Customer service works on a two way sound system. The system breaks down and customer service etiquette ends up with as much importance as a paper napkin in a three course dinner where the stomach's been growling like Cujo on speed. This break down in the customer service system usually occurs when the ear on or at the other end is only interested in the tired silence of a flat-lined conversation. This generally heralds the defeat of consumerism. I can count two inane instances with the customer service department of a credit card company, yes off course THE credit card company, and two instances with a utility company (actually multiply that number by each separate utility company that provided services and we will arrive at the actual number). Now five out of five people would say that they have been there and done that in terms of these phone calls. It is plain knowledge that credit card companies, phone companies, utility companies, Health Clubs and any other monopolistic organization, seat mini ambassadors of their self proclaimed fiefdoms, to fend off irate, rebelling customers spoiling for a noble fight. We continue to be the guilty ones whether proven or otherwise. And we pay for it out of our fading funds invariably.
An example I can offer without going too much into detail is when in a sudden attempt at being over responsible I chose to pay my credit card balance earlier than regular and used my bank machine. This so called dispenser and receiver of funds is part of the same company which facilitates my credit card and my regular account. Now unfortunately my old card with a zero balance I must emphasize this as it will hold its weight later, was canceled and the balance and payments transferred to my new card. All within the same card service run by the same bank, whose ATM I used.
The machine swallowed up my money and said that it had transferred the payment to the only card on account the old card. Now it is the responsibility of the bank which gave me the old and new card to be diligent and wipe out the old card from ATM transactions. But it was not so. In an attempt to be proactive to a further extent I spent 45 minutes which passed very slowly, and left me getting more and more irate having had to deal with 3 employees from the Debit (Banks end) and 3 from the Credit Card division. The initial credit card division said that there was no link between the cards, then transferred me to the debit card division which said that it could see the balance but it was the right of the credit card company to transfer MY MONEY (sorry I believe they clearly referred the money I had transferred to the Credit Card as the Credit Card company’s money even though it would take in their words two whole days for it to be transferred into the Old Credit Card balance Processing time they called it) Confused, imagine my numbness when I was told all this over a phone by some person with a lower percentage of a conscience than me. It was unbelievable, I could have had a more productive conversation with an over-ripe fruit. There is no reason that was being accepted here. The end result would be that they would credit my bank account, only if the credit card company allowed it no matter if the old card held a zero balance. By the time all this transpired the amount pre-paid by me as an act of responsibility, would be past due and I would be charged interest on. All this for being proactive and making an early payment.
But the light at the end of the tunnel yes there is a light and it is most definitely a very narrow beam. The next day I shamelessly spoke to a pleasant young man from the Bank side who said that someone had messed up, they could cancel the transfer, and a nice lady from the Credit Card division who said that yes money could be transferred from the Old Credit card to the New Credit Card without any issues. It turned out that the Old and New Card were invariably linked just like the Neanderthal is to us. This kind lady had found the link without no more than one profound second of digging. And yet I had been subjected to forty five minutes, and six different people including a manager who enquired into every minute detail (including the clover leaf sign on my left buttock) I don't actually have one for health reasons. But in spite of my request for common sense not one would raise a voice or the levels of their brain function to actually resolve my issue.
My prognosis of this ailment is this the government should open up the market to Low interest credit cards, low cost service providers for Utilities and to all those monopolistic regimes that have left a festering scab on the consumers mind. They should provide subsidies to those new-age companies that will provide open ended offers and customer service that will befit a customer. There are a lot of small print legalities that the current companies bind us in and we constantly have to fight for the right to move, to pay our bills, to be offered a rate that is within the reason and does not involve us leaving Grandpa Joe's Tractor as collateral What I propose does not mean no profits only a lower profit and maybe a minute 0.0000001 percentage less on the CEO's heavy bonus cheque.
All said and done we need to up the ante. We need to ask for proper representation of our rights as customers, because we do the same thing everyday in whatever role we occupy in life and we do perform our functions and roles well. We are all customer service representatives fathers, sons, mothers and daughters in life and otherwise. We run on faith, trust and honesty so should the corporate world -without exceptions.
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