Tuesday 25 November 2008

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

2 comments:

  1. Nice post Kate, we must have had the same thoughts this today (including an eerily similar headline!) I think it's amazing that the CommBank did not address this directly with their customers. They have every detail of mine but no communication!

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  2. It is funny, because they have made an attempt to act on a human level, they just forgot to brief tellers on what is professional and what is social. On one hand I applaud them for allowing the staff to post (well both hands given the whole clapping reference. But on the other...foot...I scold them for working so hard only to fall over at the final hurdle.

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