Are prices like this everywhere?

[ultrarunner]

We had a similar problem. Not our personal card, but my wife was the financial officer for her region, so her info was on the company card. They had some accounting snafu and took 90 days to clear it up. Her FICO is still 60-100 points lower than mine.

I was surprised to see the credit score dip as the balance paid and not carried over but best guess is utilization percentage?

We don't hear much anymore about empowering employees to solve problems or stepping up when no one is looking but to me these attributes can really make a company successful.

Reminds of a Well Fargo situation I will never forget... someone received a small judgement against Wells Fargo and Wells ignored...

The person went to the San Francisco Sheriff with the Judgement to seize the Wells Fargo stagecoach in the Corporate headquarters lobby...

There was a mad scramble with employees coming up with cash to pay the Judgement saving the iconic Stage Coach...

 

[kenmbz]

I understand why Ultra used any means to get a phone system up, as it is a hospital and lives could be affected.

I had to use a personal credit card for many years for expensing trips. Many in the 3-10,000 dollar range. I had to hound our accounting people for approvals and get them to pay before the card came due.

They missed by a lot once on a $7000 bill and I ended up parking myself in the CFOs assistants office until they paid me.

I paid the minimum during the billing cycle and had the company finally after many months pay the interest payment.
My score went up through all of this, always puzzled on that one.

 

[5030]

Our house is old, poorly insulated, and 30+ year old furnace. Some of those will be addressed next year.

I was pleasantly surprised that in this climate of inflation, the price of our new Bryant plus 95 condensing furnace actually came down from what they cost 15 years ago plus the new one is even more efficient (5%) than the one they removed. We stuck with Bryant because of the warranty, 10 years parts and labor. If I'm around in 10 years it will be a miracle.

That don't change the fact that we will always burn corn for heat. It's free for us and the biomass stove is basically cheap to run. It only consumes 200 watts of power running flat out and delivers 80K btu of heat. I'll set the thermostat on it a few degrees warmer than the furnace set point, that way, on really bitter cold days when it won't holt temp, the furnace will come on and keep us toasty.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've found it nearly impossible to reach CEO and similar when trying to resolve issues with other companies...

What works amazingly well is reaching out to the executive secretary or administrative assistant... if you gain their sympathy they can move mountains as they speak for the boss... plus they are actually reachable...

Also works well with city departments too! Simply saying Lori at the City Manager's office sent me over gets their full attention!

 

[ultrarunner]

I was pleasantly surprised that in this climate of inflation, the price of our new Bryant plus 95 condensing furnace actually came down from what they cost 15 years ago plus the new one is even more efficient (5%) than the one they removed. We stuck with Bryant because of the warranty, 10 years parts and labor. If I'm around in 10 years it will be a miracle.

That is a good warranty and would have benefitted me because labor on a warranty repair ain't no joke...

 

[5030]

That is a good warranty and would have benefitted me because labor on a warranty repair ain't no joke...

Yes, it is and the prime motivator for replacing the old Bryant with a new Bryant. Could have purchased a lower priced unit (couple hundred bucks) but that made no sense to us, like you state, one service call plus parts can be way more than a couple hundred and condensing furnaces are inherently complex anyway.

The old one went 15 years without an issue but the secondary heat exchanger got plugged up which is related to running propane (which I wasn't aware of). I was told by the HVAC folks that we need to change out the burners every 3 years or so as propane tends to clog them and then they don't burn clean and clog the secondary heat exchanger so we set that up a ahead of time. Burner change is quick and easy too.

 

[ultrarunner]

My furnaces or furnaces I’m responsible for date from 1922 to 2012…

Of course the older ones are not as efficient but sure are reliable…

I imagine the 1922 will be around long after I’m gone.

Central furnaces from the 1950’s seem very well built to me… of course they have a belt and 3 drops of oil each month on the motor bearings.

