VISA's NextCard Disappointment

# 19 for February 7, 2002

Complaints.com received the following e-message on February 6, 2002:

From: sean lightholder [Email User]

VISA's NextCard Disappointment

Sent To: Email User; Email User; Email User

Dear Sir or Ma'am, I am not sure this is the correct place to send a complaint about the personnell at VISA's NextCard division, but I am so personally insulted by their behavior that I will never use their services again and will reccommend to anyone I meet to avoid using them at all costs. An unauthorized charge ($12) was made to my card in December. However, it went unnoticed due to my NextCard bill not arriving at my house that month. In January I placed a large charge on my card (over $2000). As I do not use my card often, I took the precaution of calling in to inform NextCard that this charge was valid. At that time, a helpful agent informed me of the unknown $12 December charge so I could look into it and waived the $19 late fee it had incurred. I paid my bill in full that very same day, minus the amount of the waived fee, of course. Today I phoned in to ensure my account contained a zero balance only to be personally insulted by the manager of customer service (Frank) for not paying my December bill on time. Apparently, I was charged another $4.98 for not paying the December late fee (which I had been told would be waived). Frank was belligerent, insulting and thoroughly unprofessional in his conversation with me, telling me I should take responsibility for my spending and should expect levied service charges when I neglect to make my credit card payments on time.

He did, after chastizing me (his words) thoroughly for about 10 minutes, finally offer to instate the promised $19 waiver in addition to removing the subsequent $4.98 charge, but not without inferring that I was lucky he was willing to even consider waiving these fees for such an irresponsible customer. I have worked in the service industry, building corporate infrastructure and customer relationships and I can tell you that even when an agent is SURE the customer may have erred, it's better to give him or her the benefit of the doubt, than to be "right," or worse, rude, and loose a lifetime of repeat and spin-off business. The treatment I received is inexcusable, this man should CERTAINLY NOT be in a position dealing with customers, let alone leading other agents by his managerial example. He was rude, caustic and I have never been so insulted by someone in the service industry. His behavior has cost NextCard a customer for life. Thank you for your time. Regards, -Sean Lightholder

CEO, Lightholder Productions