In college I enjoyed my girlfriend’s (now wife) parents Sam’s club membership. I would go with them and then buy an abundance of supplies and just enjoyed the store and getting good deals. After college I got my own membership and all seemed great. I was moving to a city that didn’t have a Sam’s nearby and cancelled my membership. At that time I owed nothing but my renewal for the next year was coming up in a few months. I got a bill but I called the number on the bill and asked what’s up but they assure me it was an error and I had nothing to worry about.

A few years go by and my dies and it’s not even worth $500 and it needed $4k in repairs so I go to get a used car. I didn’t quite have the cash to pay it off in full and have a nice emergency cushion so I went for a loan. This is when I found out my credit score is ~170 points lower than it was the last time I checked about a year previous, and this was despite having paid all my bills on time including my home mortgage payments. The bank said I had an outstanding payment to Sam’s club for $50 (I think that’s what it was maybe a bit less). How a $50 charge could sink me from a ~770 down to ~600 was beyond me but I guess I didn’t have a lot of credit history then and it was highly delinquent. Also why did Sam’s club wait well over a year to contact a credit agency is also beyond me.

I called Sam’s and at first they wouldn’t work with me, but I finally found the email showing the cancellation so they agreed to contact the credit agency but it could take months for it to come off my report.

Just the degree of incompetence from the various levels of management I spoke with on the phone was enough for me swear off Sam’s, but add the fact they reported a charge that should never have been issued in the first place and I will never go there again.