Citibank mailed this credit card to many former Home Depot credit card accountholders who had their store cards closed for inactivity

More than a year ago, many former Home Depot credit card customers who had their accounts closed for inactivity received an invitation from Citibank for a unique Mastercard that carried an “everyday six months at zero percent interest” offer on charges exceeding $300.  Make a purchase over $99 and take three months to pay before interest charges applied.  A card with this feature extended the ability for customers to create their own zero interest installment plans on big ticket purchases, handy for emergencies or for budgeting monthly payments without coughing up interest.

Unfortunately for these cardholders, the party is over.  Not only is Citibank rescinding its offer, it’s closing your account, too.  The company decided that in these times of banks not actually lending to people, loaning six months of their money to you without interest just doesn’t make much sense.  Cardholders can pay off their existing balances under the original terms of the account, which means you may have up to six additional months to pay the balance off without incurring interest.  But Citibank will decline any future purchases attempted after the end of February.

The collateral damage from Citibank’s decision will hit your credit report about a month after the line is closed.  Any reduction in available credit changes your credit profile, reducing the percentage of available credit you have at your disposal.  If you maintain high balances on your other credit cards, losing this available credit will reduce your FICO score, a critical measure lenders use to determine your credit worthiness.

Just 20 years ago, wise credit management meant not opening and maintaining too many credit lines.  Creditors would deny additional credit if you had too many open credit card accounts.  How times have changed.  Today, closing accounts is considered a bad idea, often harmful to your credit worthiness.

That’s because lenders look at your total credit utilization and your total available credit.  If you have $5,000 in credit card debt and hold credit cards with a combined credit limit of $6,000, your available credit is just $1,000.  That means you are using nearly all of your available credit — a classic warning sign for lenders, with predictable interest rate increases and further credit line reductions the usual result.  If you maintained $25,000 in available credit, using just $5,000 of it looks much better to creditors, who will praise your responsible credit management.

That is why it is usually a bad idea to close inactive or zero balance credit card accounts.  They reduce your total available credit.  It’s much better to throw cards in a box unused and keep credit lines open.  If you’re afraid the temptation is too great, cut up the cards.  If a bank increases your credit limit, do not request they rescind it.  The only time it makes good financial sense to close an account is if the issuing bank introduces an annual fee.  If they won’t waive it upon request, it may be a good time to retire the card.

When Citibank closes your Mastercard account, your total available credit will drop.  You can mitigate the potential damage to your credit score by reviewing your other credit card accounts online.  Some bank and store credit card accounts from retailers like Best Buy will offer automatic credit limit increases upon request that do not necessarily result in credit card report inquiries (something that can also reduce your score.)

Some offer a fixed increase to accept or reject (Best Buy), others ask you to request a specific dollar amount.  Look for special “credit line increase” buttons after logging into your account with Citibank or American Express.  Discover Card has an automated phone line to process credit line increases up to $2,000.  In less than an hour, you can restore the credit line Citibank takes away when they close your Mastercard account.  Just avoid those that disclose they will pull your credit report as a result of your request.

Such is the game of today’s credit card industry.  Later this month, the “too late to do any good” credit card reform laws take effect.  No more arbitrary interest rate increases, but then the days of fixed interest rates are largely over anyway.

Specialized Loan Servicing, which took over tens of thousands of home equity loan accounts from GMAC Mortgage, continues to confound its involuntary newest customers.  Many were shocked and surprised to discover their home equity credit line was sold off to a company better known for dealing with “problem payers” and “sub-prime” account management, despite never making a late payment and maintaining an excellent credit score.

SLS has caused additional consternation for consumers by charging them late fees on accounts given just days to make payment on, despite assurances in a welcome letter that such late fees or negative credit references cannot be charged on newly transferred accounts for a period of 60 days.

For those who managed to squeak by with an online or phone payment, discovering that in certain circumstances, the $9.95 convenience fee is waived for such transactions, November’s challenge is understanding the next monthly statement that follows, showing a much lower minimum payment requirement and an apparent partial-month bill.  In our case, the bill amounted to just 11 days of account service and required a significantly lower minimum payment.  Although the due date on the bill did not change, the number of days covered by the statement did in this case.

No accompanying explanation was provided.

For consumers who make every effort to protect their credit rating and payment history in this incredibly difficult credit marketplace, unexplained “surprises” and concerns about mistaken billing, “late” payments, and even worse, a hit on a credit report, can be devastating as other creditors take note and begin cutting off lines of credit, lowering credit lines, or dramatically increasing interest rates because of their new-found concern for your credit worthiness.

