I feel that in this day & age, m0re & more companies are passing the buck to avoid responsibility for hiring inept staff.

Maybe it’s because there aren’t very many intelligent people around they can hire anymore, but whatever the reason, it really upsets me when companies pass the buck.

Now before I continue, I have to make it very clear that YES, customers do need to read contracts before they sign them. I for one usually don’t. I know a lot of other consumers don’t read the contracts or terms & conditions either, & companies know this. Either the companies take advantage of this, or they just don’t care if their staff misinforms the customer because then they can say “well you didn’t read the contract or our terms & conditions.”

If the customer doesn’t ask questions, then YES, the fault lies with the customer, but if the customer does as questions (this is what I do), is then misinformed & THEN they end up having problems later on because of this, shouldn’t the company take responsibility even if the customer didn’t read the contract?

So far 3 companies I can remember in the last year have blamed me even though their staff didn’t do their job properly:

1. PC Financial – I only make US money & I live in Canada & since the US & Canada don’t really care about getting their act together when it comes to the banking systems (Canada’s banking system is far better), I have had to struggle just to get money into my Canadian account to pay the bills.

   I had an arrangement with Scotia Bank, but last year in 2010 (or earlier this year) I decided to open a PC Financial bank account just for grocery shopping since I shop at Superstore & Zehrs all the time (they are owned by President’s Choice).I told the girl who was trying to get me to sign up that I can’t, because I only receive US checks, & I can’t have the checks put on hold for 21 days. That’s when she told me that they won’t be put on hold, because I have upto $500 that I can take out of my account within a 24 hour period.

   I was shocked they would allow this with new customers, but was happy, so I signed up.

   I also realized that PC financial gives a better currency exchange rate than Scotia Bank, so I started depositing my checks into there, withdrawing the cash & then depositing the cash into Scotia Bank.

   Well today I was about to deposit a check for $500 when I realized that maybe I shouldn’t write myself a check for $500 because once the exchange rate kicks in (this was long before the US dollar fell bellow the Canadian dollar), it will put me over the $500, so I called PC Financial.

   The guy I spoke to told me no, they won’t add the extra exchange rate money on hold & stupidly I believed him.

   I checked my receipt from the ATM & realized that yes, the $7 was on hold, so I called PC Financial. That’s when I received ANOTHER shocker… I was told that anything OVER $300 goes on hold. This was a supervisor telling me this. I was furious & she’s going to get customer care to call me, but I’m not happy one bit that I was misinformed not only by the guy I spoke to today, but by the original person who got me to sign up.

   What did this supervisor say? “It was your responsibility to read the contract when you signed up.” So here’s your prime example of PC Financial shirking responsibility & blaming the customer.

   Now a light bulb went off in my head as I started to write this post. I realized SHE is wrong, how can $300 be the limit when I was able to withdraw the full $500.

   <sigh> Doesn’t anyone train their staff properly anymore??? Doesn’t anyone have a brain anymore?

   I blame part of the issue on all the chemicals people ingest & all the pollution in the air & water.

2. Future Shop customer care department shirked responsibility allowing their staff to misinform me when I purchased a laptop from them. They didn’t disclose that I would have to pay interest on the full amount of the purchase if I didn’t pay the full amount off by the time the 3 months rolled around.

   Here is the full story on that drama.

3. I signed up to RBC Centura in the US thinking it would be a well run bank since they are owned by Royal Bank in Canada.

   Over there they do things very strangely & I know not all US banks are like that because I have accounts with HSBC.

   Anyway, when applying for a line of credit, the sales girl Tiffany who serviced me, misinformed me about the interest rate I would be paying.

   Since I thought it was a lot lower than what I was paying for my credit card at HSBC, I immediately transferred over $1,000 to RBC Centura’s line of credit.

   Only a month or so later did I find out the REAL interest rate that was 3+ points higher.

   She ALSO failed to tell me that I would have to pay a minimum of $100 every month towards the line of credit.

   Since this was all done over the phone, I never found out about this until months later & purely by accident.

   When the paperwork FINALLY showed up (RBC Centura fails to deliver paperwork on time), nowhere did it state I had to pay minimum $100, but after an investigation, the law states so long as the bank “claims” they mailed the paperwork out, even if it doesn’t say anything & it’s WELL AFTER the account was opened, the customer is liable for all of this.

   I fought this tooth & nail & the US government sides with the banks even if they are THE MOST INEPT bank I’ve EVER dealt with in all my years.

   While Canadian banks are usually top notch (they still make mistakes as you saw above with PC Financial), even HSBC US hasn’t screwed up THAT MUCH.

   The entire story is too long to tell, just let it be known that I got screwed by RBC Centura, & they continue to employ the most stupid people I’ve ever come across. Nice, but down right stupid & we the customer have to pay the price.

   I don’t want to be typically American here, but the bank is located in North Carolina.

If you have a story you’d like to tell about how a company used their contract or terms & conditions to hide crucial information from you & they wouldn’t take responsibility for their staff’s stupidity, I’d like to hear about it.

Michelle

While I didn’t start this blog to offer my services as a customer service liaison, I think that being such a detailed consumer who really cares about customer service, I have the qualifications to help companies step up to the plate and rework some (or many) areas of their business so their customers love them to death.

If any company (small, medium or large) wants me to find the weaknesses in their company, I’m here to help.

Michelle