I had an account with Fingerhut for two years in 1998. I set the account up to try to reestablish my credit after an illness forced me into a bad credit situation. I noticed that Fingerhut had formed their own bank, Axis National Bank I believe is the name.
I thought that was odd, but did not pay a lot of attention to it. At Christmas, 1999 I made several purchases on my Fingerhut account and was promised Christmas delivery. It never came. Most of what I had ordered never arrived at the destinations I had the merchandise shipped to. To this day I never recieved any of it.
I called Fingerhut and cancelled the order, since I had to go buy presents after Christmas to replace the ones that Fingerhut never shipped. I called Fingerhut customer service, and was told by the rep to allow another week or so and let them know if the merchndise arrives, and if not the company would make it good with me, probably with credit and coupons.
I saod that was fine with me. I never recieved any of the gifts so I called them back. This time the rep asked in a very sarcastic tone "what do you want me to do about it"? I explained the situation to her. She said there was nothing she could do. I informed her that I wanted to dispute the charges. She refused and went on to tell me that due to the nature of my account I could not dispute the charges.
I wrote the company and got a response that they were sorry and enclosed I would find a $25 gift certificate. So I refused to pay the bill. Now all of a sudden Fingerhut is reporting this to the credit bureau.
Its funny as they have never reported anything to the bureau before. Now all they report is the bad and not the two years I payed on time. I thought these practices are illegal, but I guess as long as it is in the name of business it"s ok. I filed a complaint with the FTC, so am waiting to see what happens.
Ed
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