CitiBank Ad

The Story So Far

Back in December someone stole my identity and charged some things to my CitiBank card. You're probably thinking this is a story about being unable to get these fraudulent transactions removed, but no, this is a story about a company that for over six months was unable to simply document the charges to the account - have it's computers send copies of the statements from that period - never mind removing them.

During this time I've had some wonderful Alice-in-Wonderland like conversations with people, my favorite being the Customer Service Supervisor who was adamant that they had done their part because the computer system said so. When I asked if she was saying that computers never made mistakes she told me "No, but they are always right." Another time I was told that a computer system change in June was responsible for the problem, and this change was also blamed for the removal of some notes attached to my account at the Fraud Department.

Things are moving forward however. Just this weekend CitiBank went and did some things and now my account is in credit for $2,000. That's also wrong, but at least Collections isn't calling me.

Out of frustration, I made an ad parody of those CitiBank fraud ads.

Another statement...

...make that two. One printout for the missing period, and separate copies of the last three months. I think we're now at 11 separate sets of statements.

I was looking at two of the sets of statements, and I noticed that the 'report date' was 5/15 and 5/16, while the mail date on the envelopes was September 13 and 14. If that's correct, there could be three more months of my calls to Customer Service to get through, so there must be at least five or ten more sets of statements in my future.

It's like they gave the computer an enema, and now it's sending out all the backed up requests. I'd love to call and tell them this - maybe it's a problem in the system that they can fix so that it doesn't happen to others - but who would I talk to? I know that Customer Service wouldn't have a clue what to do with this information.


In Other News
This morning I got up early and went back down to the park where the video was shot and recorded some ambient noise to put behind the new voice that's been placed over mine in the ad. Without the ambient noise (steps on gravel and background noise) it just sounds wrong.

I finished the ad, and would have posted it this morning but there's a minor glitch that I want to fix in the end graphic. So it should be up tonight!

Ad in post production

Meanwhile; the ad continues at a pace and I'm really excited. Rob recorded an awesome voice over for the tag line, and we recorded the voice over for me this afternoon. I then sped it up a little and it works really well with the video I think; close enough that it almost matchs. It's not perfect, but I don't think it has to be.

Going to show it to some people to get feedback, then maybe put it up tomorrow.

Stop It!!

In the mail today; yet another copy of the statements from Dec-February. I think that must make about Nine different sets of statements; which is probably about as many as I requested over the past six months.

Another day...

...and CitiBank delivered (in separate envelopes) copies of the last four months statements, as well as two more copies (in separate envelopes) of the statements for Dec-February.

I would call and tell them to stop, but who do I call? And what would they do anyway?


Meanwhile, I worked on the script for my CitiBank parady ad. Showed it to Dave at work and he didn't like the first draft, so I took another go at it. Then this afternoon David from work came and helped me video tape it. And I've asked Rob to record the tag line at the end because he has a great announcer voice. Tomorrow we record the voice over part. With a bit of luck I will have it finished by Wednesday,

Oh, you shouldn't have!

I have to admit that I was a little concerned that CitiBank was going to clear everything up this week and I would have nothing to write about.

It's purely selfish, I know, but I just felt that the arc of the story would be seriously compromised if things were resolved this way.

Fortunately, CitiBank has come through for me!

I called customer service again this afternoon. Pressed 1 for English. Entered my account number. At this point, normally I get passed to a customer service person. But this time I got the recorded attendant, who told me that my last statement had a balance of $1,490.00

….you have a credit balance of $2280.00

Say what?!!

I had to relisten to it three times to be sure I'd heard it right.

Then I spoke to a Customer Service person. First I explained the whole story. I told him that I didn't like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I thought that my being in credit for $2,000 was just as wrong as them thinking I owed them $1,000.

He put me on hold for a while, then came back and said he didn't know what was going on, and that he would transfer me to a surpervisor.

Hello, I'm Kim!

