I was in the drive-thru at Taco Bell today -- yes, 35% beef is still 100% awesome in my book -- and I was asked if I would like a crunchy or soft taco with my order. Now sometimes I go with the soft tortilla, other times I like a little crunch. Today I went with the soft taco, and on the ordering screen I saw a ten cent charge to replace the crunchy taco with a soft taco. Hmmm. I mean, it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I wasn't asked if I'd like to pay ten cents more for my choice; I was just asked which one I'd prefer.
In the days when we'd pay for small expenses like this with cash, searching through the cupholders for that extra dime just might have been enough incentive to make me question the charge, or at least the shady means with which it was foisted on me, but it's not as much of an inconvenience (so there's just not as much thought) when reaching for the Mastercard to swipe the charge.
Yes, I didn't do anything about it. But I did notice. It seems that companies of all shapes and sizes, in all industries, are counting with increasing frequency on the fact that we very often don't notice.
One of the biggest culprits, in my experience, is EZ Pass. They've got it set up to automatically withdrawal a given amount from one's bank account whenever the EZ Pass account balance goes below a certain number. In my case, they withdraw $50 from my bank account when the account goes under $20. I don't have to watch my EZ Pass account go below a certain amount, and I don't have to write and send a check when it does. This is incredibly convenient, which is probably the reason so many people don't notice what I've noticed: they overcharge almost every month!
It happens in a minor, relatively undetectable way. When I enter a toll road, it just doesn't register sometimes. Then, when I go through the tolls when exiting, I am charged $5, the fee for exiting without being registered upon entry.
It's not like the green light didn't go on, so the error is not in something we drivers are doing. At best, it's in the technology. At worst, it's deliberate.
I might not have noticed this had I not had a month where I'd drastically changed my driving patterns, no longer needing to travel on the PA turnpike every day, without seeing a decrease in the number of times EZ Pass withdrew $50. I was never too great at math, but I knew there was no way my one night a week of driving a $0.75 toll each way would add up to $50 every month, like it had when we were on the turnpike every day.
I went online, saw the itemized deductions, and noticed that the charges were coming through at the right dates and times, but peppered with $5 charges for not registering at one end or another. A phone call got those charges removed (actually, just credited back to my EZ Pass account). The same thing happened the next month, and every time since that I've scoured through those itemized charges. It is always credited back to my account, but usually with some accusatory-toned grilling about how my EZ Pass is mounted to my window, "is it at the right height?," etc. I always answer politely that it is, even though I know that can't really be the cause; my EZ pass has registered a charge from both my glove box and my trunk on separate occasions!
The connection between my thoughts on this subject and technology is pretty clear. We are paying for the advantages of technology with little concessions here and there that don't seem to be a big enough problem to make the technology not worth the convenience.
The connection I want to make between all of this and education is a little tougher for me to describe, but if you're in the profession, you already know that students of all ages just don't do many things that educators, parents, and other adults might have taken for granted that they did, such as watch their receipts when making purchases, or keep a checkbook for their first checking accounts. They don't!
Well, many of us "grown ups" in "the real world" don't either, of course. We rely on the online bank statement without keeping our own independent records. In the long run, it's nickels and dimes. It doesn't cost us that much to us individually, but if you allow your mind to wander (this bank has over 1 million customers just like me...) the costs could be staggering.
If you want to think a little more globally, join me in becoming a watcher.
Watch Restaurants that alter the amount of your tip and charge a few dollars more than you wrote on your receipt (which you saved until it reconciled with the bank statement).
Watch toll boths that shortchange you by a nickel (because about 120,000 other cars pass through too).
Watch your cable, phone, and ISP bills for little price increases without prior notification.
Watch your bank statement every month for those stores that, often accidentally, charged your account twice for the purchase.
These are all things a person can catch and correct if he or she:
a) keeps a check book (hey, it can be electronic... Excel's not bad),
b) reconciles the check book with the monthly bank statement (even the online version),
and c) calls the bank when there is a discrepency.
You will be on hold. You will be transferred back and forth between departments and continents. And in the end, you will only save a few dolalrs here and there. It's not convenient. Maybe that's the very premise of those "bogus convenience fees."
These are often just accidents, but sometimes they are deliberate schemes. If a toll collector shortchanged every car a nickel, how long would it take to have stolen a dollar? Ten dolalrs? One hundred? Not long. Now imagine that toll collector has all of our bank routing numbers and regular access to making withdrawals.
Nickels and dimes do add up, and even more so for the companies that practice this type of business. So fight the crusade with me, and keep in mind we're not just doing it to save a few cents here and there. We're doing it because if everyone did it, companies could no longer get away with it.
Most importantly, please teach our students that these scams are out there. And they aren't always scams, so teach them that these accidents happen, and so many of them can be fixed by keeping track of your own spedning. Teach them about identity theft and Phishing scams too!
It's not like we have to go through life with a paranoid distrust for everything.
But it has to help a little just to watch what's going on around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment