Think twice before paying

Well, the story starts like this. A month ago, I went to my life insurance company to settle one of my life policies (I mention it before in my blog "parking space"). I wanted to cancel the policy because it just too expensive for me after holding it for 2 years (Life is getting harder and harder these days). So, i went there and talk to the customer service personal. I asked her how to cancel the policy. What she told me is to change the payment from credit card to cash and let the policy lapsed. Since it was just that simple, I agreed and signed the document. It’s just only a piece of paper and there is no customer copy for it.

After a month and guess what, they still charging me to my credit card. When the credit card bill came and after I have saw the familiar amount appear in the list, I was really mad. (Anybody would say anything from this point, I think I have covered most of them) I start asking myself questions that I have no answer for it. Example, what the hell is going on here? It all went to worst until I can’t even sleep well that night.

The next morning, I still keep asking myself question that I don’t have answer, which I don’t know why I still doing it. Nevertheless, I gave the company customer service line a call to clarify the issue. A girl picked up the call; I mentioned my name and gave her the policy number politely (Until this point, I was able to holding myself asking “question that have no answer” to her successfully). I asked her regarding the payment type for the policy and the reply just as I expected. It didn’t change at all. I told her the whole story and she started to panic. (I think any staff would panic because most likely they would get a call like this with a lot of shouting and screaming) I asked her what are the procedures to refund the money back and she told me to write a letter about it and fax it to them. I was calling from home and there is no fax machine installed. Further more, I don’t want to mail the letter where it might be lost on the way there. The only choice for me to settle this issue is to go to the HQ personally on Saturday.

And I did. It was Wednesday I made the customer service line called and I felt much better after 3 days has passed. This time, it was another personal who served me. I told her the whole story and the reply I got is “It takes some time to refund your transaction. Please check your credit card account after 2 to 3 weeks time.” I didn’t shout or scream and I agreed with her again. (I think shouting and screaming doesn’t help much here) However, i requested a customer copy of that form just to be saved. Anyway, the issue will be found whether it is solved after 2 to 3 week’s time.

Using credit card to make automatic payment indeed, does provide a lot of convenient and time saving to the user. However, it also gives the user a lot of headache if something goes wrong with it.