Kim was friendly, bubbly, and almost happy to talk to me. I once again explained the whole story. I've told this story so many times to so many Customer Service people that I'm getting bored with it. I also worry that I'm just going on and on, so I try to edit it down; but there's so much that you need to know to make sense of what's been happening. I kept stopping to try and figure out what to edit out, and realizing that I couldn't cut much.

When I finished, she took a look at the account.

"Well, I see we have two credits, and there's no notes."

If course there weren't. It seemed that the two fraudulent transactions had been credited twice instead of once. Or something like that.

Kim said she'd send a request to the Help Desk.

"Help Desk?" I asked. "What's that?"

"Well, they'll look into this and see what happened."

"Really?" I said. "I wonder why no one told me about this in the past six months that I've been calling?"

"Well, they're internal only."

Yes, but why had no one bothered to send my problem to them before, I wondered. I mean, I owe them and they do nothing, as soon as I point out that they think they owe me money, they send it off to the Help Desk.

I didn't make a fuss. Kim was being helpful, and I knew it wasn't her fault. It's the fault of the companies policies and procedures.

She did tell me that she would put a stop on the credit request so that they wouldn't go and send me a check, and then - and she laughed a little - call me up and want it back.

"They'll look into it and let you know what's going on," she assured me.

"They're going to call me?" I confirmed.

"Someone will absolutely let you know what happened," she repeated. "It usually takes about a week."

I was feeling a little reassured, and then she added "You should probably call again then and see what's happened."

We don't want to talk to you right now

I hadn't heard anything from Collections for a couple of days, and I was getting lonely. Had they found another person to harass? Had they cleared up my account? Had they moved it off to some collection company that would soon be knocking at my door?

I wasn't sure what was up, but if I have learned one thing in the past few months it's that waiting for things to happen is not a good idea.

So this Sunday morning, just before noon, I called, and after entering my account number got the following message:

I'm sorry, our records are currently unavailable.

If you are calling to report a lost or stolen credit card, please press of say 1.

All other callers, please call back at a more convenient time.

Uhhhh....More convenient time? For who? Now was plenty convenient for me! Calling back another time would actually be a bit inconvenient.

You've Got Mail

Another copy of statements (well, a transaction report really) arrived in the mail today. That makes four copies in a week.

It's feast or famine.

The Dogs of War

In chat today:

TiredOne: grats on statements btw
Taz: oh, it's one tiny step forward
TiredOne: Better than a step backwards.
Taz: I'm planning on making a commercial that's a copy of those one's they have with the people talking and a different voice
Taz: true....but until the balance is gone and they stop calling every other day, I'm not gonna tie up the dogs
Taz: and maybe not even then ;-)
TiredOne: LOL
Taz: once you let the dogs of war out, it's awfully hard to get 'em back in the kennel

Which is true. I'm all fired up about this! I want to make movies! Posters! Write a letter to the Editor!

They haven't heard the last of me!



MOOD: grrrrrrrrrrrrr

I've concluded that the whole affair is making me paranoid....

[This entry left blank.]

What worries me now

A friend told me that he had a credit card with a balance on it. He refinanced his house and used the money to pay off several accounts, including that one. He called the bank and they told him the balance, and he sent a check, but the next statement had an interest charge of about 12 cents.

What worries me is that the Fraud Department will clear out the Fraudulent transaction, but there will be some interest charge on the March account after I sent them the check to cover the rest of the balance. Then the system will recalculate and charge me $39 late fees for each month since then that I never paid. In theory, I could have a bill for over $200.

Or the fraud guy could have completely messed up, and even without the fraud transaction, there's an outstanding balance, and once again I'm looking at about $200 of charges.

Okay, you figured out how to do that...

Got home today to find the third copy of the transaction statements waiting for me.

Did something get cleared out and all the past requests are getting filled? Will I be getting a dozen copies?!

Before I get too excited..

