Once upon a time there was a large California-based bank. It was very concerned about the security of its data and the data of its customers. So someone in the bank’s bureaucracy decided block cell phones from being able to call the toll-free international customer assistance number from Europe, just to be on the safe side.
Now during this same time, there was a college student studying abroad in Germany who had her wallet stolen. She called the toll-free international customer assistance number on the bank’s website and it didn’t work. She asked a few friends to try on their cell phones and it didn’t work for them either.
Her father was able to get her credit and travel debit cards cancelled by calling from inside the US, but was told she would have to call personally to get her cards replaced. Since she couldn’t connect from Europe, her father sent her the debit card she had left at home so she would be able to access some cash. She tried to use it and found that the pin did not work. She called the international customer assistance number on the back of that card, still not knowing that her cell phone was blocked from using it. Since the bank requires that debit cards be brought to a branch in order to reset a pin number, the college student became frightened that she’d be marooned in Germany with no money.
When her father went to a local bank branch to get this problem solved, five bank employees spent more than an hour trying to figure out how to work around this obstacle. They could not understand why cell phones were blocked from calling the international customer assistance number, especially since more than half of those in Europe rely exclusively on cell phones. Finally, one creative personal banker named Eddie decided to take things into his own hands. He ordered a new debit card, had it rushed to the student. Problem solved. But this cost five hours of employee time, two hours of the father’s time, several hours of the student’s time, the considerable expense of overnighting a new debit card to Europe, not to mention the student’s business when she returns from Europe.
The father thought of sending Eddie a thank you note since it was he who figured out how to work around his bank’s Byzantine policies. But he worried that the bank would find out about it and thwart that strategy with another “fix.” He does hope, however, that those further up the food chain consider how their decisions affect so many others before acting.