Tell You A Story About Truly Bad Service

Let me tell you a story about Bad Service. It's fairly entertaining if you hear it from me now but at that time, I was breathing fire!

In the earlier days, we have been signing up to cards for various reasons. Sometimes, pitying the sales agent. Sometimes, just given to us. And of course, there are those that we really use. But the recent ruling that all cards will be charged with RM50 each forced most of us to consolidate our cards and remove unneccesary ones to avoid unnecessary charges on service tax. I had quite painless process cancellation most of my 'extra' cards until our local bank, 'A' BANK credit card. Here goes!

Thursday 31 Dec

Called Call Centre in the morning. A few attempts before I could get through.

Asked to cancel my card immediately. Don't want to pay service tax. I apologized for the last minute but appreciate urgency.

Call Agent told me to fax in. Gave me a fax number. No prob. I did.

Tried faxing in whole morning. Number busy.

Called again after lunch. They said they never received coz lots of faxes going in and were on Q. Got me a 2nd fax number. Tried to fax until 3pm. Both numbers. Number busy to both. Called again.

Call Agent said didn't receive. Line busy still busy. Told me to fax again to both numbers. Said that she will call me to tell me whether or not they received. No call.

Long break. Then,

Monday 4 Jan:

Called CS line again. Call Agent said never received. Told me to fax again to both numbers. Again said that she will call me to confirm receipt or non receipt. No call from them. Seriously, why bother promising to call when they had no intention to??!!

Called them again after lunch. I was already fuming, feeling cheated. This time, they told me that I CAN email in my cancellation. Should have said earlier!!!

Emailed: Monday, 4 Jan 2:28 PM

Got an auto acknowledgment of receipt. Okayyy...

2 DAYS LATER!!

Wednesday, 6 Jan

They returned emailed and asked me to scan and email the original letter to them. Then only they will proceed to act on it. They want to verify my signature. I read my mail at home! Where to get scanner???

I replied immediately telling me to call me for verification instead. No scanner and I have been inconvenienced enough already!

Got only the auto acknowledgement of receipt .. ONLY!

STILL NO CALL FROM A BANK AGAIN!!!

NO EMAIL EVEN!! NO RESPONSE AT ALL!!

Saturday 9 Jan

Emailed again. No point calling.

The annoying useless auto acknowledgement again. Frankly speaking, what's the use of having it when the service is simply atrocious!!

Told them I'm not just their card customer, I have other accounts with them. I told them to respond else I will 'escalate this issue to relevant authorities' if I'm charged with service tax. I didn't state who.

Spurred some reaction now - same day now.

They responded that they have acted on it but I have to cut the card into half and return to them.

Card cut thrown long time ago.. where to get it for them. Told them so. Just proceed to cancel and block the card. What is the use of a blocked card to me then?

The darn auto reply again!

Tuesday Jan 12

The same mail asking me to send back cut card!!! Grrrr!! Densed or what!!!

Emailed to them again! Why I bothered! I just want to make sure that my card was terminated and no service charge was charged!! I replied, highly annoyed!

'Didn't you get my mail ralier. I already told you that I have ALREADY cut the card long time ago and dumped it. Where do you think I shld search in the dump to send to you. Another request - pls give me the name and address of your Head of Consumer Banking - or anyone higher. Thanks'

Darn auto reply!

The threat to contact their boss finally spurred actions! But still..

2 days later!! A CALL FROM 'A' BANK, FINALLY!

Some call agent called to apologize but didn't do a good work out of it. When I expressed by irritation, she was jsut silent with tell tale signs of irritation. When asked to speak to her managers. She said all of them were in meeting. When ask for name and address for Consumer Banking Head, she refused to give but said that they will respond with email.

NONE! No news!! Talk about 'A' BANK SERVICE!! Over a very simple transaction! Call lines are not easy to get through. Card cancellation must fax in. Ok, I understand the rationale. But that's fine if the ONLY 2 FAX machines around are not fully congested! Or perhaps that's the ploy??? Refused to pick up the call to solve a simple matter. Dragged for 2 weeks! Emailed cancellation possible but told only years after! Then that irritating autoreply and 2-3days response period. Took TWO WEEKS just to cancel my card after a threat to bring the matter to their boss. I wonder if the management is aware of such going-ons at ground level.

Until today, no one responded to my mail for their head's name and address. Total silence. I'm sick of talking or writing to 'A' Bank. But I'm happy to release some tension by blogging about it, even after all these while. Finally, I'll blow steam again if I kena service tax because of all these dragging.

Happy reading!