SLS must take stronger measures to better inform consumers of their actions and take every precaution to protect consumers’ hard-earned credit ratings.

Additional oversight is warranted, particularly because most consumers have little choice in the transition to SLS, unless they are able to pay off their existing balance and close the account, or manage a refinancing that transfers the account somewhere else.

GMAC Mortgage may require additional financial assistance from the U.S. government in the form of bailout money to stay solvent.  It is likely some original mortgages may be the next thing to be sold off to third party companies in GMAC’s efforts to remain operational and meet the terms and conditions imposed on it by the federal government.

My advice: You have to watch GMAC and SLS like a hawk, and never assume “it will be taken care of.”  If anything seems questionable or is unclear, pick up the phone and call for immediate answers.  You must protect your payment record and credit rating at all costs in this economy.

Keep reporting your experiences here and in the original article on this issue.

The Mortgage Insider

Financially troubled GMAC Mortgage this fall sold tens of thousands of prime home equity loans to a company rated so poorly, it is considered by some experts to be among the worst mortgage servicers in the nation.

Specialized Loan Servicing of Colorado, in just a few years, has racked up a stunning number of complaints against it.  The Mortgage Insider found the complaints among the worst that he has ever seen levied against a mortgage servicing provider.

Known more for its servicing of loans sold off by the original mortgage holder, SLS has amassed hundreds of complaints with the Better Business Bureau, online, and on online communities discussing mortgage providers.

Based on a survey of complaints reviewed online, SLS seems to have attracted a number of sub-prime mortgage accounts and those forced to undertake loan modifications in this difficult economy.  Calls to SLS customer service routinely include a notification the company is “attempting to collect a debt” and any information gleaned from that call may be used as part of that process.

For prime GMAC Mortgage home equity loan holders with stellar credit scores and perfect payment records, the sudden sell-off of their loans has come as quite a shock.

They were further disheartened when they called SLS to inquire about the transfer and were introduced to the SLS way of doing business.

Jamie writes, “I am not sure why it was sold because we are good customers with outstanding credit and have always made our payment on time. I called SLS today and they would not give me any account information to make a payment! I told the woman I wanted to make a payment over the phone but she was unwilling to even process a payment. I can’t even access their website and my payment is supposed to be due in a few days. The woman I spoke with was rude and unhelpful. Apparently they treat new customers like this. I am not looking forward to working with this company.”

Jamie’s experience is not atypical.  We found hundreds of complaints about rude and obnoxious customer service representatives who were either undertrained or presumed your problems were just an excuse to not pay them their money.  Long hold times, customers hung up on, and promised outcomes from calls that never materialized were all-too-easy to find.

Some GMAC Mortgage customers had their home equity credit lines frozen after the transfer for “delinquent loan-access termination,” despite never making a late payment and maintaining a FICO credit score of 800 or more.

One customer received someone else’s loan documents in the mail, chock full of personal information that would represent a goldmine for an identity thief.

We contacted SLS Loan Servicing and were surprised to discover the company requires online payments be made through Western Union.  Customers accustomed to making regular monthly online payments through the GMAC Mortgage website will be unhappy to learn SLS requires them to use Western Union SpeedPay to make a payment, with a “convenience fee” of $9.95 for each payment.  Making a payment by phone, convenient for SLS who is assured of getting their money, will be very inconvenient for you — it carries a $9.95 “convenience fee” as well.  You can also wire them the money.

The only way to make a payment without incurring a charge each time you make a payment is to mail a paper check or go through the tedious process of establishing a direct debit with your checking account, which in some cases will also incur bank fees.  Of course, a pre-configured direct debit payment program does not provide the flexibility to make payments in different amounts to pay off your loan more rapidly, as GMAC Mortgage allowed.

Customers are concerned.  A company with an established reputation of mishandling accounts can risk the good credit standing of its customers, and if the SLS horror stories continue, formerly prime credit customers may join their sub-prime brethren courtesy of the damage a poor loan servicer can wreak on an individual’s credit score.

Unfortunately, short of refinancing your mortgage or paying off the home equity balance and closing the account, consumers have no recourse or ability to opt-out from the sale.  Stringent oversight by appropriate state and federal agencies to ensure quality service is about the only protection consumers have from sudden sell-offs of their mortgage accounts.

