2 holidays...within a week...(long)

[Sarlon]

so...christmas and new years both fell on a sunday this year...which means banks closed on monday all day so people could...you know....have time off.

which also means that all deposits made onto the cards I service, got shoved forward one day (monday deposit went in on tuesday etc).

and of course this happened 2 weeks in a row with both christmas and new years.

ancients help me, help me you would of thought it was the end of the world!

Guilt trip FAIL!
Me: Opening spiel including verification, "and how may I help you today Ms Guilt?"
MG: yeah my deposit always goes in on monday is there a problem?
ME: well ma'am I do appologize, but due to the banks being closed today for the holiday all deposits have been delayed one day. They should be on sometime tomorrow.
MG: Well your working today ain't cha?
ME: yes ma'am this department is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week including holidays.
MG: well it must be NICE that you can have a job and feed your family!!!! *click*

wow...really? my paycheck even got delayed because of the holiday ><

poor guy
guy calls in stating that hes having a really bad day and hopes that I can help him.

seems the ATM monster ate his card (it happens), his wallet got stolen, and his computer has enough viruses on it to make him wonder why the CDC hasn't come and confiscated it yet.

and hes practially in tears when I tell him that yes I can send him a new card, and can wire him his money through Western Union, but theres a $15 fee to send it.

he asked if he could go to the bank with ID and get his money out...sadly no since this card is only sponsered by (bank I'm contracted by) not an actual bank account.

so I ask if he has a bank account even if its with another bank. he says yes, but he thought it could only be done online, and was afraid of putting anything personal on his computer because of the viruses. I advise him that if he can verify some account information, has a valid email address, and his bank info I can set it up for him right over the phone. 10 minutes later I have all the info i need and the money on its way to his account.

I made his day ^^

gas holds ARGH!!!
I hate these things....people cannot comprehend why they are put on the card...

whats the definition of insanity? doing the same thing the same way over and over again expecting different results each time...

one lady made me laugh though...

called in regurding a gas hold, I explained it to her....she was cool with it, then said this gem "well I guess I can stop accusing my husband of using the card and not telling me...money was vanishing from the card then a few days later would be back on the card, now I know why...I thought I was going insane."

this one makes me weep somewhat...
guy calls in tonight, says he needs to cancel his card and order a new one...not because he lost his card or it was stolen....no....his 23 year old son used his card online, spent over $300 online at online gaming sites....

then refused to tell his father (the card holder) what the passwords were so the guy could cancel the subscriptions and get the charges reversed.

the cardholder refused to file fraud charges since that would come back on his son and he wanted to handle it himself first....but still.

system of a down
so earlier this evening, our systems crashed and crashed hard. meaning we could pull up nothing on the accounts, this includes the following...

• ordering new cards
• finding out when new card was ordered
• finding the balance on the card
• reporting card as lost
• looking up transactions on this card

"yeah I just had a general question....does this mean that the website is down too?" -reasonable question....no snarky answer, just "yes quite possibly, I would try back in an hour or so"

"but all I wanna do is check my balance you can do that right?" -....really? I can't pull up my program to put in your card number, what makes you think I can magically pull your balance out of thin air.

"yeah but this is an emergency, my mother has not recieved her card yet and we need to know when it was mailed off" -....emergency would be she hasn't recieved her card yet, her power is gonne be turned off and needs even some of the money off the card to pay the bill to keep from freezing to death.

apperently I still sound like a robot...
opening spiel is this "thank you for calling (my company card services) my name is Sarlon, may I have your 16 digit card number please?"

45% of calls I get will be something along the lines of "*grumble grumble I just entered it *grumble*" beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beeep beeeeep beep beep beeeep

I'll generally repeat myself at that point...and people still persist on punching in their card number...then hang up.

I swear if I didn't know any better I'd think GK's people moved into the US...

where cursing becomes the national language of suckville....
lady calls in, i barely manage to get her account info to pull up her account...

lady wants to activate the card that finally arrived......only to realize that the card she just told me.....was canceled and a new one ordered because that one never arrived apperently.

nice to bitch in less then 2 seconds....(is that a record?)

now if you had presented your case in a somewhat calm manner, and not started cursing and using the F word as a subject, verb, adverb, and pronoun (don't know how but it happened), and stopped trying to bite my head off I might of been able to send you some money from the card, but since you personally attacked me stating I'm stealing your money (not the company....me personally), you wanna find out how fast I'll be likely to NOT help you?

at least she was honest...
lady calls in and the first words out of her mouth were....

"I'm very upset, and I know its not your fault, so I'll give you my card information, I'll let you ask any questions you need to be able to speak with me, then I want a supervisor because you are not paid enough to hear what I am about to explode about."

more later if I can remember more....just very very tired.

[Merriweather]

at least she was honest...
lady calls in and the first words out of her mouth were....

"I'm very upset, and I know its not your fault, so I'll give you my card information, I'll let you ask any questions you need to be able to speak with me, then I want a supervisor because you are not paid enough to hear what I am about to explode about."

I've been known to say almost the same things now and then - when a company had just been one problem after another, and I know I've hit my limit, and I know I may not be able to remain totally polite. It may not be the supervisor's fault either, but at least if they have to listen to me lose it, they're getting paid more to do so.

[emax4]

"*grumble grumble I just entered it *grumble*" beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beeep beeeeep beep beep beeeep

"I'm sorry, sir. Was that beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep or beeeeep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beep beep beep beep? I think I mistook the beeeep for a beep..."

Then of course, as he curses, you can replace the colorful curse words with "beeeeeeep..."

[RealUnimportant]

I can kind of understand some people getting confused between automated systems & "real people(tm)"; there's a few systems out there now that use primarily pre-recorded phrases, and one notoriously crappy delivery company near me even has their automated pre-recorded phrases include the sounds of typing when they have to make detail checks!

[Teskeria]

gas holds ARGH!!!
I hate these things....people cannot comprehend why they are put on the card...

whats the definition of insanity? doing the same thing the same way over and over again expecting different results each time...

one lady made me laugh though...

called in regurding a gas hold, I explained it to her....she was cool with it, then said this gem "well I guess I can stop accusing my husband of using the card and not telling me...money was vanishing from the card then a few days later would be back on the card, now I know why...I thought I was going insane."

this one makes me weep somewhat...
guy calls in tonight, says he needs to cancel his card and order a new one...not because he lost his card or it was stolen....no....his 23 year old son used his card online, spent over $300 online at online gaming sites....

then refused to tell his father (the card holder) what the passwords were so the guy could cancel the subscriptions and get the charges reversed.

the cardholder refused to file fraud charges since that would come back on his son and he wanted to handle it himself first....but still.

Gas holds - they are very frustrating. esp when the SC tells you that they dont take a hold on any of their other card. And you aren't allowed to tell them 'sir/ma'am, now I know you are lying.'

The guy who's son used the card - Can't you put a Merchant Block on the companies that the son has used the card with? Or doesnt your bank allow those (merchant blocks do not cancel contracts, just dont allow the merchant to charge the card). That's always the first thing I offer in a situation like that poor guys. although I loved on caller, when I explained a fraud report COULD cause his son to be arrested and prosecuted he replied 'Good! Cause he da*m well needs to learn that stealing is not appropriate! a few months in jail just might teach him.'


Also dont you love the ones that tell you 'My other credit cards don't charge me a fee when I forget to pay my bill' 'my other cards don't charge me interest when I don't pay in full by the due date,' or 'I know it's in the card member agreement, but I don't think it is fair you charge a late fee just because I paid a few days/weeks/months late.'

[Pixilated]

Re: the guy whose kid had used his card and then refused to give his father the passwords ... I think it has gone way past the point where Dad can "deal with it" and the kid needs a short, sharp trip through the judicial system to hopefully slap him into some awareness that what he is doing is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

[wagegoth]

Gas holds on my cards seem to depend on the gas station owners. I only use one brand of gas (older car with lots of miles, I'm babying it), but two or three different locations, depending. One place puts a hold. One place won't put the charge through unless there's at least $100 available on the account. One just charges a dollar, then clears it when the full charge goes through.

[bankworking]

My bank's cards make all pre-pay gas station holds $1, so the customer may not be lying when they say their other cards work differently.

I think it's something that can potentially be modified on either side, merchant or bank. The bank can just stick with the full amount that the merchant authorizes, in which case it is dependent on whatever the merchant sends in, or they can set their computer system to modify what the authorization sends in for a different amount.

We change the hold to $1 under the theory that it's better not to mess someone up by holding too much, and if the transaction comes through in an amount that brings the account negative, the system doesn't charge them the overdraft fee for it (NO idea how they managed to program in that one). Since we don't have a daily negative fee either, the accounts that go negative this way usually aren't under by very much, and we don't usually have too much trouble getting the money back. ...there are reasons I generally like my bank. They do tend to try to make the systems and policies with customer service in mind, which makes for less "I'm sorry, I know it sucks but that's policy" complaints for me to have to handle handle.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I have to say I kinda really like people who call in and ask for a supervisor right away, whether they're mad or just really frustrated and know that a frontline agent can't help. I had one the other day. She was pretty nice to me, even through getting her to give me a little bit of info to provide to the sup I'd be transferring her to. I apologized to the sup but she said it was OK...I sure hope they do get paid the big bucks over there (Nice group, for the most part.)

[Andara Bledin]

I'll generally repeat myself at that point...and people still persist on punching in their card number...then hang up.

In cases like this, it's best to change it up; repeating yourself makes the idiots who can't tell a human from an automated system think that the system didn't catch what they punched in the first time. Try something like, "I'm sorry, I don't have the ability to know what numbers you are pressing. Please speak the card number to me." That way, you blame the system, not them, and give them specific instructions on how to do it. Some people are so stupid, it's a wonder they don't need a coach to remind them to breathe.

Gas holds on my cards seem to depend on the gas station owners.

Not quite. The holds are held by the processor, not the gas station or the bank. However, the gas stations can have some culpability based on how they process the charges. If they don't process the charge based on the hold, the processing company might not get the right code to unlock the hold, and thus it stays on until it expires (which can be up to something like 2 weeks).

For those who don't want to have a hold on their card, just prepay a specific amount inside. Then it's a straight charge without any hold necessary.

^-.-^