I’m always amused by those “are they kidding” moments we experience in life–the jaw-dropping absurdities that come in our direction. I had one of those today, courtesy of my friends at American Express.
Don't Leave Home Without Paying Them First
It appears that we linked our iTunes account to American Express at some point, so our balance this month was a whopping $0.99. That’s not 99 dollars–it’s 99 cents. On the AMEX notice was some forbidding text–“If we do not receive your Minimum Payment Due by the Payment Due Date listed above, you will have to pay a late fee of up to $39.00.” I’m thinking that by capitalizing some of those words, the AMEX people hope that they will seem more important to the reader (payment due date just doesn’t look as official, I suppose), although I’ll wait to see the empirical data on that phenomenon before passing judgment.
I strongly believe that American Express is fully capable of charging me $39 for not sending them $0.99, so I complied immediately. But I’m left wondering how much it cost AMEX to print their bill, mail it to me, and process my payment, not to mention the cost to my bank to send it to them. I’m left feeling nostalgic for the days of common sense and personal service.