Don't trust the lizard?
GEICO refuses to make good on unauthorized charge
by Rod Van Mechelen

Unauthorized charge
Today I found out that GEICO double-billed me for this month. They made an unauthorized charge against my checking account. Worse, they refused to make it right.

Like a lot of folks, I pay my bills online. Except for LifeLock, I pay them all manually, because I prefer to pay before the due date.

GEICO charges $3 extra for manual payments, which is irksome, but they want everybody to use auto-pay, and the $3 charge is their way of encouraging that.

Friendly lizard, unfriendly website
Their lizard may be friendly, but their website is not friendly to the majority of us, who use Mozilla Firefox, because it is optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

As of March 2010, 35% of us were using Microsoft Internet Explorer, while 46% of us use Mozilla Firefox. Microsoft, being the kind of predator that it is, punishes people for using competitor software. Hence, Microsoft-optimized websites look weird on Firefox.

Like GEICO's website. Which is why when I go there to make my monthly payments, I use Internet Explorer. It's a nuisance.

This month, however, it was more than a nuisance. They dinged my checking account twice, once on the 9th and again on the 13th.

Refunding the unauthorized payment
As a consequence of this, my checking account was overdrafted. After determining why, I called GEICO and spoke with Parvin, a pleasant customer service person with only a trace of a Malaysian or Hindu accent.

After reviewing the situation, she explained to me that they would refund the unauthorized payment, but that because it was done on their website they would not cover my over-draft fee.

This is a small thing, I suppose, except for the fact that I did not authorize the extra payment. It may have been a web server glitch, I don't know, but they are losing my business as a consequence.

I have trust issues with businesses that make unauthorized charges and then, when called on it, refuse to make it right.

Think twice before making payments via GEICO's website
For everybody who has GEICO or is considering getting GEICO, after this experience I caution you against using their website to make your payments.

Their lizard may be friendly, their customer service, too, but taking payments that are not authorized and then refusing to make it right, that is not friendly. Nor good business practice.

Copyright © 2010 by Rod Van Mechelen; may be redistributed and reprinted with attribution to the author.