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PERSONAL FINANCE TIP; Make Money By Following up (Part 2)

Get Money Back & Excellent Winter Reading Links

Welcome to Part 2 of the Follow up Series: Be sure to check out Part 1-Job Search Strategy after reading this segment.

MAIN TOPIC:  Did My Daughter Get Money Back from Amazon?

Amazon prime is a new service which offers free shipping on everything from Amazon; FOR A LARGE FLAT FEE. My daughter was home from college for winter break and low and behold, guess what we found? In a routine review of her finances, we came across a BIG charge from Amazon Prime.

Listen in on the ensuing conversation: 

Me: “Daughter, did you purchase the Amazon Prime service?”

Daughter: “Are you kidding, it’s way too expensive!”

Me: “Do you know how it got there?”

Daughter: “Well…. maybe it was one of those trials where I get it free for a month and I can cancel if I don’t want it.”

Me: “Yea, that’s probably what happened. That’s where they really get you!” And then my traditional personal finance lecture began, “Never sign up for a free trial that requires an action for you to cancel.”

Daughter: “Why not?”

Me: “Because even though you get a month for free, you (and most everyone else) will inadvertently FORGET TO CANCEL. Then you get socked with years subscription that you can’t afford. YOU NEED TO CANCEL IT NOW.”

Daughter: “I’ll go on the site and figure it out…….. OH NO, IT SAYS I CAN’T CANCEL.”

Me: “NEVER GIVE UP. YOU NEED TO CALL THEM RIGHT AWAY AND EXPLAIN TO AMAZON THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE SIGNING UP AND THAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD THE FEE.”

Daughter: “It’ll never work. After all, it says I can’t cancel once the month trial period is up.”

Me: In an elevated screaming tone of voice, “It doesn’t matter what it says, YOU NEVER GIVE UP. Call them NOW and explain that you can’t afford it and that they need to cancel your subscription and REFUND your money.”

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Follow up Really Works!

What do you think? Did she get her money back?

In one brief conversation with Amazon, they graciously refunded her money and credited her account.

The takeaway is this, NEVER GIVE UP. Keep asking for what you want, and there’s a good chance you will get it.

My daughter felt FANTASTIC when she got that money (that she could ill afford to lose) credited back to her account. And she did a professional job requesting the refund.

ACTION STEP:

Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.

  1. Identify something you want, a job, a raise, etc.
  2.  Write in your schedule every few days the steps you will take to attain your goal.
  3. Be sure to check out Part 1-Job Search Strategy after reading this segment.

Stay tuned for Part 3-Make Money by Following up; How I Got a Discount on a Computer Repair

If you like what you’re reading, pick up my RSS feed and follow me on twitter so you get the word immediately.  

Is there a situation where you persisted and had a financial gain?

image credit: Joe Frank

Curl up and check out some of the great articles I’ve been reading:

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