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Un-friggin'-believable. The Story Of A Couple That Have Been Paying Someone Else's Cable Bill For Over 2 Years... Because They Were Too Lazy To Check Their Own Monthly Bank Statements!!!
March 13, 2003
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Dear Ben: You can use my letter, but please do not use my name. (My husband and I are embarrassed enough!) Here's the situation: We have not looked at our bank statements in over two years and finally decided to tackle our financial problems last week. Our first step was to begin scrutinizing our statements and be honest with each other about the finances. But after looking at just the last two month's statements, we realized we were getting debited for AT&T Cable charges each month! Problem is, we've always mailed in our payments.
Our bank said the debits had been initiated by a person we'd never heard of, starting in February 2001! This prompted a visit to our local AT&T office, where I asked them to see if they had a person (whom initiated the bank auto-debits) as a customer-and they did! The customer service representative asked me what my bank's routing number was...and (of course) the routing numbers are identical. So it appears that this stranger has had a free (cable TV) ride on us for almost 2 years! I suspect he'll be in for quite a surprise when his payment's not made on the 8th of this month. My first question: Does he have any responsibility in this?
My second question: What's our recourse with AT&T? Someone inputted these routing numbers manually, so the fault ultimately lies with them. Yes, we were stupid for not checking our bank statements (and catching this sooner) but why didn't this other guy notice that AT&T wasn't debiting his checking account every month!?! Is there any chance we can get our $1,600 (plus) back? I've dropped off all of the statements to show them what's happened and am now waiting to hear from a senior collections department representative.
Name withheld, via e-mail
Dear Clueless One: You're my new poster child for reminding everyone why they'd better get off their lazy butts and check their bank's (or credit card or phone company's) work every month. You're experiencing financial problems? This should come as no surprise-just look at how much precious cash both of you let slip through your fingers every single month while you were asleep at the switch. How many other areas in your financial life have been neglected? I shudder to think about your exposure in the credit card and telephone bill arenas.
In the name of maintaining good customer relations, I hope your cable company steps up and credits you for their mis-billed mistakes...they should. Your ability to pull this one out of the fire is going to depend to a large degree on your ability to properly state and make your case to the right (best) people at the AT&T. I suggest you paper your trail and utilize the increasingly-popular "Six Steps To Effective Complaining" tips covered in on my website at: As previously stated numerous times in this column, you've got 60 days to catch bank errors, or you lose. In this case, your bank isn't guilty of anything. They correctly processed the debits presented against your account. So leave them out of this.
Should the guy whose cable bill you've been generously covering for the last two years (let's call him Mr. X) be on the hook for his free cable ride? You betcha. "Mr. X" benefited from your gross oversight and shouldn't be enriched as a result...but who should serve as the collection agent on this one? Should "Mr. X" have to cough up $1,600 on the spot to pay AT&T or to reimburse you? No. AT&T did help create the problem by keying in the wrong specific bank account number (bank routing numbers can be identical, but each account number is unique). It appears the fairest way to handle this is to first credit your account for the mis-directed debits of the last two years. Then Mr. X needs to start a repayment plan that allows him to make his normal, monthly payments, plus pay off the balance you were so graciously covering on his behalf.
Dose of Dover For The Week: After reading this person's letter and trying to help her fix her situation, I'm worn out. Let this be (another) lesson, especially when it comes to bank statements: you snooze, you lose.
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