A short conversation with a bank • Hacker News Board

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#251

Post by refurb » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 5:18 AM UTC

xiaosun wrote: post #93

quadrifoliate wrote: post #79

Not directly related to the title, but further in the article: > newly minted MBA ex-consultant who’s just started working at Dropbox as a product manager: and here is my presentation about why it is imperative for us to expand from file synchronization and, for some reason, password management, into financial service integration through our automated financial information archival tool, and then ultimately into fina…

Well, I suppose the devil's advocate argument is once you get to this stage (publicly traded company), the company's priority is no longer just "do things to get traction", but also "do things to support share price". You could argue the ex consultant MBA type product manager is better suited to solve a problem that institutional investors run by ex finance MBA types have.

And don’t forget getting traction in a new market is one thing. Defending market share in a more mature market with competitors who will eat your lunch is another.

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#252

Post by crossroadsguy » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 5:19 AM UTC

iaw wrote: post #246

p1esk wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A short conversation with Medicare: Never happened. They never pick up the phone, and they don't have any other way to contact them after you applied for benefits. I tried for weeks to resolve an issue with an application for my father, a dozen of calls, every time being on hold for hours. Sometimes the automated system says "leave your number and someone will call you back tomorrow at a certain time". That's a lie,…

I feel like more an more having a lawyer on retainer is the only answer to this type of crap.

Can you bill them for the lawyer cost?

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#253

Post by SkinTaco » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 5:33 AM UTC

salawat wrote: post #230

SkinTaco wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know that?

I've implemented/maintained several. Call centers are one of those things you try to keep as simple as possible. Generally speaking, you've either got one big ole call center where anyone could take any caller at any time, or more specialized deals where the call center is divided into teams who are partitioned across the set of dial in numbers you prearrange the phone company to route. To get your metrics right, you…

Neat, thanks for the interesting perspective. You mentioned you invest in your CS because you don't see it as a sunk cost. How were you able to convince the execs to give you money to do this? Sounds like a huge challenge

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#254

Post by refurb » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

vageli wrote: post #59

mring33621 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that, as long as your name is on the check, they will allow you to deposit a two-party check via the BofA app.

I've deposited checks that were not even signed and made out to another (and the person who gave me the check didn't sign it over either!) on mobile banking apps. I never sign the check for mobile or check the box on the check if there is one.

Yup. I had someone make out a check to a education savings account instead of my name. Online check deposit worked fine.

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#255

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

mdb31 wrote: post #121

Yeah, this is why I don't miss living in the US, like, at all. Sure, you can make mad cash and all, but the overall infrastructure is just way-below-third-world. My particular moment of truth was when I noticed that my Pacific Bell cell phone bills stopped arriving. The first month, the USPS could possibly be to blame, but the second month, I called Customer Service to figure out what was going on. So, first question…

[deleted]

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#256

Post by justahuman74 » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 6:18 AM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #182

cantrevealname wrote: post #62

> with Gmail, where you were so aggressive about mining receipt data from Amazon that when I get a receipt from Amazon now it doesn’t actually include what I bought Wow, he's right. The item name no longer appears on emailed receipts I receive from Amazon as of about late 2019 or early 2020. I can't think of a plausible explanation for this change other than preventing Google from pilfering your detailed purchase his…

Nah, Amazon just figured out they could get you to buy more by getting you to click back into the website. Gmail hasn't mined data for commercial purposes for half a decade now. Someone at Amazon took dark-pattern customer engagement 101.

Then why is gmail still free?

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#257

Post by erik_seaberg » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 6:29 AM UTC

dan-robertson wrote: post #169

geoduck14 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard somewhere that telegraph is a legitimate form of communication for some official routes - unless they aren't specifically prohibited. Has anyone tried this? I would reallt like to force my bank to respond to my telegraphs... or pony express letters

At my university there was a rumour that you were still allowed to submit your thesis in Latin. I think some people were tempted to try it but I’m not aware of anyone who did (or who pored over the regulations to find out if it was true)

I’m reminded of the unconfirmed stories of a student who exercised “Gentlemen sitting examinations may request and require Cakes and Ale,” and was given burgers and soft drinks but fined for failing to wear a sword.

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#258

Post by alok-g » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 6:45 AM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #217

jacobkg wrote: post #37

“customer service agent: would you be able to participate in a customer satisfaction survey to provide feedback on how we did after this call? you: if I don’t give you a good rating in this survey will you get fired? customer service agent: yes” This particular aspect of modern society really bothers me

It gives them incentive to help customers, I suppose. I generally get good service and give appropriately good ratings. On the occasions where I get assigned a clown, I have no problem giving the appropriate rating there either.

I agree.

However:

(1) Most of the times, the problem does not get solved, requiring follow ups, but the surveys do not allow for marking that. This allows the representatives to set the problem aside without resulting in negative feedback for them.

(2) Many times, the representatives are helpless in solving the problem which has its roots in company's policies. (E.g., deletion of older digital statements in the OP). Giving a poor rating to the representative would not solve the real problem.

Both of the above can be fixed by having more options in the survey, but they don't include them.

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#259

Post by jlengrand » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 7:16 AM UTC

This is so F* UP.

Trying to tweet a link to this, Twitter being like : "We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful. Visit our Help Center to learn more."

https://twitter.com/jlengrand/status/1502906171866648580

Re: A short conversation with a bank

#260

Post by octoberfranklin » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 8:03 AM UTC

nlh wrote: post #215

I really, truly don't understand how any bank in the year 2022 can only give you 1 year of electronic access, but this is actually the case! This cannot be an uncommon scenario (and yet it's happened to me so many times): April 1 rolls around, ok time to do taxes, let's start by reviewing my bank transactions for the previous calendar year -- whoops! No data for January - March because those are months 13, 14, and 15…

> I really, truly don't understand how any bank in the year 2022 can only give you 1 year of electronic access, but this is actually the case!

I suspect this is so they don't have to spend lots of time (without compensation) dealing with buckshot demands due to IRS audits. By the time your tax returns are audited, they've deleted all the statements relevant to the year being audited.

Obviously all the transaction data is still there in their computers, but I suspect that if it isn't accountholder-accessible it's easier for the bank to say "we're not dealing with you unless our regulator or a court says we have to". Either of those routes ensures the IRS has to waste roughly as much time/money as the bank does.