Is there anything I can do?

brokenwings

I recently closed my tesco platium visa account and did a balance transfer to BA Amex.
Due to me making a payment to visa and also the amex transfer being a bit over the actual owed balance - my tesco visa was over £380 in credit when i closed it down.
Theyre now saying it takes THREE WEEKS to send me that cheque.
I have asked if they will be paying me interest, if theres anyway to hurry the cheque up, and basically they say no ( well the 10 year old who works at their call center says so )
I questioned if owed them £380 and told them it would take three weeks for me to get a cheque to them - what would their actions be - and of course i got a brush off - 'well thats a different situation...' answer.

Basically this is just me being a bit pig headed but its MY money that i could be paying off another debt with and so avoiding some interest.

Any suggestions anyone?

gingercordial

I know it's not getting the cheque back faster but is there any way you can stop the closing process (call them and ask) and just use the card for all your purchases until you've spent £380? All your food shopping/fuel/any bills you can etc. Then you can put the cash you don't spend in the meantime towards your debt.

Is it definitely going to be three weeks or is it just "up to" three weeks? I ask because it's never taken more than a week when I've done it (though I've never tried with Tescos) and I'm sure they've always given me an "up to" much longer than it's actually taken.

brokenwings

its too late to stop the cancellation now - my available balance is zero lol.
their actual wording was it usually takes about three weeks.
im just on hold to speak to a supervisor now ... will update in a sec

regularsaver1

how did you get on?

brokenwings

sorry
stopped for a sandwich before i posted again

supervisor was very nice
said he had access to information that the cust. service rep didnt and that there seems tohave been a misunderstanding - there are SOME instances where cheques take 3 weeks to get sent out ( he didnt say what they are ) but that mine is in fact on its way and was 'dispatched' yesterday.


: )
good job too as my car tax is up at the end of the month!

CTT_2

brokenwings wrote:

sorry
stopped for a sandwich before i posted again

supervisor was very nice
said he had access to information that the cust. service rep didnt and that there seems tohave been a misunderstanding - there are SOME instances where cheques take 3 weeks to get sent out ( he didnt say what they are ) but that mine is in fact on its way and was 'dispatched' yesterday.


: )
good job too as my car tax is up at the end of the month!

Pleased you got a good result but I do feel sorry for the advisors. When a customer starts throwing his/her toys out of the pram and asks for a supervisor, then they normally get what they want. Supervisors who bend the rules because they havnt got the stamina or guts to stand by their staff should be sacked. However why should be care after we have achieved our obective and the supervisor gets the glory and the poor advisor gets the grief.

gingercordial

That's great brokenwings, didn't think it could really take that long for them to send a cheque!

CTT, I don't think from the sounds of it that brokenwings was unreasonable or gave the adviser lots of grief. It sounds like here the adviser was giving out incorrect information which was corrected by the supervisor, no rules bent! Advisers should be properly trained and given proper information then we'd all be happier.

brokenwings

CTT
i didnt give greif at all
i work in customer service and KNOW how it feels when someone takes their anger out on you when youre just doing your job
i asked WHY it would take that long - cust service rep couldnt answer - so i asked to speak to someone who could.
id also like to point out that if customer service reps in phone centers KNEW their product instead of reading from prompts - ifg they knew answers to questions instead of only knowing whats on their script - then perhaps less people WOULD throw their toys out of the pram.

before anyone blasts me i know that not all call centers are as i described above but in my experience - MANY are.

CTT_2

brokenwings wrote:

CTT
i didnt give greif at all
i work in customer service and KNOW how it feels when someone takes their anger out on you when youre just doing your job
i asked WHY it would take that long - cust service rep couldnt answer - so i asked to speak to someone who could.
id also like to point out that if customer service reps in phone centers KNEW their product instead of reading from prompts - ifg they knew answers to questions instead of only knowing whats on their script - then perhaps less people WOULD throw their toys out of the pram.

before anyone blasts me i know that not all call centers are as i described above but in my experience - MANY are.

Well in a perfect world every advisor would know noW doubt their products inside and out. No doubt the call centre you spoke to probably handled calls for other companys and cannot be expected to be an expert in everything These guys are under alot of pressure and if you work in a customer service environment you should be aware of this.

brokenwings

dear lord sorry i spoke.

gingercordial

CTT wrote:

Well in a perfect world every advisor would know noW doubt their products inside and out. No doubt the call centre you spoke to probably handled calls for other companys and cannot be expected to be an expert in everything

I probably shouldn't keep this going, but are you saying that we cannot expect call centre advisers to know the answers to our questions?

If so, what on earth is the point of having them?