Wells Fargo Rewards Program: Fail

Every day I open the mailbox hoping for a surprise. Perhaps I am looking forward to a package, a family card, an important document, etc. Instead, my mailbox is weighed down by numerous attempts at persuading me to get "Such and Such Credit Card" with "Such and Such Company" with "Such and Such Rewards."

What does this tell me?

1) I have SO MANY options in determining what credit card exactly I want to have and the rewards that I seek.
2) It is relatively easy for me to change over at any time and transfer balances (often rewarded with lower rates to do this.)
3) Companies are obviously competing for business between rivals and new entrants into the market.

Where does Wells Fargo come in? Well, I have been an established credit card holder through Wells Fargo for roughly 5 years now. Starting the account at age 17 has allowed me to establish a credit score most 35 year olds can only dream of (after a ton of bad purchases.)

Wells Fargo and I have had our ups and downs.... Mostly due to the little banking that I do, I was never in too much of an uproar with bad service.

Summary of my problem: I spent 10,000 dollars on the card, racking up points. I wanted a rewards card. In this case it was a 50 dollar gift card to best buy costing me (5,000 of the 10,000 points.)

November: I request the card online. They give me an estimate of 2-3 weeks. I wait.... I wait.... I wait.... Late December: I call and they say the card was sent out, but something must have happened.

They then go to tell me that a new card is on the way, and that I should expect it in 2-3 weeks. I wait.... I wait.... I wait....

Late January... I call again, this time they say there was "no record" of my previous call. They tell me that they will send out ONE more card, they apologized for this. I wait... I wait... I wait....

I received the gift card nearly 5 months after the initial request. I did not need anything from Bestbuy, but I had planned to purchase a game that was released in November. All the effort was on my part. I had to call four different times to track the card and its whereabouts. Ridiculous.

Hey Wells,

I am a loyal customer of 5 years.... Never one late payment. I spent a crap ton of money using your card so that I could receive a measly 1 percent reward back. This 1 percent would seem fair and justifiable to me if I were to receive it SOMEWHERE in the vicinity of when I ask for it.

You take half a year to reward me? All I get is 3 different agents saying I never called, and I am offered a slight apology?...

Guess what? Delta SkyMiles sounds pretty good right now!

Sincerely,

Unsatisfied Customer

Amazing Apple Customer Care: A true Success Story

This is a story about a boy, a broken Iphone4, a customer service representative, and the steps Apple has taken to ease the pain. I am the boy. The broken Iphone4 is just that; a phone that is powering off and on by itself at random intervals throughout the day. The customer service representative was a man I only spoke with for five minutes, and Apple is of course the company that is slowly learning to out service and out “care” other competitors.

The story starts with my beloved Iphone. I take this thing everywhere. It practically runs my life and I would not have it any other way. Going an hour without my Iphone is like walking around in public nude, I could do it…. I just don’t want to. However today something terrible has happened. My Iphone4 (3 months old) has randomly started to turn itself on and off without giving me any control of the situation. Phone conversations are dropped mid-way through. It is an extremely frustrating time.

What do I do?

Knowing that I purchased the “Apple Protection/Service Plan” and the phone was still under the normal warranty, I was not too upset with the phones new found problem. However, I still needed a phone for everyday life and every minute the phone was off was another pain in my heart. Slowly frustration, anxiety, and anger set in. Where was I going to go to fix this problem? Keep in mind I am about 2 hours away from the nearest Apple location. My first stop was to head into the local AT&T store.

After spending five minutes in the store, I was told that AT&T could do nothing for me. The Service lady Quote, “…Only people that want to touch anything Apple… is Apple!” This made me feel even more uncomfortable. It now was roughly 2pm on a Friday. A busy college student heading into work does not have time to deal with a phone and its problems.

Little did I know that this Friday was no ordinary day! I was going to step into the world of REAL customer service. If I had to write a letter to Apple it would be something like:


Dear Apple,

I called your customer support line today. The man was very nice to me… He asked me about my problem and I told him in best detail. Five minutes later I was off the phone and feeling good about it all. How was this so? How did I possibly go from complete frustration to happy in five minutes?

Turns out you are sending me a new phone? Overnight? This sounds great to me.

Dear Apple,

I called you at 2pm on Friday. You had a new phone delivered to my house the very next day at 10am. You gave me detailed instructions on how to program the phone, restore my old phone’s settings, ship the broken phone to you, and call it a done deal.

You have only proven why I am falling more and more in love with you every day.

Sincerely,

Brian M Wegemer


It is 12:17 on a school night. A 22 year old college student is up writing about his good experience with apple. They must be doing something right?


(Disclaimer: I feel bad for all the broken screens, and damage caused by the user of their Iphone.)