ThePortableConsultant’s bank has just altered his service plan to get rid of returned paper cheques. Such progress!

For a $2 fee, however, they will send the cheque images, unless you have premium service in which case there is no fee.

This is clearly spelled out on the statement. You can phone their call centre to ask for this service or select the cheque image service in your online profile.

However, if you go to set the online profile you’re told there is a $2 fee. The page where you select the option is not personalized and there is no mention that with the premium plan there would be no charge.

Although any consultant would know that the bank would eventually straighten out any billing errors, this Portable Consultant chose to use the call centre instead. This is a cost that the bank could have avoided if they had simply personalized the option selection page OR if they had reiterated on the page that premium plans would not be charged the fee.

Thousands of other customers must have seen that charge and phoned the call centre for an explanation. Since this consultant was told the call was being recorded it’s possible, though not probable I suppose, that the issue will be noted.

This is particularly ironic because the Portable Consultant in question had once applied for a position managing this particular bank’s online services’ CMS team. 🙂

-pmh at ThePortableConsultant.com