Spending money is often a bittersweet experience. Letting go of your hard-earned dollars is tough, but hopefully whatever you're buying is totally worth the expense!
On the other hand, sometimes spending money is nothing but bitter, especially if you never intended to spend it in the first place. If you’ve ever been overcharged for a purchase, you know how irritating and inconvenient it can be to try to get that money back.
For one Milwaukee-area woman, her experience with an accidental charge turned out to be a lot more than a minor headache. Pam Lasky lost an entire month's worth of income when she stopped at a local gas station to buy a bottle of soda.
While soda is useful for a lot of things, it typically comes pretty cheap. But instead of charging her the $1 price for a bottle of pop, the clerk accidentally rang Lasky up for $1,000 on the prepaid debit card that she was using. While it’s a huge amount of money for anyone to lose, for Lasky, it was every penny she had to her name.
Lasky, the widow of a veteran, lives almost entirely on a stipend from the VA. Minutes after the purchase went through, she received a text from her bank notifying her that she was now overdrawn by more than $5.
Lasky's story is an extreme example, but this kind of thing can happen to anyone. To prevent this from happening to you or someone you love, there are a few rules you should follow when making any purchase:
First of all, always ask to see your total before you pay. If you're confused by the amount, ask the clerk to clarify every charge.
Secondly, try to avoid prepaid debit cards, and pay with credit or cash. This will make your life less complicated if anything should go wrong.
Lastly, in the event that you are overcharged, deal with it immediately. You're much more likely to see your money again if you're able to resolve the problem before leaving the store.
Please read on to see how Pam Lasky dealt with her unlucky overcharge.
Pam Lasky receives a monthly pension from the VA.
Her husband was an army veteran, and after his death, Lasky was able to live off the monthly payments that she receives as his widow. Says Lasky, "This is completely what I live off of."
She was making ends meet until she stopped by this BP gas station in Milwaukee, WI.
There, she decided to purchase a bottle of soda, a small treat that should not have strained her budget. But the clerk entered the wrong amount when he rung her up. "All of a sudden he starts talking to the other guy that works there," says Pam. "I heard something about a thousand dollars and I was like 'oh no.'"
Almost immediately, Lasky received an automated text message from her bank.
"I literally sat down on the floor. On the floor of the gas station." The text message told her that her account, which had a healthy balance just that morning, was now overdrawn by $5.88.
This is the receipt that the gas station clerk handed Lasky for her soda.
The full amount charged is noted at the bottom: $1,001 for her soda. The clerk went on to explain to Lasky that he couldn't refund her purchase without going through corporate. She was penniless until further notice.
Part of the problem was the type of debit card that Lasky used to make her purchase.
She used this netSpend prepaid debit card, which was loaded with money ahead of time like a gift-card. If she had made her purchase with a credit card, the clerk most likely would have been able to immediately refund the purchase. The reloadable debit meant that he would have to go the corporate route.
But when she contacted the company, she was shocked by the response. To hear the rest of her story, watch the video below from TMJ4. And if you're shaken by how easy it is to lose this much money, please SHARE on Facebook to protect your friends and family from similar situations!
