Revisiting Visa

 

 

 

Time to bash Visa again! They're colossal - it won't hurt then. Besides, without telling anyone they packed up the public relations department together with their illustrious handbook, 'A Thousand and One Excuses Why We are Not at Fault' or is it 'A Thousand and One Ways We are Always Right', laid off all the two legged homo sapiens employees and located the new call center just north of south in Antarctica. Once a contract is hammered out and the local penguin population agrees to a three fish per day stipend, your complaint calls will be cordially received by a cacophony of clacking clucks and your whiny gripes will thence be deposited on a slippery slope and washed out to sea. 

I alluded in a previous post to their sneaky method of sending your monthly bill out a tad late in hopes of ensnaring everyone in their late payment scheme. It just so happens my Visa and MasterCard bills arrived the same day which allows me the opportunity to compare systems. MasterCard: statement date August 26, arrival date August 30, payment due date September 19. Visa: statement date August 17, arrival date August 30, payment due date September 7. All these dates are basically the same each month so having Visa blame it on the postal service is sour grapes on their part. Let us be gracious, allow three days for our postal buddies to pick up and transport our check to its destination and another full day for internal handling before the dreaded late payment guillotine descends. Under this scenario MasterCard allows me 15 days to sort out my previous months mess and remit my payment, while my Visa overseers permit me a scant three days to ponder the bill and hastily send my shekels off in the sometimes provided envelope. Should the bill arrive Friday, by the time I steam open the missive on Monday I'm already treading on the deadline. On a long weekend all hope is lost by Tuesday. A couple of years ago when I called the service center on another matter, I had the temerity to question the telephone representative about this delay in sending out bills. After waiting on hold for fifteen minutes - on their 1-800 dime - it finally occurred to me their answer was a total lack of interest in my question.

Ahh! I hear what you are about to tell me. Why not just have them email my bill monthly and electronically remove funds from my account? The simple answer. Much easier to deal with a problem on your bill before handing over the money. Once they have cash in hand Visa tends to have a lot less interest in your niggling problems and your next call may be met with a resounding cluck.