Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Not So Good Customer Service Advice

I'll go into the story of what happened to me but it got me thinking about when you call customer service and you're given wrong information. What exactly do you do? I called back and got the same information again and it was wrong again. Third time was lucky and I got the right information. But if I hadn't pushed I would have been stuck with the information I'd received and it was wrong.

Here's the story.

I'm still one of those people that pays many of their bills by check. Yes, I know how last century of me but I do. I will say that with my credit cards (and this is a story about one of them) I pay something each week electronically. That is except for one card because I've been unable to set up automatic payments from my bank.

The monthly payment is due. I don't mail it when I should have. I think it is going to be late so I call the credit card company to ask about. Here's where the wrong information starts.

I have a due date that's a Sunday which I thought was odd. I ask if the payment is received on Saturday if it will be credit to my account. I state that this is a payment being mailed in. I'm told it would be considered late. I ask why. The guy responds because they (the credit card company) would not be able to get the money paid to them from my bank account.

I challenge this saying I thought it was when the payment was received not when the actual money was transferred. He said no that's not the way it is done. So I say if you have a deadline on a weekend the payment has to be there by that Friday. In other words the deadline on the statement is not the actual deadline. The guys says that's correct. He adds that's the way all credit card companies do it. I day I don't think so. He assures me that's the case. Then adds the vast majority of people pay electronically now anyway.

That comment gets me pissed and I say good for them. I then set up an automatic payment to cover the minimum balance which I'm assured will be processed in time (the funny thing is it wasn't processed until the following Monday). I hang up. But the everyone pays electronically gets to me. I call back and ask about this again and get the same thing. The actual money has to be on hand in the credit cards bank account or the payment is late.

I still think this is wrong. I decide to call the other credit cards that I have and find out what their policy is.

Turns out none of them do it that way. All of them were surprised that I was told that. All of them count the bill as being paid when they receive the check not when the actual money is received. One person added that lots of people still pay by check.

There it was. Not once but twice I was given information that was completely wrong. So I decided to call one more time and see what their policy was. Turns out the payment is credited when the check is received not when the money is received. The woman was at a loss as to why I was told what I was told not once but twice.

The funny thing is that my payment did arrive on time and it was credit on Saturday no less.

The moral is if you think something sounds wrong keep pushing until you get the answer you know you should get.


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