Service in the 'First World'
And yet, there are times when I miss Singapore's impersonal efficiency and that 'things just work' back there. Europeans tend to be the bastions of the most languid pace ever, often romanticized by many, including yours truly, as 'quality of life' & 'work/life balance' - but given my utter intolerance for anything remotely close to bureaucracy and red-tapism, this is really starting to get to me. If only I could have the frenetic pace of service in Singapore with the charm of living in London...such mutually exclusive concepts!
Astounding how these 'first-world' countries (UK, USA, etc) have such a 'third-world' (like it or not, this term is meant to be pejorative) level of service unless you're the creme de le creme of society here, and thus capable of sweetening every request for service with a hefty fee. Try getting a phone line in either of these countries as a foreigner without a credit history and you'll know what I mean. Perhaps, much of this impatience is related to the fact that I'm saddled with the worst of both worlds, presently - excruciatingly slow levels of service of Europe (as not-so-rich people, like myself, have to suffer :P) along with mad hours of work, as in Asia.
An email I sent earlier today to my 'relationship manager' - goddamit, I don't need a relationship with the bank, I just need prompt service!
Edit: As an aside, wish I could be as funny as this dude who sent in a funny complaint letter to Virgin Atlantic.
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Hi Chris,
I know that you don’t handle the card services for my account but given the level of service (or the lack thereof) I've been facing over the past month, I do not know whom else to direct this feedback to.
My handbag got stolen on 3rd Jan 2009, more than a month ago. I immediately reported loss of my debit and credit cards to XXX and was assured that my credit card would reach me in 5-7 working days (to my work address) and debit card in 3-5 working days (to my home address) - I'd pointed out that I would not be at home to receive any courier mail and was assured that the courier services would drop me a note and then I could arrange to redirect my card at that point.
I had to make a trip to Copenhagen on the weekend of 16-18th Jan 09 and at this point, I'd received my credit card but no PIN in spite of repeated reminders from me and reassurances from the customer service staff. Eventually, it was revealed that the PIN wasn't actually sent out until the night of 13th Jan, which basically doomed me to a credit/debit card-less international travel. To be on the safe side, money-wise, and to quit making the numerous trips to the bank and standing in queue to withdraw cash, I withdrew significant sums of cash (as you must be aware of, since you had to be contacted at every instance). In the process, another 100pounds were lost during my travels (something that could only happen with cash, which I wouldn't carry so much of, if I had a card). I finally received my credit card PIN (3 copies of the same document) on 23rd Jan, almost 3 weeks after the initial report). This card+PIN combination was not usable until the end of the month, because my card had been PIN locked in the XXX system and was finally unlocked only after making four calls, including one when I was unlocking the card on a cash machine while on the phone with the customer service rep on the other end.
Meanwhile, I followed up on the debit card, which I'd seen no sign of and had received no notification about. Without offering any explanation of where my originally couriered debit card was supposed to be, I was flippantly informed that a second debit card has now been issued by regular postal mail, sometime in late 3rd week of Jan. In the final week of Jan, I received two copies of my debit card PIN and still no card. It's now more than a month since my initial report of loss of card. I've lost a substantial amount of time making the long trek to the bank during office hours, waiting in lines withdrawing cash and agonizing over an unprecedented poor level of service and I STILL do not have a debit card.
Would you blame me for seriously considering setting up another bank account in a bank which would cause me less grief and closing this one for good? I am now going to make yet another trip to the bank to withdraw cash. Given that my regular work schedule spans 60-70hrs/week and doesn’t afford me even a lunch break, you can probably appreciate the value of this wasted time for me.
Could you please take this feedback into consideration and trace the status of my debit card for me, because I'm getting increasingly exasperated at the endless phone calls I've been making to XXX hotlines and the monetary loss along the way?
Thanks,
Sherene