AOPA credit card --- WARNING.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Kinda timely since PBS's Frontline had a show on credit cards last
Tuesday.
Very eye opening, it seems that a couple of Supreme Court decisions allow
credit card companies to charge whatever interest rate they want and to
raise the interest rate on money already on the balance.
Most of the credit card holders interviewed had never read or didn't
understand the "fine print" in their card contracts.


One lesser known fact about credit card companies is that they will screw
the VENDOR far more readily than they will their customers.

Over the past couple of years we have had a handful of guests with
guaranteed reservations not show up at the inn, who were charged for one
night's stay. Two of them simply called their credit card companies and
disputed the charge -- at which point the credit card company immediately
credited them and charged us back, no questions asked!

It was then up to US to "prove" to VISA that the guest had stayed with us --
which, of course, they had not. Despite the fact that these guests
insisted on "guaranteed reservations", despite the fact that we had
pre-authorized their stay on their credit card, despite the fact that we had
mailed post cards to their home, reminding them of their reservation -- and
despite the fact that we followed VISA's own procedures for no-shows to the
letter -- we were totally helpless, and had to eat the bill. No amount of
documentation or phone calls mattered to VISA.

THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about it.
But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.

I assume you keep a list of such "customers." Seems like a business
opportunity here to start a database of folks who do this routinely and
then sell the list to other vendors! :-)


Matt

In a previous article, said:
Jay Honeck wrote:
THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about it.
But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.

I assume you keep a list of such "customers." Seems like a business
opportunity here to start a database of folks who do this routinely and
then sell the list to other vendors! :-)

In this country you'd probably get sued for libel if you maintained such a
list.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Diplomacy is the ability to let someone else have your way.

Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, said:

Jay Honeck wrote:

THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about it.
But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.

I assume you keep a list of such "customers." Seems like a business
opportunity here to start a database of folks who do this routinely and
then sell the list to other vendors! :-)


In this country you'd probably get sued for libel if you maintained such a
list.



Well, as a lawyer once told me, the truth is always a defense against a
libel or slander charge. You would only be liable for libel if you put
someone on the list without due cause.


Matt