Is this storage company unfairly charging a late fee because they cannot process a check fast enough?
Also, a tip that’s probably always true of any phone interaction you have with companies: get the name of the person you talk to. When I had issues with my storage company, I kept getting different answers to the same question from different people I talked to on the phone. I don’t know how Manhattan Mini Storage works, but there were fairly large differences of opinion between my local storage office and the main branch.
Thanks for the responses. They are all useful and fascinating. It is comforting to hear of other battles against these corporate monkeyshines. They rile me. Bureaucracies are old-school software, where, unfortunately, people end up as interfaces as well as users. Which is why, despite my frustration I always end up kind. But I wish I weren’t. Companies have engineered a wicked incompetence into their methods to ensure the profit of floats, late fees, errors, and cancellations, expecting us to be too befuddled and worn down to correct their calculated bumbling. Your stories, jessamyn and plinth, convince that insurance companies are the worst. How clever to get richer the worse you do. Oh well, as much as I would like to contest this situation with a curt verb-this-body-part, I am just wise enough to realize that it may be counterproductive and may negotiate: drop all the late fees and I will pay you some other way you can handle with more ease and so on. That is, I am right, but am hap
Late processing is just one technique of nickel and diming clients and customers by vendors and financial institutions. Another technique is for banks to process debits before credits in the hopes of you having an overcharge fee or start kicking in the overdraft fees and supplements. Quite frankly, I am not sure how all my efficiency of electronic payments and prompt payments benefits me. I would suggest to you to check with your local state attorney general’s office about how this widespread abuse of processing times and payments is a consumer rip off. Try both states, of New York and New Jersey. You are definitely not alone in this boat.