Despite the arrival of the long missing statements;

* I'm still waiting to hear from the Fraud Department to find out what they are going to do.
* I still haven't heard from Billing Complaints
* Collections should be calling tomorrow night
* I can't have any more arguments about the infallibility of computers with Customer Service

All in all, I'm not too sure how far I've advanced.


...and now I've got to read through these damn statements.

Miracles can occur...

I don't know how they did it;

Did they get the managers approval?
Did someone teach them how to use the new computer system?
Did the Post Office manage not to lose it?
Was my address correct?

No one's sure how, but Citibank actually managed to send me a copy of my transaction report for last December.

Scratch that. Two separate copies. Separate mailings.

How did this happen?!!!!!!

Uhh...why did you call?

I got home and found a letter from Sears [it's really from the idiots at Citibank];

Which says "We received your inquiry concerning your account. In order to assist you we need additional information..."

So I called, thinking that maybe this was a result of my letter to Billing Complaints.

The first Customer Service person asked me for just about every piece of identifying information they had, then immediately said "Oh, I can't talk to you, I have to transfer you."

"Oh suuure," I said. I knew where this was going.

Sure enough; Hello Collections!

Did I want to make a payment? I explained that I had received a letter from them. "That's because the account is in arrears."

I read her the letter.

"Wait a minute while I read the notes on the account" she said.

"I'm sure there's a lot of them," I joked.

"Are you dealing with Fraud about this?" she finally asked.

"Amongst others," I replied. "Do you think they sent it?"

She thought so.

I then asked if maybe Billing Complaints could have sent the letter, but she was doubtful. She said she'd transfer me to Fraud. I was on hold for about five minutes, and then the music changed and suddenly I was getting the main menu again. I seemed to be on hold for ever.

I hung up and called the number on the letter again, and asked if I could be transfered to Fraud. The Customer Service person said she couldn't do that, though she did have a number for them, so I wrote that down and called Fraud.

Which begs the question; if the letter was sent by Fraud, but I can't reach Fraud through the number listed, then did Fraud send the letter?


I spoke to someone in Fraud and - long story short - he had no idea if they sent the letter, and if so, what they wanted. He did say that they hadn't received the affidavit I had sent (what a surprise.) I pointed out that the date on the letter (August 31st!) was actually after the Fraud sent out the affidavit.

He did think that once the affidavit was received it would take 'about a week' to clear up...

he also said that I should get a letter from Fraud saying what they had done.

So we wait. And Collections will be calling in another couple of days.

And I guess I'll never know who - or why - they sent the letter.

Dear Sir...

Just sent this letter:

William R. Rhodes
President and Chief Executive Officer of Citibank
Citigroup
399 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10043
U.S.A.

[Name,
Address]

Sir,

I am writing to alert you to problems with the way that your company conducts business. These are issues that I think are serious and have ramifications for your customers, and I suspect that your Customer Service Department has not brought these issues to your attention.

Perhaps this information can be used to better inform your operation in the future.

1.] In December of last year, someone fraudulently changed my mailing address and then used my Citi issued credit card to make purchases. This was done despite the fact that I had a password on my account (as my social security number had been previously compromised.)

Your companies’ failures:
a.] An account was changed without the password attached to the account
b.] Your company made no effort to check the change of address. Sending a notice to the old address stating to the effect ‘If your address has not changed, please call us’ or even calling the old phone number on the account, would have provided some measure of security.

2.] For the past six months I have been trying to get copies of statements for the three months that the address was changed (Dec 05-Feb 06.) I have spoken to Customer Service and the Fraud Department multiple times. I paid your company the amount I was told was outstanding (minus the fraud charges) in March, yet have received no formal documentation of the charges. This has also meant that I have been unable to find out why the new account you issued in March had an opening balance.

