Sweary Customer needs a new hobby

[Ghel]

I only got involved with this situation towards the end. SC calls up and gets CW, and he proceeds to berate her and swear up a storm. Something to do with his debit card. I gather that he was upset because his debit card wouldn't work if he traveled out of state. She tried to explain that we can put a travel alert on the card so that he doesn't have trouble when he travels. This is a customer who NEVER travels, though, so it makes sense that our system would flag any transactions that he made out of state if there wasn't a travel alert. After several minutes of him yelling, swearing, and berating her, she said she would transfer him to the Branch Manager. While she was doing so, either he hung up or the line disconnected.

SC immediately called back, and none of the tellers wanted to answer it. So I did.

Me: Good morning, this is Ghel.
SC: Ghel! I'm glad I got you! <CW> hung up on me.
Me: No, she didn't, <SC>. She put you on hold to transfer you.
SC: Yeah, she put me on hold, and then the line disconnected. She hung up on me!
Me: Nothing that <CW> did caused you to get disconnected. Anyway, I can transfer you to our branch manager.

BM and SC had a long discussion. I don't know if BM managed to smooth things over, and I'm not sure I care. This is a customer we would love to have leave us. He's a pain in the ass every time he calls, and he is SOOO damned entitled.

CW spent about half an hour ranting about him after she got off the phone with him (although that's pretty normal for her). And then BM and CW spent at least as long griping about him after BM got off the phone with him.

I'm sure I've got posts on here about him from years and years ago, some of them possibly from around the time he was separating from his wife. None of us can believe how long it took her to divorce him.

ETA: Yep, there's the post I was thinking of: https://www.customerssuck.com/board/...d-won-t-listen

[Food Lady]

When we know who you are, that's not necessarily a good thing. I don't remember individual people but certain businesses I see the name and roll my eyes so hard. They keep ending up in collections. It's just...their normal. I'm tired of dealing with them.

[Pixelated]

Good grief.
Many years ago, I got a new credit card. Didn't use it much. One day I decided to buy gas with it. I believe I used the 'tap' function, which I'd never used before.

I get home and my phone is ringing. It's Credit Card Company.

"Hi, we just noticed that somebody used your credit card at a gas station and we just wanted to make sure it was you."

Me:

But I did not rant and rave. I just said "Yeah, it was me, and thanks for the call!" Because ya know, if it had been theft/fraud, it was nice to know they are on it so fast.

[EricKei]

I've had that sort of thing happen once. I was impressed that they called me!

[RealUnimportant]

Late 2020, or early 2021, one of the first times I got back behind the wheel of a car after the pandemonium broke out, I went to McDonalds for a treat - hadn't had one for over a year, had been yearning for one nearly as long, and I'd just had to Do A Thing, so why not?

Came to pay, and when I tried tapping my primary debit card it didn't go through. So I tried my secondary one, and it didn't go through either. So I tried my credit card, and it failed too! So I paid cash, and wondered what the heck... Until I got home and looked at my phone, where I found 3 messages saying "someone tried to use your card which you set up a block on, if this was you click here to allow the transaction." I'd totally forgotten I'd done that as a precaution when I was unable to go out, and figured that if anyone did try to run something one one of my cards it would be easier this way than having to argue with the bank afterwards. Oops.

[Kristev]

I call my bank if I'm doing anything unusual. It's better than a flagged card.

[Ghel]

We have a system set up if there's any suspicious debit card transactions, our fraud department (which is actually a 3rd party provider which is part of our debit card provider) will call or text the customer to say they've detected potential fraud, and to call them to go over the transactions. At that point, the card is "warm carded," and can't be used until the customer calls the fraud dept. With all the fraud out there, some customers are leery of calling a number that pops up on the phone. So they'll call us to verify the info, which we're glad to do. I'm not sure that's what happened with this SC - I didn't get the whole story. Sometimes customers will get upset that we can't handle it here. They have to call the fraud dept. Again, I'm not sure if that's what happened with this SC.

