By Rita R. Robison
Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep?
Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:
My best: Completing my income tax return
Thursday, I e-filed my taxes to the IRS. It was a joyous moment.
Preparing my taxes is tedious work. I have a small business, so I keep track of my costs for supplies, mileage, and other expenses. It takes time to go through the paperwork and calculate my taxes.
My top tax tip for this year is to set up the space where you watch movies in the background as you work on your taxes. It makes the time go faster.
After checking my figures with someone knowledgeable, I used Fileable Forms to submit my tax return. The forms were fairly easy to use; I only had one problem. When I thought I was done, I couldn’t get the Send function to work. When I finally figured out I had to fill in the last box, I was able to submit the firm.
Now, I’m waiting for an e-mail saying the IRS has accepted my return.
My worst: Low-quality service from credit unions
As a consumer writer, I’m a champion of credit unions.
However, several experiences I had with credit unions this week made me wonder if credit unions are slipping in their customer service.
On Sunday, I made a deposit to one of the credit unions I belong to so that when an automatic bill came in Monday, there’d be enough money to pay it.
The money wasn’t deposited in my account until Tuesday. I was charged $12 for three transfers of funds from my credit card to cover three checks.
When I called to complain, the credit union employee was uninformed and rude. She said the money I deposited had to wait for Federal Reserve approval before it could be deposited. Not true. I was transferring money from a subaccount into my main account.
Then I asked when the transfer fee had increased from $2 to $4. I hadn’t been informed about it. She told me in a snippy voice that the information had been included on my monthly statement.
I asked to have the $12 for the transfer fees refunded. The customer service representative left the line, then returned saying the credit union “as a courtesy” would reverse one of the transfer fees.
I’m going to find out who I’ll need to contact at the credit union to file a complaint about this.
I’d let it go, but I had two other experiences last week with rude credit union employees.
I’m working on a story on payday loans for my blog the Boomer Consumer. I’m trying to find out if some, many, or most credit unions offer alternatives to payday loans.
A credit union vice president for communications for one of the credit unions I belong to and a Northwest Credit Union Association communications staff member were both short with me when I tried to find out the answer to my question.
