Customers Who Cause Small Businesses Pain; Confusing Food ‘Sell By’ Dates Banned–Coachella Valley Independent Indy Digest: Oct. 3, 2024

Indy Digest: Oct. 3, 2024

Our friends over at the Palm Springs Post published an excellent story about the struggles Palm Springs businesses are enduring: Customer numbers and revenue are way down; costs are up; and the scorching weather has only made things worse. Businesses in other valley cities are experiencing similar challenges, too.

As a small-business owner myself, I understand that running a business can be difficult—and these difficulties are often caused by customers, who either don’t care about or don’t realize the harm they’re causing. To illustrate, let me tell you a little story about a problem I’ve been dealing with for the last week or so. The lesson here: Before you file a credit card protest, or leave a negative review, or go on Facebook and talk about a bad experience, please think twice, and double-check yourself—because your actions can cause a business real harm.

So … in the late spring, we did a mid-year fundraising campaign, via a series of emails sent to newsletter subscribers; you may remember receiving them. To all of you who responded with support: Thank you!

Unfortunately for us, one (now former) reader responded to one of these emails in early June by clicking on a link that sent him to our support page, where he signed up to contribute $25 per month. However, he meant to contribute $25 just one time. He wasn’t checking his bank statements very closely, so that charge recurred in July, August and September before he noticed. He also didn’t see, or ignored, the monthly emails that are automatically sent with each charge..

When he finally realized these charges were recurring, his wife emailed me to ask that I stop the charges and refund the three erroneous contributions. When I didn’t respond, she sent another email; I didn’t respond to that one, either. The reason? In both cases, she mistyped my email address, so I never received them.

At that point, instead of double-checking the email address or picking up the phone and calling me, they disputed those July, August and September charges.

Here’s what our credit-card processor does when a charge is disputed: First, the disputed amount is deducted from the business’ account. Second, the business is charged a $15 fee per dispute—which is NOT refunded, even if the customer withdraws the dispute or the business wins the dispute. If a business gets hit with too many disputes, it can cause various problems, such as higher fees—or even the termination of the business’ account.

When I received the three dispute notices about a week ago, I, of course, didn’t know what had happened, so I reached out to the customer to find out. After multiple emails, I pieced together what happened. The customer at first claimed he didn’t even sign up to do the first, un-disputed payment in June; and was pissed off at me, claiming I was “taking advantage of” a senior. When I pointed out his mistakes, he said he’d try to withdraw the disputes (after I said I would refund the recurring charges if they were returned to us), but he still demanded to be removed from our email lists, even though all of the mistakes were his or his wife’s. I, of course, obliged.

So to recap: The Independent lost $45 via dispute fees; I am out several hours of my time, between dealing with the ex-reader and filing responses to the disputes; my credit card fees could theoretically go up, or worse; and I got accused of taking advantage of a reader … even though we did absolutely nothing wrong.

—Jimmy Boegle

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More News

• Emergency 911 phone lines were down for much of the day in the Coachella Valley. KESQ News Channel 3 reports, as of this writing: “911 lines were down for several hours throughout the Coachella Valley. Emergency services were restored by 2:25 p.m. in Palm Springs and Indio. The Indio Police Dept. announced that its 911 lines were back for all residents except Verizon customers. If you are a Verizon customer, dial 760-391-4051 (for emergencies in Indio). A spokesperson for the city of Indio said they were told the issue might’ve stemmed from fiber being cut in Bloomington out in San Bernardino County.”

• Speaking of outages: Bank of America really freaked out some customers yesterday. USA Today reports: “A technical issue that was preventing many Bank of America customers from accessing their bank accounts on Wednesday has been fully resolved, according to the bank. Reports of problems accessing bank accounts spiked around 1 p.m. ET, when the website Downdetector reported about 20,266 outages. ‘Some mobile and online banking clients experienced an issue accessing their accounts and balance information earlier today,’ Bank of America said in a statement. ‘These technology issues have been fully resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience.’ Bank of America did not specify what caused the problem. … On Wednesday, people complained that their account balances were not visible on the app while others said they could access their accounts but that they were seeing a balance of $0.”

• Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will ban confusing “sell by” dates on food packaging. KTLA says: “California is trying to settle the age-old debate over whether food in the refrigerator is still okay to eat. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed a law making the state the first to ban labels like ‘Sell By’ and ‘Best Before,’ which often confuse shoppers. These labels, found on everything from milk to bread, aren’t regulated and don’t actually tell you if food is safe. ‘Sell by’ dates are typically used by stores to manage stock, not for consumers to determine freshness. … Starting in July 2026, the new California law will require standardized labels. ‘Best if Used By’ will indicate peak quality, and ‘Use By’ for product safety.“

• Related, sort of: I’ve always wondered why we never hear anything about vetoes being overridden by the California Legislature. Our partners at Calmatters did a good piece explaining that the Legislature does indeed have the power to override vetoes—but chooses not to: “Nearly all of the 189 bills vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this year passed the Legislature with support from more than two-thirds of lawmakers—meaning the same votes from those legislators would be enough to override the governor’s veto. But that almost never happens. In fact, the last time the Legislature overrode a governor’s veto was 1979. So why don’t legislators fight for the bills that have such broad support? Party loyalty, and self-protection, says Dan Schnur, politics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine University. ‘A governor who’s been overridden is generally not a happy governor—and unhappy governors tend to issue more vetoes, especially against the members who voted to override,’ he said. The current Democratic supermajority—93 of 120 seats–also means that a legislator who goes against the governor can be easily replaced among the politically favored.”

• If you’ve ever wanted to fly between Van Nuys and the east valley, but only on Friday and/or Sunday, and you don’t mind paying extra to do so, we have some news, from a press release: “Semi-private jet service Aero is launching a new route of scheduled flights between the Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in Los Angeles and Thermal’s Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (TRM) located in the Greater Palm Springs area. Tickets will start at $725 per person, flights will begin on Nov. 1, 2024, with a schedule currently being sold through late-April 2025. Jetting between Los Angeles and Greater Palm Springs takes just 30 minutes, bypassing inconvenient rush hour traffic and providing access to the resorts and communities in the nine desert cities.”

• And finally … Californians over the age of 70 will no longer be required to take a written drivers’ test. CBS News explains: “As of Oct. 1, those older drivers whose licenses expire as of 2024 won’t need to take the written knowledge test. DMV officials noted that the requirement was a policy, not the law. It’s all part of the DMV’s effort to streamline office visits. ‘If thousands fewer people need to visit the DMV, or can spend less time in an office, the people who need to take care of their business in one of our offices can be better served,’ said DMV Director Steve Gordon in a statement. Drivers with poor driving records will still need to take the written test, the DMV says.”

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