Quote:
Originally Posted by KingK7
I have really had no problems with ePassporte either...
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I'm pleased for you and maybe I'm just a victim of Murphy's Law when it comes to EPassporte. I put very, very few transactions through them, yet it seems as if a couple of times a year there is some minor glitch to sort out, all the more frustrating precisely because they are minor yet getting them sorted out is like wading through mud. Until the resolution actually happens there is the feeling that you are trapped in a cycle of templated responses from which you may never escape.
My latest was the non-arrival of a new Electron card. Charged on July 7th, it was supposedly mailed on July 12th but didn't arrive. USPS isn't perfect, so okay. But its replacement was ordered on August 1st and there is still no sign of it, yesterday I emailed support to check when it was sent.
It hasn't been. And that bald nugget of information is all the first response included. No explanation of why after 10 days it still wasn't en route. No clue as to when it might be. Email back and the second response suggests I check back next week, but is otherwise no more informative. Finally I get an ICQ from KS with the news that hopefully my card will be sent today. We shall see.
And before my expiring card actually expired, I discovered by virtue of an ATM telling me my pin number was invalid, that when EP issue a new card, they also reset the existing card's pin number. They don't tell you that and it is hardly standard practise, so you find out the hard way. A lot of hassle for what should have been the routine annual replacement of a card and within the context of, what, 3+ years of promises that their customer service would improve, not very encouraging.
The point of EP is supposed to be convenience, otherwise why risk your money outside a fully regulated banking system (unless of course you deal with sponsors who only offer wires or EP and wires cost $50 apiece). But that convenience is negated if minor issues are not dealt with efficiently. I live in a small town which has only local banks with probably a half-dozen branches apiece, the staff are on near minimum wage and the "managers" likely only 25 cents an hour more. Yet things work as they should and when a question does arise, it is dealt with properly. I don't want to think about what EP would be like without KK, Rand and more recently KS.
Which is the main reason I don't put much through EP and never leave any money sitting there. No matter how much EP make from people who haven't had problems yet or are stuck living with them, the constant stream of negative comments has to cost them a fortune. And what well-run business would live with that for as long as EP has? Already burned by Globill, iBill and Paypal, I would be a damn fool to feel comfortable with that thought.
