Gary Gets Fleeced

Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Gary had a complaint about the company we work for. He said that a while ago he bought a computer for the studio which had been approved by Tom Chiusano. The computer was $1200 and Gary put it on his American Express Corporate card. The bill came and Gary gave it to our accounting department – the way he always had. Then another bill came saying the last bill hadn’t been paid and that he now owed an additional $130 late fee charge. Again, Gary passed it along to accounting – the way he always had. Gary kept getting bill after bill from American Express, all saying the original bill hadn’t been paid and each one carrying an additional late fee. Finally the credit card company shut the card off completely. Gary said he was freaking out because he had perfect credit and now, since this card is in his name, his credit is ruined.

The company finally told him that even though the purchase was approved he had to pay his bill through something called “Trex,” a new online service the company is using. Gary said that every single person here hates using it and it’s really complicated. But he went through “Trex” and he just found out yesterday that they are going to pay the computer bill but they will not pay for the late fees. So they want Gary to foot a $600 bill, plus his credit is now in shambles! Meanwhile, the company turned a $1200 computer into a $2000 one. Howard said that this is an embarrassment and a shame. He wanted to know why Tom Chiusano wasn’t doing something about this but Gary said that Tom is having his own problems with this system. Howard said he doubted they were as bad as Gary’s. Howard wanted to know why we couldn’t find out who is in charge of making a decision about these things. Howard said it’s ridiculous that this has become Gary’s responsibility when it was the company that ruined his credit. Howard said he wanted to know why Tom was gone all week at a management meeting with tons of other company managers and no one can fix this?