My Credit Card Number Got Out On The Internet

Some GREAT customer service... finally!

Chase called me the other day to tell me that I had some odd charges on my account that they don't think I authorized. Which makes sense, because I used my Chase card for a 0% APR transfer, paid it off, and never put anything on it again. Somehow my card number got on the internet, and I had a few illicit charges. The representative was nice, and she didn't want to say the names of the companies that my card had been charged to. She said they would send me a list. I'm assuming it can't be good. Rest assured none of the charges were real! :)

Chase, however, showed the best customer service I have run into in recent days. They denied the charges, didn't make me pay for anything, cancelled that card, and sent me a new one that arrived in three days.

As I'm typing this, I guess one question does raise itself in my mind: I seriously never used my Chase card. I cut it up and threw it away. So how did my number get out there? Do companies use random number generators to attempt credit card transactions? That wouldn't work, would it?

Either way, it was taken care of quickly, and with no hassle, so I'm not complaining.

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Experian Customer Service And A New Credit Card

First, Experian Customer Service
Experian, one of the three big credit reporting agencies, has a really bad customer service model. If you email them, your email goes into a pool and is picked up by a random service agent, who obviously has a list of pre-arranged messages they can choose from in their replies. When you email that representative back, however, it goes BACK to the giant pool, and a completely different agent replies, usually just wasting everyone's time. I emailed them to explain that when I got my report today, it timed out when I was researching my score, before I had a chance to print it out. Here's the rather odd back and forth. Note that I never speak to the same agent twice. I removed my name but left theirs, as they don't really identify the person:

Hey Guys,
I was looking at my report when it timed out, and I hadn't printed it yet. How do I get access to my credit score again, or get a refund?
- Starving Artist


Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We were able to locate your transaction and have found that your transaction has been successfully processed. However, we regret to inform you that the Vantage score you ordered with your free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com was only available for one-time viewing. Once you closed the browser window, the score was automatically deleted from our system.
We also wish to inform you, that as much as we would like to provide you with your Vantage Score, we are unable to, because it is no longer in our files.
To re-order your Vantage score, please go to www.Experian.com and click on "view credit report again".
Please enter your Experian credit report number and fill out the necessary form. Click on the tab that indicates you wish to buy a Vantage score. You should be able to immediately see your Vantage score.
Please be reminded to make a copy of your Vantage score, for future reference.
Thank you for your kind understanding regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark U.
Customer Care Representative


Dear Mark,
You seem to be laboring under the assumption that I'm offering you my kind understanding. As your page timed out without any warning that I was made aware of, and as it does not state on your page that I should be aware that the site will time out, I fully expect you to offer me another glimpse at my score and report, for free.
I would also encourage you to pass along, to your supervisors or higher management, that your company should resolve this issue, for future users.
Regards,
Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Rest assured that your comments and suggestions will be taken into serious consideration to help us improve our products.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Lowell S.
Customer Care Representative

Lowell,
Is it really that difficult to issue me a free report? Your system timed me out--I did not close your system down. Please explain to me why this should affect me, and why I should pay to view my score again.
I look forward to your reply.
- Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We have initiated a refund to your account. This refund should appear on your next billing cycle.
Thank you for your patience regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Joseph R.
Customer Care Representative

Thanks! I appreciate it.
- SA

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
It is our pleasure to have served you.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Ralph T.
Customer Care Representative

It's actually kind of amusing to get these repetitive responses. They aren't any better than a machine. I kind of want to keep responding to collect all the possible ways they can reply.

Second, the credit card
I've been dinking around today, trying to help mitigate an upcoming budget crunch. In October, my pay period will change from the 15th of the month, which I'm used to, to an every-other-week schedule. In a feat of awesome corporate planning, my company will pay me for two weeks on the 15th, when I'm accustomed to a full month's salary. For a short period of time, I'm going to be shifting around funds, as I'm currently set up to pay all my bills on the 15th.

Eh.

I don't exactly know what I'm going to do, but I've been thinking about putting my groceries and gasoline on my Discover card, not only to help float those expenditures for two more weeks, but because I get 5% cash back on most purchases. This is not, by any means, the sum of my October plans! It's a small part of a rather large puzzle.

