My father is contracting with a company named Privacy Assist, which claims to be connected with Bank of America. They have erroneously billed my father's credit card account and are putting me into an endless do-loop when I have tried to rectify the problem...

1. Dad called Privacy Assist for the purpose of giving them his new Assisted Living address. His usual bill per month is $12.99 and posts to his credit card every month.

2. As a result of Dad's phone call, Privacy Assist has billed him an additional $29.99, although my father wanted no additional services.

3. I called Privacy Assist and was told that, without talking to my father, they couldn't even access his account. No one asked whether I had P.O.A., which I do and could have faxed a copy over to them.

4. I asked that they at least review the phone conversation, but they refused, saying they couldn't even do that without having Dad on the phone.

So basically, my problem is this: When Dad did talk to them on the phone, they ended up billing him more than twice as much again as his usual service. When I try to correct the error, they insist on talking to Dad on the phone. I began my quest, thinking that the $29.99 was an honest mistake because Dad is hard of hearing and might have misunderstood something. But now I smell something malignant...I feel as though this company has preyed on my parents.