Jananas

I signed up for the e-Statement option on my President’s Choice Financial MasterCard as soon as it became available. It saves the company money (on paper and postage) and saves me from having to shred my statements (to protect my identity). Back in January there was some system-wide glitch and everyone received paper statements. A little annoying, especially given that the ad overlay that month was “go green” (ha!), but things go wrong sometimes and that’s fine. However, I have continued to receive paper statements every month since then.

I logged into their website yesterday to confirm that I was still signed up to receive e-statements and the little box at the bottom of the page was still checked off. I sent customer service a little note asking why I was receiving paper statements when my settings were set to receive e-statements only. The response I got back thanked me and told me that my paper statements were now turned on and I’d be receiving them monthly (erm, I already am!). Cue me hitting my head in frustration. I called into the call centre this morning (costing the company money so that they’ll stop wasting their money and my time), and got an admittedly nice CSR to turn the e-statement option back on.

Major problems here for me as a customer? One: the e-statement option (which expressly tells me that if I choose it means that I will no longer be receiving paper statements) has been ‘checked’ the entire time. So obviously there’s a disconnect between the website and the backend system. When the customer views information than is different from what is in your system, that’s an issue! Two: I had not changed my setting to stop being an e-statement only customer. So somehow a setting was changed in the system without my knowledge or permission, and still appeared in my customer view as if everything was normal. That’s a major issue! I’ve asked that it be investigated, so here’s to hoping that they can actually figure it out and get back to me about it.

From a business perspective I understand that the company might want to send me a paper statement because it provides them with another marketing channel. But, if they really understood customer analytics then they’d know that I’m never going to take out a convenience cheque so there’s really no point in spending the money to send them to me. And really, it just seems like good business practice to help your customers help you save on operating costs!