Your companies failures:
a.] Customer Service has not been able to provide statements after multiple requests.
b.] No Supervisor is able to offer a creditable answer for why these statements are not being generated; and can do nothing, and WILL DO NOTHING to establish why they aren’t working.
I’ve heard multiple explanations (the request didn’t have a managers’ approval, the computer system changed in June, the Post Office must have lost them.) None of these seem credible; when I pointed out that no other mail was missing, and I was receiving the monthly statements the response from a Supervisor was; ‘we’re sending them out.’
When I asked if they could prove that, I was told ‘the system says so.’
When I asked if she was saying that computers never make mistakes, she had the decency to say No, but then added that ‘they are always right.’
The only other solution, I was told, was to send a letter to Billing Complaints.

3.] After months of failures at Customer Service, I sent two certified letters to your company; one to the regular mailing address (I was then told that address would not work and I would have to send a second letter.) I sent a second certified letter to Billing Complaints on August 21st.

Your companies’ failures:
a.] There is no way to contact Billing Complaints to establish if they received a complaint, what (if any) action they may take, and how long it will take them to complete their investigation (if any.)
b.] Customer Service is unable to contact Billing Complaints, or know what (if anything) they might be doing.
c.] Customer Service also does not know if the Fraud Department is taking any action on an account.

4.] During this period I have refused to pay the balance. Having paid your company $2,000 in charges that your company can’t document, why should I send you another $1,000, particularly when it seems likely now (after talking to the Fraud Department five times) that a fraudulent transaction they said would be removed, was not. Your company is now charging 30% interest, and an almost equivalent amount in a Late Fee of $39.

Your companies’ failures:
a.] After the Fraud Department said that they would remove a transaction from my account, they failed to do so, and they failed to notify me of their inaction.
b.] The Fraud Department provided no documentation of any action they took (or declined to take) after there was a fraudulent transaction on the account.
c.] Your company is currently charging the equivalent of 60% interest on my account, which is close to usury.

5.] At some point this year your company changed computer systems. This meant that, according to Customer Service, requests were being placed incorrectly. These requests still do not work. When I spoke to the Fraud Department, I was told that many of the notes from the original problem with the account were no longer available ‘because of the system change.’

Your companies’ failures:
a.] As someone that works in the computer industry, I find it inconceivable that a company such as yours would change their computer systems in such a way that Customer Service would be ineffectual, and unable to access records previously entered in the system.
b.] Your personnel seem woefully under trained in the usage of the computer systems that are supposed to assist them.

For you edification, I have included copies of the letter I sent to the Billing Complaints department.

Sincerely,




Cc: Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Complaint and Information Section
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
10 Park Plaza, Suite 5170
Boston, MA 02116

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
317 Russell Senate Building
Washington D.C. 20510

Priceless

Stapler: $7.99

Paper Clips: $2.49

Certified Mail: $ 7.07

Sending letters of complaint: Priceless

Contacting CitiGroup/Citibank

They really don't want to hear from you. Call Customer Service, but beyond that no one has any phones it seems.

They must be awfully efficient at Corporate, without all those pesky phone calls.

Curiously, I found the phone number for a Citigroup Vice President in the Czech Republic. But not for any Citigroup U.S. Vice President.

I wonder if he speaks English?


I've just finished writing a letter to William R. Rhodes, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Citibank. I'm sending it to the Citigroup address:
399 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10043
U.S.A.

I'm also cc'ing:

Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Complaint and Information Section, MA

Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, MA

Senator Edward M. Kennedy

The Post Office is making a lot of money out of this...

CitiCorp Computers are always right

I thought I'd take another run at CitiBank's Customer Service [sic] today, just to let them know how pleased I was with the copies of statements I'd received for the wrong three months.

I figure that eventually I'll either find someone that has a clue about how to solve the problem, or b) someone I've talked to before… "Didn't I talk to you in June?!"

First up was Jessica, who dropped me like a hot potato. I'd hardly given her my password than she said "Oh I can't help you," and said she was going to transfer me. "I handle accounts that are one or two months over due, but your account is over three months, so I have to send you to another associate."

I spent a while talking to Kay, explaining that the requests were going in, but I wasn't getting anything out. I also noted that I'd been assured on September 1st that I would get them and now they'd gone and sent me the wrong months!

