Tilt-A-Whirl®

I finally got things straightened out with my credit union and it was much easier than expected. I got off work at K.Roger at 10:30p on Sunday night, high tailed it to Pasco arriving around 2:15a (with a brief stop at Tesoro in Kennewick), fell asleep around 3a, woke up at 7a, and showed up at the main branch for the credit union in Richland at 0900. I explained the situation to them (see prior posting), they had me fill out a dispute form, and I got my $6,950.00 back (well, only $700 of that was actually mine–the rest was overdraft protection). My dad met me in the parking lot of GESA, drove me to the GW Way Starbucks, got goodies, and then hauled ass back to Portland to start work at 2pm. I got home from work about an hour ago and am finally in comfy clothes sipping my beer and relaxing for a change.

One nice thing about driving 8 hours in such a short period of time is that I got to listen to BBC Radio One on Sirius. There’s just something about Britpop that makes me giddy–and I was indeed giddy until they started playing our favourite Bajan, Rhianna Umbahrellah. But the song immediately after was old school Utah Saints (U-U-U-Utah Saints). Who can hate a band that samples This Mortal Coil?

I quickly got online yesterday and paid the $69.50 bill with my debit card, but I made a big mistake. I accidently omitted a decimal point and a payment for $6,950.00 was applied. The strange thing about Helio’s website is that it doesn’t ask you to verify the payment amount at all– it just immediately applies it to your account. Immediately realizing my mistake, I called Helio’s customer service to see what I could do about stopping this payment. After speaking with a CSR named Michael for 45 minutes, who spoke heavily Spanish accented English, he reassured me that his supervisor said that this payment would immediately be canceled and to go back online and submit a payment in the correct amount.

Not entirely convinced by the CSR’s affirmations, I immediately contacted my credit union back in the Tri Cities. I spoke with the CSR there who did some research and spoke to her supervisor. The credit union said that a third party security firm they use for VISA debit transactions had refused to pay that amount because it was such an abnormally large figure. She also said that since this was nipped in the bud, I had nothing to worry about.

Well, I tried to buy a song on iTunes today and my card was declined. I went to the credit union’s website and saw a completed transaction paid to Helio for $6,950, which meant another 55 minute call to Helio. The Helio CSR I spoke with today bluntly said he didn’t know what to do and would call a supervisor to see how to handle it. After 16 minutes on hold, he said that they could refund it but that a check would have to be mailed to me. Outraged (especially since I have a rent check floating out there now), I asked for a supervisor. I was on hold for a sup for over 20 minutes and spoke with Mr. Moore. After explaining the situation to him, he placed me on hold for another 15 minutes and said that the team that handles issues like this only works on weekdays and to call back on Monday.

Even more upset, but still calm, I call my credit union again. The CSR there said that I would have to drive 475 miles round trip to fill out a dispute form and that there was nothing they could do with my issue until Monday either. It’s kind of funny that they paid an amount like that, since their overdraft “courtesy pay service” is only supposed to cover up to $400 in overdrafts– not almost $7,000!

From their website:
Courtesy Pay will provide overdraft payments of up to $400 for eligible Gesa Checking Accounts in good standing.