Warning about Netflix
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| Tue, 11-15-2005 - 12:11pm |
Good morning! I just wanted to write a quick cautionary note about Netflix and to be sure to REALLY check your account against your bill. Last May I downgraded our membership to the $9.95 a month plan because we weren't watching very many movies and this was for one movie at a time. If you pull up my account on Netflix it clearly states we are being charged $9.95 plus tax a month. BUT when I compared it against the Bank of America bill I found out they have been charging our credit card $19.95 a month this whole time. It is partly my fault for not being more diligent about cross checking and just paying the bill. I only realized it now because I had paid off that bill and so it kind of jumped out at me this month where before it got lost in other charges.
I was furious and tried to contact netflix but of course you can only email them. I wrote a very strongly worded second email about fraud and got their attention. They told me to call customer service and they gave me a real phone number. When I talked to them they were oh-so-casual and said I must have two accounts open somehow but they would go ahead and fix it and credit me the missing money. I am highly suspicious that if they are doing it to me they are probably doing it to others. Multiply an extra $10 bucks a month by thousands of customers and you've made a tidy profit.
Jenny Deam

It's good that you found that mistake. I wish that you had found it earlier though. I'm a freak about keeping an eye on my automatic withdrawal accounts. If possible I try not to have those kind of billing accounts because of getting busy and not being able to keep a close eye on them. Unfortunately you can't avoid it altogether.
We also just downgraded to the 9.95 a month with Netflix. We just weren't getting our money's worth out of the other options. Are they going to credit your account at all?
Yes, supposedly they are going to credit our account. I will believe it when I see it. I have no choice but to use those automatic deductions. I have the same thing for my gym membership and internet. I wish I could just pay the bills each month because I am working so hard to pay off credit cards I would like to close those accounts. I only have three left with balances (they're whoppers but at least I never use those accounts and can just throw money at them).
My other rant has to do with how these companies expect you to pay absolutely on time or they will nail you. But if THEY have to pay YOU it's a whole different ballgame. When we recently got rid of our variable rate second mortgage and converted it to a fixed the bank wanted us to pay off some of our smaller accounts. They pulled the amounts from the credit bureau which apparently hadn't been updated. Anyway, several accounts were overpaid to the tune of about $700. When I called those companies and said I wanted them to send me a check for the overpayment rather than carry credits on my accounts (which I am never going to use) they said it would take 4-8 weeks to issue me a check. Sheesh. I'd like to tell them they can wait for THEIR money 4-8 weeks. Jenny