Next time, I'm paying with a chicken
I take pride in the fact that I am very organized and have great control over all aspects of my life, especially my finances. So many people today have no clue what they're doing when it comes to money and no grasp on correct priorities when budgeting it. They waste their entire check each week and then realize they might have wanted to pay some of their bills. Some of these people just never bother to pay them at all (such as this asshole), leaving someone else to have to pay it, and when that person's finances crash and burn, it all ends up on someone like me. Luckily, I have things under control. I don't overspend, always keep a buffer, don't let anyone have access to my account but me (including my personal ban on auto-payments), and keep an intricate group of spreadsheets updated with my monetary adventures. Still, every once in a while, the numbers don't add up... and I become irate.
When I'm going through my spreadsheets and cross-referencing them with my bank account, I can normally compare a recent balance with a balance in the banks record and call it a day. When I can't find a match, something is amiss. Perhaps a check hasn't come in or I've incorrectly entered a value from a receipt. I always assume I've made an error. However, recently, it is very rarely the case. What seems to be happening more and more often is retailers are changing the amount of a purchase after the transaction. How can they do this? I'm not talking about the temporary hold gas stations put on your account when you pay at the pump. I'm talking about how I make a purchase, have a printed receipt or receipt in my email with one value, and then a few weeks later, my bank statement shows they have increased their take by $1.38. It especially annoys me when I make a payment through PayPal, PayPal presents me with a value to confirm, and the retailer still gets more. I did not authorize the extra money! Why are you giving my money away, PayPal? Do you just think I won't miss it?
This kind of crap couldn't happen in the old days with the barter system. Imagine you were trading your bull for someone's horse, and when they came to your house later with the horse to pick up the bull, they took your daughter too. Do they just think you won't miss her? You'll miss her, and I certainly miss the money I'm being repeatedly nickel and dimed out of and the time I lose backtracking through my well kept records to correct things after they've been molested. I hope people are prepared to receive chickens. I think I might be changing my currency.
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Big Cray: Accept No Substitute
