I ordered the Singer and Songwriters cd collection from Time-Life after seeing an informecial 2 years ago. The person who took my order over the phone was totally incompetant and needed to delete my order and start over several times.
The infomecial had stated that you could choose to be billed all at once in the amount of $89.97 or be billed in 3 installments of $29.99. I chose to be billed for the entire amount. My cd collection arrived a few days later and the statement on the box verified that my credit card had been charged in the full amount of $87.97. I also verified the charge amount on my monthly charge card statement at the end of the month to make sure I wasn't accidently charged more than once, since the person taking the order was a total moron.
I had been enjoying my cd's for over a year, when suddenly three months ago, I received a letter and bill from Time-Life stating that an internal audit had discovered an error in my billing and that I had only been charged one installment of $29.99 and that I still owed them 2 more installments totalling $59.98.
My husband called Time-Life and explained to the customer service rep that we had opted to pay in full at the time of placing the order and had not choosen the installment plan. The customer service rep was totally useless and couldn't really help us, so my husband asked her what credit card number was used in the purchase so we could back track the whole thing with our credit card company.
The credit card number she gave him was not even remotely the same numbers as any of our 3 credit cards. My husband then asked the customer service rep to send us whatever proof they had that we still owed $59.98. She told him there was no documentation and that we had to take Time-Life's word that we owed them the money!!! My husband told her that until they sent us proof, we would not pay the $59.98.
Yesterday, I received another bill from Time-Life, this one threatening to send the "past due" account to a collection agency if payment wasn't received in 30 days. I am getting nowhere with these idiots. I have reports from 2 of my credit cards stating that I didn't make any purchases from Time-Life, so that narrowed the field down to one credit card, which is thru our credit union and I can't get my credit union to look up my credit card purchases from 2 years ago... I have asked twice and both times they told me they don't have the staffing to go back and look thru all of the records, which are on microfilm and stored offsite somewhere.
I don't have copies of my credit card statements from 2 years ago, so at this point, I am not sure what to do. I think the burden of proof is on Time-Life. It was their neglegence and incompetance that created the problem in the first place. I think what they are doing is nothing short of extortion. I wonder how many people just quietly accept the "billing error" scam Time-Life has adapted and pay it without question.
Am I wrong to want documentation to support Time-Life's claim? I don't think so!
Any and all help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Christina
Grand Rapids, Michigan
U.S.A.
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