In all of the years I have reported on consumer issues, I’ve dealt with my share of deceptive press releases and public relations campaigns from companies trying to do damage control or fight a policy battle on Capitol Hill.  But not since tobacco CEO’s appeared before Congress to testify they didn’t believe nicotine-laced tobacco products were addictive, have I encountered a company that so disingenuously engages in outright, naked deception.

In its campaign to protect itself from regulatory measures to reign in an industry gone wild, Bank of America Monday wrote a letter to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) informing him the company would not raise its credit card interest rates on customers unless they made late payments.  The Washington Post this morning reported:

Bank of America said it will not raise credit card interest rates before February, when a law restricting industry practices takes effect, unless a cardholder is in default.

In a letter sent to Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday, John Collingwood, the bank’s director of federal government relations, wrote that the bank was making the change “in light of the concerns expressed to us by our customers.”

I was unimpressed by the coverage by the Post, who didn’t bother to ask actual cardholders what they thought — reporter Nancy Trejos would have quickly learned that millions of Bank of America credit card customers were already victimized by unwarranted interest rate hikes the bank implemented over this past summer, after notifying customers of the changes back in April.  This reporter is one of those customers.

In my case, I came out better than some.  A Bank of America credit card I hold that carried a fixed interest rate of 7.99% for at least the past four years was converted into a variable interest rate (which virtually every bank is doing to escape the credit card reform regulation requirement that limits their ability to hike rates on consumers — variable rates allow them to continue to change interest rates monthly), but also increased to around 12%.  Many customers reported much higher increases, some now confronting rates exceeding 20%.  You could have had a pristine payment record and your rate still increased.

Bank of America explained in their letter the rate change was due to a changing business environment.

Bank of America’s claim they are responding to the concerns of its customers is also amusing, at best.  Bank of America has yet to demonstrate much concern for their customers, who contacted the company en masse back during the spring round of rate hikes asking them to reverse their decision, particularly when the customer has never made a late payment and maintains an excellent credit score.  The company routinely told customers, “no.”  Your only option was to “opt-out,” which works only if you treat your credit line as closed, and are prepared for the hit to your credit score when they close your account upon achieving a zero balance.

That intransigence remarkably eases not when customers call, complain, or even cancel their accounts.  It changes when Congress threatens to make further regulatory changes to the credit card industry in response to their ongoing customer abuses.

A change represented in a letter to Senator Dodd is just a piece of paper.  For millions of consumers just like myself, where is our letter from Bank of America apologizing for the naked profit grab, refunding the difference in interest changes many millions of Americans have been subjected to since Bank of America’s interest rate hikes, and a restoration of our former, fixed, interest rate?

Call your member of Congress and two senators and inform them Bank of America is engaged in outright deception if they think a letter to Senator Dodd is proof enough that they are actually changing course.  Until the company publicly states they are restoring the interest rates of all Bank of America customers without a late payment history to the interest rate they paid in January 2009, they have a lot of explaining to do.

Credit card reform legislation has not provided consumers with actual relief.  The legislation provided enough loopholes, and a lengthy delay before full implementation, to allow the credit card industry to pelt consumers with an endless series of “changes in terms” letters from credit card companies increasing rates, decreasing credit lines, closing accounts, increasing the minimum payment requirements, and a whole parade of other changes that are so punishing, they are tipping consumers over the edge into insolvency.

Until Congress supports the Obama Administration’s idea of a federal consumer protection agency that has the flexibility to outmaneuver and ban anti-consumer tricks and traps unintentionally allowed by federal law, Americans will continue to be victimized by cat and mouse games by the credit card industry.

US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Toll-free: (877) 851-6437

As the staged theater continues at town hall events, with out of district, often paid “protesters” showing up to disrupt meetings, insurance executives essentially ordering their employees out to meetings to “create opposition,” and now an escalation of rhetoric leading to death threats in some instances, elected representatives are under siege by Special Interest Stagecraft.

Lost in all this, of course, are ordinary consumers who live in the district, who are too often being drowned out by the rabble at many of these events.

Now we have more noise in the mix coming from groups on the left that want to fritter away true health care reform just for the sake of getting anything passed.  Some of them are upset that Rep. Massa has stood firm in his conviction that a health care reform bill that jettisons a “public option” isn’t health care reform at all — it’s just a watered down insurance reform bill that will evoke heaving sighs of relief from the insurance and big pharmaceutical lobbies.

Citizens Action New York (who?) showed up Tuesday at Rep. Massa’s Pittsford office with 5,000 signed petitions from “New Yorkers” (how many are inside the 29th Congressional District is an open question) who want health care reform, apparently even if it means passing a bill that has a title page by the name, with little to no reform in the actual bill.

