Are They Kidding Me!

For the past two days I have been dealing with Charter One Bank. See my lovely MIL set up a savings account for S. there three years ago. She felt he should have his own savings account at a bank we never even had our own accounts at! She's nuts. Her insanity is a gift that keeps on giving, I tell ya'! Anyway, I finally got around to closing that account in December which had its own share of problems of which I won't bore you! I closed out that account in person on December 20th; the branch manager closed it and told me there would be no further problems. Yeah, right! The first week of January I got a notice saying I was in default by, grip your chairs, SIX CENTS. Oh, and I better pay up because if I don't, they are sending me to collections. Over my dead body you morons!

I called the customer service line, and even the lady on the other line could not believe it. She said,"We spent more on the stamp to send you the notice than the money we're trying to collect!" How true, how true! She promised to rectify the issue.

Picture getting a letter from CHARTER ONE yesterday telling me since I have not paid, I have been sent to collections. Any questions, call 800-yada-yada. Yep, you bet I called! I talked to a wonderful man but the name of Pete who also could not believe the stupidity of the situation. He told me the bank had paid $140 to have me sent to collections over six lousy cents. He also said he is going to include this one in the book he's writing about banking. He was then able to verify that my account balance was reconciled. However, my account was still in collections. He gave me another number to yet another division of CHARTER ONE. This not so nice woman said that,"Yes, we sent you to collections. Your account is 45 days past due." Which it's not people. I closed it a MONTH ago. At any rate, so now I'm pretty pissed off. I'm through being nice. I then am given the number to the DDR Recovery Center which is in charge of accounts that are put in collections. Well, guys, I spoke to Diane and I can tell you one thing. Diane is a bitch.

This Diane kept telling me that all of the others were wrong. They don't send people to collections for six cents. Anything under fifty dollars they don't bother with. I said to her,"Well, I have been told by three different people at your company that I have indeed been sent to collections." We kept going around around in circles. Finally, I said to her,"I would like a letter sent to my house verifying that it was your company's fault I was sent to collections. That I never had a defaulted account." You know, all of their lovely letters told me this would negatively impact my credit rating, therefore I wanted proof that I could show to whomever I needed to that the particular item on my credit report is/was NOT MY FAULT. UGH! Diane told me it would take a week to get here. Guess who'll be calling Diane back next Thursday if it's not.