Process: Privacy is painful
Capital One recently sent me one of those fine-print privacy-policy mailings and "opt out" instructions. This isn't because Capital One and the rest of the banks, brokers and credit card companies want to be good guys about our privacy. They're required by Federal law to do this once a year..
... and they don't make it easy to get away from the "information sharing." First (and least important) they've hired Mrs Blaster to record the voice prompts -- it's loud, grating, and painful to listen to. Hear for yourself at 1-888-817-2970.
... most important, opting out requires following this fast-talkin' monotone through lengthy rants about "opportunities" and "personalized offers" -- their attempt to get the caller to NOT opt out, by persuasion or confusion. The actual opt-out process consists of pressing the number "1" several times, at just the right moment.
I'm posting this because I just noticed my phone had keypress history on its display, and I'm impressed with the amount of work I had to perform to tell my bank to stop giving information about me to strangers, in relation to two accounts: (account numbers have been replaced)
The call lasted 6 minutes, and I'm pretty fast. Approximately 5 1/2 of the 6 minutes consisted solely of Mrs Blaster shouting about all the great stuff I'd miss if I opted out.
One of the preferences, for one of the accounts, "has already been registered" and cannot be changed over the phone. I can write them at a PO Box to change that specific preference. Of course the recording didn't tell me whether I'm currently opted "out" or "in" for that preference. Let's do the math: Capital One has the compute power to track my account balances, to postal-mail and e-mail me when they want to sell me stuff, plus the ability to assist "trusted business partners" by giving my credit and account records to strangers... but Capital One can't read back a one-bit value related to something that obviously matters to me.
After all that, I now must go to Capital One's preferences website at http://preferences.capitalone.com/ to remove my e-mail addressses. You're not allowed to do that over the phone.
Apologies to readers, cuz this /is/ a rant and I don't have a solution, except to encourage others who confront this to vote with their feet. I hope that by cataloging these insults, more palatable alternatives to the kind of existence imposed by the Capital Ones of the world will become apparent. Capital One is customer-hostile, and won't sell me anything by annoying me. I'll be leaving soon.
... and they don't make it easy to get away from the "information sharing." First (and least important) they've hired Mrs Blaster to record the voice prompts -- it's loud, grating, and painful to listen to. Hear for yourself at 1-888-817-2970.
... most important, opting out requires following this fast-talkin' monotone through lengthy rants about "opportunities" and "personalized offers" -- their attempt to get the caller to NOT opt out, by persuasion or confusion. The actual opt-out process consists of pressing the number "1" several times, at just the right moment.
I'm posting this because I just noticed my phone had keypress history on its display, and I'm impressed with the amount of work I had to perform to tell my bank to stop giving information about me to strangers, in relation to two accounts: (account numbers have been replaced)
1 3 2 5 2 4 6 3 1 1 0 7 #
1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 5 6 4 8 1 1 3 9 #
1 9 1 1 1 1 9The call lasted 6 minutes, and I'm pretty fast. Approximately 5 1/2 of the 6 minutes consisted solely of Mrs Blaster shouting about all the great stuff I'd miss if I opted out.
One of the preferences, for one of the accounts, "has already been registered" and cannot be changed over the phone. I can write them at a PO Box to change that specific preference. Of course the recording didn't tell me whether I'm currently opted "out" or "in" for that preference. Let's do the math: Capital One has the compute power to track my account balances, to postal-mail and e-mail me when they want to sell me stuff, plus the ability to assist "trusted business partners" by giving my credit and account records to strangers... but Capital One can't read back a one-bit value related to something that obviously matters to me.
After all that, I now must go to Capital One's preferences website at http://preferences.capitalone.com/ to remove my e-mail addressses. You're not allowed to do that over the phone.
Apologies to readers, cuz this /is/ a rant and I don't have a solution, except to encourage others who confront this to vote with their feet. I hope that by cataloging these insults, more palatable alternatives to the kind of existence imposed by the Capital Ones of the world will become apparent. Capital One is customer-hostile, and won't sell me anything by annoying me. I'll be leaving soon.
1 Comments:
We had a protracted argument with Capital One over billing. We'd switched from printed to online statements during a period in which we were trying to cut down on the blizzard of paper coming into our house.
We don't use that card much. One of us used it for something one day, carrying a balance for the first time in awhile, then completely forgot about it. What we didn't realize is that CapOne was going to neglect to send us the email alert letting us know that we had a statement to look at. For three months.
We finally found out that we had a problem when one of us went to use the card for an online transaction and was denied. We called CapOne and found that our account was 90 days past due. I argued to the drone at CapOne that it was their damn fault; they failed to alert us. I realize that yes, it's my account and yes, I should have paid attention. But I set up the online statements correctly; we received the alert mails faithfully for several months.
So we got dinged on our credit report. This was over a year ago, and our scores are back up in the 'excellent' range, but it still pissed us off. We stopped using the card immediately, but we still have it. I check online every month, just to make sure there are no charges. Back in April, there was: the $29/year 'member fee.' I called them, bitched to high heaven, and it was removed. The only reason we keep the card is because we have a bunch of WorldPoints to use.
Hassle free, my ass.
(this is Dave, by the way.)
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