Legal Extortion: How Corporate America is allowed to rob us blind

The reason I am writing this is because over the past couple of years, I have been made to feel trapped into paying money to companies that I felt I did not owe because of some crap that the company pulled. Or even stealing money out of my bank accounts!

For example, I moved in June to save money while I was in Graduate school. Proactively, 2 months before I move, I called to have my SBC Yahoo! service transferred to the new house because I was under contract still for the service and I love the wireless service provided by them and was happy to do it. I was told by the woman on the phone that I would be unable to have service there for whatever reason (something to do with distance of lines that I have no idea, nor should I have to understand the technical ramifications of a customer service rep when clearly, I, as a consumer don't give a rats ass why if its a bunch of technical jargon--I just want to know my options). She tells me not to worry, because of the fact that its not my fault that I can't transfer service, I will not be charged a fee for breaking my contract. At this point I am actually impressed by their level of customer service--but don't worry, they destroy this opinion later. After painstakingly considering all of my options and pricing various companies, I decide it makes sense to use the Internet service provided by my new cable company because the package deal was reasonable. Due to this switch in Internet service, I canceled my DISH Network and subscribed back to digital cable. This whole process involved exiting contracts and signing new ones. So I make the final call to have my SBC canceled and I am told by this woman that it is possible to transfer and that I will be charged $100 for breaking my contract!! I had to spend hours on the phone literally screaming and fighting at supervisors to get this fee waived. For cancelling a service that I wanted to keep in the first place. Then in August I receive a bill for $52 from them as if my service isn't canceled. Before I can even call and complain they take the money out of my checking account!! I cancel my account again and am told basically tough shit I will not be getting the $52 dollars back. At the top of my lungs I "told" them that under no circumstances are they EVER to touch my bank account again--I never even used auto-bill pay when I was using their service! In September $26 more dollars was STOLEN from my account.

AOL was had a class action lawsuit filed against for their unethical behavior. I experienced this first-hand as well. Every time you cancel their service, they would give you 6 more months free and not tell you. It wasn't until you were charged again 6 months later that you even realized you still had an account. Unfortunately, some good friends of mine got caught in the cross-fire on this one. It's not right!

My apartment complex that I had given 5 months notice that I was breaking the lease early and reached an agreement about what that would cost totally raked me over the coals. I was to pay my final amount on July 1. I was on vacation until the 6th. I gave them everything they asked for, spent 4 hours cleaning the apartment, and noticed that they were already performing maintenance before the end of June. It didn't matter to them--they said because it was late, it invalidated the breaking agreement and that I owed them like $1200 more dollars. I had to fight with them and still ended up paying $700 extra dollars and never saw a dime of my deposit which should have been fully refunded. Otherwise it goes on your credit and hurts you, the consumer. Companies have this attitude where they basically can say pay us or else.

More recently, I had a doctor appointment on a Thursday, received a phone call on Tuesday to confirm appointment. Show up Thursday for appointment, told I do not have one. Told to reschedule---then receive a bill in the mail for $30 stating that I need to pay for not showing up to my appointment. Are you f**king kidding me!! Luckily they dropped the charge with only a minor amount of my irritation.

I don't know, I could probably go on and on for pages expressing different ways I have felt like I was being robbed by some corporation. I seems like the consumer has no power, if you don't pay what they say you owe, you are the one that suffers. I am sick of it!! No matter how proactive I am or how gaurded I go into these situations, something always seems to bite me in the ass and I end up paying for.