Kay's mantra was: "We put in the request."

"But I'm not getting anything!! Who can fix this?"

"Hang on," she finally said. "I'll let you talk to MAU, maybe they can help."

She didn't explain who MAU were, and was gone before I had a chance to ask.

Next thing I was talking to Supervisor Laura in Collections.

Now I'm sure Laura is a nice person. And on my good days, I'm a nice person too, but frankly, I'm getting rather short of temper. So Laura probably thought I was a cranky SOB.

Things started off badly when she asked me for my social security number rather than my password. It's a pet peeve of mine as I'm convinced that it's because of this that my address was changed in the first place. She didn't understand what I was upset about, and when I pointed out that several customer service people asked me for the social security number when they shouldn't, she was unmoved.

"I can't do anything about that," she said.

"But you're asking for the social security number," I pointed out.

"I just need it to check that you are who I am talking to," she snapped back.

I then pointed out that my social security number has been compromised so it can't be used to identify me.

"I'm in management, I know they've checked already so I don't have to ask for the password," she pointed out rather airily.

I didn't think to ask 'Well if they have checked already, why are you asking again?'


I probably should have ended it then. I was already annoyed, and she had already written me off as one of those raving loonies they get. But I persisted, and told my story all over again about the lack of statements, and now, about the wrong statements.


"Well, there's a new request put in yesterday," she said.

Oh great! I had no idea the person I spoke to yesterday in Collections had put in another request. Every time I talk to someone in Customer Service they just put in the request again.

"But it's not working!" I said. Then I listed off all the excuses I've heard about why the statements haven't worked, and concluded with the Post Office excuse, demolishing it - I thought - by pointing out that I've got every other piece of mail from them.

"We've put in the requests and it's sent them," she answered back.

"But the computer isn't doing it. So who can fix this?"

"I can only put in a request to the computer."

"But I'm not getting them."

"Well I can only tell you that we are sending them."

"How do you know that?" I shot back. "Does someone actually take them off the printer, look at them and then send them out?"

"No sir."

"Can you prove to me that you actually printed them and sent them?"

With the patience of someone that works with three year-olds, she explained it to me;

"The computer says it sent them."

I thought I had her at this point.

"So you're saying that the computer never makes mistakes?" I asked.

"No," she denied, but then added; "but it's always right."

I was really getting annoyed at this point.

"But what happens if it doesn't work? Surely there's someone that can check this?"

"No sir."

"But I'm not getting them!"

"We sent them out to you."

I tried another tack.

"Okay, so you're saying I'm lying then?"

"No sir."

"Well then what explanation do you have?"

"We put in the request, sir."

I gave up.

Am I too nice?

I think my problem is that I have been too nice.

For the first couple of months I didn't really worry; I figured things would be sorted out sooner or later so I just asked for them to send me the copy of the statements and waited. Also, the statements didn't even have a 'minimum amount' that needed to be paid. So why worry? Surely they'd get this straightened out in a few weeks.

But then five months went by and nothing changed.

When, in frustration, I sent a letter to the Billing Complaints Dept, I toyed with the idea of cc'ing the State Attorney General and Senator Kennedy's office. But even then I decided that was going too far, too fast.

Then they started demanding some kind of payment. They increased the interest rate and kept adding Late Charges. At this rate, by December I figure that a $900 charge will have turned into a $1,600 charge. And you thought a 20% interest rate was high!


So now the gloves are off! The Collections Department is calling me every other day, they still have not provided statements in over six months, and I'm just annoyed. No one seems to be able, or interested, in solving the problem. And I'm starting to take it out on the Customer Service people.

I'm sending a new letter to Corporate, and I'm going to cc the Attorney General, Senator Kennedy, and anyone else I can think of.


I was listening to NPRs business news show MarketPlace this evening, and was reminded that they have people on doing commentaries about different things. Maybe I could do a commentary about incompetent credit card companies? Or maybe incompetent customer service? Or both?

