Hospital charges him for taking his own pills

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Updated: October 12, 2011 12:16AM

D ear Fixer: I went in for surgery at St. Alexius Medical Center on March 16 and had to stay until March 18. I have to take medication for my high blood pressure.

I brought my pills to the hospital. When I was brought to my room, the nurse asked if I was taking any medication. I said yes, and told her I had brought it.

She took the bottle of pills and said the pharmacy had to examine it; she said I would be given them back in the morning when I normally take them.

The next morning, they were going to give me their blood pressure meds. I told the nurse they had my pills and that I was supposed to get them in the morning. She checked on it and came back later with my pills, which I took that morning and the next morning before I was discharged.

When I received my portion of the hospital bill after Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield had paid, it stated I owed $640.96. The itemized statement showed I was billed for their blood pressure medications, which I did not take.

When I questioned this, I was told to fill out a complaint form. Two weeks later, I got a letter from the auditors stating that the charges are accurate and I would have to pay for taking my own medication.

The charge for this was $32, of which the insurance paid $8.20 and I paid $23.80. The insurance company is not going to pursue the overcharge, so that is why I am writing you. I feel that I am owed a refund.

Gerald Juggan, Streamwood

Dear Gerald: When we got your letter, we thought: What’s next? Airlines charging for the sandwich we bring on board?

You told The Fixer that while this wasn’t a vast sum of money, you were still irked about paying twice for your medicine — once at home and again at the hospital.

We asked the folks at St. Alexius to look into it. They said the confusion originated because you didn’t have a doctor’s note stating that you could use your own medication at the hospital. You told us your doctor never mentioned this.

At any rate, they’ve agreed to refund your $23.80. A check should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Can you hear us now?

In past columns, The Fixer has advocated using social media to fix consumer problems, such as posting your complaint on a business’ Facebook page or messaging a company’s PR mavens through their corporate Twitter address.

Consumer Reports’ Money Adviser’s August issue adds corporate blogs and consumer websites to its list of ways to get a company’s attention.

Here are some of the Web sites they recommend consumers go to when they want to air a gripe — or a compliment:

◆ AirlineComplaints.org

◆ ComplaintsBoard.org

◆ Consumerist.com

◆ TripAdvisor.com

Some advice: If you post a comment online, keep it as brief as possible and focus on the facts instead of unloading a generalized rant. You might want to mention the good along with the bad — that way, they’ll know you’re a valuable customer who deserves to be helped.

A ‘Fixer’ trick

Here at Fixer HQ, it’s easy for us to get your complaint to the head honchos by going through a company’s media relations department. But what can an ordinary consumer do?

First, try giving the customer service folks a chance. You might be surprised when they fix it on the first or second try.

If you’re really getting the runaround, try this: If it’s a publicly traded company, Google the words “investor relations” and the name of the company. E-mail the head of investor relations with your issue and ask him to escalate it. For a private company, do the same search with the words “marketing director” and the name of the company and contact that person by e-mail.

Your goal is to vault over someone who’s not helping you and get to someone whose job it is to preserve the company’s good image. That person will be more likely to fix it.

D ear Fixer: My son paid off his vehicle loan about 2½ years early.

On Jan. 18, we received the title with a pay-off letter from Chase Bank. It stated that since the vehicle was paid off early, we may be entitled to a credit on the GAP insurance we had purchased. It said to contact the dealer.

Since Napleton Ford was no longer in business, we called Napleton Northwestern Chrysler Jeep Dodge. On Jan. 31, I spoke with a gentleman there. He said he would look into it and get back to me.

Several weeks passed. I contacted him again Feb. 22, and he said he was still looking into it. Three times in March, I left voice mail messages. Then, on March 25, I called and asked for a manager.

The man I spoke with said the previous gentleman had a stroke, so now he would handle it. I was instructed to send him a letter requesting to cancel the GAP coverage and get a refund. I also was told to include the letter from Chase, which I did.

Again no response. On May 12, I called, and the finance manager told me the man I had been working with was no longer there. The finance manager was very sympathetic; he apologized and said that with their Ford dealership closing, everything was disorganized. He asked me to send him a copy of the letter from Chase and other documents. I personally went down there and gave him the papers.

By mid-June there was still no resolution. The finance manager said he was still trying to find out which company was used for the GAP insurance. I truly want to believe he is working on it; however, past experience with this dealership has not been positive. I must say everyone I have spoken with, especially this latest representative, has been kind and sympathetic, but we still have no closure to the problem.

