E
eshadek
Guest
I had an account with an internet postage company called E-stamp. They recently moved into another industry, ending their consumer postage service, and I had an outstanding balance of prepaid postage (about $50). So I called them up and they said they would send me a refund check for the full amount in my electronic meter. A few days later, I got the check for the amount I was owed and I deposited it. Everything's cool, right? Nope. About a week later, I receive ANOTHER check for the same amount. I assumed it was a mistake and, being the good citizen that I am, mailed it back to the address it came from with a note that my refund had already been paid. Dumb mistake.. I probably should have called first. Anyways, another week goes by, and I get an email from the company. It stated that due to a computer error, two refund checks had been issued to some customers. The lower-numbered check is the good one, and stop payments had been issued on all the higher-numbered checks. Well guess what? The first check I received had been the higher numbered one. So I had sent back the good check and deposited the bad one. Grr. I wrote an email to E-stamp's customer service department, explaining exactly what had happened and asking how to get the refund they owed me. Two weeks go by.. no response. I did, however, receive the bad check from my bank along with a nice $3 "service charge." Now I'm pissed. I called customer service, and after transferring me up the ladder to someone who could help, told me that they would look for the check and return it to me as soon as they found it. I asked if they could just stop the check that I returned and mail me a new one, but they said that it would be too complicated because the US Postal Service is the one who really issues the checks (this surprised me, because the check has E-stamp's logo, is signed by E-stamp's CEO, and mentions the Postal Service nowhere. I thanked the guy for his help and, yep, waited another two weeks! Haven't heard anything. So I'd like advice on where to go from here. This is entirely their fault, and I think that they are obligated to pay me the refund that I am owed plus extra for the inconvenience and the service fee from my bank. I've done a little research on my state's (California) check law, and the statue says that the payer of a stopped check is not required to pay the amount if he had a good faith reason for stopping it. Obviously, E-stamp had a good faith reason, so I think that rules out sending them a copy of the stopped check and demanding payment. It's ridiculous that I should have to wait this long for a stupid $50 refund, and I'm sick of doing things on their slow schedule. What should I do?