Aside from my disgust that, as a small business customer, I should have to pay a hefty monthly charge to use online banking (which, surely saves the bank money and should, therefore, be encouraged), I’ve really been peeved at their customer support over one reoccurring incident.

So the company administrator login has 2 passwords (or 2 halves to the one password), which must be changed every 90 days. The process is you supply the username and first half of he password. It then pops up a new window (sound HCI fundamentals there) asking for the second half. If either are incorrect, you’re told so. So after login, if your password has expired, it prompts you to change your password. 6 boxes appear (old 2 halves, new 2 halves and confirm new 2 halves). When I enter the various passwords, I get prompted that I need to use the same old password as I used to login. So after lots of tries, including checking source to make sure labels vs. input boxes were mixed up), I still get no further .. except to invalidate my administrator user certificate, so I’ve to go through the registration thing with BoI again.

So I ring support.. who after going through every setting (that I’ve already checked against their online documentation), tell me I must be typing the password incorrectly, and is there someone there who is more “savvy” with computers? How am I meant to be nice after a pretty degrading comment like that?!!? So after various more exchanges, the conclusion is that I can’t type, and that no-one else has this problem (I love that excuse .. we’ve not heard of it before, therefore, you are stupid/lying). So after the second 90 day period came (and I failed to renew my password, having to re-register for my new cert.), I make a point of how come this is still an issue.. same response I can’t type.. never heard of it.

However, this time, there was a change in attitude.. suddenly this is a know issue.. but get this. I ring up at the end of the day, and I get through to a supervisor, who tells me the old tale that it must be me.. so this time I try a little firmer.. “If I can’t login as my company administrator by this time tomorrow, I’m canceling, and will be seeking a refund to represent the time I wasted on this” .. so she puts me on to a second level support guy who goes through all the settings, as so many times before. However, he does escalate the problem, assured of my ability to type. The following day I get a call saying they’re aware of the issue, and it has been a known issue for some time (but wouldn’t say how long!!!).

Once again, I’ve wasted hours of pointless conversation and telephone charges on a M O R O N who believes to know better. I hate companies who employ these morons because it really casts a dark cloud over the very talented and knowledgeable people who (sometimes) work in that call centre. I also hate the emphasis on call stats which, in my experience have been too focused on timing, and not on query resolution. In fact Dell are the only call centre I’ve been asked, essentially, was I happy to resolve/close the query.

Surely all it takes is to have a decent comms system in place to allow either me or them to determine the category of problem, which the attendant can then see a list of known-issues/FAQs….