This is the letter I sent to GE Money after they stole $811.73 from me.


To Whom it May Concern,
I am writing to express my absolute disgust regarding my recent treatment by your company and am demanding a return of the $811.73 that you deemed appropriate in charging me. In my words: stole from me.
I have been a Care Credit customer in the past, maintaining my account in excellent standing during its entire duration and in January 2009, opened another account for some long overdue and necessary dental work. In February of 2009, I began the first of these procedures posting an initial amount of $2223.27. The series of procedures commenced in late August, early September of 2009 bringing my balance up to a total of $4752.98, all the while making more than the minimum required payments AND in a timely manner.
Over the Summer of 2009 my family moved, an event during which time I submitted by mail and phone a series of address updates to various venders with whom I do business, yours being among them. The next month, very busy with a move, I noticed I did not receive a bill from your company which prompted a call on my behalf only to find out that the address update requested did not take effect and as a result, I was unable to pay my bill by the due date. The person on the phone totally apologized for the “mix-up” (her words), immediately reversed the late fee and updated my current address to avoid any future errors.
It should be duly noted that I am a full-time student, hold a full-time job, have a two and a half year old son and a wife. As such I am just a little busy and often do not take the time to read all the fine print amongst all the various and often overwhelming correspondence that typically accompanies many bills. I look for the actual bill, check the due date and amount and make payments immediately…ALWAYS.
Imaging my surprise to then find two days ago, a $811.73 finance charge with a now 29.99% interest rate of “delinquent” status. After much research I was able to locate a “late” posting on my September bill despite the fact that my records show payment being mailed in more than one week before the due date, a schedule WELL within a reasonable time frame of receipt. This has NEVER been a problem in the past.
After waiting on hold for nearly an hour, I was rudely told that I had now accrued two late payments and there was nothing I can do about it. Additionally, I was told that since this finance charge of nearly one thousand dollars had now brought me over my limit, I ‘d better make a hefty payment soon to avoid an overdraft charge. Shocked, I asked to speak with someone who may be able to help me. The woman told me “good luck, I’ll transfer you but there ain’t anything ANYONE will do for you.”
I then waited on hold for 2.5 hours…literally! I had to swap out phones due to one going dead.
A man then came on the phone. As I started explaining my story that the first “late” event was removed for fault of your company and that I’d made all payments in a timely manner despite the late posting in September, he interrupted me and rudely asserted, “Sir, I’m going to save you some time here and just tell you that NOTHING you can say will have ANY effect. So let it go, this is the way it is and it’s all in the contract.” He then said in reference to the “first” late payment that billing was only a courtesy and it’s up to me to know when a due date may be and what amount will be owed? Are you kidding me? How do I know this if there’s NO BILL?! He then said that had I only paid my bills on time, all of this could have been avoided! He also stated that there was no one higher up with whom I could address my problem, and instead then stated that the only way I could contest this is through written proof that payment was made before the due date. How do I “prove” that I mailed payment over one week before that date??? How do I prove I dropped the letter in the mailbox? Did I videotape it??? This is an impossibility! You win! How do I know that you did not receive my payment yet waited until AFTER the due date to post it so you could make almost $1000.00 from me???? Can you prove that you did not do that? It does NOT take over one week for a letter to travel from one place in the country to another via US Postal Service. Try 1-2 days max!
I possess excellent credit, something I have worked very hard to build and maintain and take great pride in keeping. I am NOT someone who has gotten myself in a pile of unmanageable debt and now expects to be bailed out. That would be you and your buddies, thanks TARP, I mean the US taxpayer. I honor my debts and manage them well. Please tell me how a customer who can go in the course of one payment from perfect standing to the worst possible standing period? 29.99%? I did not even know that was legal? Where on Earth can anyone LEGALLY show that kind of return on their money? Where on Earth is the sense of scale and proportion here? What other business model operates in such a way? Is there not one person among all of you who thinks that maybe this is really unfair/unjust and nothing short of criminal behavior? Does no one deem it owed to a customer of PERFECT standing to take a moment’s pause and look at someone’s history and say, maybe this is not the person’s fault and we shouldn’t gouge them as much as the law will allow? “Nahhh, f%#@$ it…lets take everything we can from them!” This is nothing short of a brutal all-out assault and total disregard for anything other than to steal from people. Furthermore, you offer no reasonable means or channels through which a customer can dispute these acts of thievery. This is of course, GE, one of the BIGGEST corporate entities on the planet. How can ANYONE compete? You set the terms and we must comply. And yes, I know you must all sleep well knowing that your high-paid lawyers wrote up the disclaimers and terms-of-contract statements so obscured and cryptic that one needs to hire a CPA to translate and designed for the specific purpose of YOUR protection and not as a means to inform the consumer, but that by no means makes what you do acceptable and anything less than extortion. If the Nazis had posted a sign on the side of the trains with which they used to transport the Jews to the gas chambers, stating their soon to be tragic fates, would that have made their acts any less heinous? Not so much.

Finally, I would like to inform you of my current and past actions:

The account has now been paid IN FULL and once this is “posted” by you, I will be sending written notice of my intent to close the account and NEVER do business with you or ANY of your products again.
I have been in touch with both local and federal government and various consumer agencies and will be sending a letter every single day until congress enacts laws preventing such behavior from you and your ilk.
I have started a grassroots campaign against your company informing people of its practices, dissuading ANYONE from using your products in any way shape of form. A website accompanies this.
I have consulted MY lawyer and am ready to launch a defamation of character suit should any of your actions result in any negative information on my credit report.
I will be sending this letter to you daily.
I will be repeatedly sending this letter to ALL relevant channels, in hopes of further informing the public of your business model.

In closing, I would like to say that this charge has wiped out the entire two-month’s budget appropriated for my son’s daycare. Shame on you. I wonder what kind of devastating effect this would have on GE had you not charged me this outlandish fee? I wonder? I implore you to simply take a moment’s pause on that thought. Finally, I firmly believe that if there is a God, he/she will judge you all accordingly. I honestly do not know how someone can act with such disregard for all that is human and decent. You are a soulless machine representing EVERYTHING wrong with the world. GE spells GrEed, and how in fact you all sleep at night is beyond the scope of my comprehension. God knows what stories your minds conjure up to justify your cruel actions???
Thank you very much for your time and, although I have little hope that this letter will be met with any greater consideration and civility given my treatment thus far, I eagerly await your reply and full refund.

Sincerely,
John Doe