Meanwhile, Local 1170 of Communications Workers of America and the Working Families Party also turned up begging Massa for a vote that constitutes appeasement with the health care industry.

While the teabagging rabble attempts to shout down people at town hall meetings, some of the “watered down health care” crowd is manning out-of-district phone banks, actually encouraging people to tell Congress to vote for whatever scraps that eventually result from compromising away the core principles of health care reform.

I’ve fought legislative battles on telecommunications law for more than 20 years now.  The one true fact of life I’ve learned repeatedly in my own battles, a lesson I wish my Democratic lobbying friends would finally learn, is that it is worse to pass a bill that doesn’t solve the problem than killing the bill and starting all over again from scratch.

A health care reform bill, at the bare minimum, must contain a true public option.  There is a reason why the other side is quiet about “co-ops,” because they know that’s not true reform — it’s window dressing.

For once, can the Democratic Party not be the ONLY group that actually believes Republican talking points?  Progressives have already compromised away the single-payer health care system concept and are forced to live with “the public option.”  The other side, who wants to keep the status quo, has compromised not a single one of their core principles away, yet now there are Democrats who are back before progressives once again asking them for more compromises, while the other side merrily pounds away on one of the most important reform issues of the last 50 years.

Enough.

Citizens Action New York and the CWA, among others, want Congressman Massa to throw away his core values and beliefs and support what looks more and more like a health care lobby’s dream come true – a bill that hands them tens of millions of new customers forced to pay into a system modified with lukewarm reform that I assure you will be chipped away through exploitation of loopholes that always exist in these bills.

But it’s worse.  The passage of such frittered away legislation will kill momentum for real, honest reform for at least two decades.

“Didn’t we already address this issue in the Health Care Reform Act just x years ago? Why do we need to make changes – we should wait and allow the legislation’s impact to be fully measured in a few years.”

I’ve heard exactly the same kind of language on the telecommunications issues I’ve fought for in the past.

It is always better to realize that if you’ve been outmaneuvered or have been stabbed in the back by the “colleagues” in your own party that traded away their souls for fat campaign contributions, it’s much better to kill a bad bill and begin anew than to pass bad legislation that changes little or nothing.

Congressman Massa recognizes that reality.

The correct response to all of this is for the president and leaders in Congress to start cracking the whip, and for once get the wavering Democrats on board and unified… or else.

For the rest of us, we’re remembering the names of those who stood with consumers and will be there to support them come election time.  Congressman Massa is one of those.  Those that decided to throw their constituents under the bus so they could keep those nice big campaign contributions will also need our help – to force a primary challenge, raise money for the opponent, and get those people out of office.

Citizens Action New York, CWA, and others — stop being part of the problem and start getting into the hand to hand combat we need right now to force through legislation that has a public option.  Doing anything less is like doing nothing for the people you claim to represent.

Chase mailed this "change of terms" home to nearly one million cardholders this month. Click to enlarge.

Your mailbox has probably been filling up recently with credit card companies sending you change of terms notices on your credit card accounts.  In the past, most of the gouging took place when your credit score dropped or if you missed a minimum payment, or utilized too much of your available credit.  These days, even those with FICO scores in the high 700s are seeing an end to fixed interest rates, replaced with something far higher, and free to float even higher as the Fed increases its own benchmark rate in the future.

Since the passage of recent legislation to put an end to the most egregious abuses, Congress mucked things up by not imposing the law immediately, and instead gave credit card companies nearly a year for a gouging free-for-all before the new law takes effect.  They’re taking full advantage.

A special place in hell has been reserved for Chase, however, which has pulled out all of the stops and gone shameless like no other credit card company has before.  Using the ethics of Bernie Madoff, some pencil pushers at Chase have decided that smart customers who hopped on board those near-weekly balance transfer offers they used to mail to cardholders, offering a fixed low percentage rate for the “life of the balance” don’t deserve that offer anymore.

Since the bank got slapped for trying to impose a $10 monthly “account maintenance fee,” they’ve decided to opt instead for a more than doubling of the monthly minimum payment, effective August 1st.

In a “change of terms” notice mailed home to hundreds of thousands of Chase cardholders who have a fixed rate balance transfer offer, the company has singled them out with the payment change:

Before:  Your minimum payment consists of 2% of the owing balance on your account plus accrued interest charges and fees.

After: Your minimum payment consists of 5% of the owing balance on your account plus accrued interest charges and fees.

