I was trying to make an online payment to Emblem card this evening (Sunday) only to find out that my normal log on took me to a new web site. When I tried to register with this web site it could not verify my information. So I called the Customer Service number and tried for over 5 minutes to make a phone payment. Again my information could not be verified. Then the real frustration began.
I was transfered to a customer service representative. Yes in India. The first representative was very hard to understand and after reverifying all my information he informed me the new web site would not be available until tomorrow and said he was very sorry for the inconvience. Always with the "sorry for the inconvience".
Why is that the only thing they can say that is understandable. When I asked to speak to someone within the United States. I was informed that they had no service representaives in the US. If I wanted to complain I could write to correspodance. So I asked for a supervisor.
10 minutes later I was connected with a supervisor. He spoke a little better english. He informed me that the company was doing a conversion and that no one could process payments on their accounts until Tuesday. Yes, a day longer than the other representative told me. Again with, "sorry for the inconvience". I asked how I could speak with his supervisor. He informed me he didn't have a supervisor, he had a "Manager".
I asked how I could contact his manager and he informed me that "Managers" only returned calls and it would take up to 3 days. Then he informed me I could call back on Tuesday and request that a "Manager" call me back. I asked if there was anyway to request a "Manager" with in the US return my call. He said he would request it, but wouldn't guarentee it.
I was under the impression that any company with an overseas call center was required to provide english speaking US based representives to any customer that requested them. Maybe I am wrong. But how do we get accross to these companies that we want english speaking US citizens to assist us. Bring these jobs back home.
Lastly, wouldn't have been better for Emblem to disable the Web site and phone access providing customers with a simple message that they were converting systems and were anable to process payments until Tuesday, May 2. Then include a statement that there would not be any late fees or penalties to anyone who missed a payment date because of this convertion. If I had received such a message I would have made a note to make my payment on that date and not wasted almost an hour of my evening tracking down details.
We will see if I recieve a call from some one I can undersrtand and might care about the situation or if I get an other "sorry for the inconvience". I hate that copout and overseas call centers!
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