Here’s one more whinge from me on poor customer service.
Last week, my credit card statement arrived in the mail. Perusing it on the weekend, I noticed something on there that looked amiss. There was a small transaction for a couple of dollars made to a payee called Blue Mountain City. I racked my brains to think what I could have bought there. Out came the big overstuffed shoe box of receipts and an hour later, I had nothing. More trawling through my e-mails, Paypal accounts and bank accounts – and still nothing.
The amount was small enough to let go. But going on the advise of my Facebook friends, I decided to take it up with Woolworths Everyday Money, who issued the card on behalf of HSBC. After spending 20 minutes listening to lovely ‘hold music’ on the phone, I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the time and effort. Then a call centre representative came on line. After ten minutes of proving who I was to her and providing the details of the transaction, and listening to more music on hold, the rep said “You’ll have to lodge a claim”. So I said, “That’s why I have called you up.” And she says” No. It’s a very simple process. You need to go online, log in to your account, look for a form to download, print it out, fill it in and fax it back to us.” At this point in time, I won’t repeat the expletives that crossed my mind.
Here I was, having spent half an hour of my time, politely waiting, explaining and proving who I was, and they would not accept a verbal complaint. So why did they go through all that rigmarole? And who uses a fax nowadays anyway?
“Oh!”, she added “If we find that the transaction is genuine, we will charge you a $10 fee”. So I asked “If you find it fraudulent, does it mean you will pay me $10?” The sarcasm was lost on the call centre robot.
Anyway, I spent the next half hour doing what the gods demanded for their appeasement - logging in, searching and locating the form, printing it, filling it, and faxing it across.
The next day, I get a call back from their customer service. After spending another 10 minutes verifying who I am, before they will tell me what the call is about, the guy on the phone explains “We have cancelled your card”. “Thanks for letting me know”, I said wryly. Again the sarcasm was lost on the script-reading robot.
“And”, he added, “you’ll get your replacement card in a week’s time. Then, you’ll need to go through a multi step process to activate your card. In the meanwhile, any transactions made against your account will bounce.”
That means, I’ll be without a card for a week, all my direct debits for my bills will bounce, and I will get charged about $20 each time that occurs. And once I get my new card, I have to re-set up all my direct debits. Including the one from Paypal, which if you read my previous post, is harder than getting a camel through the eye of a needle.
All because the bank’s much touted anti-fraud system did not pick up a shady transaction. I even wonder if the merchant who put this through will get as much as a slap on the wrist. So that made me wonder,
Why should a customer have to pay for what was Woolworths / HSBC’s incompetence in the first place? How can a bank run over it’s customers without so much as an apology, with scant regard to the inconvenience it puts it’s customers through? Of course, this is couched in the “This is for your own protection” BS.
Interestingly, several years ago, I had a similar fraudulent event on my Amex card. The difference in response could not have been more startling. The entire process was conducted on the phone, I had an emergency card replacement couriered to me the same afternoon, and I got a follow up letter a few weeks later to let me know the merchant had been suspended.
A satisfied customer: priceless!
