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Report: #312389

Complaint Review: K-Mart, Certegy - Poplar Bluff Missouri

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  • Reported By: Way Up North Minnesota
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  • K-Mart, Certegy 2233 N WestWood Poplar Bluff, Missouri United States of America

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A copy of the letter I sent to K-Mart... some parts *** out to protect anonymity.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have shopped at K-Mart and Sears stores for most of my life and thanks to the way my husband and I were treated at your Duluth- Miller Hill K-Mart store, we will never shop at a Sears or a K-Mart again. I'm just not that much of a masochist.

I lived in Duluth, MN for ten years and moved to *******, MN 2 years ago to start a new life with my then fiance, now husband. Since we didn't get to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in January (my husband's grandmother died), we decided to go to Duluth for a special weekend celebration we called "Anni-Valentine's". The weekend of February 15, 16 & 17 was to be our special getaway.

We stayed at a hotel, ate at some of the best restaurants in town and did some shopping- including a trip to K-Mart for some kitchen items, jeans for my husband, slippers for me and some underwear for me. It may not sound like a big deal to you, but there are not many shopping options up here- except traveling 1 1/2 hours east or west to either go to the K-Mart in ***** or *****. There are no slippers to be found at ******. I've looked.

We purchased $109.04 in merchandise and tried to use our debit card, which was declined. We figured it was declined due to a daily cap of purchases which we had forgotten about. So I whipped out my checkbook, knowing I had over $2000.00 available, and wrote a check. My check was declined by your check verification service- Certegy. I was absolutely dumbfounded and mortified.

There I was, a person who has never written a bad check, being told my checks are no good in front of a line full of people who likely thought I was some sort of scum. I next presented my Sears card, which I had wanted to make a payment on, not rack up MORE charges on. At least that went through. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have just left the stuff on the counter and walked. I'm paying you an obnoxious interest rate because you embarassed me. Now I truly feel dumb.

I was given no reason at the counter why my check was declined, I was just handed the check back, which now had some information printed on it. I promptly went back to my hotel and called Certegy. And apparently my checking account didn't have too many issues- I was able to take out $200.00 in cash at a nearby ATM.

According to Certegy, I have no negative checks on file, nor was any sort of block placed on my account. DUH. I think I would know about that. I was then told by some guy who barely spoke English that my account was blocked because they had seen "Suspicious Activity" on it. He then said I could fill out a form to get reduced restrictions on my account. I went ahead and told Apu he could send it. (Apparently he has left the Qwik-E-Mart...)

So here are the problems I have with this situation-

1) What business does this company have poking through my checking account? I never gave anyone permission to access my account. I believe this is an illegal invasion of my privacy. I plan to ask the Minnesota Attorney General's office about it.

2) There are no posted disclosures in the store stating that my account will be checked over by you or your hired goons. (You really don't have any right to know about those purchases at WhipsNChains.com)

3) MY CHECK WAS DECLINED FOR NO VALID REASON, CAUSING ME EMBARASSMENT!

4) I now have to pay your godawful credit card bank interest for purchases I now wish I had left on the counter while flipping whatever genius at your company came up with this idea THE BIRD. (A finger is worth a thousand words... perhaps I could have saved myself some typing here...)

5) Your Certegy people sent me a form that looks suspiciously like a credit application. I am NOT providing any personal information to these people. They have no right to my information and I am just not dumb enough to give my information to them to sell to whatever company they wish. (Or have stolen by some random emplyee as they recently did...)

If you took five minutes to read some of the horrid accounts posted by consumers all over the country about this company, you can see why I will not be doing business with you so long as you use them.

I don't really expect you to respond to this or to give a crap, but I do want you to know that I have posted a complaint on RipoffReport.com and (((Redacted))). A letter to the Attorney General, Lori Swanson, is also being sent.

As a financial worker in a retail business, I know that bad checks are a real problem, but I also know that there is a right and wrong way to treat people. You folks have made the wrong choice and now I am choosing not to play the game.

If in five years your corporate people are trying to figure out why you are on your way to bankruptcy again, you now have a possible reason- pissed off and embarassed customers who decided to go elsewhere.

At least we can say each place we went gave us something special. ***** gave us free dessert in honor of our special occasion, as did ******, the hotel gave us a discount just because they like us and you gave us some embarassment and frustration we won't soon forget.

Thanks for the memories,

********

Kay Way Up North, Minnesota
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/26/2008 08:38 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/k-mart-certegy/poplar-bluff-missouri-63901/k-mart-certegy-big-brother-k-mart-rejects-customer-poplar-bluff-missouri-312389. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
6Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#6 Consumer Comment

Bank Limit Area

AUTHOR: Ray - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, February 14, 2011

Most bank have limit area to handle debit/check translation. My bank will not accept my debit card outside of my state. Other may be mileage limits from home (your local bank). Best way to make it work everywhere is to check with your bank and check the limit translation area. They can set the limit area as you need. When you return home, check with the bank to reset back to local area.

Also there are limit debit translation account of money per day. My was set to $4,000 (bank default) per day on debit charge. You may want to check what your debit limit is per day.

Hope this help.

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#5 Consumer Suggestion

Basic understanding of the modern banking system required...

