why i will not pick a standard chartered credit card...
Last December, an agent for S.C. called me up at work and offered me with a GOLD credit card (whose limit was going to be almost the same as my other "ordinary" credit card...). Interesting, I thought, but I wasn't really of a mind to since I had 2 other cards. So I made myself say yes after the standard sales talk. A week or so later, I sent via e-mail a scan of a valid id and my signature, which is an accepted practice of over-the-phone applications (did something similar for HSBC a few years back) but I WAS worried... After all, this was a government ID we are talking about...
Fast forward a bit. I get not one but 2 follow-up calls to ask for my personal details since, they said, it was needed. And, I was told later on that the card was approved and where should it be sent? I said at home so that it would be left at my room etc. etc. Then, another agent calls me, offering me a credit card. I tell her I already had a pending but when she checked the records, my name was missing. Okay. Weird. I DID get text messages from S.C. stating that sorry, they cannot process my application as of that time (heck, it was the holiday season so I let it slide). Told the agent that I would just wait.
January to February. Another agent calls and offers a PLATINUM card. Um, I have a pending GOLD card? Sorry, he says, and goes away.
Now, I forget about the agents and S.C. as well as the fact that the card that was promised to be delivered TWICE had not yet, in fact, been sent. Then I noticed that I was getting missed calls from a number that I've learned to be their call center or such. Today was the 2nd or 3rd day. And the calls were around 1130 - 1200... my lunch period. Hmm... Curious. So I decide to call their customer care (which, btw, is one of the HARDEST phone numbers to locate on their site. I had to dig to the credit card pages to see it!).
At first, after the agent got my name, she tells me that I had no record. Again. So she checks the spelling of my name. Her understanding was correct and she types away again. Magically, my record appears and... according to her... the card application was... DISAPPROVED.
Come again?
Disapproved.
But I can apply again, according to her, after 6 months.
Hmm. Why? Did I apply to them for a credit card? Or wasn't it them who called me? And why were MULTIPLE agents calling me in the past few weeks? And why was one agent offering me a HIGHER credit card type than the first one offered? And why is their record-keeping so... scattered? I mean, dude, we live in the digital age. You may say that they have multiple centers of agents doing calls but there is theoretically a single database where all applications get dropped off right? Or are you telling me that if you had n-call centers, you will have n-databases and that they are unaware of each others' client lists? Seems like that was the case.
Regardless.
Did they even bother to make contact? No.
Hence, I told the agent flat out that do please cancel any other future calls to me, that if this is how their service is then they are seriously not impressing me. I do not want to bank nor do I want to trust a bank who can't even get their records right.
Nor will I recommend banking with them to anyone unless they seriously fix their processes.
Fast forward a bit. I get not one but 2 follow-up calls to ask for my personal details since, they said, it was needed. And, I was told later on that the card was approved and where should it be sent? I said at home so that it would be left at my room etc. etc. Then, another agent calls me, offering me a credit card. I tell her I already had a pending but when she checked the records, my name was missing. Okay. Weird. I DID get text messages from S.C. stating that sorry, they cannot process my application as of that time (heck, it was the holiday season so I let it slide). Told the agent that I would just wait.
January to February. Another agent calls and offers a PLATINUM card. Um, I have a pending GOLD card? Sorry, he says, and goes away.
Now, I forget about the agents and S.C. as well as the fact that the card that was promised to be delivered TWICE had not yet, in fact, been sent. Then I noticed that I was getting missed calls from a number that I've learned to be their call center or such. Today was the 2nd or 3rd day. And the calls were around 1130 - 1200... my lunch period. Hmm... Curious. So I decide to call their customer care (which, btw, is one of the HARDEST phone numbers to locate on their site. I had to dig to the credit card pages to see it!).
At first, after the agent got my name, she tells me that I had no record. Again. So she checks the spelling of my name. Her understanding was correct and she types away again. Magically, my record appears and... according to her... the card application was... DISAPPROVED.
Come again?
Disapproved.
But I can apply again, according to her, after 6 months.
Hmm. Why? Did I apply to them for a credit card? Or wasn't it them who called me? And why were MULTIPLE agents calling me in the past few weeks? And why was one agent offering me a HIGHER credit card type than the first one offered? And why is their record-keeping so... scattered? I mean, dude, we live in the digital age. You may say that they have multiple centers of agents doing calls but there is theoretically a single database where all applications get dropped off right? Or are you telling me that if you had n-call centers, you will have n-databases and that they are unaware of each others' client lists? Seems like that was the case.
Regardless.
Did they even bother to make contact? No.
Hence, I told the agent flat out that do please cancel any other future calls to me, that if this is how their service is then they are seriously not impressing me. I do not want to bank nor do I want to trust a bank who can't even get their records right.
Nor will I recommend banking with them to anyone unless they seriously fix their processes.