Feel my wrath, Barclaycard
Grrr. And Arrgh.
On Saturday, Ele went to do some Christmas shopping. As is customary, she took my credit card (chip and pin is great, isn't it? Before that happened, she couldn't use my card, but now all that's required is a pin, she can use it all she wants. Very secure...). As isn't customary, it didn't work when she tried to use it.
She rang me in distress, so I called Barclaycard to find out why I was now unworthy of credit. The reason, as it transpires, was that I had forgotten to pay the bill. Fair enough, how late was I? One day. One single bloody day. Bear in mind I've been a customer for ten years and have a perfect payment record and they decide - TWO BLOODY WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS - that cutting off my card because I'm a day late is a good way to treat a loyal customer. I've paid cards late before. They charge you £15 or something and your card keeps working. Ok, the charge is annoying, but it is my fault. But cutting off my card because I'm a single day late making the damn payment, with only two shopping weekends left before Christmas? Not acceptable. I bet they charge me £15 as well.
So anyway, I merrily pay the bill over the phone and ask for my card to be re-activated. He tells me it'll take 24 hours. This is now a bigger problem, because we need to use that card (severe lack of actual cash this year), and Ele has gone shopping nice and early to buy all sorts of lovely things that might even be for me. But there's nothing he can do. So the shopping trip is ruined.
The next day, Sunday, I took Jess into town to do some shopping for Ele's presents. I carefully made sure that more than 24 hours had passed, then handed my card over to the chap in the shop, who told me that, sadly, it had been declined, and did I have another method of payment at all, sir? This was not an expensive item, so I did have another means, and then I went outside to yell at Barclaycard again.
I got a snotty little shit on the phone who told me it wasn't 24 hours, but one working day. He wouldn't even get his supervisor on the phone ("They are unavailable, sir", "Doing what? Talking to other customers, drinking coffee, looking at porn on the internet?", "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, sir" Looking at porn, then...). He wouldn't even let me hold until one became available. In fact, he wouldn't do anything at all. If Daniel from Barclaycard Customer Services should happen to ever read this, then let me tell you: You are a moron of the highest order, I hope your dog gets run over and that your children are born with extra fingers and toes. Eventually, I had to give in and give my mobile number for somebody to call me back within 2 hours, otherwise he was going to terminate the call because we were just going round in circles. Guess what? They never did call back.
Whenever I've worked in Customer Services (fortunately not at Barclaycard), if I had a really irate customer on the phone who needed a call back, they got a call back INSTANTLY. And when I was a Customer Services Supervisor, if a customer was angry and wanted to speak to me, I spoke to them IMMEDIATELY, or if I was on another call, I rang them back AS SOON as I had finished. The fact that the department is called CUSTOMER Services should tell the employees something. They are there to do the bidding of their customers, the people who pay lots of money to Barclaycard every month and therefore pay their wages. But they don't. They think that customers are just annoying bastards who call up and harrangue them unfairly.
Compare this to British Gas. This morning I woke up to no gas. My meter said "FAIL" on it and nothing else. I call them, they answer, I explain the situation, they apologise and tell me an engineer will be round within 4 hours to fix it. He's got 2-and-a-half hours left, so let's hope they don't let me down...
So the lesson is this - if you want a credit card you can rely on, and Customer Services that actually care avoid Barclaycard like the plague.
The jury's still out on British Gas.
On Saturday, Ele went to do some Christmas shopping. As is customary, she took my credit card (chip and pin is great, isn't it? Before that happened, she couldn't use my card, but now all that's required is a pin, she can use it all she wants. Very secure...). As isn't customary, it didn't work when she tried to use it.
She rang me in distress, so I called Barclaycard to find out why I was now unworthy of credit. The reason, as it transpires, was that I had forgotten to pay the bill. Fair enough, how late was I? One day. One single bloody day. Bear in mind I've been a customer for ten years and have a perfect payment record and they decide - TWO BLOODY WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS - that cutting off my card because I'm a day late is a good way to treat a loyal customer. I've paid cards late before. They charge you £15 or something and your card keeps working. Ok, the charge is annoying, but it is my fault. But cutting off my card because I'm a single day late making the damn payment, with only two shopping weekends left before Christmas? Not acceptable. I bet they charge me £15 as well.
So anyway, I merrily pay the bill over the phone and ask for my card to be re-activated. He tells me it'll take 24 hours. This is now a bigger problem, because we need to use that card (severe lack of actual cash this year), and Ele has gone shopping nice and early to buy all sorts of lovely things that might even be for me. But there's nothing he can do. So the shopping trip is ruined.
The next day, Sunday, I took Jess into town to do some shopping for Ele's presents. I carefully made sure that more than 24 hours had passed, then handed my card over to the chap in the shop, who told me that, sadly, it had been declined, and did I have another method of payment at all, sir? This was not an expensive item, so I did have another means, and then I went outside to yell at Barclaycard again.
I got a snotty little shit on the phone who told me it wasn't 24 hours, but one working day. He wouldn't even get his supervisor on the phone ("They are unavailable, sir", "Doing what? Talking to other customers, drinking coffee, looking at porn on the internet?", "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, sir" Looking at porn, then...). He wouldn't even let me hold until one became available. In fact, he wouldn't do anything at all. If Daniel from Barclaycard Customer Services should happen to ever read this, then let me tell you: You are a moron of the highest order, I hope your dog gets run over and that your children are born with extra fingers and toes. Eventually, I had to give in and give my mobile number for somebody to call me back within 2 hours, otherwise he was going to terminate the call because we were just going round in circles. Guess what? They never did call back.
Whenever I've worked in Customer Services (fortunately not at Barclaycard), if I had a really irate customer on the phone who needed a call back, they got a call back INSTANTLY. And when I was a Customer Services Supervisor, if a customer was angry and wanted to speak to me, I spoke to them IMMEDIATELY, or if I was on another call, I rang them back AS SOON as I had finished. The fact that the department is called CUSTOMER Services should tell the employees something. They are there to do the bidding of their customers, the people who pay lots of money to Barclaycard every month and therefore pay their wages. But they don't. They think that customers are just annoying bastards who call up and harrangue them unfairly.
Compare this to British Gas. This morning I woke up to no gas. My meter said "FAIL" on it and nothing else. I call them, they answer, I explain the situation, they apologise and tell me an engineer will be round within 4 hours to fix it. He's got 2-and-a-half hours left, so let's hope they don't let me down...
So the lesson is this - if you want a credit card you can rely on, and Customer Services that actually care avoid Barclaycard like the plague.
The jury's still out on British Gas.
posted by Nej at
9:39 am
1 Comments:
Of course, we've been using chip and pin here for years without problems. But most French cards are debit cards - no cash in bank, card no work! (not strictly true - if you're a reasonable customer, you'll get the cash or credit no matter what). Seems to be a better way to me and would avoid the horrendous debts that the Brits seem to be piling up on their cards. Must be extremely irritating to have your card declined because you forgot to mail something!
By
Diary of a Ghost Writer, at 11:39 am
Post a Comment
<< Home