Carolyn Palmert, Chicago

Dear Carolyn:

It was clear something had to be done to speed up the GAP insurance refund for your son’s paid-off Mustang convertible. So The Fixer dashed off a quick note to the office of the president at Napleton.

The next thing we heard, they had pro-rated the unused insurance and cut a check for you for $303.30. You’ve already picked it up, so we’ll consider this fixed!

Don’t fall for this

The National Consumers League wants to get the word out about a scam targeting first-time sellers on eBay.com.

Here’s how it works, so you can avoid it: The scammers look for sellers who are new to eBay. They bid on and “win” the auction for an expensive item, such as a designer watch.

Then the seller gets an e-mail that seems to be from PayPal — complete with the PayPal logo — directing him to first mail the item to the buyer, and e-mail the buyer the tracking number in order to get paid. In case the seller is wary about doing this — and who wouldn’t be? — the e-mail provides a phone number to contact PayPal with any questions.

When the seller calls the number, they think they’re speaking with a customer service rep from PayPal, but actually they’re just talking to the scammers, who say this is standard procedure for first-time sellers on eBay.

The seller mails the item and, of course, never receives payment — realizing too late that they’ve been scammed.

Take a tax holiday

Summer travelers heading outside Illinois this month can snap up some sales-tax-free bargains if their timing is right.

For example, if you’re in Iowa Friday and Saturday, there is no state sales tax on clothing and footwear purchases of $100 or less.

In Florida on Aug. 12 through 14, there is no state sales tax on clothing and footwear items costing $75 or less and school supplies of $15 or less. (Note: This doesn’t apply to stuff sold at theme parks and hotels.)

Traveling to the Big Easy? The entire state of Louisiana is offering a state sales tax holiday on most items less than $2,500 Friday and Saturday. For a complete list of the 15 states offering sales tax holidays in August, check out kiplinger.com.

Dear Fixer: I purchased a laptop in May 2010 from OfficeDepot.com and also purchased the 24-month Office Depot Performance Protection Plan for an extra $200 to cover accidental damage not covered by Hewlett Packard’s one-year warranty.

This laptop has been sent in six times so far for repair.

The first time, the screen spontaneously had black splotches on it when booted up. HP wouldn’t fix it under warranty because they said the laptop must have been dropped.

That was not the case. The computer had been working fine; my daughter, who has been ill, was doing homework. She put the laptop on standby and closed it, leaving it on the desk in the den. We left and went to a class to help her catch up on school. We came home about three or four hours later and she booted up her laptop and the screen had black blotches and lines on it.

I called the Office Depot warranty plan number and they had the screen replaced after having it for about four weeks. Since then, the laptop has been sent back twice in February, and in March, April and May because the screen would go a fuzzy gray with a flickering plaid pattern during normal use.

Each time I was told they couldn’t find anything wrong or that they had repaired the fan assembly and heat sink or replaced the hard drive.

It’s acting up again. There is a lemon clause in the protection plan that states that after two service repairs, at the third problem they will replace it with a new or remanufactured product of like kind and quality, or with a check for the original purchase price.

Back on May 19, before the sixth repair, I was told the laptop doesn’t qualify for replacement because all repairs were for accidental damage.

I have triplets starting college in August, and my daughter will definitely need a functional laptop for her classes. I am tired of the runaround. This will be the seventh time in nine months this computer needs to go in for repair — this is ridiculous!

Debora Fasone, Chesterton, Ind.

Dear Debora: With your triplets about to go to college, The Fixer can only imagine the pandemonium in your household. The last thing you need is a laptop with a lemon-fresh scent.

The good news is once we brought this to Office Depot’s attention, they quickly moved to do the right thing. Senior Customer Relations Manager Casey Ahlbum could see right away that something was wrong with this laptop. He contacted their warranty provider and told them to give you a new one. Usually, he said, this is handled by giving the consumer an Office Depot gift card to buy a new computer, but with school coming up soon, they are sending you a check instead. That way, you can buy a replacement laptop now and get the check when the bill comes due.

Ahlbum also said he is sharing your experience with management at the warranty company so they can review what happened and — we hope ­— make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

Getting the runaround on a consumer problem? Tell it to The Fixer at www.newssunonline.com , where you’ll find a simple form to fill out. You’ll also find a list of consumer contacts and tips. Because of the large volume of submissions, The Fixer can’t personally reply to every problem. Letters are edited for length and clarity.