Medical Software Company SNAFU

This is the time of year that I bought my Electronic Medical Record Software.  Every year you have to pay for “support”.  This costs almost half as much as the software cost when purchased new.  I’m sure that it will increase in price annually.  The support people are available if I have any problems.  Like the cable company is available if you have a problem with your cable.  Enough said? 

I was thinking it was time to pay the support bill.  The other day I checked my online banking, and – SURPRISE!!!! – they had taken their money out of my checking account.  There was no warning.  No: “Dear Dr. Lasermed – next week we are going to take a huge chunk of money out of your checking account.”  Nothing.  I got an e-mail the day they took the money.

I generally don’t authorize anyone to take things out of my accounts without letting me know first.  I don’t have credit cards.  I only have debit cards.

I called the company.  They said “it’s in your contract”.  The contract is 8 pages of little tiny legal printing.  They didn’t say that they warned me a year ago.  They also said they assumed that the card was a credit card. 

I spoke with the nice people at my bank.  They have dealt with this problem before.  If I deposited cash before closing, there wouldn’t be a problem.  I could write a letter to the company so they didn’t do that again.  Check and check.  Blood pressure is beginning to come down. 

It’s amazing how the only times I ever have problems with my account are when some business takes something they are not authorized to do.  The woman at the software company said “THEIR SOFTWARE IS NOT SET UP TO SEND NOTIFICATION BEFORE THEY DO ANY BILLING”.  I want to know why they can’t fix their software, since that’s what they do, write software?  She really didn’t know.