Discovered a new level of shadiness a few minutes ago, not credit card related, but sorta related.

I was in Cali last summer on a business trip and found myself at a toll booth without the required change. But unfortunately they don't have an ATM or off-ramp to an ATM anywhere near by, so I got the pretty orange fine card. I talked it over with Hertz and they promised to forward me a copy of the bill once it arrived.

Fast forward 8 months... I get a letter in the mail from a collection agency, which claims that Bay Area Transit has attempted to contact me (Hertz rather) twice and since I've chosen not to respond () they've turned it over to collection. So I go ahead to the collection company's website and pay the $74 bill online, then call them up to verify they received payment and won't report it on my credit report (which they aren't). Now $74 is a nice chunk of change, but I did the crime so I was okay with paying up, UNTIL the very nice agent said casually "It's a shame you didn't call before submitting your payment - I could have reduced the charge to $29 on the spot."

Q#@$%!@T!#^U$%@&%^*#%^R^&@%R^@#$%#$%!#$%!!!!!!!!!! !
Oh and :madr2: : :
So I say to him, "Well if I stop payment on my card and call you back, can you rebill me for $29 instead?" Things get shifty on the other end of the phone, and he eventually tells me that if they see my payment fail, they'll add an additional penalty and won't even consider dropping the amount to the lower $29.

WTF?!?!?!?