April 17th, 2007, 5 Comments »
You know, it’s striking how quickly a company can antagonize me. I called Vonage tonight, eager to sign up for their basic package, as part of our ongoing international phoning strategy.
All I wanted was a basic package, so that I could have their voicemail-to-email service. People call our mobile numbers in Vancouver, and the call gets forwarded to our Vonage number. They leave a voice mail message, and the message gets emailed to me. Simple, right?
Unfortunately, they won’t let me sign up for any Vonage service without also giving me some hardware. Some of the hardware is free, but I don’t want any of it. Vonage confirmed that I don’t need it for my particular problem.
Perversely, I want to cut them a deal, but they won’t take it. I want less from them (that is, no hardware), but I’m willing to pay the full price for the service. I spoke to two different agents, and neither could help me. I asked to talk to a manager, they put me on hold, and I got bounced to some French language telephone blackhole.
Adieu, Vonage, I hardly knew you. Bonjour Primus. I’ll call them tomorrow morning to see if they won’t send me hardware.
5 Comments »
March 22nd, 2007, 47 Comments »
You know, Vancity does a lot of great things. ChangeEverything is cool, as is their new climate change mortgage, and they have a ton of admirable local initiatives.
It was because of that good reputation, both as a bank and a community member, that we switched our business accounts from the Royal Bank to Vancity last year. The Royal Bank had given us incompetent, impersonal service, so it was a pleasure to take our money elsewhere (they likewise continue to treat us poorly for our personal accounts).
You know what? Vancity is no better. They’re possibly even worse.
I already described the serious error they made last August, as well as their confusing mail piece (a trivial complaint, but reflective of their customer service).
Since then, Vancity has made two more mistakes on basic activities within our account. I’m not manufacturing imaginary missteps. I have emails from my account manager admitting they made errors in issuing incorrect cheques and cashing cheques from the wrong account.
I don’t care how frickin’ green or community-oriented this credit union is. I don’t pay banking fees for ineptitude.
I’m out of patience and goodwill. That’s three errors in six months, in our first year with a new bank. If we performed like this at Capulet, all of our clients would fire us.
If I wasn’t leaving the country in four weeks, I’d put the immediate boot to Vancity. Instead, I’ll leave that onerous task for our return.
On a related matter, why aren’t these community-minded people monitoring the Web? This is my third post dissing their organization, and nobody from Vancity has responded, publicly or privately.
UPDATE: Over on the nicely-designed Open Source Credit Union, Trey has written a post about my customer experience.
UPDATE #2: Another post about my Vancity angst over at Bankwatch.
47 Comments »