The company has also announced it has canceled all pre-existing balance transfer offers floating around in your mailbox, drawer, or attached to your latest bill.  That’s because it is also changing the terms and conditions on future balance transfer offers.  The days of “life of the balance” transfers are over, so expect to find 7% offers good for six-twelve months maximum being the new standard for creditworthy consumers.  But in addition, Chase will charge you a 5%, the highest in the industry, of whatever balance you do choose to transfer their way, with no maximum, as a “balance transfer fee.”

At first glance, a 3% increase in the minimum payment does not appear to be that great.  But what makes this especially awful on the part of Chase is that their change in terms contains NO opt out provision.  You are trapped, unless you can transfer the remaining balance away (and confront higher interest, another balance transfer fee, and a time-limited offer in the process).  Consumers in this extremely tough economic climate are often budgeting their payment obligations to the penny, and are focusing on paying down debt starting with the highest interest rate, and then moving to the next highest interest rate, and so on.  Chase wants to be first in line, and for consumers who are capably managing to reduce their debt, a near-tripling of the minimum payment will put many people straight into default.

Consumers with a minimum payment of $200 will now have to cough up $500 a month.  It’s not such a small amount after all.

One person told ConsumerAffairs:

“My monthly payment from my four accounts will go from $961.00 a month to $2394.00 a month. Needless to say I will not be able to make these payments and will end up defaulting on my accounts and probably claim bankruptcy.”

In general, increases in minimum payment requirements do reduce debt more quickly, and reduce your exposure to interest charges.  Paying a credit card in full exposes you to no interest charges (yet).

But in the real world, where many consumers do have long-standing debt, the reasons this is particularly egregious:

1. A more than doubling of a minimum payment on hard-pressed consumers will rapidly tip people into default.  An incremental increase in the minimum payment with considerable notice is one thing.  A 30 day notice is not.
2. Should Chase get away with this, it will establish a precedent other card companies will surely follow.  Anyone with revolving balances could easily find themselves underwater with the impact of Hurricane Katrina.
3. Consumers were sold on the idea of the original deal, which Chase now wants to right to unilaterally change for its own benefit.  It’s like a mortgage company coming to you and demanding a doubling of your house payment… just because.
4. One outrageous anti-consumer abuse will lead to others.  How about account inactivity fees?  Interest rates from the date of purchase with no grace period?  Annual fees?

American Express has been reportedly reducing credit lines for customers who are caught using their AmEx cards at the “wrong stores.”  One cardholder found his credit line reduced to the owed balance after shopping at Wal-Mart.  The reason? Customers who routinely shop at those stores are more likely to default on their account than those that don’t, so you’re guilty by association.

Remember, your entire financial state depends on your credit score.  Once you find a credit line reduced or miss a payment, it’s like putting yourself in a barrel over Niagara Falls.  Here’s what routinely happens:

1. Your credit line is reduced to your owing balance on one card, putting your card utilization percentage at near 100%, which reduces your FICO score.
2. Other credit card companies doing routine credit checks discover the red flag of a credit score decline and credit utilization ratio problem.  They also reduce credit lines on your other accounts.
3. Your FICO score now takes a very serious hit as account credit lines decline, which also triggers all of your remaining credit cards to dramatically increase your interest rates because of your increased risk.
4. Your homeowners and auto insurance policies more likely than not are now also price-impacted by your credit score.  Your policy renewal rate can be substantially higher, or canceled outright.
5. Your potential employer pulls a credit report and sees you are “irresponsible” with your credit and therefore may also treat your job the same way.  You are not hired.
6. Your ability to rent or purchase property is seriously affected by a declining credit score.

These days, only one or two minor events in your credit portfolio can trigger a financial avalanche, often before you can maneuver out of the way.  The recent passage of credit card reform will protect against some of the worst industry practices, but not others including their right to reduce your credit line, change your going-forward interest rate, and allow others to access your credit history for non-credit extension purposes.

Chase’s latest is something every consumer should be communicating their extreme displeasure to Congress about.  Even if it doesn’t directly impact you today, allowing any credit card company to get their abusive foot in the door of your family can spell financial disaster for those who are paying their debts, but at the terms and conditions they agreed to when they originated the loans, not the terms the credit card company decided to impose on a whim.

Comcast Cable has expanded its “Get Local” programs available on-demand for cable subscribers to include pet adoptions.  The Unleashed Blog, part of the Baltimore Sun website reported that more than 300 pets have already been featured on the greater Baltimore area system.

The company works with the Humane Society of Harford County and the SPCA of Anne Arundel County, Unleashed reports.

