The Cottages of Covington

TinaP

I helped a friend get their grandmother into this home, by authorizing a ONE TIME payment to cover the first month's costs ($14,500). I wrote the exact amount, and did NOT check the box indicating that it would be an unlimited amount, or recurring. Imagine my surprise when I looked at my bank account and saw they had charged me the next month's full rent of $8,000. Unfortunately, it ran the same day my Q1 taxes for 3 of my businesses (State L&I, ESD and DOR + FEDERAL taxes for each)., and payroll were due to be paid from my accounts. This left me negative and hit with fees for not only the overdraft but also penalties and interest for the payments that had insufficient funds to process. I called Covington, who told me they "usually get the authorization form that tells them if they can use the card for future payments, but just didn't this time..." (so, you just decided to assume, and set it up anyway???) and, rather than offering me a refund, I was instructed to call my bank to dispute it. This floored me... I was telling them I was overdrawn and in a scenario that was caused because of their error, and they wouldn't even offer a REFUND. I had to take more time I don't have, and wait way longer than just simply having it returned to me and the rest fixed later. When asked, they didn't know how to handle the rest of the issues they caused for me. I told them they needed to figure out how to resolve them, and fix the massive (and expensive) issue this caused me. I was told they would contact a higher-up and that I'd hear back the next day (this was Wednesday - it's now Saturday). Needless to say, they haven't picked up the phone. I have to run this week's payroll tomorrow and won't have the money for that now, either. I contacted my bank to dispute it (which I shouldn't have had to do), and was told there was an additional $14,500 due to come out later this month, as well... Apparently, Covington not only wrongfully set up my account on an autopay that I didn't authorize, but they also made the mistake of setting the STARTER payment AND monthly payments to both run as autopayments. I don't know the first thing about how they run the actual facility itself, what it looks like, or how they treat their residents... but, if I could judge based off of these very LARGE oversights, and how they handled it? I would tell everyone to run far FAR away from it. Mistakes are one thing... how you handle them will tell me everything I need to know about a business. I'm sure I won't see a dime from them, offering to help right what they wronged. However, I'm happy to update if I do.