“I Am Sorry, But I Cannot Be Answering Your Question Until I Finish Reading This.”

That is an EXACT quote I received from a “customer service” representative this morning.

You are probably thinking, “So? You must’ve interrupted them.” You are right, I did, several times.

As Paul Harvey liked to say, “and now the rest of the story.”

Yesterday, in the mail, I received a new business VISA card to replace the one expiring next month. The issuer isn’t important because they are all outsourcing their customer service overseas in an attempt to cut costs.

So, this morning, I called to activate it.

After keying in all of the bits their automated system asked for, I was rewarded with, “Please hold while I transfer you to a customer service member who can help you.”

Five minutes later I am met with the voice of someone I can barely understand. They ask for the exact same information I keyed in earlier and after having to ask them to repeat things a few times we finally get everything exchanged.

Then the sales pitch started for their “credit protection services”.

“No thank you,” I interrupted.

She didn’t even miss a beat, she just kept right on with the pitch.

“No. Thank. You.” I was more emphatic this time.

She continued.

Finally, I asked, “Has the card been activated yet?”

Then she stopped and replied, “I am sorry, but I cannot be answering your question until I finish reading this.” Then she started over!

I hung up.

Later today, I will visit the local branch of the issuer to share my opinion of this experience and to ask them to check to make sure the card has been activated properly. If it hasn’t, they can either activate it for me or they can close the account. From this point forward, I will refuse to interact with any customer service member of this bank who is not fluent in my language.

Say whatever bad things you wish of me for that, but life is just too damn short to waste time on basic communication issues with any company I do business with. There are other choices out there.

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Tags: Customer Service