R e n d r a g

What happened to Doubleday? I’ve been a member of their CD Club for 2 years now, and always been pretty impressed.. – CD’s were always delivered pretty damned snappy, and when I’ve had cracked cases, they’ve just sent new cases, no questions asked! But what happened to them at the end of last year?? I received a CD I hadn’t ordered a couple of days before I went on holidays, and didn’t have the time to chase it up. Got back 7 weeks later, to find a letter saying I owe them 33 bucks and to pay now. Not really having the time nor inclination to mess about over 33 bucks, I sent them off a cheque on the 4th of Feb, along with a somewhat terse letter asking to either never receive ‘automatically ordered cds’, or to cancel my membership if that wasn’t possible.
Didn’t hear a thing from them until the 22nd of Feb, when I get a letter saying the debt is unpaid and being sent to debt collectors.. I Cracked the shits at that, and phoned up that night and paid via visa. Received call from a woman from doubleday the next morning chasing up payment – Pointed out that I’d sent a letter and cheque 3 weeks ago, and then paid it via CC the night before. She confirmed this so I tell her to NOT try to cash the cheque now as I’ve moved the money from the cheque account to the CC.
So then four days later (27th Feb), they finally process the credit card transaction (what, they can’t afford the 5k/year to their bank for a direct Tran$end link, like ISA have for our customers that takes 1/2 a second to process and approved a transaction?!).
GREAT thinks I, it’s all over and done with. You’d really think so, wouldn’t you? Well in the words of the immortal Tim Shaw, ‘Wait, theres more!’ – The NEXT DAY, they cashed the Cheque!?! Of course, since I’d just transfered the money out of my cheque account the previous week, the balance went below $0, and the CBA charged me $20 for the experience!
Have Doubleday had a change in management? Major reduction in staff numbers perhaps? I dunno, but they’ve gone from a company that I was more than happy to spend $500+/year with, to a company that I’m worried might be storing my credit card number somewhere, only to bill me unexpectedly for yet another CD I didn’t order!