Answer: When you can't get them to honor cash.
I finally had a customer service experience this morning worth blogging about, to break my long dry spell. I figure that, in the current economy, companies are being extra nice so it's harder to find really dumb customer service. (Indeed, I've noticed that I'm getting actual email from companies that used to be too good to send email, like the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton hotel chains.) I even had the experience of taking four different flights on two different airlines on Sunday and every single flight left exactly on time and three of them arrived early! Even the airlines are making my night job rough. But I'm still on the job, looking for egregious service situations to report to you, my dear, loyal readers!
And I am thrilled to report that it is my old nemesis Wells Fargo that continues to meet my expectations. I have to get a new passport to replace the one that was stolen, and I need it in a hurry because I'm headed to New Zealand in 10 days. So I went to the SF City Hall passport office because it opens at 8am (the USPS offices open at 9:30am). They forgot to mention on the phone yesterday that the feds don't take cash, so I had to go buy a money order with all the cash I'd just gotten out of Wells Fargo's ATM. I went back to the Wells Fargo branch, figuring what better place to use cash to buy a money order than a bank! The sign says that the line is for Wells Fargo "Members" but I thought they were just being cute.
But, no, the lady behind the bullet proof glass (it is City Hall Plaza, where the homeless like to hang out) required that I produce the Wells Fargo debit card to verify my account number. I observed that I was a buying a money order (a negotiable security) with cash (also a negotiable security) and that a bank was a depository of cash. (Well, I didn't sound that sophisticated; it came out more like, "But you're a bank!") I walked out muttering about how Wells Fargo has forgotten how to be a bank and that there was a good reason that I took all of my money out of that institution four years ago. (And remembering that Wells Fargo screwed one of my companies by buying auction rate securities in a cash account without asking for permission.)
I turned left, found a Fedex office two doors down, bought the money order for cash (no ID needed) without even talking to the gentleman behind the counter (who looked like he might not have total command of the English language anyway), all in less than 120 seconds. The passport office accepted the money order and promised to get my new passport ready for pick up next Wednesday!
In which part of its corporate body has Wells Fargo stuck its head, when it can't even match city employees for quality of customer service?
