Venting on JCPenney/credit card companies/ Gevalia

[chippers21]

A recent post I read here has inspired me to air theseproblems with you great DODer's. Makes me feel better just to put it all down in writing.
I just had two good/bad experiences I would like to share.
The first was with JC Penney. My hubby got a store card a few months ago and got 20% off his initial purchases for using the card. Total charges about $90. I somehow misplaced the bill. Not normal for me but I did it.... Then I started receiving daily "collection" calls from JC Penney. I hung up on several and hollered at a couple of the folks....They gave me a hard time about paying but refused to tell me the total amount of the bill, and I could not find it here at my house, so they gave me an address to which they expected me to mail a minimum payment....I stuck to my guns and waited for the next full bill so I would have a record to keep when I paid it. $131 later and several more harrassing phone calls (they call daily so I will probably receive more before they receive the payment I sent) I am finally potentially free of the JC Penney demons. But they lost a customer.
The other was a problem I had with Gevalia coffee. Complicated so I hope I can explain it. I received regular shipments from them every 4 months. I gave them a credit card number to charge them to (BIG MISTAKE!) When my credit card was stolen I cancelled the account. Meanwhile Gevalia charged a shipment of coffee to a closed account (I had no idea that was possible) When I received the coffee I immediately noticed the problem and called Gevalia. They SAID they would charge-back the credit card money if I sent them a check in payment. SO I did send a check for the full amount, expecting that the credit card obligation would be taken care of by Gevalia. NOT A month later I received a bill from the credit card company for the full amount for the coffee. I called them and explained. No help there. I called Gevalia and redid the process to charge-back the cost to the credit card company. Or at least that is what I thought I did. One month later I received a bill from the credit card company for the cost of the coffee and a $25 late fee. I called the credit card company and they SAID they would take off the late fee if I paid the balance due. I gave up and did that. Then a few days later I received a letter from some customer service rep for the credit card company which said "late fee removal request denied'. Called them again, and they say they see no reason for the denial and the late fee has been removed, payment has been received, and my balance on my CLOSED account is 0. We shall see............Meanwhile, Gevalia, who has always been pretty easy to deal with customer service-wise, said, when I called them for the umpteenth time, that they had received my check for the full amount of the coffee (effectively paid for twice at this point) and when they received it they had stopped the processing of the charge-back and issued me a credit on my account?????? I lost my cool, I have to admit. Such inconsistent and unreliable customer service is more than I can stand. I cancelled my Gevalia account and am expecting a check from them for the credited amount. We shall see.....

[3tbear]

After all they put you through I'd say it's time to buy your specialty coffees at the grocers, and find another department store. I can't believe all the grief you had to go through about the bills!

[chippers21]

Good advice. But I am a gourmet coffee fiend, so I now buy my decaf at my favorite coffee shop in town. I hate to give up JCPenneys tho. Just want to give THEM a hard time too.....

[texas_sweetie]

I sooo know what you mean about JC pEnnys , we where having some finacial problems a few months ago and needed to readjust our budget. I called JC penny to set up a payment plan cause I hadn't be able to pay them and was a month and a half behind. The lady I talked to was real nice , we set up 20 $ a month until I could get back on track. But then the calls started 3 and 4 a day everyday. It was there collections dept. They had know history of me calling and wanted me to pay 200$ over the phone. Yeah right ,I told them like I said before 20 is all I can do right now. He got all rude with me and I got very rude right back. He finally said he'd have the right dept call me and set up a plan. I said whatever I'm still only sending 20 a month until I can afford more. Well the "right dept" has never called me in fact they haven't called me back since then, I have been a very good customer with them for 7 years now. Always paid my bill, paid my account off in full several times. They acted like I was gonna screw them but that was not the case at all just need A little help for a few months. But now once I pay this card off I want use them again.

[chippers21]

Wow Texas, it sounds like you have gone through more with them than I did.....But then I never let the collection people get two words in once I knew who they were....I just hollered at them and told them what I think of their collection policies and so on. was kinda fun actually but my blood pressure probably suffered.

[Schwisow]

I have had a Penney's card for about 10 years. I plan to send it back because of stuff like this. I plan to send it to the head office with a letter of complaint. I'm going to get the name of the CEO first.