Believe it or not, I got a call around sevenish tonight, from a woman who said she was from DBS. When asked for her name, she said she was Mel, no surname, nothing more as “sorry, we are not allowed to give more identification”.
Cool!
She offered to upgrade my DBS Gold Visa card that I had been notified would cease to be valid from Dec 1 — as detailed here — to a Platinum card, at no charge and to port over all existing arrangements and benefits from the gold card to the new card.
She asked for my I/C number and date of birth.
Naturally, after I accepted the offer verbally — although grumbling all the while why such an offer couldn’t have been made together with the notice to invalidate the existing card — I was somewhat suspicious.
Could it all be a hoax?
OK, the caller ID on my mobile showed 68786800 but it’s not a number I’m familiar with, tho that doesn’t necessarily make it a fake number of course!
Hence on hearing Mel say she couldn’t give me a more complete name than M-E-L to help me identify her in future should the need arise, I pressed for other identifying marks.
Which department are you from?
She replied: “Funds transfer department.”
Does that deal with the credit card in question?
She replied: “I’m helping the customer service agent.”
I was about to give up when she added this caveat: “You should receive your platinum card no later than February 2011. Meanwhile, you can continue to use your gold card.”
So, great! The card that was going to be invalid on Dec 1 would remain valid till February 2011, unless the new card arrives earlier.
Again, why couldn’t DBS have thought all this thru before shooting off its termination notice?
Still, I really should be thanking DBS on bended knees for remembering to make me this offer, considering that it ends tomorrow. I should consider myself lucky to have gotten on board be4 it ended, n’est pas?
Such great service recovery this! If I’m ever asked, I shall definitely nominate DBS as Singapore’s best service provider of the year! Only kidding! 😛
FOOD fuels me to talk... 
Usually, this is how I deal with these people.
Me: “You can’t give me a last name? Then give me the operator number of the bank and your extension for call back verification. By the way, is that operator number found anywhere on the bank’s website? What? You aren’t working for the bank? This is an outsourced service? That means I can’t identify whether you are from the bank? In that case, bye bye. Have a nice day.”
Too many hoax calls these days. The problem on the one hand is the caller obviously not thinking through the call, and the other is that a lot of people who don’t know better tend to be taken in by it.
I used to be with a bank who, when their staff did call, asked for my personal details, and they ARE really from the bank (called back and verified). Needless to say, I terminated all banking services with them.
Hi Xizor, I was mutli-tasking when M.E.L. called so wasn’t my aggressive best! Hence gave her my IC no and birth date be4 remembering to ask for her name!! Banks shld give their staff n whoever they outsource their stuff to, SOP to identify not only the org but the person on the line when they call customers!
Areya: Like I said to Xizor, I wasn’t at my aggressive best when that woman called. Also, becos I’m, a lot older than you, I’ve tried the account closing route too in the past on more than one occasion but found in the end, all banks are the same annoying best/beasts, unless one has minimum dealings with them. Furthermore, with the many consolidations, there aren’t tt many banks one can move to any more, without having to go back to where one started from one fine day!