This would be funny if it were not so true. Unbelievable, but believable.
Lots of American companies have outsourced their customer service to firms in India.
If you have ever had to deal with a major corporation's customer service then you will really appreciate this.
My Great Aunt died this past January. CitiBank billed her for February and March for their monthly service charge on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge...the balance that had been $0.00... now was somewhere around $60.00).
I placed the following phone call to CitiBank's 800 number:
Me: "I am calling to tell you that she died in January.
CitiBank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Me: "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections..."
CitiBank: "Since it is 2 months past due, it already has been."
Me: "So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"
CitiBank: "Either report her account to the frauds division, or report her to the credit bureau...maybe both!"
Me: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"
CitiBank:"...excuse me .....?"
Me: "Did you just get what I was telling you.... the part about her being dead?"
CitiBank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor!"
(Supervisor gets on the phone)
Me: ''I'm calling to tell you, she died in January."
CitiBank Supervisor: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Me: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"
CitiBank Supervisor: ".....(stammer)" .... "Are you her lawyer?"
Me: "No, I'm her great nephew."
CitiBank Supervisor: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"
Me: "Sure." ( Fax number is given )
( After they get the fax. )
CitiBank Supervisor: "Our system just isn't setup for death..."
Me: "Oh..."
CitiBank Supervisor: "I don't know what more I can do to help..."
Me: "Well... if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her...I suppose...don't really think she will care...."
CitiBank Supervisor: "Well...the late fees and charges do still apply."
Me: "'Would you like her new billing address?"
CitiBank Supervisor: "That might help."
Me: " ( Odessa Memorial Cemetery #### Hwy 29 and plot number given).
CitiBank Supervisor: "Sir, that's a cemetery!
Me: "What do you do with dead people on your planet?"
Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
Unbelievable, arrogant, non-funny, ludicrous, irresponsible, unethical and, sadly, true. Close to same senario for me with my mom,left me with extremely bitter taste concerning agencies involved. Makes you wonder about their worth and why we put up with it. In your case, let them chase her for debt and see if "ruining" her credit makes a difference, hahahahaha
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
That's almost as bad as the PHONE CO.
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
Well now. I too closed an account with Advanta. Got billed any way,, After about 6 months of not paying late fees on the late fees and interest on the card fee it was up to about $250 bux.. I quit calling them after being told all the typical answers they give out of their answer book... THEY finally called ME and wanted payment where finally the rep saw it was Late fees on Late fees and she oh said its closed.
DUH!!!!
Posted by Roy Frisby (Member # 736) on :
The cell phone co. notified me that all numbers within a certain group here must must be changed to meet the new regulations. So my employee took the service truck by the phone co. for them to reprogram the number of the phone installed in the truck. Every phone co. employee looked at the phone and would you believe, no one knows how to reprogram my phone. Something about it being too old. It still works, so I don't think it's too old.
Posted by Bill Dirkes (Member # 1000) on :
Bob, We went thru the same thing after our son died in 99. To make matters worse the government officials lost his "official" death certificate thru a spelling error. It took four months for them to figure out this document was still on file and had not been picked up. The funeral home kept pestering them untill they did a date search to find old certificates never sent out.
In the mean time our phone is ringing off the hook with bill collectors, and most of them thought we were lying about Chris being dead. How cynical can you get?!
Here's another one that'll frost ya. Six months after our son died, my mother-in-law died of cancer. She had a life insurance policy that she had paid over $6000 into and when we recieved the policy it paid $2500 in death benefits! The funeral home worked with us to keep the cost as low as possible, but the family had to make up the differnce. Unbeleivable!
Posted by Mark Higdon (Member # 2990) on :
Bob, I know exactly how you feel when my Dad Passed away basicly the same phone calls and nasty letters and two of the So called Doctors were the worst I keep getting calls sayin "we do not understand his reluctance to contact us concerning this matter" It gets to the point it is so assanine it is almost funny thier is no common sense just thier text book answers, On a possitive note the doctors stoped calling when I said well you killed him do you understand how much that is going to cost. Also my Dad was burried in the Houston national cemetary since he was a proud ww2 vet, and to our surprise when we went to se the head stone about a month latter it has my brothers name on it and served in the Korean war, it will be 1 year the 21st of this month and do you how stupid our goverment is about changing there mistake, I don't think I can type that long. On the brite side my brother is using the picture of the head stone to try and convince every one he is dead in advance to avoid all this mayheim.
Magic
Posted by Bruce Williams (Member # 691) on :
This outsourcing of Customer-Service phones to foreign labor could backfire pretty badly.
It's being done, of course, because slavery is illegal in the US, so the big corporations are hiring where Emancipation is not enforced. Sometimes it's a hoot when CusService can't pronounce the name of your street. Especially if you're inquiring about your income tax or a bank balance or an insurance policy. It's less funny when you imagine those jobs didn't go to fellow citizens, many of whom could use a job right now.
In some of those remote computer-phone banks, "security" is not exactly the right word. Somebody could mess with your records, or government records. Even if Wal-Mart were suddenly unable to take credit cards, that could shut down a goodly part of the US. But that would be as nothing, if suddenly you were unable to get into a hospital.
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
When my father-in-law died, we set up an estate to try to pay off his charge cards & medical bills with the tiny sporatic residual income he was getting. I'm the administrator. A few of his charge cards were ok to deal with but there's this one that sent the account to the collection agency from hell. The first few times they called, I was nice. I have explained to them numerous times that he is dead, that as tiny bits of $ come in to the estate, I cut checks, that charge cards are the last of the priority list for paying off debts in PA.
Bt this dickwad in charge of the account has called me several times a day, refused to allow me to talk to his supervisor, demanded I pay this off out of my pocket telling me that it is now my responsibilty to make sure this is paid off since I'm the administrator and has threatened to sue ME personally. I told him to sue the estate but he certainly isn't going to get any $ if there isn't any in the estate. I also asked him what he was doing working collections if he is an expert in estate law in PA (especially since he isn't in PA) and obviously thinks he knows more than the estate attorney. I then lost my patience, screamed F*%$ Off! and hung up.
