AdRad commented on my blog recently about my unprecedented letters of complaint to several bureaucracies (Qantas and Bupa). He is a perceptive young man, that AdRad.
To confirm those perceptions I am about to fire off a complaint to a third organisation, this time my bank.
The background to my complaint is what happened here.
On 26 February I was told by what was almost certainly an overseas call centre* that I would receive a replacement for my compromised ATM card within five business days. When ten days passed without a new card arriving I called the centre back and was given conflicting information from the earlier advice but was assured my card would arrive within several days.
Yesterday, with still no replacement card received, I called the centre for a third time. The operator put me on hold then told me she would conduct investigations and call me back. She didn't.
Today, I went to my branch to make enquiries in person. It turns out that my replacement card hasn't arrived for the most obvious of reasons. I don't know what the call centre thought it was doing but no replacement card had been ordered.
That has now been rectified and I should be receive a new within 'five to seven days'.
We'll see.
(* All three calls were answered by operators with sub-continent accented English and the calls sounded as though they were travelling through a pipe.)
I guess they use the internet for the calls to save costs, rather than the telephone lines. It is difficult enough understanding a foreign accent at times, without the call quality being poor and often at a low volume too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what they use Andrew. The number dialled is a local 02 number but wherever it ends is clearly not remotely local to me.
DeleteI wonder if it's commonplace for banks to stuff up replacement cards. I got sent on a wild goose chase after my corporate credit card was compromised. The replacement card was suppose to be delivered to my university's branch but I was informed that it got sent to another branch (which was a real pain to get to). So...I went to that branch and was told by the bank manager that they didn't have it. Several enquiries later and I was told that it was at the other branch after all. I told them I wasn't going to trek out there again and made them deliver it to me.
ReplyDeleteAdRad, if I'm being charitable I'd say it was human error and if I'm being nasty I'd say it was incompetence. I'll go with the former for now.
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