Etradebank Problems

I love Etradebank. I have had accounts there way back when my account was with Telebank before Etrade aquired them. I love their bill pay service. Use it all the time. I never send paper checks anymore.

I setup bill pay for a medical company awhile back. Every week, $20 would go to that company. At least I thought it did.

The medical company contacted me to say only one payment of $20 has been received this year. However, I show $200 in payments this year.

Yesterday, I called and spoke to Jared Glaus. He told me he would investigate and call me back later in the day. I didn't receive a call.

Today, I called and spoke to Oliver Delteon. He is investigating the issue.

From a user interface perspective, the irritation lies in the fact that Etradebank puts a rejected bill payment back into the account but there is no notice about which bill is being rejected and why.

Just yesterday, they rejected another bill payment and again I don't know why and both of these are bills that have previously been successfully received by the intended recipient.

5:53 PM Oliver asks to put me on hold for 3 minutes while he investigates. Listening to music.
5:57 PM Oliver is back. "To be perfectly honest, not sure why it's being rejected."
6:03 PM He is going to do more research and because it's Friday, will get back with me on Monday.

Fios TV Followup

Ok, Fios TV is great. The multi-room DVR is fantastic. But a couple thoughts...

• Setting up a recording is slooooooowwwwwww. The interface gets stuck and sits there. Reminds you of Windows after many installs.
• Sometimes the remote gets ignored during delays so you are hitting pause pause pause and finally it pauses.
• Watching the DVR shows in another room occasionally gets stuck and you can hear sound but the screen is black. Have to stop and go back to the guide and then come back into the DVR to get it back.
• Sometimes fast forwarding on a DVR show on a remote tv gets stuck and keeps fast forwarding without stopping.

I wonder if the router just gets clogged or if the DVR itself is slow. Not sure. These are nuisances but again the service itself and the multi-room DVR and the 2 tuners are fantastic. But there are definitely annoyances still in the system.

Careington Dental

In December, I got renewal information from Careington Dental. I didn't intend to renew but they had my credit card. Today is March 10 and I'm reconciling my credit card and see a charge in January from them.
I called to cancel and spoke to John. He said he would cancel but I would receive a prorated refund "at best". I asked him if that means they might charge me the full amount and he said yes. Also, he said if there was a refund at all I have to wait 30-45 days to see it on the statement. I asked why and he said he wasn't sure. Of course I have to pay the full amount while waiting for the refund.
So now I am calling Chevy Chase Bank Platinum Visa to challenge. Got the first guy on the phone after waiting on hold for 5 mins. Told him the story and he said he would get me over to the fraud department. Someone picked up right away - yay. Lina on the phone says this is a dispute, not fraud. Their direct # is 800-625-5162. Listening to music...In a previous blog posting, I raved about American Express and whenever I have one of these disputes, I wish it was American Express. They have the greatest dispute resolution of any credit card. They will take the customer's word when they challenge the charge and force the merchant to prove it is owed instead of the other way around.
Mike said they are sending me a dispute resolution form via mail and will put the amount in limbo pending resolution. So not too painful so far. We'll see how it goes.
As a side note, I liked Careington when I used them. They give a dental discount for a bit over $100/year that most dentists will honor. It's a decent discount for people who have no dental insurance. My only beef is with auto-renewals. I hate auto-renewals.