[MadMike]

I ran into a similar problem, not because I was out of state, but because I made some purchases that got flagged as suspicious activity. I had just finished my basement, and wanted some electronics for it. I already had a TV, which I frequently watched while I was still working on the basement, so I needed a DVD player, a VCR (this is going back 20+ years), and a sound system. Back then, I went to Circuit City for stuff like that, and at the time, every area had its own checkout, rather than a single set up checkouts at the front. So if you were buying items from multiple departments, you'd have to make multiple purchases at the same store. Some of you may see where this is going...

I bought a VCR first, and then picked out a DVD player. So far, so good. One of the salespeople helped me put together a nice sound system that wasn't going too pricey but wasn't going to be a piece of junk either. And all was good... until I tried to pay for that final purchase. My card got declined. I was pretty sure I was nowhere near the limit, but who knows? I ended up applying for a store card, and then had the other two purchases refunded from my main card and all three applied to the new card, and everything was good. Well, until I tried to use my card again. Tried to get gas, and it got declined again. At this point, I had a pretty good idea what happened, but unfortunately, it was a Saturday, and my credit union doesn't operate on weekends.

I called them on Monday, and it turned out they were about to call me, as my attempted purchases matched a classic fraud pattern, causing my card to get locked down completely. They were actually very apologetic about it, and unlocked my card once I verified that these were legitimate purchases.

With all the fraud out there, some customers are leery of calling a number that pops up on the phone. So they'll call us to verify the info, which we're glad to do.

A few years later, I got a call at my job, letting me know that someone had attempted to use my card to make a $500 purchase at a Walgreen's in New Jersey. I've never been to a Walgreen's, and I usually only go to New Jersey once a year for the beach. I'm pretty sure that the fact that they got a hold of me at my job in Harrisburg told them that I couldn't have just made an out of state purchase (it was a swipe transaction), but they asked me anyway. I was pretty sure this was a legitimate call, because they didn't try to get any account info from me. All they did was verify that it was me they were talking to, asked if I had attempted the purchase, and asked if I still had the card on me. I checked, and the card was in my wallet like it was supposed to be, so someone created a physical copy of my card somehow. Strange that the scammer was smart enough to do that, but not smart enough to stay under the radar when trying to use it. Once I told them I hadn't attempted the purchase, they told me they were locking down my card, and advised me to call my bank at their regular number to complete the process and get a replacement card issued.

[csquared]

I got a robo call from "[Credit Union] Visa" about a suspicious charge. "Please call us back at [number]."

So, I checked the credit union web site for the contact info. Number not found.
I Googled the number. Couldn't find it.

I called the credit union. The person answering the phone didn't recognize the number. They went looking. Took them several minutes to find it.

I suggested that they add the contact info to their web site, as the robo call sounds like a scam.

[workerbee222]

About a month ago I got a text asking if a certain transaction (oddly for $0.00) was made by me, Please text Y or N. I texted N and immediately received a reply telling me my debit card had been deactivated. Some banks would automatically send out a new card, mine didn't. I went into a branch about five days later thinking they'd just give me a new card right then and there, but they don't do that anymore. the new card was *supposed* to arrive in three to five business days. When I called on a Saturday (over five business days later,) an employee told me the 'office people' don't work weekends. "Of course not, Lisa, working weekends is for people like us." Give it until Tuesday, she said.

Wednesday I called and the third person I was transferred to told me a new card would be delivered in a day or two. Nice of them. but my pin didn't work and I had to go into a branch to reset it. Last week, an emvelope came with my assigned pin. Still, all first-world problems.

[Ghel]

Yeah, effective communication seems hard for some people/businesses.

I'd like to contrast the SC in the OP with the customer who I dealt with today, who was great. He called to say his card wasn't working. I looked it up, and yeah, it was warm-carded. I gave him the number of the fraud department, who he called right away. They found the offending transaction, which he hadn't done. It was a purchase in a state all the way across the country. So they deactivated his card, and he called me back. I made sure the offending transaction hadn't actually hit his checking account, and then put in an order for a new card for him. The customer was polite and patient. And although he was disappointed that it might be two weeks before he got his new card, he understood that the process is what it is. He also checked the account history on his online banking to make sure there weren't any other transactions he didn't recognize. He did everything right, and he helped make sure the process went smoothly. I wish every customer was like him.