8-month clerical error causes cutlery customer to call for help

Bank and credit department mistakes can become tedious ordeals for even the most loyal, experienced and responsible customers. Letters demanding payment and phone calls from collection agencies require a lot of patience, especially when you know you’ve done nothing wrong.

Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Wing of Frankfort found this out the hard way when they were placed in the position of having to defend themselves against a company’s clerical error for more than eight months after placing an order with Fingerhut of St. Cloud, Minn. The Wings felt as if the issue was a family feud: They had done business with the company for more than 25 years.

Fingerhut has a credit department for people who prefer to pay in installments, but Mrs. Wing had chosen to pay in full by check when she mailed in her order for a set of knives. This simple transaction led to eight months of bills, dunning letters from a collection agency, and phone calls from representatives demanding payment. The Wings told the company that payment had been made in full before they even received their order.

“Check the records!” they begged. But after months of getting nowhere with Fingerhut, Mrs. Wing decided to get some mileage out of her COMBAT membership.

She visited our office and spoke with a mediation volunteer, who requested copies of recent Fingerhut collection letters and a copy of the canceled check. The Wings dutifully gathered the material and COMBAT composed a letter to Fingerhut and Axsys National Bank, the company handling Fingerhut’s credit transactions.

COMBAT simply repeated what the Wings had been saying for several months, that the item that had been paid in full (the canceled check enclosed for proof). We told Fingerhut that the Wings were being billed late fees and finance charges and though they had attempted to address the matter, they only received more notices and phone calls telling them the account was delinquent. We suggested that since the entire matter was due to Fingerhut’s obvious mistake, not only should a zero balance be restored to the account, but Fingerhut owed the Wings an apology for the harassment.

With COMBAT guarding her back, Mrs. Wing finally received a response from Axsys National Bank’s consumer affairs department, agreeing that they were in error. Mrs. Wing’s order was placed under one account number, while the payment was applied to another. When the mistake was finally noticed, it was handled poorly. Axsys didn’t explain why it took them nine months to get this simple mistake straightened out.

Sadly, of the number of Fingerhut or Axsys representatives who had spoken with Mr. and Mrs. Wing regarding their account, not one was able to identify and solve the problem. Apparently one letter from a consumer organization was enough to prompt the companies to resolve a long and arduous battle.

To put a bow on this happy ending, we remind Forum readers that when dealing with any nonpayment issue, even when it isn’t your fault, the possibility exists that your credit rating could be hurt.

Never ignore these situations. After the problem is fixed, make sure, if credit bureaus are involved, they are updated and if you are not making any headway, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Contact Northeast COMBAT through Consumer Forum.

If you, in turn, would like to help your neighbors, COMBAT is conducting quarterly volunteer mediator recruitment and training and especially needs volunteers with database, records management, executive secretarial, and journalistic experience. Call 947-3331 (message box 3) for an appointment and interview.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT-Maine Center for the Public Interest, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. Individual membership $25, business rates start at $125 (0-10 employees). For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.