Exploitation on late payment fees

I have been a loyal PJN customer for several years and have never missed a payment by my own doing. On the rare occasion there was an issue previously, it was due to an error on PJN’s side — but I chose to let it go. Until now, I have had no further issues.

I currently have three active orders, and my payments are automatically debited on the 28th of each month. Yesterday (the 28th), I expected my usual debit to go through. Later in the day, I received a payment failure notification. I wasn’t overly concerned initially, as I normally have the option to make a manual payment through the app.

However, when I logged in, I found that my card had been blocked — which meant I couldn’t make the payment — and to make matters worse, late payment fees were added to each of my orders, totaling over 20% of the order value.

This was completely out of my control. I immediately tried to reach out — I called (the call dropped), I emailed, and I sent over 100 messages through the in-app chat. Eventually, someone named Joshua responded — once, and then again about an hour later.

All this while, as a customer, I was panicking because I was being penalized for something caused by PJN’s own system. It was only after much persistence that Joshua eventually confirmed that the late fees had been removed and my card unblocked.

But this experience raises serious concerns: What if I hadn’t known to follow up? How many other customers are being charged these unfair fees without realizing it?

Why is a system allowed to block payments and then charge late fees because of that same block?

This process feels ********* and exploitative. If Joshua hadn’t intervened, I would have continued to be charged late fees until 30 October — all due to a PJN system issue, not customer negligence.

I urge PJN to review this process urgently. No customer should be penalized for a payment issue they had no control over, and certainly not ignored when trying to resolve it.

Sincerely, Malikah Sonday