But they didn't actually get the $700 they refunded it, along with spending who knows how many support hours along the way.
Maybe there enough people out there who don't notice a $700 overage to offset that, but it seems like there would at least be a visible decrease in support costs if they had a better system.
I suspect that full refunds for user mistakes aren't entirely typical.
Not everyone has a high spend account and a rep who brags about their policy of refunding mistakes frequently enough to snipe them with "If you have a policy of refunding mistakes, then why didn't you?" in front of customers.
I would like to emphasize that I've chosen my words carefully: I don't know for certain that the rep intervened, but I made trouble, emailed him the information necessary to resolve my issue, and then my half refund became a full refund. Any connection between these dots is pure speculation on my part.
Part of retail sales is people not caring enough to spend the energy to return / get a refund. Even if this story resulted in a refund, there are probably 100 other who didn't bother because it wasn't worth their time.
Maybe there enough people out there who don't notice a $700 overage to offset that, but it seems like there would at least be a visible decrease in support costs if they had a better system.