When I decided to purchase a new television, I shopped online and found the company I wanted to order from. Crutchfield. They are known for their customer service, and my uncle, who has purchased many things from them, swears by the quality of their service. I tried using both their email and live help, and was able to resolve any other questions that I had. I decided to go ahead and order.
To expedite matters I just decided to use my debit card. Usually I would use a credit card but because I was doing some online banking, I had transferred the funds over to my checking account. On Wednesday I decided that everything was good to go. Unfortunately "go" wasn't "going" very smoothly.
Crutchfield has a policy of verifying your card with the banking institution that issued it. I rarely use the bank card that I decided to use for my fateful purchase. When Crutchfield called, my bank refused to provide any information, and the transaction was therefore declined. I emailed my personal banker, only to find out upon following up with a phone call, that she was no longer employed there. Another bank employee took the call, and she told me she was the person Crutchfield contacted, and that she could not divulge any account holder information. The bank thought that it would be a balance inquiry. I told her that all Crutchfield wanted was to verify that I am the person who indeed is making this purchase. I was told that for security and privacy reasons, I would need to sign a disclosure form giving them permission to verify my name/address/phone number and card number. While it is great that my bank protects my privacy, since I already was on the phone with them this seemed to be overkill!!! I faxed the signed authorization, and both Crutchfield and I thought we were finally good to go.
We tried to go forward but ended up going nowhere. Crutchfield told me they couldn't't get the transaction to go through, that it was being declined. With one phone connected to Crutchfield, I used another phone to call the bank. Apparently my bank is extraordinarily good at keeping their account holder's funds safe, and in the bank, as evidenced by my not being able to get my money out! I had briefly thought about just using a credit card, but by now I was determined to complete the transaction the way I had initiated it. The bank employee asked me how much the purchase was. Apparently they have limit as to how much an account holder can withdraw per day using a debit card. While this is great if you are being forced at gunpoint to withdraw your funds, since I called them I found this rather inconvenient. Unfortunately it was also immovable.
The bank representative suggested either breaking the transaction up in two days, or using an ACH transfer, which would be a direct debit to my account. My Crutchfield customer service guy contacted another department to find out if either could be done, and unfortunately it turned out to be that neither type of transaction could be done. He did have the idea that I could get a gift certificate and apply it to my purchase so that the balance due that would hit my debit card would be less than my bank's daily withdrawal allotment. Wanting to expedite this, I bought the gift card on a different bank's debit card, really testing the boundaries of processing. Two hours later that transaction still had not been completed. I called Crutchfield and it was held up because it needed to be verified, AND I had to call back from the phone number associated with my card. By 6pm Friday evening, I still had not received the e-gift card.
My e-gift card arrived via email on Saturday morning, as did a call from Hunter, my now favorite Crutchfield employee. Together we suffered the effects of security policies, systems and procedures that are ostensibly in place to protect the consumer from unauthorized transactions. His system did not show the gift card number yet, so I read it to him, and we were able to FINALLY get the transaction to go through. This translated to over 3 days of effort to get a basic online purchase to be completed. It was truly one of the most frustrating experiences I ever had, yet this frustration was due to two companies with policies in place that are designed to protect the consumer.
Would I want these policies changed by either company? No, not really. Next time I'll just give up and use a credit card, but I'd have to keep my fingers crossed that the transaction goes through. A month ago the card company from one of my credit cards called to say there was fraudulent activity on my card. My card was automatically canceled by the card company and once I verified on the phone (thankfully I didn't have to jump through as many hoops as one of my bank's required) they reissued a new one. Of course any orders I had outstanding that were waiting to ship and then be billed were declined, too.
What disturbs me regarding all of this is that:
1). These procedures are all a sign of our current times, where financial and credit fraud are so abundant that companies need to put in place increasing safeguards to reduce fraud and identity theft.
2). That credit cards rule. I once tried to not have a credit card, and it quickly became evident that in our modern world, that just isn't possible.
3). One of the positives about debit card use is that their transactions do not impact your credit report. How three companies suddenly became the "be all" method that allows consumers to get credit, rent an apartment and buy a car when none of this was permissioned by the consumer has always been a sore point with me. Related to this, I dislike and disrespect the fact that our privacy in this country is "for sale," as data miners and companies sell information (and misinformation) about us for a fee. All of that is easily downloaded so people who have no business trying to get into our business don't even have to get up out of their chairs to invade our lives with any semblance of informed consent on our part.
4). Anyone who had experienced severe financial difficulty and who does not have a credit card probably experiences a substantial amount of frustration and inconvenience if they need to rent a car, make purchases of expensive but necessary items and if they basically need to do anything that those of us who have credit cards take for granted. The irony is that for many, the concept of "going into debt" every time one uses a credit card is so disconnected from reality, (that is, until the bill comes), versus looking into your wallet and seeing that you have less cash.
Yet all of "this" is where we are today, and "this" is what we have, as a society, become.
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