Subscribers can access the free pet adoption information if they have a digital cable subscription.  Apparently many already do, as it is among the ten most popular offerings, according to Comcast representatives.  Viewers receive complete information about the pets, including their temperament, which is particularly useful information for finding the right home.

Comcast is to be applauded for this innovative community service, which can hopefully reduce the problem of temporarily unwanted pets and bring happiness to families looking to adopt one.

Free Press, a national consumer advocacy group, has launched Free My Phone!, an effort to impress regulators with fed-up consumers tired of limited mobile phone freedom, exclusivity deals which lock customers into contracts with providers they’d rather not do business with, and allows the industry to cripple/limit phone features to maximize potential profits.

Just a year or so ago, wireless carriers promised Washington they would ease up on their closed network business practices, which keep customer-owned phones from moving from one mobile phone company to another, turned off phone features built-in to the phone, and stopped disabling certain other features to limit usage or extract higher revenues from “add on” services.

Cell phone companies know their business, because in the end it was a whole lot of talk, and not much action.

Now Free Press is working to organize consumers to tell the FCC and Congress that enough is enough.

Tell Washington: Free My Phone!

New “smart” phones have set the stage for the future of a mobile Internet. But companies like AT&T and Verizon are getting in the way by shackling open and innovative devices to closed networks. The FCC and Congress must step in to protect consumers and foster innovation. We demand:

1. The freedom to choose any phone on any network.
2. The freedom to choose among many carriers in a competitive, low-cost marketplace.
3. The freedom to access any Web content, applications or services we want through our phones.

Free Press calls out the industry:

New mobile phones have been called “the Internet in your pocket,” but they’re not. Through exclusive deals for phones like the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm, wireless companies have curtailed innovation, crippled applications, and stuck users with the bill. We demand the freedom to use our phones as we choose — on wireless networks that offer true high-speed Internet and real consumer choice.

In addition to signing an online petition, feel free to contact your representatives in Congress directly and let them know that practices like AT&T’s iPhone agreement guarantees high prices and bad service for consumers.

Stop the Cap! has peripherally followed the misadventures of Apple’s iPhone 3GS release by AT&T, which has managed to alienate customers and overcharge them for service at the same time.  Perhaps a few AT&T customers enjoy the sadomasochism inflicted on them by AT&T Wireless, but most wish they could feel good about two year contracts with the carrier they love to hate.

Once again, the early adopter who waited in line all night or who put themselves on a waiting list months before the latest iPhone release, were stuck cooling their heels for up to 48 hours after bringing their new phone home.  New AT&T customers found the inconvenient truth when they ran iTunes, displaying a warning that they would have to wait up to 48 hours before activation would be complete.  Perhaps AT&T was thinking, ‘you waited this long, what’s another two days for us to get our act together!’

Apple paid the public relations price with $30 in iTunes Store credit being e-mailed to affected customers:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you’ll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

Charter Cable "Cable Theft" Door Tag

The Savvy Consumer, a blog run by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, today shared the story of one customer who contacted the paper to say he found a doorknob hanging flier on his front door that accused him of what the paper called “cable theft”:

During a check of our cable television lines, we discovered your residence is receiving services that are not in your current subscription plan. Based on this information all unauthorized services have been disconnected. If there is an error in our records, please call the number below and we will correct the matter immediately.

The customer called Charter Cable, his local cable operator to protest the flier and claim innocence.

When he reached a representative from the cable company, [he/she] “quickly launched into sales mode and gave him the hard sell on a bundled cable-Internet-phone package.”

“The accused thinks the fliers are just a gimmick to generate sales leads,” The Savvy Consumer writes.

Most cable operators perform regular “system audits” of their service areas, looking for services still activated for customers that operators forgot to disconnect, active cable theft by customers hooking into cable lines themselves, or customers using modified equipment to steal scrambled/encrypted channels.

Many operators do approach customers they feel may be receiving services to which they are not entitled by inviting them to “get legal” and sign up for an authorized package of services, often at the same promotional rates given to new customers.  Many also run “amnesty programs” to let customers get legitimate service without fear of legal penalties for turning themselves in.

Egregious theft of service is prosecuted by the industry, but most have traditionally first tried persuasion to sign up customers before getting law enforcement involved.  They are far less charitable dealing with those who modify and sell equipment to others designed to steal service.

The Savvy Consumer asks any St. Louis-area customers who have received one of these Charter fliers, or otherwise been falsely accused of stealing cable to contact mhathaway@post-dispatch.com with your story.