Do you know the one thing to never say to a customer service rep if you're late on your bill? Do you know how Chase ranks you, and how you're ranked determines whether they help you out in a bind? Do you know the best way to get what you want from customer service? After you read these 10 confessions from a Chase customer service rep, you will.
"HOW WE RANK CARDMEMBERS
There are 3 levels of cardmembers at Chase. They are segregated as BEST, VALUABLE, or NON-PROFIT.
10. BEST
cardmembers make up a small minority of the people at Chase. If I talk to 100 people in a day, maybe 5 are best cardmembers. If you're a Best cardmember, pretty much anything you want to gets done. You want a late fee taken off? Done. Don't feel like paying $200 in finance charges? No problem. How do you achieve Best cardmember status? You either have to move a lot of money through the bank, (we can tell if you have a mortgage, car loan, etc thru Chase), or have a high balance that you're paying a good amount of interest on. If you generate enough fee revenue from finance charges, say $100 per month, and you want a late fee taken off, no problem, we'll take $39 off this month to make you happy and make sure that $100 monthly keeps rolling in.
9. VALUABLE
cardmembers make up the majority of people we talk to. Valuable basically means you pay your bills on time, and are in general a good customer. You can get a fee waived also, but not nearly as often. I don't mind waiving a late fee for you, but usually only every 6 months. Thats standard, but we can base our judgment on it all the way back to a year. And if I remove a late fee for you, dont think you're getting anything waived in the foreseeable future.
8. NON-PROFIT
These are the cardmembers who know what they're doing. They're the group of people that pay their bill off, in full, every month, like clockwork. They don't pay finance charges, and they're never late. They don't go over their credit line, they don't have returned payments, and they earn rewards. Which all amounts to the bank isn't making any money on your account. So if you get a late fee, you have absolutely zero chance of getting it waived. That late fee is revenue for the bank, and it uses it to offset the maintenance on your account. Maintenance includes your statements mailed to you, sending you replacement cards, dealing with customer service, and cashing out rewards point / miles / dollars. For this cardmember, if you threaten to close your account if we don't do what you want, don't be surprised to get an offer to close your account during that phone call. Why? What is the incentive to keep you? I know its pretty cold hearted, but thats exactly how it works. You do a great job on your account, but you can get punished. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them.
HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE
7. I WILL GO TO BAT FOR YOU IF YOU TREAT ME LIKE A HUMAN
First and foremost, remember we are people. If you're the type of person who calls up and rants and rave with a "you better do this or else" attitude, honestly, it's just going to turn a service rep off. Remember, we talk to a hundred people a day, 5 days a week. Its a thankless job, and in there somewhere, I'm cursed at, yelled, spoken down to, please God knows what else. Think about it like this....are you more likely to want to help someone treating you like a human being, or someone who is degrading you? It's only natural.
I've waived significant amounts of money off of accounts if I feel its deserved, I've reduced APR's, I've contacted credit bureau's to get your record fixed, I've deferred your payment to next month, I've done a lot of things. But the one constant, I've only done this for people who have been pleasant with me on the phone, and in layman's terms, haven't been a douchebag.
6. STATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE DONE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CALL
I understand its human nature to explain why you're payment showed up late, how you're a good customer, this has never happened before, etc, but if you just tell me you want a late fee waived, I'll immediately look at the account and decide if you're eligible. To us, it doesn't matter if you forgot to mail the check, were on vacation, your boss didn't pay you, bottom line, you want a late fee waived, I'm gonna judge you on our ratings system and check to make sure you haven't had other fees waived recently.
5. YOU ARE NOT A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE
I've taken thousands of calls, and I've encountered every possible situation. The earlier you tell me what you would like your end result to be, the earlier you can get your matter resolved. Screaming at me does you know good, and honestly, makes me want to help you less.
COMMON SCENARIOS I ENCOUNTER
4. DON'T SAY "MY PAYMENT WAS LATE BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET MY STATEMENT"
Please please, don't tell me this. This is the worst excuse ever. While I dont doubt that some people somehow legitimately didn't get their bill, for the most part, its a lie to cover up the fact you didnt make your payment on time. Hmm, for the past 5 years you've always gotten a statement to the correct address on file, but the one month you're late it didn't show up. Right. Somehow, whenever the car payment or the mortgage is due, people never forget that, even without a paper reminder.
