Determined to offer... confusion in uncertain times

Crisis management, where art thou? Commbank, Commbank... Bommbank. As a long-term customer, I, like many others (200,000 people) awoke today to find my account balances playing musical chairs with me. What's even worse is that I found out about the error via News.com.au, I'm still yet to receive any communication from the bank.

http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23600,24703544-5014239,00.html

It's also funny to see the comments section of the above link has turned into a meat market for tellers and call centre staff to throw in their two cents:

As a staff member at a call centre for CBA I would just like to than all the CBA customers for their patience and understanding. After being on the phones with you customers all day, I do understand the inconveniance this problem has caused. We are only human and systems do have problems from time time. I just know that the team I work with are trying hard to keep our customers happy....and things are sometimes just out of our hands. I hear that we now may have a fix for the problem, and I know personally that I will make every effort tomorrow at work with every client by being patient and understanding

Posted by: Terri of of CBA 8:36pm today, Comment 324 of 328

I am a staff member for the commonwealth bank, some of you people need to realise that we are all humans and people and systems can make mistakes from time to time, even as a staff member i have been affected. This is what i have been explaining to customers all day and they have all gone away happy that at least they know what has happened and they have been told they're money will be returned and any fees will be refunded. Not everything in life is picture perfect. And just for everyone's information they have found a way to fix the problem which will hopefully be fixed overnight tonight.

Posted by: Todd of cba of melbourne 6:36pm today, Comment 320 of 328

Don't Worry all, you will be reimbursed for this technical glitch. This is not a problem with our outsourced services to India, this always happens. It's just neva effected this many people before. We like your business, so please be patient.

Posted by: jude of cba of frankston 3:54pm today, Comment 308 of 328

So it happens all the time? Wow reassuring.

Where is the important clear and consistent message from senior management? Why weren't employees briefed about what they can and cannot say online and to the media? I know CBA is a mammoth organisation but surely they can see the same principles that apply offline, should be replicated online!

And to finish, naturally a couple of ranting customers (not including this post!):

Paying fees to banks to use our savings money on the stock exchange : disgusting ATM fees : abhorrent Bank Spin : disgraceful Interest rates : higher than everywhere else on the planet. Why am I paying acct keeping fees, loan fees, application fees, exit fees, henious overdrawal fees..the list goes on and on. ..and now they LOSE MY MONEY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Posted by: dougie of brisneyland 11:04am today, Comment 41 of 328

It would be courtesy for the bank to have a pop up on netbank or auto recorded mge on phone banking to advise customers of the glitch. I found out via news.com.au. Not good enough. Now lets the the repurcussions of this from o/drawn fees, overdraft interest and unpaid credit card interest...... lets see how quick they are to fix all that!

Posted by: Mel of Tas 10:54am today, Comment 28 of 328

iPhone Applications that I may or may not endorse...

The next hundred words or so are going to bang on about the iPhone, so I'd recommend haters and laggards stop reading now, or read and realise that there is a whole other world of marketing possibilities that you are missing out on. You don't have to like the platform, just acknowledge that there's a good chance your customers might.

At the moment, I am just one app away from moving onto my fourth screen page full, so I thought I'd give a run down on what I have downloaded so far and perhaps... you know... we can share app stories. I must mention though that nearly all apps but one on my list were free of charge. I don't really believe in paying for apps, in the same way that I don't believe that websites should charge users a subscription fee to access their content. It's so not Web 2.0.

Ok here goes...

Must haves:
--> Facebook
--> Twitterific
--> Google
--> eBay
--> Wikipanion

Neat for work:
--> MProfs
--> MProfsQ&A
--> Dictionaire
--> NYTimes
--> WritePad (a little PDA never goes astray)

Fun but can live without:
--> Google Earth
--> MetroFree (Melbourne public transport timetables)
--> Remote (universal digital remote)

Party Trick central:
--> Shazam (this is the most innovative app to-date)
--> MiniPiano (just learnt how to play Happy Birthday - meaning I can add that extra touch to birthday voice mails)
--> Lightsaber (seeing is believing)
--> iPint (best product integration so far by Carling)

Download because you can:
--> Chanel
--> Style.com (home of US Vogue)
--> GeoPedia (Like Wiki but content is derived by your current location, so a walk down Swanston Street in Melb's CBD might give you the history of the architecture, places to eat or prominent people)
--> Shakespeare (nothing like reading the great works of a literary master on a 7x5cm screen ;-P)
--> 100 Words to Sound Smart (meant for trailer trash, as smart words include 'angst', 'Catch-22' and 'epitome')
--> Flashlight (points out a flaw in the iPhone)
--> Translator & French (perfect for travelling)

Neat games:
--> Hangman
--> F25 Hockey (ah... arcade games)
(Not really a gamer so you can see I really need to expand this section)

My lonely paid app:
--> Koi Pond (too hard to describe... a pond with fish in it and the water ripples... seems boring but the beauty is in the fact that it is an excellent relaxant)

Quick profile pimp

Jules just did a belated post about Mr Scott Drummond of Sports Hydrant (& formerly of marketingmag.com.au), which included a shout-out this way. Thanks Jules and great post! Scott was instrumental in humanising and bringing personality to the Marketing brand, after all who wants to connect to a masthead when they could connect to a face (and an afro). I've mentioned it in my post on the site and will here as well, I've got big shoes to fill but I feel that having some preexisting understanding of the community will help me to continue on from where Scott left off. The only thing is, it's hard to maintain things on the home front with such a large task at hand so apologies if my blog is/becomes as boring as bat shit.

On another note, would love to meet Melburnian bloggers at this Thurday's Beersphere, David posted the details over on his blog here.