Here is a copy of the email I sent to Cumberland Farms
I am writing this email to bring to your attention the absolute worst experience I have ever had in dealing with a company. Based on how I have been treated by the company that handles your "collections," neither I nor any of my family members will ever patronize your facilities in the future.
On June 30th, my wife purchased gasoline at your station in Milford, CT. The total amount of the charge was $25.03. Late in the evening of July 2nd, we discovered a very serious breach in our checking account (5 figures). At approximately 11 p.m., we called Bank of America's fraud division to report the breach. The representative strongly suggested that we close the account. This account was linked to Smart Pay (as it was to several other vendors).
First thing in the morning of July 3rd, I visited the local B of A branch and opened a new account, transferring the remaining funds from the old account into the new one. Once I returned home, I immediately changed the payment source on Smart Pay as well as the other companies that were paid from this account. Within minutes, I received an email from your collection agency, checkredi.com, informing me that because my transaction had failed (3 days after the purchase), I owed the $25.03 plus a $20.00 fee. Parenthetically, I had already received notification from zipline.com that the new account information had been validated.
Over the past several days, I have been harassed by Checkredi....emails, texts, phone calls..... I submitted what Bank of America stated would be sufficient proof of the fraud but Checkredi would not accept it. Now, this morning, I see that the charge has been paid from the new checking account as well as the $20.00 fee. Bluntly, I am absolutely enraged. We have utilized Smart Pay for many years and I think if you check our records, there has never, ever been a problem with our account. I ran a company for over 40 years and even with transactions in the millions of dollars, I was never treated with such complete disrespect....and this is over a $25 charge! What bothers me even more is that:
I had absolutely no way of knowing that almost 3 days after the purchase, the transaction was still not yet processed. I know that your "terms and conditions" (which I'm sure absolutely nobody reads) state that it may take up to 3 business days to process a transaction, but seriously, $25?????? Yet, within hours of the closing of the original account, a new account was opened and added to my Smart Pay account, and the transaction could have immediately been retried.
In trying to resolve this issue, I obviously got nowhere with Checkredi...then with your customer service department....then with Zipline. Then, the ensuing "there's nothing we can do about it" game (Checkredi: "If you have a problem with this, you need to contact Cumberland Farms." Cumberland Farms: "So very sorry, but the processing is done by a third party and there is nothing we can do about it." Zipline: "It has already been turned over to the collection company, so there's nothing we can do about it." Shame on all of you.
I am still trying to wrap my head around the practice of turning over a problematic transaction to a collection agency less than 24 hours after it was processed. This is nothing short of an attempt at pure intimidation and in my opinion, violates every conceivable practice of fostering good customer relations.
All I know is that I did nothing wrong and yet, your "process" tried to criminalize me. The intransigence on the part of the people I dealt with at Checkredi was nothing short of breathtaking...and again, all over $25.03 (from a customer with an absolutely perfect payment record over many years).
As I stated in the beginning of this email, I will never, ever visit a Cumberland Farms facility in the future, and I will encourage as many people as I can to follow the same path. There are innumerable options for purchasing fuel and trust me, Cumberland Farms will no longer be one of them.
Cumberland Farms, Inc. Reviews
Here is a copy of the email I sent to Cumberland Farms
I am writing this email to bring to your attention the absolute worst experience I have ever had in dealing with a company. Based on how I have been treated by the company that handles your "collections," neither I nor any of my family members will ever patronize your facilities in the future.
On June 30th, my wife purchased gasoline at your station in Milford, CT. The total amount of the charge was $25.03. Late in the evening of July 2nd, we discovered a very serious breach in our checking account (5 figures). At approximately 11 p.m., we called Bank of America's fraud division to report the breach. The representative strongly suggested that we close the account. This account was linked to Smart Pay (as it was to several other vendors).
First thing in the morning of July 3rd, I visited the local B of A branch and opened a new account, transferring the remaining funds from the old account into the new one. Once I returned home, I immediately changed the payment source on Smart Pay as well as the other companies that were paid from this account. Within minutes, I received an email from your collection agency, checkredi.com, informing me that because my transaction had failed (3 days after the purchase), I owed the $25.03 plus a $20.00 fee. Parenthetically, I had already received notification from zipline.com that the new account information had been validated.
Over the past several days, I have been harassed by Checkredi....emails, texts, phone calls..... I submitted what Bank of America stated would be sufficient proof of the fraud but Checkredi would not accept it. Now, this morning, I see that the charge has been paid from the new checking account as well as the $20.00 fee. Bluntly, I am absolutely enraged. We have utilized Smart Pay for many years and I think if you check our records, there has never, ever been a problem with our account. I ran a company for over 40 years and even with transactions in the millions of dollars, I was never treated with such complete disrespect....and this is over a $25 charge! What bothers me even more is that:
I had absolutely no way of knowing that almost 3 days after the purchase, the transaction was still not yet processed. I know that your "terms and conditions" (which I'm sure absolutely nobody reads) state that it may take up to 3 business days to process a transaction, but seriously, $25?????? Yet, within hours of the closing of the original account, a new account was opened and added to my Smart Pay account, and the transaction could have immediately been retried.
In trying to resolve this issue, I obviously got nowhere with Checkredi...then with your customer service department....then with Zipline. Then, the ensuing "there's nothing we can do about it" game (Checkredi: "If you have a problem with this, you need to contact Cumberland Farms." Cumberland Farms: "So very sorry, but the processing is done by a third party and there is nothing we can do about it." Zipline: "It has already been turned over to the collection company, so there's nothing we can do about it." Shame on all of you.
I am still trying to wrap my head around the practice of turning over a problematic transaction to a collection agency less than 24 hours after it was processed. This is nothing short of an attempt at pure intimidation and in my opinion, violates every conceivable practice of fostering good customer relations.
All I know is that I did nothing wrong and yet, your "process" tried to criminalize me. The intransigence on the part of the people I dealt with at Checkredi was nothing short of breathtaking...and again, all over $25.03 (from a customer with an absolutely perfect payment record over many years).
As I stated in the beginning of this email, I will never, ever visit a Cumberland Farms facility in the future, and I will encourage as many people as I can to follow the same path. There are innumerable options for purchasing fuel and trust me, Cumberland Farms will no longer be one of them.