3. WATCH YOUR CREDIT LIMIT
Going overlimit- Its your responsibility to watch out where your credit line is. If you really don't ever wanna go over your credit line, but a block on it. We do let cards go over a little bit, just in case you're in a situation where you really need it. Imagine these scenarios. Imagine you're in a restaurant, and you go to pay the bill. Would you rather be declined and be embarrassed in front of your friends and family, or have it go through and pay the $39 fee. Or, imagine you're stuck on the side of the road and need a tow truck. Do you want the charge to go through so you can get out of the cold, or do you want it declined and sit there shivering for hours? We'll allow the card to go over, but usually not more than $100.
2. READ YOUR CONTRACT
Not being aware of fees, or APR's- Everything on your card is agreed upon when you accept the card. The Cardmember Agreement basically states that the bank has the right to change your limit at any time, change your apr, or close your account, no reason needed. That agreement basically leaves the bank holding all the cards. The one constant I see is people never ever read the agreement, then are surprised by things later. Please, read it, or at least call customer service and ask any questions you need answered.
1. IF YOU DON'T NEED IT, DON'T BUY IT
The only other advice I have for people with credit cards....get ahold of your spending. I can't tell you how many people I see every day who are absolutely drowning in debt. I get so many people making minimum payments, never getting ahead on their balance, or people just playing the balance transfer game to move their balance to a lower rate card, but they've moved that balance 10 times and it's still not paid off. If you use credit cards wisely, you can make the bank work for you, but instead, we see banks with profits in the billions of dollars every year."
**********UPDATE**********
The Chase customer service rep whose 10 Confessions we posted last week has been reading your comments and has responded to some of your questions. The rep also offers five more tips that they forgot to include in their original post.
"To all the Readers of Consumerist-
I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read the Chase Confessions, I've kept an eye on it and would like to respond to some of the questions left for me in the comments section.
RANDOTHEKING: "Your logic on #4 is dumb and most people don't realize that stating "I didn't get my statement" is an automatic fix for your account. At Macy's if you stated that then your late fee and finance charge were removed as legit no questions asked. You have to factor in that your statements go through a 3rd party called the USPS and they lose shit all the time."
That might be the policy at Macy's, but not at Chase. If you state that you didn't receive statement, I'll confirm your address, and if it's right, I can offer to either send you another copy in the mail. I can also fax one to your home, office, or local branch. I can also get you online and talk you through signing up online and viewing your statement there. No doubt, the USPS loses a lot of mail. But if that's how you choose to receive your statement, it can be lost, like I said I don't doubt some people didn't receive it. But I have to take into account that you know you have a credit card, you're in possession of the banks money, and you know it needs to be paid back. One thing I would suggest, mark it on your calender, set a reminder in your cell phone, or if you just kinda 'feel' the bill is coming due, just call customer service, we have a ton of options to get your statement to you. Also, if you haven't gotten your statement, and need to make a payment before it will be late, let us know, in most cases we'll gladly waive the fee for you to make a payment over the phone, as long as it's not habitual.
ECHODORK: "So, this is basically the same as most of the other call center confessions, I suppose. Don't yell at me, and unless you're a profitable customer, don't expect much. Fantastic."
Not really. You can yell at me if you want to, but obviously, it would make me less eager to resolve your issue. And, I try to help everyone out best I can, but keep in mind, I have to follow rules and guidelines set by Chase. I have a lot of leeway and discretion with those guidelines to do things on your account, but don't be surprised if you encounter what many in the customer service industry call 'the asshole fee'. That would be not getting things waived, or doing the bare minimum to help you out.
PUBLIC ENEMY #1: "If the CSR is reading these comments, how do I get Chase Freedom to stop pestering me about their buyer protection program? I'm not interested, and I get a stupid letter about every two weeks and/or a phone call about it."
What you do is, call the customer service line, and ask the Rep to exclude you from all marketing or solicitations. We'll remove you from all mailing lists, all telemarketing, all special offers, emails, everything. Takes about 2 minutes and you're all set.
"DALLASDMD: "8. NON-PROFIT" What a load of BS. The bank is most definitely making money off your account. Why would they keep you as a customer if they were not? They are not obligated to keep you. The fact is the bank is making money each time you make a transaction. Those fees each business pays to accept credit cards goes to VISA/MC and to your bank. If I am not profitable, then why is Chase sending me post cards with reminders of my rewards plan and lists of merchants where I can get special deals if I use my Chase card?
