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urn:uuid:45fc9ab5-a7bf-1d18-1545-6f5529698035 2009-10-07T02:06:23+00:00

Bank of America, the bank will lower overdraft fees for its customers, starting October 19, 2009. While the fee itself will remain at $35 per overdraft, there will be no charge if the overdraft is by less than $10. Previously, this limit was set to $5. The bank will also stop charging if a consumer exceeds 4 overdrafts in a given day. Previously, this limit was 10 per day.

Bank of America claims that these changes come as a result of listening to customer feedback. It is clear that tough economic times are making more of their customers vulnerable to overdraft fees, and customers have been complaining about being hit hard by the fees.

Though the fees seem high and in some ways predatory towards those with little money in their accounts, gethuman still applauds the company for listening and responding to customer demand. Customers will still have the option to opt out of overdraft protection when signing up for a new account at the bank.

Read more about this from the Charlotte Observer ]]>

urn:uuid:201cb577-541b-d808-83c4-e27cca62f488 2009-08-06T16:36:54+00:00

urn:uuid:a1e8381f-17ba-9a41-3190-2a2f0fb31a5a 2006-06-19T15:41:28+00:00

"I called [Bank of America's] toll free number for information about one of my accounts and was doing fine with the voice responses. I have two Siberian Huskies and one of them howled at just the wrong (right) time. The voice response came back and said 'Did you say loan?'"

This story cracked me up and really hit home. I've got a pretty active household... small children and a yellow lab who thinks he's running for watchdog of the year. Do these companies actually expect that when we make a phone call, we'll be perfectly quiet and call from a silent location? It drives me crazy that their voice response systems "recognize" background noise. At least give me the option to key in information. They aren't doing me any favors in "hearing" me if they can never understand me.

I also live in a very small town that apparently doesn't make the radar of most large companies. When they ask me for my address/city and I tell them, the system says "Did you say XYZ?" And I have to say "NO" and repeat the process over and over. Since they generally ask for a zip code, why do I have to speak my city anyway?

Now, I have enough trouble with these systems, but imagine for a moment being a person with an accent, or someone who stutters, or someone with a different speech impediment. I hope that these companies begin to recognize that they are alienating large groups by assuming that their technogy adds value, when in fact, as compared to ten years ago, it detracts value.

If they alienate those with accents, stutterers, those with speech impediments, mothers of small children, owners of siberian huskies and other animals that make noise, and anyone else who doesn't call from the "Cone of Silence," who will their customer base be?]]>