CitiCorp screws up again

Got home today and there were three envelopes from Sears/CitiCorp. I couldn't believe it! Had they actually managed to send me the statements for December-February?! Had they sent me three copies just to make sure?

I opened the first one; it was a copy of last months statement.

The second one was for July, and the third for June.

They'd sent me three months of statements all right; just the wrong three months.

Idiots.

CitiBank Usary

I keep forgetting to mention that right now Citi is charging my account 31% interest, and a $39 fee each statement for not making a payment. The interest charge each month is about $30, so in effect

They are charging over 60% interest.

Nice work if you can get it.

It's Sunday evening...

It's Sunday evening at 9 o'clock. Time for CitiCorp/Citibank/Citi whatever Collections Department to call me and find out if I want to make a payment.

"You're account is past due $320. Do you want to pay that now?"

"No," I say.

"Well how much do you want to pay?"

"None of it," I say, and proceed to tell her my whole story. I'm getting quite good at it. I mostly remain calm. I think that throws them. When I tell them that I can't get Customer Service to do this simple thing they can't offer me any solution.

"Is there no one I can talk to?"

"All we have is the Customer Service number, and the Corporate address."

Turns out that the corporate address is similar - but not the same - as the Complaints Department. Someone else to write to. A friend told me to write to the President; but how do I find his name and address?

I also explained that I was dealing with the Fraud Department. She thought I would have the most luck with the Fraud Department - and I agreed - though I explained that I still wanted to get a copy of those statements that I never got.


She just said "I understand," and wished me a good evening.

Data Printout For:

Received in the mail yesterday an official-looking letter with the words 'Data Printout For:" and underneath "For Sears Gold MasterCard Cardmember."

Holy Cow!

I thought they'd actually pulled it off and sent me a printout.

Wrongo!

Turned out it was an invitation to join one of their account protection plans!!

Seven to Ten Business Days

Have you seen those CitiBank Identity Theft Ads? You know, the ones where you hear one persons voice talking, but you see a completely different person? The whole point is that they had their identity stolen.

They are kind of funny (unless you've had it happen to you!)


Now, CitiBank may make some effort to counter fraud, but when it comes to Customer Service they are hopeless. Here's my story:

In December of 2005 someone changed the mailing address on my Sears/CitiBank credit card. The odd thing about that is that it's the second time someone has done this to me. The first time was back in 2002 with a different credit card, and because of that experience I put a password on all my credit cards. The idea behind having a password on accounts is that someone can't change / use the account with just your name and social security number. It's pretty much standard advice for those that have had their identity stolen.

So someone managed to change my address; and clearly without the password. I just don't think there's any way that someone could have guessed my password.

Be that as it may, the bank also fell down because they did nothing to check that my address had changed; they didn't call my 'old' phone number, or send a simple letter to my old address: "We got your address change, if it hasn't changed, call us!" It's a pretty basic way to protect against such scammers.


The next problem was; I didn't notice that I wasn't getting statements. That's probably my fault, but in my own defense, by pure circumstance I'd cut back on using that card after December (it was unrelated to the card, and just one of those weird coincidences.) Anyway, I just kind of figured that I hadn't been using the card; forgetting that I had used it quite a bit in December, and had a couple of automatic bills going to the card. Okay, I don't keep track of things as tightly as I might.


It was only in February 2006 that I got a call from the CitiBank Fraud Department; had I bought something from B And H Photo recently? Had I ordered something in December? There were two suspicious transactions, one for about $900 in December, and another for about $1200 in February. At first I was stumped because - another weird circumstance - I had bought stuff from B And H Photo before. Not very frequently, but now and again. For a moment I was confused, but then I figured out that, no I definitely hadn't ordered something from them in months; and the last thing was a computer keyboard that was less than $100.

After talking to the Fraud Department, I called B And H and explained that I didn't place the orders. They cancelled the second transaction.

