Yesterday I called American Express to try and straighten out a situation with our credit card. It's an unusual situation related to our absence from the mainland US. It wasn't one of those things you could easily fix with a visit to the FAQ page on their website. (It's still not fixed even after a couple of phone calls.)
A few hours after I got off the phone I received a generic email from American Express scolding me for not going online to fix the problem that they have no way of fixing online. If you call the 888 # apparently you're bothering the customer service representatives who could be doing something else.
American Express USED to be known for genuine customer service. I sent them an email reply gently reminding them of that -- but it bounced back -- "You have replied to a non-secure e-mail address that is not monitored for replies, and we will not be able to respond to your question(s) through this channel."
Another situation -- The other day I bought an airline ticket so that Betsy can come to Guam for a few weeks this summer. (Yeah!) I went through the whole reservation process -- even chose seats for all five legs of the round trip. But when it came time to pay with my credit card there was no place on the form that would accept our Guam address. Puerto Rico (one of the other major US protectorates) comes up on the form but not Guam. And since the address on the online reservation has to match the billing address (which is on Guam) the form was continually rejected when I used MasterCard or Discover. I even tried tricking the form by telling it we were in "California" but then I would insert the proper Guam zip code. Finally my Amazon Visa card went through that way. Apparently their system only does address confirmation through zip code checks.
I never thought that the "hardships" of "missionary life" would involve performing so much computer voodoo.
From this spot out here in the middle of nowhere, it is becoming even more obvious that these systems are not set-up for the convenience of the customers -- especially those who live away from the US mainland.
I had another customer service situation today which went a lot differently. I went into Pacific Tyre to get my oil changed. They didn't carry the synthetic oil that our car is used to. So the islander behind the counter, instead of just sending me off to Kmart to buy some oil said -- "Here let me call someone to see if they have it. You shouldn't have to run all over the island looking for it. Even though he was busy he made five phone calls trying to find the oil I need.
No one he called had the oil. So I did end up driving to Kmart, which did have it. But I'll certainly bring it back to him to do the actual oil change for me. It will be well worth the $15 that he's going to charge (and he's supplying the filter).
There are some people who do get it.
Rant mode off.
No comments:
Post a Comment