Net Bank - Poor Customer Service

[Lancelot]

Do you bank online? You may want to avoid Net Bank...

By way of background information, I ER'd in Thailand almost three years ago. I had been a Net Bank (NB) customer since about 2000, so I decided to continue using them while living abroad. NB did not charge me a fee to make ATM withdrawls and they were reasonably responsive to email inquiries. They also offer free bill payer, making it easy to pay credit card bills.

Until now.

Long story short, on September 8, I lost my Net Bank VISA Check Card (luckily, I have two checking accounts and have one VISA Check Card for backup)

After discovering that I lost my card, I immediately sent NB an email, requesting that they cancel the lost card. I also followed up with a phone call and verified that the card was cancelled. Then, online, I ordered a replacement card.

On September 15, I emailed NB asking for verification whether or not the card had been mailed.

The preceeding emails were sent from NB's secure "Bank Mail" site and as of today, September 18, I have not received a reply.

I did contact a NB representative on September 16, by unsecure mail, and he responded the same day saying that no "ATM" card had been mailed. In my email to him, I did infact mistakenly say ATM card instead of VISA Check Card, so technically I was in error, but it would have been nice if he had also verified if a VISA Check Card had been sent.

For NB purposes, I use my sister's stateside address and she forwards the card to me.

Today, September 18, 1517 hours Bangkok time, I phoned NB again to verify whether or not the card had been mailed. The CSR was very polite, but the system was down for updating, so she suggested that i cal back. I tried to explain to her that I was calling from Bangkok, Thailand, and I would appreciate it if she could take my name and send me an email about the replacement card. I also tried to explain to her that my emails were unanswered and could she look into that problem for me?

No, I would have to call back later. In other words, don't waste her time, waste the customer's time instead.

VISA Check Cards/ATM Cards (what ever the name of that piece of plastic that you use to get money from an ATM machine is called) are very important to me and I can not accept being ignored by my bank.

So, does anyone care to refer me to an Intenet bank (or bank that is Internet friendly) AND provides prompt, efficient customer service?

Thanks!

Lance

PS - In fairness to the NB Customer Service Reps, perhaps they are understaffed and over worked. Unfortunately, at the first sign of reduced profits, many firms cut Customer Service departments first. I suppose that I should be grateful that they even answered the phone

[dex]

I use E*Trade bank for checking. I also have broakerage, IRA, and Money market.
Checking - no fees with a $1,000 balance, free bill pay - all types - and pays interest.
Good customer service and refunds any ATM fees.
It has many non usa sites so it is used to dealing with non US clients.

[Lancelot]

Thanks Dex, I'll check them out.

[MRGALT2U]

Originally Posted by Lancelot

PS - In fairness to the NB Customer Service Reps, perhaps they are understaffed and over worked. Unfortunately, at the first sign of reduced profits, many firms cut Customer Service departments first. I suppose that I should be grateful that they even answered the phone*
*

Maybe you should (be grateful). I find more and more that if I phone
any business larger than "Joe's Plumbing" I frequently have a real struggle finding a real person to speak with.

JG

[Lancelot]

Originally Posted by MRGALT2U

Maybe you should (be grateful).* I find more and more that if I phone
any business larger than "Joe's Plumbing" I frequently have a real struggle finding a real person to speak with.

JG

Usually I can get by with the "automated" system, but sometimes you do need to talk to a real person...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Customer service is dead.

Funny though how many companies will cut customer service spending with one hand while spending twice as much in marketing to bring in new customers to replace the ones they lost through bad customer service.

A lot of companies still havent figured out this "internet" thing that lets people tell thousands about bad service, as opposed to the average of about 10 they'd tell when they had to do all their talking by regular word of mouth...

Oddly, banking has never been a problem for me. Still with the first bank I opened my first account with (Digital Credit Union). I've looked a few times for better deals but never found any, and they've never done anything to piss me off. Which is sort of amazing given the ~20+ year time period involved.

But General Electric, Paypal, Dish Network and Sams Club all excelled to give me some of the worst customer service I've ever received (and at little or no benefit to themselves), so that offsets that good bank service thing...

GE's 'state of the art automated phone system' actually has NO options to let you speak to a real person. At all. You have to call the customer relations hotline.

I can remember when companies would pay money to have the opportunity to speak to a customer and help them fix a problem, because that often led to opportunities to sell them more products and retain them for a long time...

[MJ]

Lancelot,
I have been with Bank of Internet for nearly 2 years with free; 3% checking, checks, and bill payments. I have not used ATMs with them but they reimburse ATM fees you pay, up to $8 per month. I will be using ATM machines when I go to Bangkok the end of October for 30 days.
"So far", I have been very satisfied with their CS. They have responded to my rare email properly.
Good Luck.
MJ

http://www.bankofinternet.com/drates/default.asp

[Lancelot]

Thanks MJ. FYI. no Thai bank has ever charged me a withdrawl fee when using my US ATM card.

Do get in touch when you are in Bangkok

Lance