I spoke to the Fraud Department and we went through all of the transactions on the account. The person at the fraud department then told me the outstanding balance on the account (less the two fraudulent transactions.) I then wrote them a check for that amount. I was under the impression that they would remove the two fraudulent transactions.

CirtiBank created a new account. I received the card, and - much to my surprise - the first statement had an opening balance of just over $1,000. I hadn't even used the new card!

This is where we descend into the rabbit hole
I called Customer Service and told them that there was an opening balance I couldn't understand. Would they please send me a copy of the statements for December through February? I was pretty sure that the balance was one of the fraudulent transactions, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was since the amount didn't match either.

Customer Service was very nice and told me I would receive a copy of the statements in "seven to ten business days."

A month later a new statement arrived. It still had a balance. I called Customer Service and explained that I hadn't received the copies of the statements. No problem, they told me, we'll put in another request. It will take seven to ten business days.

Nothing arrived.

I called back. Figuring that maybe the problem was that the Fraud Department had closed the original account, I spoke to someone in the Fraud Department. They told me that they could provide me with a "transaction summary" but not copies of the statements. I said that was okay. They told me I would get it in seven to ten business...

Nothing arrived.

I called Customer Service again and spoke to someone who was very apologetic. She went away and spoke to her Supervisor and came back and told me that the problem was that such a request had to approved by the manager. That's why they hadn't worked. She had put in a new request, and I should get it in seven to ten...

Nothing arrived.

Then I got a call from Customer Service. My account was in arrears. Did I want to make a payment? No I didn't, I said. I explained the whole thing. The person wondered if my address was correct. We checked and it was okay. I explained that I was getting the monthly statements just fine.

She put in another request and told me I would get it in seven to...

You guessed it.

At this point I figured, why not just get them to read me the transactions, and I would write them down and figure out the whole thing myself? I called Customer Service and attempted to do this, but there was one problem; they only keep six months of transactions online, and at that point, she could only go back to January.

I could go on. I have spoken to Customer Service many times. I've heard the following explanations:

The request should have been approved by the manager
They changed computer systems in June
The Post Office must be losing them (why don't I call them?)
My address must be wrong

I have explained multiple times that no other mail is missing; that I am getting the monthly statements without fail. We've checked my address about ten times.

Along the way, I have discovered that you can speak to Customer Service and their Supervisors, but they can do nothing other than to request the report. If nothing comes back, they can't do anything (and don't really care.) They are incapable of having someone request the report and see that they actually get something in hand, and then send it to me.

You can't speak to the Billing Complaints department; they have no phones it seems. You can only send them letters; which go unanswered. By the way, complaints has a different address to their usual mailing address. Send your letter of complaint to that address and...tough. Send another. Send a second letter to the right address and you can't get them to confirm that they received it. The Complaints Department - it appears - is the equivalent of a Black Hole. Things go in, but nothing comes out.

Customer Service has always been courteous - even when I was in a less than happy mood - but they are utterly incapable of solving any problem.

They can't call you to check that you really did change your address, but they can call you every few days to find out why you won't pay.


Here we are, September 1st, and still no solution!
After telling my story to a co-worker, he said that I should call and just insist that they do something. "If the first person can't help, then insist that you talk to their supervisor."

All fired up, I decided to take a run at the Fraud Department again. I called and spoke to someone (once more explaining the entire story.)

"You need to talk to Customer Service," he said.

"No, no, they can't help," I said.

"Yes they can," he assured me.

"No," I persisted.

"But I'll be on the phone too," he said, and despite my protests called someone in Customer Service. Fortunately, he explained everything to Nicole, who was very nice. She said that she would get her supervisor. The Fraud Department guy rang off. I was put on hold.

I was sitting there, listening to the on-hold music, thinking maybe I would get someone who knew what they were doing, when there was a 'click.' The music was interrupted, and suddenly I was getting the main phone menu message. 'Crap!' I pushed the number for Customer Service and got connected to another person.

