Sexy.Naughty.Bitchy: March 2009

It all started with Fitness First encoding my card number in another member's account. To make the long story short, Fitness First billed me wrongly, and they admitted this in a letter that I got from them on the 10th of October 2008, which I faxed to BDO the next day, Oct. 11, 2008. All the while, I was thinking BDO would reverse the finance charges that got accumulated because of the wrong billing (which happened in May 2008) since:

This is the logical thing to do after an investigation where the party is proven innocent hence all charges should be dropped (in this case, reversed), and
That was what their call center agent, Marby, told me in a conversation I had with her last July 21, 2008

But NO!!! BDO DID NOT ACT UPON MY REQUEST...not until two months AFTER faxing that Fitness First letter to them on Oct. 11, 2008. They finally had a resolution by December 4, 2008, after having talked to eight (8) call center agents...and what was their verdict: The request to reverse the finance charges was DISAPPROVED! WTF!

I am not going to write about my travails with this credit card company since that would take forever (but if you want to, i've included at the bottom of this blog the entire history of my problem with BDO). Instead, i'm writing about the reasons why i'm super pissed off with this ****ing credit card company. Now, let's begin...

(1) They have the lousiest sytem for a credit card company that I know. A case in point: They didn't have a copy of all the documents that I sent/faxed. I got this idea because at least 2 agents told me that only the first P420 was approved for reversal. I kept on pointing out to them that HELLO! yung dalawang P420 ang approved...you even reversed the amount of P840 on October 23, 2008 as reflected in my bill. Now you're telling me isa lang yung approved for reversal? Duh! I asked them if they have a copy of all the documents that I faxed to which I found out they don't. Why? I don't know. But what I know is that a big and known company such as theirs should've invested on a system and implemented a process where they can ensure their customers that everything is recorded, saved, and easily-accessible in the system.

(2) Agents who seem to change their statement every time I call:

Cases in point:

Janna Magalong, whom I talked to on 13JAN2009, told me that when I fax the documents, I can call right after to verify if they received it.
Joseph Ramirez, whom I talked to on the night of 13JAN2009, told me the same thing that Janna said.
Air Delfino, whom I talked to on the morning of 14JAN2009, told me that it takes 1 banking day for them to verify receipt of faxed documents.
Odette Lozanta, whom I talked to at 7:50 in the morning of 15JAN2009, told me to check later in the day since the office who receives all faxed documents start work at 8am.
Jrose Espiritu, whom I talked to at 12:30PM of 15JAN2009, told me that it takes a maximum of 2 banking days for them to confirm receipt of faxed documents.

So...gaano ba talaga katagal before they can have the documents that you faxed reflected in their system? Apparently, 10 DAYS or 8 BANKING DAYS! It took them 10 DAYS to confirm receipt of faxed documents. Documents were faxed on 06-JAN-2009, and it was only on the 16th of January that they confirmed receipt of the 06JAN2009 fax...and that wasn't even the one that I called to inquire about...I was inquiring about the fax that I sent on 13JAN2009!

(3) You tell them to call you when they're about to review the case, you even leave ALL of your contact numbers (home, office, mobile...kahit na dapat yung system nila has these information at hand), but THEY DON'T CALL. I had to find out that they already acted on my request when I called to inquire. I reiterated my request that they CALL me when they're about to review the case but all they did was text. So...what part of the word CALL do they not understand? Takot lang ba silang kumausap at ma-bara ng customer? Baka hindi lang marunong mag-english kaya ayaw tumawag...hanggang text lang kasi pwede ipa-check sa ibang tao kung tama ang grammar at spelling.

(4) Annual fee was charged after just ten months of usage of card. Why? Apparently, their charging of annual fee charge is based on the date that the card was released from their system, which was Dec.2007 as I was told. I received and had my card activated on Feb. 20, 2008. That's two months of time where I wasn't aware that BDO was even sending me a credit card. So...logically speaking, how am I supposed to use a credit card that I haven't received? I wasn't even aware that they were sending me a credit card, for Christ's sake! OK lang sa akin that they charge me with annual fee if I didn't reach the agreed annual spending, but ilagay naman sana sa lugar. "ANNUAL" nga eh...meaning one year, which is equivalent to 12 months...HINDI 10! Good thing this additional headache didn't last for long because they reversed the charges by next billing but it just goes to show how lousy and base-less their system is.

(5) Sam Serrano: She had the audacity to tell me that she was monitoring my account the whole time. Oh, really now? If she really was closely monitoring it, then the Finance Charges would've been reversed a long time ago (like 3 months ago, when she first called to inform us that once they have a copy of the credit memo/reversal request letter from Fitness First, they'll reverse all charges ASAP). She even told me na sayang naman daw if I have the card cut-off, with which I told her: "Yung sama ng loob na dinulot nyo sa akin (Yes, I used the word "dinulot") it's not worthit. I'd rather pay P9,000 than continue being your customer. I'd rather have other credit card companies profit from my purchases but definitely NOT BDO." [NOTE: The P9,000 is for the iPod that I availed through their promo] All she could say was sorry and apologize. Don't get me wrong, this is not an attack on the person but on the company she represents, which has the worst system you could possibly think of for a credit card company.

I asked her why it took them so long to reverse the finance charges (it even got disapproved several times...4 times if i'm not mistaken)...to the point that I even had to ask for help from a relative who works at Equitable (which we all now know is BDO) to help me out and it's actually because of this that my request got immediate action (no thanks to any of the agents or to the office to whom these agents forward my requests), and all she could give me as an answer was: Nagpatong-patong na po kasi Ma'am yung request. To which I was not able to give her any reaction because of sheer disbelief to what she just said.

All in all, I talked to a total of 34 people from BDO in a span of 8 months. The headaches finally ended on 12FEB2009 (no thanks to these call center agents) and just last weekend, I got the billing statement with all charges reversed (the finance charges total came up to P6,911.98) and yours truly having no pending balance with BDO. I also already had my card (and the supplementaries) cut off as soon as all charges got reversed and all purchases have been paid (we stopped using the card last December 2008).

So...kung gusto nyo ng sakit ng ulo, go ahead, apply for a BDO Credit Card. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

Some additional notes:

Since most of the calls I made with BDO was done during lunch break at the office, my officemates can't help but hear all the discussions I had with these BDO agents. When they learned about my problems with BDO, they willingly shared their problems as well...and these are some of them:

My officemate had her BDO credit card cut off because they were charging her finance charges due to late payment. But why was her payment late? Kasi late dumating yung bill ng BDO. She was very angry with BDO that, aside from having her credit card cut off, she closed all her & her husband's accounts with them. And she's not the only one with that same case. Another officemate of mine has been having problems with the receipt of their statement kasi laging just in the nick of time kung dumating. There was even one time, kinailangan pa nila takutin yung kausap nila from BDO telling them that pag hindi dumating yung statement, hindi nila babayaran yung bill. Ayun, the next day, the bill arrived. So...kailangan may pananakot pa'ng involved bago dumating yung bill? Shame on you, BDO!

Post Script...I was asked to try to end this on a "positive" note, and here's all that I came up with: BDO credit card should really try to improve the way they handle things and employ call center agents that can decide right there and then, which is how things are with other credit card companies. They at least owe this to the customers they have left.

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My BDO credit card, all cut up, along with my mom's and dad's