Macy's Bill

It’s been thirty years since I first opened a charge account at Macy’s. I remember taking Lucy to the store (now closed) on Fourth Street in San Rafael. She’d graduated from diapers and we went to pick out some “big girl pants”. Over the years I’ve bought furniture, accessaries, cosmetics, Christmas and birthday gifts as well as lots of clothing. Apparently, Macy’s doesn’t value our relationship the way I think they should.

Due to recent travels I got a little behind on the bills, one of which was my Macy’s account. It was due on September 6th. The balance was $l08.03 and the minimum payment due was $5.00. Despite the fact that the 6th was Labor Day, a holiday, I started to get harassing calls about my bill from a company in Mason, Ohio on Thursday, the 9th. The first call came in at 8:34 a.m. on Thursday, September 9th. I spoke to them and apologized for being late and said I’d send the full payment due immediately, which I did.

Evidently, that wasn’t quite good enough. There were five calls from the same number
(5l3-754-984l) on Friday, the l0th, none of which I answered. They called at 8:36 and ll:22 a.m. There were also calls at l2:39, 3:45 and 6:30 p.m. On Saturday we came home from being gone overnight and there were twelve missed calls, five of which were from Mason, Ohio. When the phone rang again at 4:02 p.m. Eric answered. He ended up in a protracted discussion with the representative associated with Macy’s and explained that the harassing phone calls must stop. He reiterated that I had made a payment. The woman explained that SHE hadn’t called before so she didn’t know I’d made a payment and, by the way, what was the amount of the payment? Finally, Eric couldn’t deal with her persistence and hung up. At 6:43 p.m. they called again.

Ariana Huffington is right. America IS now a third world country. The economy has gotten so bad that it makes financial sense for a company like Macy’s to hire a collection agency to go after customers with a vengeance. Even customers, like us, who are two days late with a five dollar payment. Even cutomers, like us, who both have credit scores in the 700's. Even at the risk of alienating good, longtime customers. Ironically, I still owe them another two hundred dollars after that last payment. While on vacation we went to the largest store in the world - the Macy’s on 34th Street in Manhattan and bought a bracelet for me as a souvenir of our trip. It’s gonna take a miracle on 34th Street to keep me as a customer.