Almost all my service calls are furnaces less than 20 years old… blower motors, circuit board, igniter… with heat pumps being the most trouble bar none…

Makes me wonder if efficiency and reliability can be attained…

 

[kenmbz]

The more complex a system, the higher the failure rate. Chaos theory and those bean counters at corporate

 

[2manyrocks]

IMPO, if the buyer's m/a team overlooked paying the regular monthly phone bill, that's squarely on them.....absolutely no good reason to have to call the CEO to have gotten a regular monthly phone bill paid.

 

[ultrarunner]

My furnaces or furnaces I’m responsible for date from 1922 to 2012…

Of course the older ones are not as efficient but sure are reliable…

I imagine the 1922 will be around long after I’m gone.

Central furnaces from the 1950’s seem very well built to me… of course they have a belt and 3 drops of oil each month on the motor bearings.

Almost all my service calls are furnaces less than 20 years old… blower motors, circuit board, igniter… with heat pumps being the most trouble bar none…

IMPO, if the buyer's m/a team overlooked paying the regular monthly phone bill, that's squarely on them.....absolutely no good reason to have to call the CEO to have gotten a regular monthly phone bill paid.

 

[ultrarunner]

IMPO, if the buyer's m/a team overlooked paying the regular monthly phone bill, that's squarely on them.....absolutely no good reason to have to call the CEO to have gotten a regular monthly phone bill paid.

The first 90 days post merger were full of surprises and they still pop up years later...

ATT was out to convert a DSL line to fiber this week...

We don't have DSL and none of the hospital tenants have DSL...

Yet in the MPOE there is a DSL line corporate has been paying for they installed at the time of the merger...

We ran a lean and effective operation with everything in house... I could walk to accounts payable to expedite a payment or put one on hold... also resolve any patient issues on the spot or same day... a great service.

Now it's all online and a large segment of our patients are not online... mostly elderly and especially elderly with language issues.

I know it is the future and the future has arrived...

 

[2manyrocks]

There may be unexpected bills for contingent claims or one time services for which bills come in post closing, but overlooking the monthly phone bill?

 

[Torvy]

I understand why Ultra used any means to get a phone system up, as it is a hospital and lives could be affected.

I had to use a personal credit card for many years for expensing trips. Many in the 3-10,000 dollar range. I had to hound our accounting people for approvals and get them to pay before the card came due.

They missed by a lot once on a $7000 bill and I ended up parking myself in the CFOs assistants office until they paid me.

I paid the minimum during the billing cycle and had the company finally after many months pay the interest payment.
My score went up through all of this, always puzzled on that one.

Wife's company used to do that before the family-owned sold out to an international company. The good part was that she was the Controller, so she and everyone else got paid on time if the submitted expense reports on time.

As for how things go up when used? Simple, the credit companies like to see that you can use and responsibly pay off credit. The more you can handle, the better...to a point. Another fringe benefit of using a personal card is the employee keeps all of the cash back or miles accrued on the card.

The error came after the transition and her promotion. The guy who got her former job was too busy chasing tail to keep a handle on his job.

 

[JethroB]

How do you do that? I had no credit for ten years, and when I went for a truck loan in 2015 my interest rate was 18%; because I had "no credit." Once I got that loan I was offered a credit card from Cap 1, and a year later refinaced my truck for 7.99%. Yet until I took out that first loan I had no credit score. Zero, zip, nadtha.

I ran into that same issue with Kubota recently. I haven’t had any debt or loans in about 15 years. Just a credit card that gets paid off monthly. Kubota dealer got on the phone with their credit guy who said my old history (or lack of ) and $ levels of borrowing threw up red flags. They asked to peek at my retirement account balance. All was then good. My plan is working .

And I keep my credit files frozen at the big three credit bureaus. Yes it’s a pain to temporarily unlock them on occasion (new cell phone service, utilities, etc) but it is also a great way to keep identity theft at bay. No one will grant new credit in your name if they can’t pull your credit report.

 

[ultrarunner]

There may be unexpected bills for contingent claims or one time services for which bills come in post closing, but overlooking the monthly phone bill?

