I lost my Barclaycard.
I’m typically not a forgetful person and I don’t loose things. Ever. Well, almost. But for some reason in the last year I’ve had a complete mare with my Barclaycard. Before this year, I’d only ever lost a couple of cards in my whole 32 years. In the last year I’ve had 4 new barclaycards. It has been a full on year though; new house, new baby and more travel with work (the card has had a bit of a hammering).
I digress. So I ask to borrow a colleagues Barclaycard as the number to report a lost card should be on there. Ah, ok – when did they stop printing cards with that number on the back? No worries, I remember there is a button in the app: menu > ‘get a replacement card’ > choose to ‘report a damaged card ‘or ‘report a lost card’. I hit the latter and the app calls Barclaycard customer services. This is slick – they surely know it’s me calling so once a couple of ID checks to be done and my card should be blocked and a new one will be winging it’s way to me. Cool. Or so I thought.
I get dropped straight in to the bottom of what appears to be the normal customer service line. Hmmm. An automated voice prompts me to tell it what I want. I get about 3 or 4 levels deep, but with a couple of mistakes along the way it seems to be working ok. Unfortunately after miss hearing my card number twice the automated man runs home to mummy and transfers me to a customer service rep most apologetically. We start over again. It is quicker talking to a human.
Weirdly, I then get asked why I’m not looking after my Barclaycard. This is odd. I’m made to feel careless and the conversation takes an awkward turn. I now feel like an inconvenience and not the loyal customer I am. I explain, a bit angrily, that as it happens on two of the last three occasions I had simply misplaced the card in my house – I found it shortly after – but I reported it straight away as I didn’t want to leave myself exposed. I also forget at the time of the conversation that, earlier last year, I was sent a new card for the reason that Barclays thought that my details may have been compromised via a retailer’s systems. Were they then asked to be more careful? I also stressed on the call that it doesn’t matter why or for what reason, that’s not the point is it?
Do Barclays want me to hesitate the next time I loose my card and then not call them for fear of being called, albeit indirectly, a fool or a klutz? Is that safer? I already value the security of my card as it is a pain in the arse to be without it (not to mention the possibility of being exposed to fraud). So, will a dig from a CSR change my personal value-system and produce different behaviour from me in the future? Maybe.. and it might put some people off from being so quick to call in.
All in all it’s a lot more added stress and confusion at a time when I’m already a bit stressed. The process could be so much slicker and faster. Perhaps a rethink of the full process might be a good idea?
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