Capital One Activates Payment Protection Plan Thanks To EECB
Earlier this week, I posted about a college student who couldn't get Capital One's Emergency Payment Protection Plan activated on his account because of missed deadlines. Andon wrote back today to say that after he sent an EECB to the credit card company's executives, they apologized and activated the service.
To recap, Capital One told Andon to wait 30 days before calling in to request activation. When he followed their instructions and called back 30 days later, he was told that he had to have called 5 days earlier to activate it for that month. Then he was charged a late fee.
Andon sent the company an Email Executive Carpet Bomb, or EECB, explaining what happened. This was the result:
I would just like to let you know that I sent an EECB, and was contacted today by Greg at Capital One who worked out the problem for me. He said I was absolutely right about the problem with the first month of the Emergency Payment Protection (the whole waiting for thirty days since unemployment, but having to have called five days before the payment's due date,) and that there is actually a special exception program in order to address this, but that it just wasn't followed properly in this case. They were very understanding, and apologized for the inconvenience - all is well, now.
Congratulations, Andon! Remember, if the front line of customer service at a company refuses to see logic or reason, try to escalate it to higher levels. Frequently it's either a case of the CSR being powerless to help you, or a breakdown in training or communication.
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Comments:
That stuff is such a rippoff anyways. They talked me into it when i was in the military, and said that any time i lose my job i can miss payments. I asked, what if my contract is up, they said "yep". Well sure enough, my time was up, I chose to leave, and they said it doesnt count. I told them i wanted my money back as i was lied to. I wish consumerist was around back then. I might have had more options.
I requested that to be removed from both of my Capital One cards some time ago. Today I look at my accounts and realize that they have again started it up on my accounts. I'm not happy about that.
I frequently get calls offering to sell me "insurance" of this type. The pitch is "What if something happens to you and you can't pay your bills?"
My response always is "If something bad like that happens to me I want everyone to feel bad about it. Including you." I usually hear laughter as I'm hanging up.
Interesting they should show up on the Consumerist feed today, I just got a call from CapOne today, it was that 39$ vs. 29$ overage fee thing I JUST read about here a few days ago..... I specifically asked: "Are you asking me to waive my rights provided by the CARD Act for a lowered overage fee?" and the person on the line said "Yes."
Refreshing, no?
@elysse: There is no "waiving of rights". They are asking you to opt-in to allowing you to exceed your credit limit, which is provided for in the CARD Act.
Their sales pitch was written by slimy weasels, no doubt, but there's no waiving of rights. It's not true just because the phone monkey said so.
Citi has a similar program. They basically charge an extra 10% annual interest for the protection. It is basically a scam. Some details:
I wonder if this is really a result of the EECB, or of it making the front page of Consumerist, and some executive envisioning thousands of people cancelling their "insurance"?