Tuesday, November 5, 2013

No, YOU'RE childish!

Months and months ago, we went through an upgrade campaign for one of the credit cards we service for another bank. Letters were mailed out back in January to let customers know that the upgrade would happen automatically unless they called in to opt out. It detailed the changes to the rewards program, additional benefits that would be received, and the fact that card numbers would change and replacement cards mailed. Automatically on such-and-such date. Unless you call in to opt out.

Fast forward to yesterday, November 4th. A man calls in for one of those cards but gives me the old account number. When I advise him that his account was converted due to the upgrade and that the old credit card number was no longer valid, and asked him if he had the new card, he flipped out.

"I never gave you permission to upgrade my account! I never gave you permission to change my account number!" and so on. He claimed he never received any replacement card and wanted to keep the old one. When I explained the details of the upgrade and that it was an opt-out campaign, he just kept going on about how he never gave us permission to change his account and wants to know how this happened without his knowledge.

So I'm looking at the comments on his account and his wife called in to activate the new cards back in September and there has been activity from that card number several times since then. When I tell him this, he insists that only his wife got a card, not him. This is not possible, since he is the primary cardholder. I really wanted to ask him, where did they think this extra credit card came from? He only has one credit card with this bank. They didn't think it was a little odd that they suddenly have two different credit cards with two different account numbers, but haven't received a billing statement with the old account number on it in months

I also noticed system-generated comments documenting every letter that was mailed out in reference to this upgrade. There were five letters between January and September: notification about the upgrade, reminders about the opt-out deadline, a conversion notification, and a welcome package that was sent out around the same time as the new cards. But somehow this guy had no idea that his card was changing. 

He starts up again about not giving us permission and I explain to him, again, how an opt-out campaign works. "There were several letters mailed out prior to the conversion. The upgrade was processed automatically because you didn't call in to opt out."

His response? "That's just a childish response!" 

No sir, what's childish is the belief that if you just ignore official notices that the changes won't take place!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Why do I bother?

Yet another incident involving our online banking "tech support". 

Very similar to the linked thread: customer calls in to make sure that a balance transfer he set up online is pending. Once again, there is no transaction pending on the credit card but there is a system-generated comment on the account that the customer made the request online. No confirmation that it is processing, and no rate information.

I put the customer on hold and call over to online banking and was yet again stunned by the complete lack of professionalism. I must be more gullible than I thought; I don't know why these people surprise me any more. The rep finally got around to asking me for the account number of the credit card or debit card for the account. Keep in mind that I just told her that I was calling from Card Services for a customer who had requested a balance transfer...

She seemed very confused and asked me if this was a credit card, which I confirmed...multiple times. Then she advised me to call the credit card department... "That is the department from which I am calling, and what I need is for someone in online banking to verify if this balance transfer was set up correctly online and at what rate. Once again, it is not showing as a pending transaction on his credit card but I understand that this may be because he just requested it earlier today."

Cue more hemming and hawing, so many "um"s and "uh"s, followed by the rep informing me that she does not have access to the customer's credit card information, only his deposit accounts (never mentioned previously when she was verifying whether this was a credit card or a debit card!), and that she does not have access to his online banking profile at all. When I asked her who I might call who would have access to his profile, she was absolutely clueless and again recommended that I call my own department for information on balance transfers. 

Let's just make a long story a little bit shorter and concede that we round in circles a bit more with her unable to provide me with any information leading to a department with access to actual online banking support and me getting more terse in my replies...ending with the customer hanging up because he had been on hold for far too long. 

The kicker? Just as I realized that the customer had disconnected, the other rep said, "I'm sorry, but I will not be able to assist you with that information today."