Halifax concedes interest charge

2006-03-31T14:33:00.000+01:00

I've just received a call from they Halifax. They've conceding to my request to waive their interest charge. Whether it was my phone calls, letter, e-mail or blog but something tipped Halifax into conceding.

A lesson from this exercise is that consumers should play hard ball whenever they are dealing with large corporations. "Customer services" is probably the greatest misnomer in business speak. Customer services departments are not there to solve customer problems. The rhetoric and the reality couldn't be more different.

Halifax Charges You Extra

2006-03-31T10:46:00.000+01:00

I am in dispute with Halifax credit card services. By some minor oversight I failed to clear my monthly balance by 10p. Yes just 10p. I had obtained my balance by listening to their automated telephone service. Sadly, in response to this transgression, the giant financial services company has decided it would rather gain the benefit of charging me £74.70 in interest for this minor underpayment, than retain my goodwill as a long term customer.

Having wasted my time telephoning and writing to their customer services people, I've received what is obviously an automated reply explaining the principles behind calculatign interest charges.

What the complete numbskulls at the Halifax's offices in Dunfermline fail to understand is that I am not complaining about their interest calculations. I'm complaining about the way I've been treated as a customer. Being treated badly doesn't exactly endear me to their organisation. Given that I've been a customer of their's for 4 years and spend £000s each month with them, they would rather have one month's profits than a lifetime of my business.

Not only will Halifax lose me as profitable source of custom but I will also do my damndest to recommend that people stop doing business with them. This blog is the first step.

Credit Card Intransigence

Halifax concedes interest charge

Halifax Charges You Extra