Some time in late 2003 or late Progressive autocharged my credit card $500. I never have had an agreement where they bill my card automatically for insurance payments and my bill has never been anywhere near $500. I pay a lump sum each six months (for the paid-in-full discount) and call their customer service and pay by credit card each time.
I never knew any of this had happened until I got a check from Progressive made out to me for $500. I thought what in the world is this?! I called Progressive and they told me I must have made an extra accidental payment to them by credit card, so I should just cash the check. I did not believe this person so I called back and got another person who said almost the same thing and that I must have forgotten about the extra payment or had been overcharged previously. I asked for a manager and the manager told me to go ahead and cash the check - that the money was for being overcharged.
I cashed the check. Then, 2 weeks or so later, Progressive sent me a bill for $500. I called and asked why and they told me I was given a check for that much on accident and that I should not have cashed it. I told the person I had called twice to ask about it and was told it was money they overcharged me for. I made a credit card payment for $500 and dismissed the incident. The next day, I found out when I watched the financial news that it was the end of the financial quarter and the quartlerly reports to investors had just been due.
It caused me to wonder if their accountants make charges like this to beef up their books just before shareholder showtime, return the cash very quickly, and then later say ooops, it was our fault. I am not saying they did this. It just makes me wonder. Why?
1) my payments were never ever anywhere near $500
2) the payment was supposedly made in the middle of one of my 6 month policy renewal periods
3) I have never ever agreed to any automatic bill payments
4) no representatives or manager could see the normal information (account notes) they would see when a customer makes a bill payment such as what representative processed it on the phone, or if it was done completely online by me, or if it came by postal mail
5) when I called them after getting the bill, the representative was completely unable to tell me why or how I got overcharged $500 unauthorized on my credit card-she simply said it was an accident and she didn't know how it was happening
6) happenstance coincided with investors' quarterly report
If this happened to many people, it can be a way to boost company revenues briefly or make interest from masses of bogus payments. Because nobody knew why or how it happened, I think it was caused by someone higher in the company.
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