Bucks Blog: A Deposit by Credit Card That’s Returned by Paper Check

Sometimes, it’s the little things that annoy you.

I have an older relative who needs help managing her affairs. She recently relocated to a new home, so I called to disconnect her cable television and telephone service, which are provided by Cox Communications.

When I stopped by the local office to return her cable equipment, I was surprised to learn that the deposits that the company had required to establish her account — $100 total, which I had paid for, on my credit card — weren’t going to be returned right away. And it wasn’t going to be credited back to my card. Rather, Cox would mail a paper check.

This made no sense. I didn’t have time to debate the representative, but later that day, I called customer service to inquire about the deposit policy. Why, I asked, couldn’t the deposit simply be credited to the card, avoiding the hassle of dealing with paper? After all, Cox had been happy to accept payment that way, to set up service. And the account had a credit due on it, so the deposit wasn’t needed to cover an outstanding balance. “I don’t know why” it’s done that way, the representative told me. She put me on hold to ask a supervisor, but came back with the same answer. Deposits are returned by check. Period.

Amy Quinn, a Cox spokeswoman, confirmed in an e-mail that all deposits were returned by paper check, to the account holder, and mailed to the bill-to address that Cox has on file.

“Due to privacy and security reasons, Cox provides refunds to our customers via paper check to the account holder and address that is in our billing system,” she said. “We cannot automatically refund deposits back to credit cards because we do not have the ability to confirm if the card we are refunding to is the actual account holder. This approach is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and security.”

She also noted that “by issuing refunds via check and sending it to the address we have on file in our system for that customer account, we are making our best effort to ensure the refund is provided directly to the account holder.”

I checked to make sure the paper checks weren’t just used for situations like mine, in which I had paid the deposit on behalf of someone else. But, no. Even if actual account holders pay the deposit by credit card, they would get the deposit back on paper, too.

Cox is also my cable provider, and I have generally found their customer service to be fairly responsive. So it’s disappointing that they can’t come up with a way to deliver funds electronically, when it’s more convenient for their customers.

Have you had to get a deposit back from a cable company? Did it come in paper form?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/a-deposit-by-credit-card-thats-returned-by-paper-check/?partner=rss&emc=rss