Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
The Hard Sell Annoyance
I don't usually rant much around here, but something which is a huge annoyance to me actually happened twice today so I need to rant.
I received my Citibank Visa the other day in the mail and since it's not a card that I usually use, I didn't get around to calling the number plastered on the sticker stuck to the front of the card to activate it. I called the number and entered the information as prompted. Card number, number of cards received, etc. I was told by the automated system to please hold while my card was being activate. Within about 10 seconds a customer server representative picked up the call. By the sound quality of the line and the accent of the representative it was apparent the call had be transferred most likely to India. I was asked the same questions, number of cards, etc. I was then told my card was activated and then was give the hard sell. First about transferring balances to my Citibank Visa. I immediately said no I'm not interested. Then the representative proceeded to explain to me the benefits of why I should enroll in the Citibank Credit Protection Program. I again immediately said no I'm not interested cutting him off. He started down with another speech and I immediately cut him off with only a few words and said "Thank you I just wanted to active my card, I don't need anything else, goodbye!" and hung up.
This not only hit one of my major peeves, the outsourcing of customer service to another country, but also my second major peeve, the hard sell from my own credit card company. I don't believe that when I call to ask a question or activate a card I should be immediately thrown into a hard sell pitch for more services. It's frankly annoying.
About an hour later I remember Justin had asked me to call in and activate his American Express card for him. I called the number, entered the information and waited. The automated system told me to please hold while my card was being activated. Another automated message came on to inform me of another Account Protection service from American Express. This time I just had to press 2 to proceed without enrollment. I was then told my card was activated and the system hung up on me.
Now see this is actually why I love American Express. While I still despise the attempt to sell me something when I'm activating my card, the automated system is a little better then actually having to talk to someone about it. If the credit card companies are going to ask if you want a service, at least do it like American Express and automate the damn thing, don't transfer me to India where the person on the other end of the phone is clearly reading from a script can barely explain what they are selling anyway.
Coming from working with Bank of America Card Services, I'm clearly aware of why they do this. Because if the banks can enroll more existing customers into programs and services it obviously is beneficial to profitability. I just personally think as a customer it's incredibly annoying to deal with every time you call customer service for something. Instead of "While we have you on the line let me tell you about his great program... blah... blah", what ever happened to "Thanks for choosing us, have a good day, goodbye!" Cheers!