"I was talking to Nicole," I explained. "Can you reconnect me?"

"No, but I can help you. What's your problem?"

Great! I get to explain everything again! This person proceeded to tell me it was a problem with the Post Office. Why would I call the Post Office I asked, since I was getting all my other mail, and the monthly statements too? But that's all she could offer me as an explanation. So then I spoke to her Supervisor, who calmly explained that it was a problem with the way the request had been entered - due to a change in the computer system - but that they had fixed that, and I would get it in "seven to ten days."

"But what if I don't get it?" I said.

"You will," she assured me.

"Yes but, I'm not saying that you're wrong, but just playing devils advocate, since it hasn't worked before, what happens if I don't get it?"

"Well, then you'd have to call back."

"And be back at square one?"

"Yes, but -"

"Then I'm..." I was getting annoyed at this point.

"But you are going to get this one."

I was still unhappy. I'd requested this so many times. So I persisted.

"Could someone request the report, get it and send it to me by certified mail so we both have a record that it was sent and received?"

"No."

"No one can do that?" I pleaded.

"No."

"So how do you solve any problems?"

"You're going to get this one." It was becoming a mantra.

"Yes, but when?"

"In seven to ten days."


I was about running out of ideas, so thought I'd go back to the Fraud Department one more time. Maybe I'd been fixated on getting the statements, when all I should have done was called back fraud and said "Did you clear off those transactions?"

Yeah, I know, seems obvious. I don't know why I didn't think of that before; even when I called the Fraud Department and asked them to send me statements.

I called Fraud and spoke to a friendly person. She said she couldn't look at all the notes on my account because "we changed systems back in June. I can see some of the details, but not everything."

Also, "the person who worked on your account is no longer with us." I wondered if they were dead, or just 'passed on.'

"There's another system I can use," she continued, "but I don't use it very much, and I've forgotten my password," she apologized.

Then she got all excited. "Oh, I think I..." pause, "oh, no, sorry."

But, I did get her name, number and extension, and she told me she would call me back. And unlike one Supervisor in Collections who told me he would call me back "after checking with Customer Service downstairs," she did call me back!

It seemed that they hadn't removed the first transaction. Why not? Because I hadn't sent them an affidavit.

"So what happens now?" I asked.

"Well, I'll send you another affidavit. Fill that in and send it back."

"Okay," I said, thinking things were looking up.

"You should get it in seven to ten business days."

Look Out! Politics

I didn't intend to get into politics on this blog, but I'm annoyed about this ABC 'docudrama' that is coming up called "Path to 9/11" Not only does it appear to be a 'fictionalized' account that was produced by people with a right-leaning agenda, but it's being aired on the fifth anniversary of this tragic event. In an election year.

I don't usually do this, but I sent an email to the local ABC affiliate (would have written, but figured it was too close to the air date to do much good anyway)

I'm concerned that you will be broadcasting “Path to 9/11” this so-called docudrama, that actually appears to be more of a fictional drama than anything else. Several people who are represented in the events have criticized the accuracy of the program (see reports in the New York Times and Washington Post.)
Screening the program even with a disclaimed[sic] that it is a ‘docudrama’ seems to be a major disservice to the viewing public. Particularly when screening it on the anniversary of the event.
This is not something I expect from your otherwise excellent station!

Am I just spitting in the wind?

Notice the suck-up comment about the station? Damn! just noticed a grammatical error! *sigh*

Still, Republicans got a movie about Reagan pulled a while back...

And the punchline is.....

On one of the guitar bulletin boards I frequent a poster was lamenting problems with participating in an eBay auction (someone tried to scam him with a fake second chance offer.) He was now nervous about a second auction and said:

Oh well. I am glad I still have my D-41. Why would I want more guitars. Ha Thats what my Wife said before she passed on. She said that about my Guns too. She said why do you need two guns. She didn't understand that either. Ha

I kept expecting a punchline, but it never came...