Hi everyone, I am presently shaking all over. For the fourth time I am having trouble accessing my credit card information -- not online, not by phone. Then I started screaming again. This time, I didn't break anything. That's an improvement. I left a message for the personal banker and was curt, not rude, I hope. I told his voice mail that I did not want to make him mad at me, and did not want to get upset with the bank. I told him this is the fourth try.

I called a local woman friend, who also uses this same bank. She said I could get my balance by calling the 24 hour number. She was, unfortunately, mistaken. Not only is there no such number for this bank, or the Master Card people either, there is no way I can get my balance in order to pay the balance on the card. That time, I left a message, too, and told them if the bank did not straighten this out, I would consider changing banks. But that if there's no bank that's better, I would stay at their bank, but hope they will do a better job from now on.

Everyone in the entire United States is fed up with this sort of abuse. Companies, government agencies of various sorts -- they all mistreat us with their convoluted, impossible telephone systems. The people in charge of these things are abusers. Many sources claim that many extremely high government and corporate leaders are sociopaths. Somehow we need a way to get these people to act more responsibly.

In my state over 25 years ago, I wrote and got passed, two bills for our state government, which are now law and have been ever since. The phone company fought us tooth and nail, but we won.

I have a solution to these telephone system problems, and have presented it to the strongest, most senior elected official in our state.

This is my solution (I'll work with the court attorney/s for the legal language to use) : All entities doing business in my state, in any electronic capacity including but not limited to telephones, computer/online/ text, chat will have the following restrictions. This is including but not limited to companies, corporations, every business (large or small), every government office or agency, (large or small) must have ONLY ONE BUTTON TO PUSH and then get a live person on the line. There would somehow need to also limit how many phone connection transfers could be made, and the option of leaving a message in the appropriate department, which must be returned within 48 business day hours. In addition, the wait time must not be over a certain number of minutes -- maybe 5 minutes at most.

This weekend, I emailed this the elected official I believe is most likely to take this on. I await his response. If he won't do it, maybe he'll recommend another elected official who will. If nobody there will, I will t ry again after the next election, and the next, and the next.

If you are as upset by the treatment we all get from maybe 90% of all businesses and government agencies, you may wish to get this process started in your state, too. I suggest you not try the federal government elected officials. This type of thing is much easier to pass for your own state.

[BlueInanna]

That would be a nice thing, getting an actual person to speak to on the phone. Banks are the worst. They control everything and do whatever they want. Bank of America only has one teller inside the bank now - the lines go out the door. I once said something loudly in the middle of the line, and everyone in line joined in with some yelling. We told the teller to get the manager, because we've already filed complaints and this is still happening. They said there's nothing they can do because the decision came from high up and it's causing them problems too. It's all such bull ****.
Good for you helping these changes happen.

Originally Posted by BlueInanna

That would be a nice thing, getting an actual person to speak to on the phone. Banks are the worst. They control everything and do whatever they want. Bank of America only has one teller inside the bank now - the lines go out the door. I once said something loudly in the middle of the line, and everyone in line joined in with some yelling. We told the teller to get the manager, because we've already filed complaints and this is still happening. They said there's nothing they can do because the decision came from high up and it's causing them problems too. It's all such bull ****.
Good for you helping these changes happen.

Hi. Oh, fine, Bank of America. You are sure doing your job, aren't you. But hey, BlueInnana, guess what??!! I found a bank that answers the phone in person!!! If they can't right then, I they immediately connect me to leave a message and they call back right away. They even have a "personal banker" I can talk to if I need to. Do you have locally owned banks where y ou are? If you do, check them out. I suggest making a phone call before you go in in person, to "test" them and their phone "system" or lack thereof. Maybe, like my bank they do not have a phone "system" at all.

Credit unions had been a good option for me, too, but the one I'd been a member of for 20 years got worse, and worse, and worse on the phones. I told them for over two years that if they didn't give better phone service like t hey used to, I'd go elsewhere. It got even worse -- believe it or not -- the last time I tried to get them on the phone -- T.H.E. L.A.S.T. T. I. M. E. --the message said: You are number twenty two on the line."

Still the concept of credit unions is excellent. The members "own" the credit union, and, supposedly, they invest locally in your community. So you might also want to check some of them out, too.

Best wishes!!!!!

[BlueInanna]

Credit unions are definitely best for personal service and supporting local area. I had BofA for years for business stuff, and I used to travel a lot so atm's everywhere came in handy. But the business is going to **** and I barely have any money now anyway. Will change to credit union eventually.
The other worst companies for answering the phone - health insurance, tv company and IRS!!! I recently had to do a QuickBooks upgrade - and they were amazing on the phone!
Oh yea and the DMV sucks!!! And the pharmacy!!!

[Unrigged64072835]

I had the same problem with Chase, so I switched to a local credit union. Haven't really had a problem with them.