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When are people gonna learn…?

There are simply some folks who you should never mess with!

Because if you do, they can make your life very difficult.

I’m talking about the DMV, the IRS, any kind of healthcare professional…and anyone who works at a bank!

It’s best to smile, nod your head, and never raise your voice when you deal with these folks…or else.

Take a look at what this bank worker had to say about a customer who probably regrets being rude.

Want me to withdraw your redress payment? Yes ma’am!

“I work for a major UK bank, dealing with the giving of refunds for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

Specifically, I’m on the team that deals with complex queries and unusual situations, as well as when the customer has further queries after we have sent our rejection or acceptance of their complaint.

A few months ago, the part of our team that calls customers with issues that the normal call centers in India can’t deal with was a bit short handed, and as I’m one of the most senior team members, with knowledge of all the processes our team uses, I was asked to call customers to assist as I was having a slow day, and my productivity is high enough that I can afford to spend about 2 days a week doing other tasks if need be.

Most of these consist of ‘please explain why my redress payment isn’t higher’, ‘please can you run me through how you calculated my refund’ etc., with about one in five requiring specialist knowledge of a particular law or bank process.

Well, he picked the right name for the main character in this story!

So, enter angry customer, henceforth known as Karen. Karen had been offered a hefty refund sum, around £3,000 (well above the average), and we were currently in the process of paying it.

Karen had rung up to demand why she wasn’t receiving £7,000+, as that was “what all the TV adverts said”. Apparently we had deliberately lowered her payment because of…reasons. She was kind of unclear.

I explained to Karen that the TV adverts are misleading, and that your average complaint handler has no control over the amount of money each customer receives, as things such as date taken out, time PPI was active, etc. are all taken into account and fed through a calculation program, which gives us a figure.

She wasn’t buying it!

Apparently I was lying.

Karen demanded that I withdraw her payment and give her a new ‘more appropriate’ offer. I explained to the customer that we couldn’t just withdraw an offer, and if she felt she was entitled to more redress, she could take it up with the Financial Ombudsman, who would review her case. Regardless of their decision, her payment would be going ahead.

Karen wasn’t having any of it, and demanded I look at her files and personally pay her a bigger sum. Rolling my eyes, I humored her and did a brief scan of her files.

Oh, what’s this? It looks like Karen was declared bankrupt about 15 years ago, and both the initial contact team and payments had missed it (to be fair, it WAS kind of well hidden and your average employee wouldn’t recognize it).

Well, isn’t that interesting…?

For those who don’t know, being bankrupt affects you for the rest of your life, as even when you’re discharged, you just go into a ‘less bad’ bankruptcy. The only way out is to pay back every last penny.

Anyway, for PPI, this means she is not entitled to any redress, and furthermore, isn’t even allowed to make a complaint. Normally, procedure in this case is to inform the customer that you will arrange for a colleague to call them back in an hour or so, and then to consult with the insolvency team.

The insolvency team will then call the customer back to explain the situation, how it relates to their specific insolvency, and the steps forward. In this case, her offer would be withdrawn, and she would be told her available options.

However…I run the insolvency team, and all complex insolvency queries go through me. This means I am authorized to proceed with the call as is. Karen is in the middle of another rant while I’m looking into this and is again demanding that I withdraw her payment and send her a letter with the ‘amount she deserves’.

She was really asking for it!

As said before, normally I’d run the customer through the situation and explain what their options to claim the money were. For Karen though…I apologize to Karen, polite as can be and tell her that yes, I WILL be withdrawing her payment and sending her a letter detailing her new redress.

Karen huffs and complains it took me long enough, and then hangs up.

I delete all of her redress off the system, close down the payment memo, and then send the most bare-bones withdrawal of offer (due to bankruptcy) letter I can.

Normally, I fill in a lot of extra details so the customer finds it easier to understand and understands everything – they’re rarely happy, but they understand why we have to take that position.

Ouch…

However, we don’t actually HAVE to do that as per the procedure. Off goes the letter, first class, as the customer DID seem like she wanted her ‘new amount’ quickly.

I congratulate myself on doing EXACTLY what the customer wanted.

Karen wrote in a few weeks later whining. I ensure the item is routed to our team that reissues letters. This ensures that the EXACT same letter is sent out, along with a covering letter saying ‘please find enclosed the requested information’.

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After all, no point writing a new letter when I’ve already answered the query once!”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who gets fired, then ends up with extra cash due to a loophole in the termination letter.

And another individual spoke up.

Ouch…that hurts.

Like I said, you don’t mess with folks who work at banks…

Because you’ll regret it!

She should’ve just kept her mouth shut and accepted the original offer!

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Author

Matthew Gilligan