It was a fine, sunny Sunday morning, my brother and I wanted to buy something online for our nephew. I quickly pulled out my Internet Card and inputted the details and, to our surprise, the transaction got rejected.
So we dialed the call center number of a major bank in Kuwait, and the customer service agent informed us that my card is blocked since I delayed the payment. I authorized the payment after 15th, (which happens to be the due date), and the transaction shows up on my Internet Card statement; I have sufficient credit to make a purchase.
The agent calmly responded that I needed to visit my branch to unblock my card.
I simply asked him, "Isn't it not logical to a banking system, to just unblock a card when the transaction is done, qualifying it to be valid again for use?"
The agent cordially repeats again, "Please visit your branch Sir"?
I made a quick visit to my branch (Yes, you have to visit THE branch where you opened your account! Sadly my office is in The City and my branch quite far away).
After explaining the issue to the Customer Care Representative at the branch, she replies, "we have to send an email to the head quarters to get your card unblocked and it may take 24 - 48 hours for that."
Now, this is a minor instance where the banking software itself can check to ascertain whether the card is blocked - when a valid transaction is done, and unblock it if the transaction succeeds. This only shows how inconvenient the customer experience can become due to a minor issue of information technology. At the very least, the major banks in Kuwait need to review their IT and software benchmarks based on surveys and general feedback by customers. The idea here is that a very minor feature, when under-estimated, can cause a much inconvenience to a large customer base, not just the incident mentioned above, but other issues related to banking transactions, that ultimately taint customer service satisfaction.
I am still stuck with my card blocked, with Customer Care representatives not acting like they are bothered about the issue.
Then they should be called as Customer Careless Agents.
I am done with this bank.
They suck.
~ Soul
Soul, out of curiosity what bank are we talking about here.
That is the least of their problems.. its honestly ridiculous how banks operate in this manner in Kuwait. They go overboard with the way they handle the customer. There should be somebody in the customer service center who can take that action, not having to visit the branch every time.
Hilaliya,
ABK..
Z District,
Its amazingly ridiculous to visit a branch for every little thing.
The way the banks assume certain things is unacceptable.
We are not living in 1980s you see.
And I bet even that time service in other countries would be much efficient than the existing service of Kuwaiti Banks.
~ Soul
The reason for visiting your own branch is so that your accounts manager can verify that you are in fact the actual legal holder of the card you're using.
As someone who 'knows' believe me when I tell you that it's not the banks' problem, but the restrictions placed on them by the Central bank of Kuwait. Unfortunately, laws related to e-commerce and e-banking in Kuwait are not up to the standards required to effective customer service. One case I remember is the requirement for a bank to have the customer's signed consent on file before he or she actually established the online account, something still prominent in some of the smaller banks today.
The banks in Kuwait, especially the large ones, are doing what they can to cater to customer satisfaction-the awareness is there and present-but they're restricted to what their Legal and Audit Departments tell them to do.
Its the networking of the banks and also certain restrictions arising due to poor implementation of standard rules / not so standard rules that keeps the accounts manager busy and customers frustrated.
I understand that sometimes a minor convenience may need major considerations and amendments.
And there is a time for everything, but if it passes because of ignorance or negligence, its going to cost in a long run.
~ Soul