Customer service has become a farce.
I remember when Wal Mart staff was engaged and invested. Always friendly, always helpful. Ask any random associate where something was and they'd either drop what they were doing and walk you there or they'd give specific directions. Now? "That's probally over in house ware. If you don't see it we must be out." Useless. Just one of the many reasons I quit shopping there.
Today, I needed to get into my credit card account. The password I had stored on my computer didn't work. Emailed for a new one and instead I got a 'hint' that matched what I had stored. So I typed it out figuring maybe I'd made a mistake. Nope. Changed it. Nope. Now I'm locked out.
Call the number on the back of the card. Get Robby the Robot who wants to ask question after question to verify my identity. After jumping through that whole list, Robby says "something doesn't look right" and asks for my SSN. Nope, Robby Robot, we'll just bypass you. Called the Took me six attempts going "human" before he finally gave up demanding my SSN. 12 minutes and 44 seconds later somebody who sounded like they were in a basement chugging cigarettes two at a time asks me "is this about a credit card? I'm gonna have to transfer you." Wait. I called the number on the back of the card. Why would you have to transfer me? "I don't make the rules"
Back to hold music.
Another 11 minutes goes by. Get somebody that asks 15 verification questions. Looks things up. Tell her I can't log in and I know I'm using the right password. "Oh, that site is down. That's why." Down? "Yes, it's not working now." Okay, fine. I want to pay the card off, so I will just wait until it's up. "Well, it's been down for three or four weeks, so..." The bank card site has been down for a month? "Yeah, so it might be a while." Fine, if you can get in there, just use the payment account and pay it off. "Oh, we don't have that. I'm going to need you to fax me a canceled check." You don't have the bank information I've used to pay that card for the last nine years? "No. Just fax me a blank check." Who has checks any more? Seriously. "Ok, well, you can pay it off using another credit card." No, that would be stupid. How long will the site be down. "I can't speak to that, sir." So if I don't pay this in, say, the next few weeks you'll report it to the credit bureau as past due, even though you've denied me the ability to pay? "Yes sir. You can still pay. You can send me a cancel check." I have not seen a paper check in 15 years. I don't have one. "Well, you can go to any branch near you and pay it and bring them a cancel check."
Ridiculous.