Faint praise!

Some weeks ago I restructured my bank accounts with BankSA. This involved opening one account and closing another. I subsequently got another piece of plastic which surprised me, but nevertheless when I went to activate it today. I was greeted by a voice which topld me that this Call Centre had won the Best Call Centre in the WORLD!!!! award in 2008. (Seemed unbelievable since members of the family have worked for this organisation in the past and their work practices seemed appalling...still I am wise enough to know that being the Best Call Centre in the World has probably got nothing to do with work practices!!)

Anyway. although inviting me to 'activate' the card, when I got to the point where I had to enter the Activation Code it announced that the Activation Centre was not available....at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon!!

I tried again and it was still not available. So I tried a circuitous route. This time I was invited to say what I wanted...so I said "Card"...we went through to stage 2. It asked "if you want  to activate your card" push 1. So I did and was promptly disconnected. 

Tried again...this time when I said "Card" it didn't even invite me to push 1 I was just disconnected.

This was now the fourth phone call.

I tried again and just sat. And waited for an operator. When I told her what I wanted...I also said and "I want to complain about the Best Call Centre in the world" she accepted the complaint, without asking my name or address or contact number!

When I asked her if she had processed the complaint she said "Yes!" I resisted the temptation to say that she must be not telling the truth!

The business was however completed, not completely...I had to go to the branch to effect the final changes to suit my particular needs. I could perhaps have saved myself the bother and gone there first.

World's Best Call Centre, my foot!!!