Jon Bon’s Money

It’s the Principal!

            Lately I have been running into a few situations where I feel like I have been misled, ripped off, or stole from. None of these situations were enough money for me to get very excited about but it still jerks my chain.

Giant Eagle: If you don’t know it’s a grocery chain, it usually has stores in great locations, with not so great prices. Because of the convenience I do tend to go there when I need odds and ends. GE is HORRIBLE about labeling the price of their products. Recently I went in to buy some steaks for dinner. They were on a BOGO (buy one get one free) so I picked up two and headed out. The steaks were right next two each other, looked the same, packaged the same, and weighed the same. But of course they were different. So instead of buying one for 8 bucks and getting one for free, I paid $16 for two steaks. This has happened on several occasions with different items rang up at different prices. The problem with me is that I am usually in hurry and it is not worth it for me to make a big deal about it.

Work Café: I have been buying my lunch more because I have been buying less food to eat at home because it tends to go bad before I can eat it. The other day I paid with a credit card. The cashier rang up my mountain dew and pizza (healthy!!) and swiped my card twice. Sometimes credit cards don’t get read by the machine the first time it happens, but I kept my receipt just the same and I never keep receipts.  Sure enough on my bank statement there were a charge for 0.67 and a charge for 5.67. So I would chalk this one up to human error, but it is still annoying!

Huntington bank: I had a back up back up emergency fund with them. Essentially I was keeping that money segregated from the rest of my funds to use a part of a down payment. Well I bought a house and needed the cash for the down payment. I went to a branch to try and close my account. The teller could not do it, so I had to go to one of their “banking specialist” The tellers were all doing nothing, but the banking specialist had multiple people waiting on him. I was on my lunch, so rather then wait around and be late back to work, I just withdrew almost all the funds.

            A week later I get a call from someone at a branch telling me the funds are low, and to avoid fees I need to convert to a checking account. I don’t want a checking account; I want to close the account. She of course could not help me so rather then paying fees I told her to convert to checking with the intention of closing the account in the near future. About a week later I get a huge packet of docs in the mail, and checks. I did not want checks, but I figure who cares.

            A week after that I go to yet another branch to attempt to close my account. Yet another teller informs me I have to speak to a banking specialist. When I go to close the account low and behold they have charged my account for checks. I told her that was unacceptable and to refund the money for the checks that I did not order. As it turns out she “might” be able to get my $15 back, but I could then not close the account that day. Well I just took my money and left, I don’t like the way that Huntington operates, and I think I will have to write their customer service a letter letting them know that.

Should I be making a bigger deal out of these relatively minor disputes?