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Overcharged by a tech company? New service could help get your money back:
When a major company overbills you, doesn't honor a sales promise or wrongly damages your credit, it can be difficult and discouraging to seek out ways to make a consumer claim. The online platform FairShake -- formerly known as Radvocate -- relaunched on Tuesday with a rebuilt product that aims to help people take on big companies such as Verizon, Wells Fargo and Equinox and win compensation.
FairShake automates the claims process of legal research, document creation and delivery to help customers negotiate a resolution to their claim against a company. Any disputes that aren't resolved in negotiation can be escalated to the private consumer arbitration court system, and the platform will automate the process of filing with the American Arbitration Association.
Around 80 million people per year in the US have some sort of unresolved dispute with a company, mostly in big industries like telecom, banking and online services, Max Kornblith, co-founder of FairShake, told CNET. As such, FairShake has expanded from focusing on the telecom industry to others including financial services, home security, fitness and ride-hailing services.
[...] FairShake takes a 20% commission of any refunds or other cash payments that customers receive in their disputes, and 10% of any adjustments to their debt or account balances, along with a $20 minimum for any successfully resolved claim. If you don't get paid, FairShake doesn't either, Kornblith said. The company also offers discounted or free help to low-income customers, he added.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 04 2020, @04:42AM (9 children)
I was screwed two years ago. I have an automatic bill payment set up from my bank to my mortgage. One month the payment was lost. The mortgage bank reported the late payment on my perfect credit history.
I can't by guilty here, can I? However, my bank claims it sent the payment while the mortgage bank claims it never got it (I know they are at fault because they were moving office at the time and likely lost it). Nevertheless, they refused to call back the credit report.
I complained to the consumer protection bureau, which forwarded the complaint to New York Feds for an investigation. New York Feds replied to me with, in a nutshell, "make sure you use more reliable payment system in the future".
Any thoughts?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:49AM (3 children)
That sucks.
Did you have any kind of confirmation in place, from the mortgage holder to you directly, which acknowledged the payment?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @07:47AM (1 child)
IDK about your credit, but if the amount was gone from your bank, and didn't show up as a credit on your mortgage payments, yes, that's theft where you didn't ID the thief, and your bank statements where it shows on one and not the other will be useful if the police investigate. If they don't, do you have theft insurance? If so, you'll need the case # from the police and so on.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:44PM
When I became aware of the missing payment I reported it to my bank and they cancelled the check and sent another one that made it. Meantime my credit report got a negative mark for 7 years.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:56PM
Well, by default my bank starts to ask about missing checks after about a month and so the mortgage company about missing payments. See, I set up this auto payment 15 years ago when the target bank did not even had a web site and it never failed. After the incident I did set up alerts on both sides and I guess it was the whole point of New York Feds. I was sloppy.
To my excuse let me tell you a story. I started using bank's bill payment almost the day it first became available. That year I paid NY parking ticket. NY, as they do very often, lost the check and sent me a penalty. I complained to the bank.
My bank actually filed a lawsuit against NY, send a lawyer to hearings, and won the case. This is how banking is supposed to work in civilized places, imxo.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 04 2020, @03:54PM (2 children)
Was the payment by ACH or paper check? You can take them to small claims court with bank statements. Though I doubt you will see any money out of it unless they decide to just blow off the court date.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:39PM (1 child)
Paper check. The mortgage bank is a small local one.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 04 2020, @09:16PM
Well, then it seems a pretty open-and-shut case. But I have 0 understanding of taking a corporation to small claims court. Definitely seek out legal advice, and as you already learned law enforcement will do exactly jack shit about something like this.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @04:44PM (1 child)
Many people quietly laugh at me for the way I pay my bills. You see, I write paper checks and mail them to the payee. Yes, snail mail, with envelopes and stamps and everything! I've been doing this for 30+ years, and yet only one check in all that time didn't get to where I sent it.
When you have someone else do something for you, in this case pay your bills, it's much more difficult to fix things when it goes wrong, because you're not the one doing it.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:46PM
What do you plan to do if/when payee claims they did not receive the check?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.