The majority of those transaction fees go to Visa and MasterCard. We do get a small cut of it, I don't know exactly how much. But usually it's not enough to offset the other things on the account, especially if you just have a balance transfer amount on the card, and aren't using it. I mean, if you drop 30k every month, then it would be enough, but other people spending 2k or 3k it wouldn't be.
CMDR.SASS: ""I WILL GO TO BAT FOR YOU IF YOU TREAT ME LIKE A HUMAN" -I will continue to treat you like the faceless, interchangeable cog in the Chase machine that you are because "YOU ARE NOT A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE"
Fair enough. Just expect the same obviously. To me, most people, you'll just be a number, some guy I talk to once and that's it.
MGYQMB: ""We do let cards go over a little bit, just in case you're in a situation where you really need it. Imagine these scenarios. Imagine you're in a restaurant, and you go to pay the bill. Would you rather be declined and be embarrassed in front of your friends and family, or have it go through and pay the $39 fee."
This is ridiculous. Of course I want it to decline, as I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY. This is the same argument for overdraft fees, which turns 3 $5 purchases into a -$100 nightmare."
While you might want it to decline, the other 1000 people I've encountered in this situation have screamed at me demanding what I would do to compensate them for the embarrassment they've had to endure. I mean, the restaurant is just an example. I've had people standing in line at Wal-Mart be declined, at the post office sending a package, paying for some other item in a line somewhere that declined the card and left them hot and bothered looking for other means of payment while people looked on. To me, if putting some food on your credit card is going to get you declined, you should re-think your spending habits and maybe not go out to eat. But, if you want to make certain you won't go over your credit line, just give us a call and we'll put an Overlimit Block on your account. That way, you can be certain you wont incur the $39 fee for making that purchase.
TODDKRAVOS: "I guess the most important rule to CSRs is STILL NOT BEING TAUGHT/TRAINED: Retain the customer at any expense to prevent negative and long lasting ill effects against our brand. In the age of the internet, customer satisfaction and retention are extremely important these days. Boy am I glad I don't use Credit Cards, I'd lose my patience real quick with a CSR like this."
This may come as a surprise, but remember those 'Non-profit' cardmembers we've talked about. Well, if something comes up, we are advised to encourage you to close the account. That's why the threat of "I'll transfer my balance elsewhere" might be met with the Rep offering to close the account during that phone call. Not something I like to do often, but part of the job. As far as losing a customer, to be honest, if I lose you, I gain somebody else. The credit card industry is one big revolving door. There is some other person on the phone right now, at Bank of America, at Citi, at "Name Big Bank Here" telling one of their Reps the exact same thing, that they're leaving. And where will that person go..? Probably to Chase. People transfer their balance out all the time, in fact, every Rep in the call center probably averages over $600k in balance transfers per month. Unfortunately, with all the big banks, most of you named Average Joe Consumer, are treated like like a number. And I don't think you'd lose your patience with me, I'm actually one of the better Reps, by that meaning I know what I'm doing, I give the best advice possible, and, as an added bonus, I speak clear and fluent English.
VASTRIGHTWING: "I always love the response, "we're not making ANY money on you." as if this is an excuse for bad service and a way to make me feel guilty. My thinking is, if they are not making any money on me, it's their problem, not mine. 99% of the time they lie. The other 1% of the time, yes, they didn't make any money on me this time, but they are on most everyone else. Please let me shed a tear for the bank. Paleeeeesssssseeeeee!"
You're right, and it's not excuse for bad service, and I don't try to make you feel guilty either. It's just the facts.
Other than that, some other things I wanted to mention in the first post but forgot to put in..
1. If I say no to your request, ask for a supervisor. My mind is not gonna change if you argue with me.
2. You have to verbally state your request. I'm not allowed to just waive fees, even if you and I both know that's why you called.
3. Same thing with asking for a supervisor. You have to ask, I can't just transfer you, even if it would make both of us happier.
4. If you really want to voice a concern, write or email our executive office. Yelling at me about is gonna do nothing. I'm not the one in the boardroom making all these rules and regulations.
5. If you don't want a late fee, don't be late. One thing I always tell people, your due date is not the only day you can make the payment. You're allowed to make it before that.
Sincerely,
Your Chase Rep."
http://consumerist.com/341359/chase-rep-insider-answers-your-questions
