Why do people hate banks?

 Back in the 1960s when I worked on a farm we had discussions about which were the worse: Insurance companies or Banks.  The conclusion at that stage was Insurance companies because they sank the boot in when you were already in trouble.

In 2017 we found our Insurance Company was very helpful in dealing with the bushfire.  However I have just has an experience with our bank - Westpac - that puts that industry well in the frame for needing some serious attention.

It began about 4pm when I got an SMS directing me to activate my new Mastercard as my current VISA card would be deactivated in about 5 weeks time.  This was the first I had heard about getting a new credit card although we had heard that Westpac were switching from Visa - presumably they have a more profitable deal.

I thought I had better ring Westpac as:

  1. They had probably sent the cards to our Canberra address which, thanks to COVID, we can't currently get to; and
  2. I needed to give them the rounds of the kitchen for making such a change and not warning me in advance (apart from anything else that would have allowed me to overcome point 1).

So I rang the helpline and despite the rubbish about higher than usual number of calls got though quite quickly.  The guy I spoke to (Robert) tried to be helpful but really couldn't overcome the basic issue of the Bank having no concern for their customers.  At least one F-bomb was dropped which seemed to upset him.  

He kept wanting to register me for telephone banking, even though I never use it: apparently this will make contacting them with problems easier.  I was pretty sure I was already registered but apparently not.  He looked into this and yes, I had been registered but that had ceased for some reason.  I needed to give them a new 3 digit security code.  So I suggested 3 digits that I knew wasn't the last I'd used.  Not satisfactory as I had used that sometime in the past.  Shouting happened.

It then turned out the cards had already been sent to Canberra although they also had a Mallacoota address for us.  Which was a little wrong but Robert corrected that on the system.

I can't remember exactly what happened next but I spoke to our daughter (in Canberra) and she went and checked the mail, finding the cards.  She also found that they had misprinted my given name.  So back on the phone to Westpac.  That couldn't be fixed unless I could give them the number on the card - which Westpac hadn't told me!  So back on the phone to daughter to get the number.

Ring Westpac again and speak to Sophie.  Apparently the issue was only able to be dealt by directing me to the new accounts area which she did, and I found I was back with Robert!  It turns out he wasn't the lad for this job so transferred me to Tegan who could fix it.  She couldn't explain how it happened but would get new cards issued.  When I asked for them to be sent to our Mallacoota address it was evident that Robert's changes hadn't taken effect.   Tegan had to talk to Robert to find out what to do and hopefully managed it.  I have asked daughter to keep the old vards in case of future stuff ups.

All of this took about 90 minutes: thank goodness I am on unlimited minutes on my mobile plan.

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