Bear with me; I'm going to go into detail.
Today I received my Visa bill and found a charge for $159.95 from MWI*CONNECTIONS, phone number 888-868-6216, CT. I had never heard of them and had not used this credit card in months so I called to find out who they are. At first I got a machine asking if I wanted to check out all the deals on the web or if I wanted to check out my account over the phone.
If you choose the phone you will be prompted to give your membership number (???!!!) or your phone number. If you give your phone number it will ask you which of the numerous deals you're interested in, conveniently forgetting that you wanted information about your account. If you don't give out your phone number and wait, and wait and wait, then you will be directed to an account specialist (or something like that). Someone will pick up the phone and, could you guess it? They know who they are speaking with! After you give them more information "to confirm" who you are; name, address, phone number, the happy voice greets you.
I asked Evie (number 17378) whom she represented and what it was that I supposedly bought. She told me I agreed to a trial period sign-up with DealPass in exchange for a cd player, and that the trial period had ended. I told her that I hadn't and that I wouldn't and that I wanted my money returned immediately. She kept telling me that I had done it some time in the past and that it was a "Web sign-up" I had done, perhaps by clicking on a popup. I told her that I didn't see how they would be able to get my Visa account number, phone number, address, and name by my clicking a popup. She continued to tell me that I had, and then started in on a sales talk about how much I could save yada-yada...
Finally, I told her to reverse charges and discontinue the purported membership. She said that she would but that it might take up to two billing periods to show on my account. Hmmm... I thanked her, hung up, and called Visa.
Connie from Visa said, "Oh, we've had several of these from this company. We know who they are." After talking to Connie and making sure that no new charges would come from this account she told me that MWI should be able to reverse immediately but that by law they were allowed 30 days. She asked if I got a confirmation number, which I stupidly had not, or so I thought.
I changed my Visa account number (because who knows who has it now?!?), and while I was at it, lowered my interest rate by saying that I was going to cancel my account (silver lining?), and then called MWI back.
Again I had to wait, wait, wait until they answered and again they knew who I was. I spoke with Krystal (number 17400) and told her I wanted to get a confirmation number for the reversal. It turns out that the number of the person you speak with is your confirmation number. How about that? Anyway, I asked Krystal to make certain that the charges were reversed, and as she was checking, her computer crashed. So, I had to wait for the reboot, and wait, and wait... After several minutes I asked her what was going on. She told me that she would use someone elses computer and figure it out. She then began yelling my name and phone number to someone, who was apparently quite far away by the sound of it, and told me after a couple of more minutes that, yes, I had charges reversed. On a hunch I asked how much."$146.80" she tells me. I had to argue with her for a few moments before she added the $13.15 to the reversal.
Krystal (cog no. 17400 in the MWI machine) assured me that a reversal had been done. I'll check with Visa tomorrow. The problem remains as to how MWI got my information. When I asked Krystal (agent 17400) how this might have happened, she said she couldn't, or perhaps wouldn't, tell me.
Lesson #1: MWI, in any of its incarnations, is not to be trusted.
Lesson #2: Always check your statement immediately and closely. If something doesn't look right, follow up on it.
Lesson #3: Persist, persist, persist. Do what's right and fight them, because until they are stopped they will continue hurting more innocent people.
Peter
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.
0 comments