I'm currently holding a balance on the ol' Discover card, however. As I mentioned in my last two posts, I considered getting an Orbitz card to transfer the balance, erroneously believing the funds transfer was free, and thinking it would be cool to get the free mileage offered with the card. After reading the fine print, I saw my error in both the fees and mileage, and tossed the Orbitz application. I went online after work, however, and used the Smart Credit Choice's credit card search engine and found a card that suits my purposes: THE BANK OF AMERICA® PLATINUM PLUS® VISA® CARD. It has a no fee balance transfer, and a 0% APR for six months. I transfered most of the balance for the Discover card onto the Bank of America card, $3,400, and received a $6,900 line of credit. The normal APR is about 12% which isn't great, but I'm using it for the transfer, not the credit. The balance for the Discover card was currently 0%, however I had to make 3 purchases a month to keep that up--I was buying random songs from various vendors to do this (iTunes, etc), but this was getting annoying, and I wasn't listening to the songs. Even if I don't pay the balance on the B of A card by the end of the six months, which I think I will, I'm getting a large bonus in February (we're hearing whispers of over 18%!), and that will take care of the remaining balance.

This means I can start using the Discover card, and get the rewards. I'll set it up so I can quickly and easily pay off the balance for this card, on a reasonable basis.

Anyway.

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Why I Hate Wells Fargo

In response to my blog post of a couple of days ago, let me be clear, this is not the first time I've had a problem with Wells. The little things: I'm tired of them charging $2 to talk to a customer service rep, without telling you they're going to charge you. I'm tired of the little fees that pop up. I'm tired of 0.0000001% APR. I'm tired of the way they treat poor people--I'm not poor now, but I was when I got out of school, and they treat poor people like crap.

But let me tell you an honest-to-god story, that I think exemplifies this company:

A few years ago, I started a writing group, and in that group was a woman from the Wells Fargo call center in Minneapolis. I'll call her Tari. We got along at first, but the relationship headed downhill quickly. Tari bragging about the way she treated customers. Because they couldn't hang up on customers at the call center, Tari told us that they would just "smile-them-out," which meant they would use those idiotic, card-board-cutout bullshit statements until someone started to swear at them, at which point, per some manual, they were allowed to put someone on hold--indefinately. Tari bragged about putting people on hold for forty-minutes.

Tari bragged about the time, and I kid you not, a woman called in after her husband died. The husband died after a battle with cancer. In making preperations for the funeral, the woman accumulated overdraft fees that she could not afford. The woman was broke and destraught. After stonewalling her for a while, after listening to this woman cry on the phone, Tari told this woman:

"Mam, cancer is not a bank error."

I am not making this up.
Things rapidly deteriorated between myself and Tari. Then one day, in the middle of the writing group, Tari told the group I had an overdraft on MY account at Wells. She had looked at my account, and relayed this information to the public via my writing group.

I blinked. I had no idea what to say.

I went home and called some family members. They were unequivacable--they said I had to tell Tari's boss. I emailed Tari and told her my complaint, and she spun back a litany of self-rightiousness. In her response, she left her manager's name and telephone number. I sat on it for a day. The writing group was obviously shot--I had formed it, put over a year's effort in building it, and was pretty pissed that I didn't feel like I could go back. Eventually, I called Tari's boss. I explained what happened. I mentioned the woman with the cancer, and how I felt that was a pretty shitty way to treat a human being that way. I mentioned that I thought banking matters should be private.

They thanked me, and nothing, as far as I know, happened. last I heard, Tari continues to work at Wells. I never got a letter, a message, or any follow up on this incident.

Now, I know that this last thing I sent Wells, the complaint letter from a couple of days ago, isn't about anything as serious as this, but this time I'm not giving up.

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Some Round Ups Of The Month

Okay, so I didn't mention in my last post that I lost both my cash cards last week. My Wells card disappeared one day, so I had it cancelled and it's on re-order. My other cash card, which I use to access money in my work account, was used to keep a tab for drinks with friends, and I left (after one beer) having forgotten it was there. A friend retrieved it for me but we haven't been able to connect. I don't think I've ever lost a card before, so I'm chalking it up to dumb luck. I was using the Wells credit card because I can move money from my Wells savings to my credit card and instantly pay the balance, which I've been doing on a dutiful basis. My beef wasn't with the embarrassment, although that sucked, it was the asinine and frankly rude responses I was getting from Wells.

