Musings from Brian J. Noggle: That's a Neat Trick

That's a Neat Trick

I just got a credit card statement in the mail today for my Commerce Bank Small Business Visa. I'm turning around and paying it right away because I missed the last deadline by a day because I'd been in the practice of letting a couple of bills collect before I sat down and wrote a bunch of checks.

So I sit down and look it over. The statement date is November 18. Today is November 26. It took Commerce Bank eight days to get this to me, which gives me a little more than, what, two weeks to turn it around without exorbitant penalties.

I called and told them it was poor form, and the customer service representative sat in silence while I said, procedurally, this was a dirty trick, and I was displeased with the way they conducted themselves. I'm not the best guy at venting my spleen on the phone, and certainly I had no end game (I want a free night at the hotel, I want a charge removed, et cetera), but even calling them to complain ultimately made me feel smaller than if I hadn't called because I don't expect the policy to ever change because we are a nation of small fries (and now, Goverment Sponsored Entities formerly known as Big Businesses).

But I am empowered, through this blog, to tell you, gentle reader who is searching for photos of Natalie J. Rabb or Commerce employee tracking the business's online response. So there you go.

At this point, I sometimes want to throw up my hands and say, Big Government, Big Business, what's the difference? It's all about ossified bureaucracies and procedures designed to glean every possible drop from you for their own purposes. I guess the difference is choice, which means Big Business needs to trick you, whereas government just has to tell you, so it's quite a big difference indeed.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:57 AM