Where’s the money, Mike?

One of my offspring may write a more specific post or something somewhere down the line with this same title, however I am taking a more general approach.

And most of us have at one point, if not more than we can count, have experienced this issue and that is getting our money back for something.

And some places are better than others, for example retail stores will have real specific return policies or a few will still make the return right away. Some will give cash back if a debit card was used on the spot. Some will state specifically on the receipt that you have to have the receipt and return within so many days. I partially understand the need for this requirement since people do take advantage of certain situations. I have seen and it has been awhile you would be mailed a check. Most stores that instituted policies like that do not last long.

There are so many examples of where you, the consumer, put money up front then are bound by a whole host of rules and procedures you have no control over for when the money is returned.

This can be simple going to the gas station and fill up at the pump. There will be a $1.00 charge along with your actual purchase After a couple of days this charge will fall off your account. Sure not a big thing, just a simple inconvenience. It gets worse though. 

Another example is hotels are charging higher and higher amounts for potential incidentals, so you let your card be charged for this amount and then 3,4 5 days later the charge drops off. This can be a real inconvenience if you are traveling and going from place to place. This means managing a secondary budget to allow for money not available to you for days.

The first time this happened to me was in the 1990′s and I was caught so unaware. I got over it because I had to, yet it was a significant amount of money because we were on a family vacation and I had two rooms for about 4 or 5 nights and this “resort” hotel charged this fee per night per room so I had put up the money on the card thinking I would get it back when we drove home. Historically I keep my savings in a different bank than my checking so when they told me I would not see the money back in my account for about 3-5 days I was livid. I had let this money be deposited thinking this would be the money I would use for our drive home. Yes, folks that was one very tense drive home and it was two days. Lesson learned, but no one at the time told me that was the expectation. And unfortunately this is how most consumers learn what is going on, basically hard lessons.

I have been on two ongoing driving trips this year and each time I had to plan a budget that allowed for a moving target of money. I make this situation a bit more complicated than it needs to be, yet it shouldn’t be an issue to watch your accounts daily to make sure money is being  charged correctly. I use a credit card with a small credit limit that I pay off each month, but on these trips I am literally making payments as we go. The reward is a very good cash back plan so I make the effort. I do use this card frequently, but we pay it off each month so we do not incur interest charges. To help us achieve this goal we keep the limit in check. 

Anyway in one case it took over a week for the card to show the correct charge for one of the hotel stays. This shouldn’t happen, yet it does because corporations still rule the day. If a business does business well, it will continue to grow and prosper, but when they start using tax laws to increase profits and lobby against consumer protection laws that should be a hint that the consumer, you, is not their priority.

Capitalism and corporate profits should rely on how well they provide goods and services to you, not try and satisfy the needs of Wall Street. Investors will still make money if a corporation only makes 90 million instead of a hundred million because that extra ten million was spent on good relations with customers, higher wages to their employees or better products without raising prices every excuse they can find. Your money should be in your control not theirs. And the hotel example is just one example. 

Think about this, how many people are renting nowadays? How long do they take to get their deposit back when they move? How many people buy online nowadays? Is their a store nearby to return a bad item or do they have to wait x number of days and go through the hassle of boxing up and mailing? Or what about service contracts where you still have send off the item to be repaired and it could be weeks. 

If corporations want our business they need to show us they want it, not spend millions of dollars trying to influence laws at the national and state level for their benefit. In the long run their year to year profits may be a bit less at first, but over time the growth of their business as they build trust with their customers and employees will mean that business can last a long time if they put the people they interact with first. 

Think about what businesses thrive, some have loyalty programs that keep coming back, some have good products that people enjoy, some have employees that enjoy working for the company, yet to obtain this business they have invested in what the customers and employees want and need. These businesses will be around. Businesses that rely on taking advantage of the system eventually lose out. Okay some businesses have the market change on them, but could they have invested in the future while they were successful and changed with the times they may still be around. 

So why the title Where’s the money, Mike? Specifically because there was an incident where the incompetence of someone cost someone dear to me time and money and stress. And we made the joke, where’s the money? Generally because Mike is that business that thinks more of itself than you. It creates policies and procedures that allow for them to overly control a scenario to their advantage. Slowly but surely customers drift away and the business suffers. 

So whether it is a large deposit that takes time to return, or the effort to fix a problem, or a product that is difficult to return or get repaired, this costs you money. And where is it if you have to make an effort beyond paying for and obtaining the service or product. It is coming out of your pocket.

And again this is why I scream democrats and republicans do not care about you and you should help us have new major parties. If either party cared about you consumer protection laws would be high on their policy agendas. They aren’t and do not say it is the other guy because both guys have been in office and where are we? 

So where is the money Mike? Time for you to answer to the people that put that money in your pocket year in and year out.