So...

WRT my last month: all the bills have been paid and I feel this enourmous sense of relief as I watch my car loan go down so quickly... What I'm really excited about is watching it go under $3000 next month. Buying that car was such a bad deal!

Anyway, my debt rundown:
$5077 in credit card debt
$17656 in school loans
$3375 for my car

TOTAL DEBT: $26,108

I have paid off $5,296, or 16.9% of my debt, in 4 months!

Yee-ah.

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Really Bad Customer Service

AHHH!!!! I had a HORRIBLE customer service experience with Wells Fargo. I'm giving you the letter that I am going to send them:

From:
xxxxx

To:
Wells Fargo Card Services Executive Office
PO Box 4134
Portland OR 97208

I am greatly disappointed in the service I was given this evening by Wells Fargo. I went out to get a cup of coffee and a muffin at a coffee shop this evening (5/16/07) and my Wells Fargo platinum card was declined. They ran it through again at the coffee shop, and my Wells Fargo platinum card was declined again. I did not have any payment due on my card. I had $100 charged the week before, but no payment was due on my Wells Fargo credit card. I called the Wells Fargo customer service to find out what was wrong, and I was told by the Wells Fargo customer service rep that everything was fine and that there shouldn’t be any problem. That customer service rep was sincerely apologetic.

Now, I only had my Wells Fargo platinum card on me at that moment. My Wells Fargo platinum card, at that moment, was my only form of payment. I was seriously embarrassed.

I had them run my Wells Fargo platinum card again, because the Wells Fargo customer service rep said everything would be fine this time. My Wells Fargo platinum card was declined again. I called the Wells Fargo customer service department again, and was told (again) that there shouldn’t be a problem with my card. I was then put on hold for over FIVE MINUTES before I hung up the phone. I was put on hold while I was waiting in line to pay for a cup of coffee and a muffin. I was put on hold when I explicitly told the Wells Fargo customer service rep that the store was closing, and that the cashier wanted to go home. I was put on hold by Wells Fargo as they cleaned up the store around me.

I had already consumed the coffee and a muffin, so it’s not like I could give it back. The cashier obviously thought I was broke. Because this wasn’t worth her time, she gave me the coffee and muffin for free. This is not the outcome I wanted. I can’t tell you how mortified I was, sitting on the phone with Wells Fargo for ten minutes, getting put on hold, and having my Wells Fargo platinum card declined three times. All for $4.

I called the Wells Fargo customer service department when I got home. The Wells Fargo customer service rep I spoke to the third time was not helpful. She told me nothing was wrong. She did not sound apologetic. She said she was sorry, but she was obviously just paying lip services to the words. She obviously just wanted me out of the way. I asked to speak with her manager. I talked to XXX at the Des Moine Iowa service center (ext yyyy). XXX, too, only paid lip service to an apology. He told me that everything looked fine on my Wells Fargo platinum card. I told him that I had been told that three times already. I asked him how I could trust that it wouldn’t be declined again. He told me that I couldn’t. He told me that it might be declined again, but that he couldn’t do anything. He told me that I would have to just try again, and call back while I was at the retailers, after it was declined, so Wells Fargo could figure out what was going on.

XXX was not helpful. At all. I felt like XXX was reading off of cue cards, and they were the cue cards for “how to handle a stupid complaint.” I felt XXX didn’t really care about my issue. I was appalled that Wells Fargo’s solution was for me to go out and get my Wells Fargo card declined again at another retailer, and then have the retailer call Wells Fargo so they could trouble-shoot the problem.

If I were the type of person to swear when I talk to customer service reps, or when I write a letter like this (and the only other time I ever wrote a complaint letter was when a mechanic literally stole money from me), I can assure you that my phone conversation and this letter would be filled with four letter words. I am completely disgusted.

I do not think Wells Fargo will take this letter seriously.

I am posting this letter to Wells Fargo on my FINANCIAL BLOG, for the entire world to see. I will not remove this letter. I will only record how you have handle this situation. Good day.

Sincerely,
YYYYY

I'll keep you posted as to their response.

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