Capital One rules in my favor against Batteries Plus Bulbs, but I’m not even sure if I’ve won.

Capital One rules in my favor against Batteries Plus Bulbs, but I’m not even sure if I’ve won. (It took too much time and effort considering that I was pretty much cheated and it was so obvious.)

This dispute has been going on since April 15th. Today I got another letter from Capital One that my amended argument has been accepted against Batteries Plus Bulbs, in which I argued that since I had to have my Buick remote reprogrammed and a new key cut at Anthony Buick GMC in Gurnee, Illinois, and that since Bhushan Chouhan, the store owner, refunded me for the mechanical key, I was still owed $69.99 for a programming job that he didn’t provide, but that I agreed to drop the rest of the dispute.

I dropped the rest of the dispute right off the bat when Anthony Buick was able to salvage the remote control.

Batteries Plus Bulbs attempted to use the amended complaint as a source of “confusion” about what I was disputing, and made the claim that I needed to return the remote control.

So by dropping the dispute about the remote control and telling the bank I intended to keep the remote control and Batteries Plus could keep payment for the physical device, it was the right and fair thing to do, but it was also a procedural move that kept my side of the case going and got my programming fee back.

In courts, things work out like this too sometimes. A prosecutor or the plaintiff can amend charges or a part of a civil suit that they can’t maintain, or because the facts have since changed, in order to save what’s left.

So the bank credited my account $69.99 and said that the merchant can reply again if he wants to, but “at this time” they consider the matter closed.

This should give you some idea of what it finally took to get $69.99 back.

In particular, the difficulty was in making Capital One understand that my argument was being amended, what Anthony Buick GMC had to do (which required a letter from them and an invoice for fixing Chouhan’s bungled programming job), and replying, line by line, to a slanderous letter that Chouhan/Batteries Plus Bulbs sent them about me in “Repre[sentment] Rebill Need Rebuttal”.

Let me tell you, they got a rebuttal.

I don’t think I’ve ever had to pound a dictionary that hard from running out of things to call someone to indicate dishonesty, incompetence, and malicious misconduct.

In the end, it’s not just about $69.99, it’s about the principle of the matter.

It’s that merchants who cheat people should not be allowed to gain from it, and if you keep pursuing a chargeback until they give up, gain they will not.

It takes time, the bank charges them a fee for dealing with it, their other fees can go up if they lose enough of them, and the bank will grab the money they stole from you and hand it back.

Even a small amount that you chargeback can create a big headache for the offending merchant. The banks consider that to be as much of a punishment for the merchant as it is protection for the customer.

One of my exes got into an argument with me and I told him “I’ll fight you until we’re down to the paper plates.”.

And that’s exactly how I fight people, for things big and small I get vicious.

Anyway, I enjoy victories, even small ones. Savor them. They can never happen often enough.

And to merchants who want to stop dealing with chargebacks, stop cheating your customers…..