I was about to log on yesterday to tell a funny story. Well, not exactly "ha ha" funny since it involved vomit and a shellshocked neighbor, but somewhat entertaining after the fact anyway.
But I was waylayed by a fresh email from my f*cking Internet provider. Saying that they were happy to inform me that they've booked a fresh 38 thousand minutes on my account and that they're debiting 550+ Euros from my bank account posthaste.
I called "customer service" and was informed that they will not give me any information about who has been accessing my account, when, for how long, etc. They can also not tell me if it is still being used. They did, however, tell me that my password change probably worked and that I should just sit tight until the next bill to see if the charges stop.
I can finally understand how it is possible that overwhelming anger can cause a stroke. I can't remember ever being that furious before. I explained that I didn't want to just wait around and let 1&1 plunder my bank account and that this solution was unacceptable.
Do you know what his advice was?
Well, why don't you just unplug your modem for a month and see if that helps. Certainly you can survive for a month without Internet, can't you?
Today I will be filing two complaints with the police. One against whoever is using my password and one against 1&1 for unjustly debiting money from my account.
14 comments:
Betsy,
you do know that you can cancel the transaction that debited money from your account, right? Up to 6 weeks after what you consider a wrongful debit you can contact your bank (probably best to do so in writing, although in person or by phone might work as well; or do it in writing and give it to the bank teller yourself if you use a local bank) and state that you disagree with the "Einzug" and wish to have it cancelled.
Then you have to write the company that debited the money and say that you disagree (Widerspruch would be the correct German word) with Rechnung number so-and-so from March xxth over xxx Euros and have cancelled the debit.
It might happen that they cancel your account with them, but to be honest, would that be so bad? Aren't there enough other providers out there who are more than happy to take your money?
P.S. you could also unplug your modem when you go to bed at night. Since you mentioned that the previous 10,000 minutes were done at night. My router has a timer, I have it set up to turn off at 11 p.m. and back on at 5 a.m.
Hi Sheila. thanks for the advice-- I actually didn't know about the 6 week wrongful debit thing. My husband is contacting the bank this morning to put stop payment on the current charge. We're hoping it hasn't been booked yet. I just forwarded on your comment so that he can go ahead and refute the first charge as well.
And now I'm off to the police station to file my reports. Like they don't have anything better to do. Like I don't have anything better to do... :-P
Betsy,
as mentioned, even if the second charge has gone through, you have 6 weeks time to have it cancelled.
Good luck at the police station!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr, it makes me mad, too.
Oh gosh that is such a shocking story....I'd be totally angry as well. Maybe you should also contact a type of "ombudsman" (don't know the translation). In Belgium there is a government agency governing telecom operations and they have an official complaint center as well and help you mediate disputes.
I sure hope this dispute settles soon! Good luck!
Glad that hasn't happened to me. My blood pressure would go through the roof!
I'm feeling pissed just READING your post!! Hope it all works out.
Carol
I am sorry I am late, Ms. Betsy . It's about Ze Germans and ze sidewalks . It happens I wore a couple of (very short) stories about the Kerhwoche. Alas they are written Italian. May be a good soul would help me to translate them into a fair English? May be not.
http://www.newsblog.it/kerkwoche.htm
I wrote !!!!
Hi guys! Thanks for the support! We've contested both transactions with the bank and have filed a report with the police. We've also sent a written complaint to the Internet provider.
(we got a response back saying the billing department would be looking into it and for us to have a little patience. M went through the roof about the patience part and sent a scalding reply back. I doubt they'll appreciate it, but I sure did...)
It will be "interesting" to see how this plays out further...
Oh, and Ellen, I'm concerning the ombudsman thing-- I talked to the police about it as well. But that will cost money as well so I'm going to wait a couple of days and see how it develops further. Maybe it will now get resolved on it's own? If not, though, the ombudsman will definitely be my next step...
hmm too bad that the ombudsman would cost money. They helped me and my dad in our dispute with Scarlet last year, although it was no real official mediation (recognised by the law as an official ruling)....they were just adding pressure of an official agency demanding a reply by the parties involved and investigation. But then ours was more a technical dispute between 3 providers , rather than a billing issue.
Did you get any more news so far?
Ellen
Hi Ellen!
No, no changes in the situation so far. Except that we're starting to get nasty letters from 1&1 about the two payments we stopped.
We've paid the remainder of both bills minus the charges for the Mehrfacheinwahl, so we'll see what happens next.
But the problem is that I think we can only block individual payments and not the company itself, which gives them free reign over our bank account.
We're going to go talk to the bank again next week to see if there's some other sort of solution, but for now it's just back and forth-- 1&1 takes the money out, we stop payment and take it back and then they just debit it out again. It's a ridiculous situation...
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