AUTHOR: stlsuburbanite - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, February 11, 2011

The
previous poster is correct, your anger is greatly misplaced. I would like to
expand on some points he or she made.    Please keep in mind, when a check or debit
card is rejected at the store after being run through an electronic service,
this service then contacts a bank data base.   It is not the store which actually rejects
the sale, It is your bank.  Furthermore,
it should be expected that K-Mart had no explanation for why your payment was
rejected because banks/check services provide no explanation to them.  Only in very rare fraud cases will the
service call the retailer with an explanation for a rejection (and this is
normally to tell the retailer to call the authorities).  The person at the register has no idea why
any given payment is rejected.   All
check/credit/debit transactions at every store in the world are run though
electronic services which, in turn, runs a basic check on your accounts.  The only way to avoid this is to go to your
bank before a given trip and with-drawl cash ahead of time/or just purchase
some travelers checks.   Your bank makes
the final decision on if a payment will be accepted not the retailer (K-Mart).  Did you think to call your bank ahead of time
and let them know you were going out of town? Taking this simple action will
often avoid declined payments while on vacation.  Unless you contact your bank before a trip, it
is fairly typical to experience a rejected payment when making a purchase out
of your typical purchasing area. It happens to everyone! Also, when writing a complaint,
especially to a government official, I suggest refraining from racism.   Many people find it hard to overlook
bigotry.  I also would suggest not to
mention getting something for free at the end your complaint. 

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#4 Consumer Comment

Anger misplaced

AUTHOR: Ashley - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Your anger is also misplaced. Kmart had nothing to do with declining your check. The check service they use did. They contract most businesses have with their check service says that if they want protection, they have to decline all checks they were told to.

The suspicious activity on your account could have been as simple as you were not at your home town. I have had check and debit card transactions declined when I'm travelling. Its a protection from the banking system, in case your card is stolen.

Additionally, if you had written more than one check to any retailer who used this check service, you would be declined also. The business I worked for had a check service that would decline all checks beyond the 1st until 7 days had passed to allow that first check to clear so that the customer is established in their database.

As for the rest of your blog. Quite being racist. I had some sympathy for you until you started being racist. As for your credit card rates, just send them the money that you would have paid for your clothes, then you won't have any interest to pay.

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#3 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Reply

AUTHOR: Marx2k - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, June 15, 2009

"There I was, a person who has never written a bad check, being told my checks are no good in front of a line full of people who likely thought I was some sort of scum."

More likely they just wanted to get on with their purchases and could care less as to what was happening with yours.

"I next presented my Sears card, which I had wanted to make a payment on, not rack up MORE charges on. At least that went through. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have just left the stuff on the counter and walked. I'm paying you an obnoxious interest rate because you embarassed me. Now I truly feel dumb."

You don't rack up charges if you pay it back before the due date. Since you have the funds in your account, that shouldn't be an issue.

" I was then told by some guy who barely spoke English that my account was blocked because they had seen 'Suspicious Activity' on it. He then said I could fill out a form to get reduced restrictions on my account. I went ahead and told Apu he could send it. (Apparently he has left the Qwik-E-Mart...)"

I guess a little bit of racism helps out any situation... ?


"1) What business does this company have poking through my checking account? I never gave anyone permission to access my account. I believe this is an illegal invasion of my privacy. I plan to ask the Minnesota Attorney General's office about it."

Certegy doesn't poke through your checking account. In fact, 9 times out of 10, they will refuse to call your bank even upon your request in order for a check to clear at the time of ourchase.

"2) There are no posted disclosures in the store stating that my account will be checked over by you or your hired goons. (You really don't have any right to know about those purchases at WhipsNChains.com)"

That's because they don't check over your checking account

"3) MY CHECK WAS DECLINED FOR NO VALID REASON, CAUSING ME EMBARASSMENT!"

No one is required to accept your check, be there money in the account or not. It's not a piece of legal tender.

"4) I now have to pay your godawful credit card bank interest for purchases I now wish I had left on the counter while flipping whatever genius at your company came up with this idea THE BIRD. (A finger is worth a thousand words... perhaps I could have saved myself some typing here...)"

Not if you pay the card back before the due date.

"5) Your Certegy people sent me a form that looks suspiciously like a credit application. I am NOT providing any personal information to these people. They have no right to my information and I am just not dumb enough to give my information to them to sell to whatever company they wish. (Or have stolen by some random emplyee as they recently did...)"

No one is forcing you to.

" A letter to the Attorney General, Lori Swanson, is also being sent."

Can you specify what illegal activity took place?

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#2 Consumer Comment

Checks can be rejected due to low or no account activity

AUTHOR: Inspector - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, April 14, 2008

I have had this happen to me. I have not written a check for over a year and when I did it was denied due to low or no activity. There was plenty of money in the account.

Charles

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#1 Author of original report

Truly lame...

AUTHOR: Kay - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, March 30, 2008

I of course received a generic computer generated response that didn't even address the real issue. I responded and got an actual human being who promised to look into it further.

Here I sit over a month later with no resolution.

My bank informed me that Certegy lied when they claimed that they declined the check based on activity in my checking account. They have no access to that information (as I suspected). My bank is unable to understand why someone would reject a check from me as there has been ZERO negative activity.

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