$25 Returned Payment Fee
I pay my Cox bill with my credit card using auto-pay. I received an updated credit card, as often happens to everyone. It has the same card number, but a different expiration date, even though the old card wasn't set to expire for quite some time. On Dec 13, the following occurred (in this order): I activated my new card, which instantly deactivated the old one. I starting going to my various auto-pay sites to change my card info, but hadn't gotten to the Cox site yet. I received an email from Cox saying my auto-payment didn't go through. I went to the Cox site, updated my card info, made a payment, and reactivated auto-pay. I continued to update my card info at other sites. A few days ago, I got a letter from Cox saying my account had been slapped with a $25 returned payment fee. My payment was due Dec 13, and I made the successful payment Dec 13. The payment was not late. The fee was not for making a late payment. Cox just happened to hit that short window between when I activated the new card (deactivating the card on file) and updated my card info @ Cox. (I have since called Cox. The person I spoke with was about 98% sure Cox would reverse the charge because I have been a customer for a long time, and there were no other issues. We'll see.) I called my credit union, which issued my credit card. I was told they do not charge Cox (or anyone else) when Cox attempts to charge a credit card, but is unable to do so. They also do not charge Cox when a paper check bounces. The credit union person I talked with suggested that now that people are moving away from using paper checks and are using paperless methods instead, companies are losing the revenue they received from bounced checks. Therefore, they (I only know of Cox doing this) are now using the "returned payment fee" for credit cards/auto-pay. Even before she suggested this, I knew Cox was doing this simply to increase revenue and rip-off their customers. Imagine all the times people run a card through a card reader at a check-out at a store, and it gets rejected because the person ddint' realize the card had expired. What if there was a $25 fee every time that happened? Totally unreasonable. In Cox's terma/agreements/policies, this situation is considered "insufficient funds." Now, if you bounce a check, that is typically because of insufficient funds, but when a credit card doesn't work, that could be due to many things. In my case, there was still about $10,000 of credit left on that card, so insufficient funds does not apply. AND the credit card number had not changed, so the credit card number was still valid! AND I paid the darned bill ON TIME! There are many lessons here. One lesson is, know all of your auto-pay due dates (they seem to be all over the place). If you get a new credit card, choose a day that is not a due date or even near a due date to activate your card and update your card info on all of your auto-pay sites. Cox will lose customers over this. It won't matter to them, though, because these returned payment fees will make up for lost customers. If they don't reverse that charge for me, or they ever do this to me again, I will also leave the company.17KViews2likes2Comments
Elder Scrolls Online Problem
My girlfriend plays Elder Scrolls Online and every time there is an update we have to pull our hair out for days on end trying to get the game to update. This last time nothing at all worked and after contacting Bethesda Software about the issue it turns out that Cox Cable is blocking the port which the game uses to update itself. Presumably it is TCP port 80. And we know it is your fault because Bethesda has already attempted to make contact with you about it. We tried everyhing from setting up the modem to do all the port forwarding to reinstalling everything, all to no avail. I want to know when you are going to fix this problem and stop blocking internet users. I'm already mad that you increased our rates for December without even bothering to let me know which I will be reporting to the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission for charging me the price for the tier above mine which I gave no consent to. And now with my girlfriend already having lost 3 days of paid time in the game, I am expecting to be compensated for both the overcharge and inability to use what we paid for. Which is non-negotiable and you cannot reject.8.1KViews1like10Comments