Check those bills, mistakes like this may be lurking
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Stay-at-home dad Max Margolis is meticulous about each and every bill that arrives at his door, and he always pays his bills on time.
So when his CenturyLink statement for phone and Internet arrived this month it was "$5 higher than I've been paying forever," he said.
It turns out CenturyLink made a 17-cent adjustment on Margolis' November bill after he had paid it. Then the company turned around and charged him a $5 late fee for not paying the adjustment.
Margolis got on the phone with CenturyLink.
"The first lady couldn't do anything about it. Then they gave me another number to call," Margolis said.
An hour and a half later, this busy dad finally got the $5 credit.
"How many customers got this charge with CenturyLink and how much are they getting from people who aren't seeing that 17-cent charge?" Margolis said.
KATU put that question to CenturyLink and within two hours the company admitted the late fee error and issued the following statement:
"CenturyLink has proactively researched to find impacted customers and is in the process of providing a credit to their accounts," said spokesman Martin Flynn.
"I'm glad to hear that, seriously," Margolis said.
It's a credit CenturyLink customers will be getting without the lengthy wait on the phone.
If you got that erroneous late fee prior to Nov. 14, you should see the credit on your December bill. If it was after the 14th, look for that $5 credit on your January statement.
You can still call CenturyLink or just remember to check your statement for the adjustment.
It is always a good idea to carefully inspect your regular bills, even the ones you get online, for reasons just like this.
If you have a story for the Problem Solvers you can either email them at problemsolvers@katu.com or call 503-736-3415.
I just got one on my bill. 17¢ charge and a $5 late fee. Tried to call, nothing they can do about it. For over an hour now, I'm still trying to get it taken care of. I'm on hold, waiting to talk to the next person, and talking to someone on "liveChat", just to wait for the next person, hoping to finally talk to someone who can actually help. I don't want this late fee to mess up my credit, and I want my $5 back! KATU: What number did you call , and who did you speak to, to get it taken care of ?!?!
Welcome to Century Link" business plan. The only business that even comes close to this kind of customer abuse is Comcast.
Century Link is learning from the banksters as fraud is now a legitimate business model. This is the definition of the "new economy". Expect more of this behavior in the future.
I haven't had or needed a land line in 6 years... my kids don't even know what a wired phone is.  We were in some store and they had a phone hanging on a post in the isle we were in and my son who was 6 years old at the time asked "what is that?" and I said it was a phone and he looked at me like I grew a third eye and said with all the confidence in the world "THAT is NOT a phone". Â
funny how the advertisement before the video was for Century Link!Â
 @DylanJ But . . . but . . . . they're so *much* better now than they were before! ];->
Criminals.
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SCUM is rightly your name.Â
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It's the practice of changing the amount owed AFTER the bill is sent and paid that is annoying for me. $0.18 error in their favor and we get hit with a $5.00 late fee for their "mistake".
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Say they only goof with 1,000,000 customers. That is 5 million dollars in their pocket.
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 @WebFootSTi not including that 17 cent adjustment (whatever that was for...)
 @WebFootSTi that's the old troll that's always coming up on here with new avatars/names
Really? All this over $5??? What a waste of time... Maybe if you didn't buy so much beer you wouldn't have to worry about it.Â
 @PortSCUM trolling again???? New name new pic same habit...LOSER!
 @PortSCUM It's $5 to you, but it's millions for Century Link. And if you have money to just give giant corporations willy-nilly, good for you, Many don't have that margin, and $5 is important. Don't be so arrogant.
Personally, an account draft was pulled, the company applied it, mistakenly to someone elses account. I had to pay that payment twice with late fees on the second payment. It took 6 months of constant calling spending long,holds, and connects to many differeent departments to have the mystery finally solved. I got a "sorry', a credit for the amount misscredited, but not for my late fee, nor a correction on my payment history! This company has a phone monopoly on service to my area or I would have bailed.
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Encorporating late fees especially over this past year has been happening to more people than I can count. One individual mailed their mortgage payment 10 days before the due date, not the late date, to a p.o. box. This company was often leaving mail in that box, purposefully NOT picking up mail until a week past due, then not processing it until the late date even though they picked up Corporate mail. (Confirmed by the post master)Â
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Even after notification to Corporate the practice continued. Mailing certified at least showed timely process by consumer and Post Office.   It took an attorneys threat fo file a class action before they started to process in a timely manner.
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Same goes with online payments. Just because you request a payment be schduled don't consider it done until you see record of credit to your account, even if it has been "held" from your bank account, does NOT mean the payment will be credited until they request that hold be processed, then it still won't show until it is registered as fully credited to your account. Yet I will have money pulled and credited before I get the gas cap on my car ar a gas station. I guess the difference is service/vs take out product.
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 @erudite Completely criminal. This needs to be against the law.
THEY SHOULD PAY HIM FOR TIME HE SPENT GETTING THIS CORRECTED AND ANYONE ELSE WHO MAY HAVE TO GO THRU THIS. THEY CHARGE FOR THERE TIME DONT THEY ?
@Allan McDougall Sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh! Deep cleansing breaths, it will be ok.
 @Allan McDougall Kindly quit destroying people's vision and shouting at them with ALL CAP POSTINGS.Â
They just did it to me too.Â
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Calling in the morning just to tie up there line for a bit...
So apparently nothing has changed from when they used to be Qwest.
 @Jamie Exactly and I spent 2.5 hrs on hold with the Denver corporate office til I got thru one time (years back) then really let them have it. I called everyone to complain. I finally bailed on them and went to a cellphone only and took my internet service to Comcast even though it cost more...at least it's mostly decent service.  Qwest was spawn of the devil, if not his consort.
A similar thing happened to me, only it was an error made by CenturyLink in July, which added 60 cents to my
most recent bill. That amount was listed as being "past due", so their $5 late fee was added. I was told I would
see a $5 credit on my next bill; you can bet I will be watching for it!
 @Janet Patterson If you're worried about $5, I have 3 words for you... GET A LIFEÂ
 @PortSCUM  @Janet PattersonÂ
5 dollars adds up over time. I really hope one day you aren't down on your luck, and someone over charges you.Â
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Maybe you should take your 5 dollars you didn't get overcharged, and buy a step-stool so you can step down off your pedestal. Don't want you hurting yourself ;)
 @PortSCUM  @Janet Patterson Are you kidding? I worry about every $5! Especially the scum companies trying to pull this off one customer at a time. And so should you. With 0% interest rates, who are you to say not to worry about every dollar going out?Â
 @shewiz  @PortSCUM  @Janet Patterson it's a troll
 @PortSCUM  @Janet Patterson And I have for words for you: Don't be a prig.
 @Old29 Hey, at least Old29 can count! ];->
 @PortSCUM  @Janet Patterson four words
 @Old29  @PortSCUM  @Janet Patterson don't feed the troll