KennyVader
13-10-2008, 22:10
Situation is that I have been a completely happy and relatively high-spending customer of Morgan Stanley Platinum credit card (mastercard) for years. A year or two ago Morgan Stanley sold the credit card business to Goldfish, who subsequently sold it to Barclaycard, around April this year I think. The card has still said Morgan Stanley on it though, including when reissued, and there's been no change to the fantastic level of service ... until now.
About a month ago Barclaycard said they were going to send out new cards to everyone and the Morgan Stanley ones would stop working. Supposedly there would be no changes to the T&Cs but they have butchered the cashback and made it barely worthwhile. Anyway I never received my new card (and I still haven't, despite emailing and telephoning them to try to discuss it). When you phone them (on an 0844 number :mad:) you just get their Indian call centre which is the WORST example of an overseas call centre I've ever experienced. They are absolutely hopeless, and either can't understand or won't understand that I've never received a replacement card. If you email them you just get referred to the 0844 call centre. Yes I know there is probably a local number on saynoto0870 but it's not really the actual high cost of the call I object to, it's more the principal of contempt that they hold their customers in, to have such an utterly untrained, useless and couldn't-care-less call centre and expect their customers to pay to call it and pay to sit on hold or in a queue.
At the weekend I got a mass-mailing from them asking why I was still using my old Morgan Stanley card (I haven't been) and a day later, another mass-mailing apologising for sending the previous email. More incompetence. Wouldn't really mind but the mails are being put straight in the Outlook junk email folder ... with Outlook set on the default junk settings. How frickin' hard would it be for them to get a copy of Outlook themselves and work out whether the format of their mass mails is triggering Outlook's default junk email settings, and so change their mail format accordingly so that it didn't get classed as junk? It's not difficult.
So now I have got a statement from them (so I finally know my card number) but they have charged me interest on it, even though if you clear your balance in full (which I always do, and did last month - except for the £6 that the September statement said would be taken by direct debit, as it always has been, for years). It looks like they did not take the £6 direct debit even though the last statement says they would, so that £6 shortfall is therefore the cause of the £2 interest.
They're absolute idiots. Throwing away a good customer like me (they may not make much in interest or fees out of me since I pay in full each month - except for when they muck up their own collection that is, but they make up for it in transaction fees from the retailers I use). I'm done with trying to get them to understand that I don't have a new card so don't know the card number or expiry date on it. I'm just going to pay the full amount of this statement, and write to the muppets telling them to close the account.
So anyone else had the misfortune to get lumbered with this bunch of plonkers?
:cuckoo:
They don't even have funny adverts any more :(
About a month ago Barclaycard said they were going to send out new cards to everyone and the Morgan Stanley ones would stop working. Supposedly there would be no changes to the T&Cs but they have butchered the cashback and made it barely worthwhile. Anyway I never received my new card (and I still haven't, despite emailing and telephoning them to try to discuss it). When you phone them (on an 0844 number :mad:) you just get their Indian call centre which is the WORST example of an overseas call centre I've ever experienced. They are absolutely hopeless, and either can't understand or won't understand that I've never received a replacement card. If you email them you just get referred to the 0844 call centre. Yes I know there is probably a local number on saynoto0870 but it's not really the actual high cost of the call I object to, it's more the principal of contempt that they hold their customers in, to have such an utterly untrained, useless and couldn't-care-less call centre and expect their customers to pay to call it and pay to sit on hold or in a queue.
At the weekend I got a mass-mailing from them asking why I was still using my old Morgan Stanley card (I haven't been) and a day later, another mass-mailing apologising for sending the previous email. More incompetence. Wouldn't really mind but the mails are being put straight in the Outlook junk email folder ... with Outlook set on the default junk settings. How frickin' hard would it be for them to get a copy of Outlook themselves and work out whether the format of their mass mails is triggering Outlook's default junk email settings, and so change their mail format accordingly so that it didn't get classed as junk? It's not difficult.
So now I have got a statement from them (so I finally know my card number) but they have charged me interest on it, even though if you clear your balance in full (which I always do, and did last month - except for the £6 that the September statement said would be taken by direct debit, as it always has been, for years). It looks like they did not take the £6 direct debit even though the last statement says they would, so that £6 shortfall is therefore the cause of the £2 interest.
They're absolute idiots. Throwing away a good customer like me (they may not make much in interest or fees out of me since I pay in full each month - except for when they muck up their own collection that is, but they make up for it in transaction fees from the retailers I use). I'm done with trying to get them to understand that I don't have a new card so don't know the card number or expiry date on it. I'm just going to pay the full amount of this statement, and write to the muppets telling them to close the account.
So anyone else had the misfortune to get lumbered with this bunch of plonkers?
:cuckoo:
They don't even have funny adverts any more :(