof on my bank statement and a confirmation number in an email.”

Caller: “Ma’am, I am not going to argue with you. If you do not pay [amount I just paid] by the end of this phone call, I will send your account to collections myself.”

Me: “Okay.”

A moment of silence.

Caller: “Ma’am?”

Me: “I’m here.”

Caller: “Will you be paying your debt today?”

Me: “No.”

Caller: “Okay, that’s it. You’re going to collections.”

Me: “[Confirmation number].”

Caller: *Smug* “Is that your card number, ma’am?”

Me: “It’s my confirmation number from the email from [Company]. I received it on Thursday.”

There’s another pause.

Caller: “Can you repeat that number, please?”

Me: “[Confirmation number]. I paid [amount].”

Yet another pause.

Caller: “Thank you for your time, ma’am.”

She disconnected the call without so much as an apology.

I contacted [Company]’s customer service and told them about our encounter. They denied any such call taking place and showed that I had indeed paid up before the alleged incident.

I cancelled my card and left a negative review online.

I lived abroad for a while, and then I moved back to Finland. My mom had to sign for my phone and Internet to be connected, in her name, despite me not having lived with my parents for more than a decade.

I was informed by various employees, usually rudely, that I had “bad credit” and therefore could hope for nothing but a prepaid phone — definitely no house Internet. Now, that’s not something you want to hear, so I got my credit report. Maybe I had forgotten to deal with some payment when I left the country, and it had gathered interest in my absence? No, nothing of the sort — a report as clean as freshly fallen snow.

Further inquiries taught me that the phone/Internet company was looking for bills paid. In Finland. In the last two years. While I had not lived there for ten.

I offered proof of paid phone bills from the other country where I’d lived, paid electricity bills, paid rent, a recommendation from my landlord, anything. Nope, I needed to have bills paid in Finland; otherwise, their system flagged it as me not paying any bills. Well, I didn’t, seeing as the bills were nonexistent. During all this, the clerks also never failed to treat me as someone who was trying to scam them — by living abroad?

And that’s why I had to take my mom to the phone shop to sign for me, just like I did when I was fourteen.

What I really want to know is how people deal when they don’t have family here. Finland’s official line is that it wants to attract foreign specialists and experts. Well, if not having always lived in Finland is a crime, good luck with that.

When my baby was six months old, the pediatrician’s billing service sent a notice saying the insurance company refused to pay for one of his well-visits. Since it should have been covered, I called the insurance company first.

Insurance: “It’s a network thing. You needed to get a referral from the primary care doctor first.”

Me: “But we saw the primary care doctor.”

Insurance: “The claim says you visited an anesthesiologist in [Town #1].”

Me: “Uh, no. We went to the pediatrician’s office in [Town #2].”

Insurance: “Oh, I see the problem. The healthcare network’s billing agent reversed two of the numbers in the billing code. They put in 123456, but they should have input 123465. Have them resubmit the bill, and we’ll pay it.”

I called the billing center and explained the problem and that if they resubmitted the bill, they’d get paid.

Agent: “No.”

Me: “No?”

Agent: “I already submitted it, and they rejected it.”

Me: “You submitted an incorrect claim, and that’s why they rejected it.”

Agent: “It’s been submitted and rejected, and now you need to pay for the visit.”

Lather, rinse, and repeat for about two minutes.

Me: “Okay, well, have a nice day.”

I hung up, brewed myself a nice cup of tea, and played with the baby for a while. Feeling refreshed, I called the billing center back. I got the same agent.

Me: “Hi! I called before about an incorrect bill you submitted to insurance.”

Agent: *Huge sigh* “There is nothing I can do about it.”

Me: “Well, I’ve turned you in to the state insurance commission for insurance fraud.”

Agent: “What?!”

Me: “They said they’ll call in the next couple of days.”

Agent: “Why would you do that?”

Me: “Because you billed my insurance company for a visit to an anesthesiologist in [Town #1] that my son never went to.”

Agent: “But you—”

Me: “My son never had any surgery or any medical condition that would require an anesthesiologist. I can prove quite thoroughly that I had nothing to do with this doctor.”

Agent: “Are you serious?”

Me: “Finally, I can prove I wasn’t there because at exactly the same time you claim I was receiving services in [Town #1]… I was in my son’s pediatrician’s office twenty miles away.”

Agent: “Why are you doing this?”

Me: “By insisting my insurance should pay for that visit, when you know I was never there, that’s insurance fraud.”

Agent: “…”

Me: “…”

Agent: “Fine. I’ll fix the claim!”

Me: *All sunshine* “Thank you!”

The minute the corrected claim arrived, insurance paid up.

Related:
When They Act Tough, You Call Their Bluff