When Even an Ex-CSR Loses Their Cool: The Nightmare of Updating My Bank Info

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Can you admit a time you have likely caused a customer service person grief?

I Know Better, But…

I’m sure that I have probably caused customer service personnel more grief than I’ll ever realize. Having said that, I like to think that I’m easy-going when dealing with them. After all, they are merely the messengers more often than not. As a customer, my issue isn’t with them personally; it’s with the policies of the business that employs them. In addition to all that, I’ve worked in customer service myself. In fact, I wrote about a very early test of my metal in customer service HERE, Clearly I know how harshly customer service representatives (CSRs) can be treated by customers.

The latest instance of me giving a customer service representative grief was just a few weeks ago. Back in March, I had changed my cell phone number. While I was quick to update it with the people and places I deal with every day, there were a few cases where I didn’t update my correct information as quickly as I should have. Enter my bank.

The Digital Trap: Zelle and My Old Number

I must admit that I do very little face-to-face banking these days. I use my banking app and pay for a lot of things online, so there is very little need to interact with my local branch often. As a result, I never updated my phone number, either with my bank or with Zelle, the online payment service that many banks use. Of course, with Zelle being a third-party company, they are another proverbial cook entering the kitchen.

Recently, I had to send some money to Kid 1 via Zelle. As the apps occasionally do, the Zelle portal through my banking app was asking me to put in my phone number. They were going to send me a confirmation text for verification. The problem was, they were going to send it to my old number, as that was the number on record.

Passing the Buck (Pun Intended)

One would think that it would be easy enough to log in and update my contact information. If I couldn’t do it in the app, I should be able to update said information either over the phone or in person. One would think…

To make a long story short, both my bank and Zelle were passing the buck (pun intended) back and forth to one another. Each blaming the other for the issues with updating my contact information. When all was said and done, I had made four phone calls between the two businesses and made two in-person visits to the bank to speak with an employee.

Venting to the Messenger (or Resolution and Regret)

I felt very bad for the customer service rep I spoke to on the phone. I had to vent to him. I knew none of this was his fault, but I also knew I was ready to close my bank account if somebody didn’t get me some answers. I even told the CSR as much: “I know this isn’t your fault and this isn’t personal, but I got to vent…“ To my surprise, he let me. I was exasperated. I wondered how I could either Zelle or my bank with my money if I could not trust them to update my contact information. Eventually, we realized they were two separate and isolated incidents – one on each company’s end. The branch manager was very helpful at the bank. Once the phone number was updated on the banking side, it became much easier to update things on Zelle’s end as well.

In the end, my problem got solved. I can’t really blame either my bank or Zelle for the others mistakes, but they both dropped the proverbial ball. I leaned into my own experience as a customer service representative and tried to keep my cool. Obviously that didn’t work out very well.

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