Thanks moms for advice yesterday on how to approach Sitttercity regarding charging me for over a year's worth of service at $35/month after I cancelled but cancellation didn't register. I only noticed auto debits when doing taxes as I had never had any further emails from them to remind me I was a member.
I took your good advice about staying nice while asking for a way for situation to be resolved rather than threatening. I played the overwhelmed mom card while taking the blame for not noticing charges. Because it was my own fault for not realizing I was being billed for so long, I was not expecting any reimbursement-or maybe just a month or two tops.
To my shock they are refunding 11 months! The rep said that was as far as he could go back. He even acknowledged I had not used the account in all that time. ??!!! What, the customer is actually right for once?? Usually auto debits are such scams I am amazed they cooperated. I'm always having to cancel monthly bank stuff and other monthly stuff like 50 times before it really stops....which is why I usually avoid any monthly auto debit, auto renew scenario for the past few years, but this was exception. I'll believe it when the money posts, but for now I'm very satisfied with them.
Can anyone else believe this may have worked out? Any other similar frustrating stories or victories to share? Anyone think I blindly lucked out by getting the right rep when I called?
I'm glad they were able to do that for you and recognized that a happy customer is good PR. When I called FYE, they knew immediately who to direct me to, so Sitter City probably has a policy in place for this type of thing. Glad it went well for you.
Woot! Woot!
Great news!
Score O. for the little guy.
Your glowing reco in the future is worth their refund to you.
Had it gone the other way, it could have done some real damage.
Oh that's great! My positive customer experience was that a couple of years ago, I got a 50% off friends and family discount coupon to New Balance via e-mail from a friend who had used the discount before. One of those "send to everyone you know" kinds of things. It was for one weekend only and listed the locations. Great! My two oldest kids needed running shoes, so this was a chance to get them good shoes at a good price. We went to the store, they chose shoes, I presented my coupon and the clerk rejected it, saying that their manager told them on Friday to not honor any of the coupons and that their store wasn't participating. The store was listed on the coupon. So I paid full price for the shoes but told the kids to not wear them yet in case I needed to return them. The following Monday, I called NB headquarters, spoke to a nice woman who apologized on behalf of the store and asked me to fax or scan and e-mail the coupon and my receipt. Once she had the documentation, she had a check cut for the 50% off and mailed it to me. I had the money within a week and was a very happy customer! I love when a company eventually does right by the customer - people make mistakes and err in judgement all the time so I don't expect perfect service everywhere, but it's great when someone can resolve an issue quickly.
Thank you for updating your experience with Sittercity. It is nice when a company goes out of its way to resolve a consumer problem.
Good for you!!
I agree that you had a lot to do with the responsiveness of the customer service rep.
I once did a part time job in a call center for a large company who offered insurance for free for 3 months when you made a purchase at the store and after 3 months it started charging the credit cards for about $20 a month if you did not call in to cancel it. MOST people forget to call and cancel and this was a huge profit for this company.
I was amazed when some people called in when they noticed a charge and I would tell them that they've been paying this for 2 years.. They were clueless.
At my level, I could go back as far as 1 yr reimbursement (IF I WANTED TO). This means, the people who called in cursing, threatening, etc got ZERO refunds and the people who were courteous, honest and thankful got up to a years worth of refunds. This is how it worked with all the reps in this office. You act nice and civil = you get what you want. You act rude, threatening, etc = you do not get what you want.
Thank goodness it was a temp job because there is no way I could work in a call center like that very long and not lose my mind.
I am glad it all worked out for you.
One time it took me over six months to realize that my gym was double charging me (auto-payment). They were running it twice a month.
I am a better bookkeeper now...but anyways I called them, and they looked into it...and their was another member who's membership number was close to mine and they had been charging her monthly fee to me.
They apologized and refunded me the charges. The other poor girl was probably in for a shock to find out her gym membership really wasn't free all those months went they sent her the bill.
Places like Sittercity.com are very well aware that something like this is something that will have a post like this on a site like this. I promise you that from your positive experience and posting it will generate business for them one way or another & they know it. More and more companies are understanding just how important websites like this are - so no, I am NOT shocked they did this at all.
Wow! Great to hear a positive outcome when dealing with customer service!
Not shocked - they did the same thing for us. Good company - we'll be returning customers and recommenders.
wow wonderful news!
i usually get great customer service (except sears).
the best, and probably because i use the most, is amazon.com reps.
i use amazon (daily.shhhh don't tell my hubby), and rarely but happens i get a broken items or an item missing. i have never had problems with them replacing or refunding.
I am so glad to hear a happy story about auto pay issues!
My friend got a car and hubby drove it to work a few times before he had a wreck that totaled it, not even a month old The insurance paid it off to the car finance company, not to my friend, to the actual company that their payments went to. The insurance paid it off totally, where there was no money owed on it at all.
The car finance company kept pulling the $350 per month out for months. She kept calling them and calling them to put their money back and to pay the fees they were getting. They had even told their bank over and over not to allow the draft of funds but the car people kept withdrawing them month after month after month.
He doesn't have a huge income and had not thought to keep the car payment money in the bank. They had checks bouncing all over town and it ended up costing them at least $1000 in fees, charges, and all the extra stuff that went to the DA for bogus check. When you have no money to pick up checks that should have cleared you just don't have any money. She had never had a check not clear in her life. Her hubby worked in law enforcement too, they are very very honest responsible people.
The car place told them they had corrected the issue each and every time she called them, that it would not happen again the next month. But it continued.
They ended up having to close that account and open all new ones that were even at a different bank. It was such a mess.