The explanation is the vendor was improperly coded into the payment matrix so invoices sent to another site in another state which ignored them.

Same also with the shutoff notices...

Similar happened with waste Management too...

Computers send bills to other computers and when not paid the cascade of events sets into motion.

The other problem is high corporate turnover both in staff and vendors...

Not a single transition person or even the CEO or Division Head from the time of our merger are still with Corporate...

I had no idea this is more the norm...

I've got 31 years and many if my co workers 15 to 25 years in... we have vast institutional knowledge that only exists with longtime employees...

Culture certainly changes when part of a big organization...

When we had the riots and lootings all across the Bay Area and our clinic was hit the chief of security was at our site the next day and he confessed to not knowing our entity existed...

 

[Torvy]

I ran into that same issue with Kubota recently. I haven’t had any loans in about 15 years. Kubota dealer got on the phone with their credit guy who said my old history and $ levels of borrowing threw up red flags. They asked to peek at my retirement account balance. All was then good. My plan is working .

Yep. Most consumer lenders are not set up to handle retirement income, or asset-based lending. It is not like the old days where the branch manager in the local town could make a call. Of course, the flip side is that you don't have to worry if your branch manager is a racist and you aren't his preferred color. Making credit fair and efficient also makes it inflexible. Glad your dealer and that credit guy could make it happen. I wonder how typical that is for Kubota Financial.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep. Most consumer lenders are not set up to handle retirement income, or asset-based lending. It is not like the old days where the branch manager in the local town could make a call. Of course, the flip side is that you don't have to worry if your branch manager is a racist and you aren't his preferred color. Making credit fair and efficient also makes it inflexible. Glad your dealer and that credit guy could make it happen. I wonder how typical that is for Kubota Financial.

Yep... the branch manager had lots of power in former times...

I opened my checking account on his say so at 14...

I would come in every Friday to cash my paycheck...

One Friday the teller said to the manager this is a young man that comes in to cash his check every week... the manager said anyone earning a steady paycheck is old enough to open an account in my branch.

I left with a checking account and the managers business card... and felt ten feet tall!

Walter Kendall, Bank of America, Seminary Branch East Oakland...

 

[5030]

Financial responsibility starts an an early age far as I'm concerned. Problem is, many people never learn financial responsibility at ANY age.

 

[JethroB]

I understand why Ultra used any means to get a phone system up, as it is a hospital and lives could be affected.

I had to use a personal credit card for many years for expensing trips. Many in the 3-10,000 dollar range. I had to hound our accounting people for approvals and get them to pay before the card came due.

They missed by a lot once on a $7000 bill and I ended up parking myself in the CFOs assistants office until they paid me.

I paid the minimum during the billing cycle and had the company finally after many months pay the interest payment.
My score went up through all of this, always puzzled on that one.

In defense of good accounting departments everywhere, it was our experience that getting expense reports approved before they got to us was the common issue. Or missing receipts. We couldn’t pay what we haven’t received, are aware of, or are undocumented. Pitching a hissy fit isn’t going to help you. We’ve heard it all before. Go see your boss to see if your expense report is gathering dust in his inbox. We cut checks twice a week regardless if it was 25 or 200. Our butts were on the line to follow the rules and procedures.

 

[ultrarunner]

When I applied to refi my first home that I owned mortgage free it was an uphill battle.

I had equity, nothing bad on my credit but had just graduated college and did not have 3 years in the line of work or 2 years with the same employer.

As I was leaving my follow-up meeting with the loan officer the branch was closing so we walked out together and her car had a flat tire... I offered to change it for her as she had to pick up her daughter... at first she declined but I said really no problem.

As I pulled the wheel off the American Savings Branch Manager walked out and asked if everything is ok...

She said she is pressed for time and I was kind enough to change her tire and I had a pending home loan...

Manager said make sure his application gets priority processing...

The next day she called and said I was approved and said her boss had asked to see my application and said make the loan... all because of a chance meeting... I think yes.