Gordaen's Blog

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been receiving letters from Washington Mutual (WaMu) saying that my new credit card is “on its way.” I have found this to be rather strange, because I used to have a Providian card and they were bought by or merged with WaMu, so earlier this year I received a WaMu card. That card has an expiration date in 2011.

I finally received the newest card, thinking maybe something significant had changed on it, but I could find nothing. It’s still a Visa. The account number is the same. The expiration is the same. Even the 3-digit security code is the same. I looked at the tiny numbers that appear on the back of the card and all those were the same. The only difference I could find was this one was “Good From” 09/06 instead of 04/06.

I figured I would call to activate the card and ask the person why I had received a virtual duplicate card. Silly me, I thought I’d be speaking to someone in the Western Hemisphere who spoke English. Attempting to verify my phone number was essentially a failed effort. I told her what it was and she asked me what the area code was, despite that I told her that first. I told it to her again and she repeated the numbers back to verify. I am not one who understands strange accents well, but I think she had it correct. Then she told me she could not find the number in the system. I thought maybe for some reason they had my old cell phone, so I told her that one and she could not find that one either.

I said, “Well, I’m not sure what it is then, because I was in the military and had quite a few phone numbers. I actually used to have a Providian card and then I was sent a Washington Mutual card earlier this year. Today I received this one that looks exactly the same, so I’m not sure—”

“Phone number please,” came the response.

Eventually, I think she told me I had to call the customer service number to make sure my number was correct. Okay, whatever… Then she had to verify everything else. I told her my first name and then spelled it. She verified it by repeating it back to me. Then I told her my last name, which most people can spell just from the sound (though occasionally an extra “f” is included), but she had me spell it. No biggie, I spelled it and she had me repeat it. Then she repeated it back to me with two mistakes in the first three letters. I thought about using the phonetic alphabet, “charlie, lima, india…” but the third one would have been the only one she understood and it wouldn’t have signified a letter. Instead, I just tell it to her again and again and eventually she gets it right.

Next, she asked the street address, so I gave it to her. Then she asked for the zipcode, so I had to tell her that I live in an apartment so she needed to put that on the address part. She asked for the apartment number. I told her. She asked for the apartment number. I told her. She asked for the apartment number… no, I’m not making this up. It took three or four times before she got it. It’s not that she was hearing it incorrectly she just was not realizing that I was telling it to her. After that, I gave her the zipcode. Then she asked for my phone number…

Oh no, the painful journey was not yet over. She repeated it all back to me with several mistakes (yet she was verifying the whole time…). After I corrected her, she attempted to give the speech about how many people setup automatic bill payments, but she messed up after two sentences. Then she said, “Oh, tank ‘ou,” or something to that effect and she started again. I really have no idea what she said.

Eventually she said the generic “Thank you for choosing our lame company. Have a nice day. Bye.” Of course it didn’t sound anything like that. It was all jumbled together with one or two words pronounced correctly.

Now I have to figure out how to contact Providian/WaMu so that I can write a proper complaint letter. Or maybe I’ll contact some place overseas and have someone else write it for a few pennies, because I wouldn’t want to employ coherent Americans. They cost money for quality work. The online contact form is limited to 700 characters, which is nowhere near enough to do this justice. At least online my phone number is correct.

It’s sad… activating a credit card doesn’t have to be painful. This experience is enough to make me consider cancelling the card. Of course, I’d probably have to speak to someone who doesn’t really know English in order to do that.