I have a wonderful example of failures in the last mile, courtesy of my (former) business credit card company. Advanta (like all financial institutions), closely monitors for fraud. That’s great.

What’s not great is their procedures made it impossible for me to use the card without my account being repeatedly locked.

When one of my vendors tried to charge the account, Advanta deemed the transaction “suspicious,” denied the charge and locked my account. When the vendor notified me of the decline, I called Advanta to find out what was up. The service rep explained why the account was locked: transactions with certain characteristics are denied by the computer and the account locked.

I asked to have my account flagged to preapprove certain vendors. No go because “the computer does it.” They also could not allow a transaction, but call me to verify legitimacy (instead of denying and locking, for same reason).

At least two of my vendors’ charges would have those characteristics in the future. Apparently each time one of those charges was presented it would trigger the computer’s wrath and my account would be locked. When I told the rep that this wouldn’t work for me because I knew I would be having more similar legitimate transactions that would cause my account to be frozen, she had no suggestions.

Fast forward a month later, after I’d opened Citibank and Discover accounts (both of which, in my experience with personal card, have excellent fraud protection *without* freezing my account or making excuses about the computer), so was ready to close the Advanta account.

When I called to close the account, the “customer service” rep asked why. After I explained, she replied (verbatim) “So you are closing the account because we protect you from fraud?”

(Sorry this got so long, I’m still highly annoyed over the whole thing.)

I am not exaggerating!

I repeatedly couldn’t make a deposit because there were no envelopes!

Veteran clients would hoard envelopes in their glove boxes and at times would share with me when I looked like I was about to cry.

I made a complaint to customer service and I received a form letter with SOMEONE ELSE’s name inserted into some parts of the letter.

After putting up with this for months and months (because they made it so hard to close my account) I finally escaped to a bank that can fulfill the bare minimum responsibility of stocking deposit envelopes.

But to those cake vendors that do have passable websites, many do their product a disservice by paying little attention to how the cakes are presented on the website- poor pictures probably give the potential customer a dim view of what could be a fantastic product. Seemingly, such poor presentation keeps customers away, or possibly keeps sale prices lower, since the customer coming from the website doesn’t feel like they are getting a designer cake, but an average one.

The same last mile failure also shows up on ebay, with sellers who post poor pictures of their products.

You’d think people would pay more attention to how their product looks, if they are selling it, at least in part, on aesthetics!

Something to add to customer service. My debit card recently quit working with no explanation. When I contacted my bank, I was told it had been “compromised” and was on a list of debit card numbers that had been stolen, so it was cancelled. That was 6 weeks ago. The bank has issued a new card twice now, and both times it has just disappeared into the world of postal gremlins. My local branch keeps telling me they will “look into it because they don’t know what is going on”. I called the corporate HQ Customer Service number and gave up in frustration because it was a totally automated system and I couldn’t get to a real person.

Needless to say, I am shopping for a new bank. I’ve been a customer of that bank for 15 years, but this has really got my hackles up. Do you know how many places won’t take checks now days? GRRRRRR!!

The original packages were returned to both companies. In the meantime, I received my order from LL Bean (with no additional shipping charges). Company B contacted me to tell me the items had been sent back and wanted to know why and if I still wanted them. I told them No and told them I was cancelling my account with them and why.

The Xbox 360 is a superior game console, but I think that more people woul’ve been satisfied if more games were available at launch.

I think if you fudged up a bit on the financial aspects, it might not have been detected by your superiors. Everyone makes mistakes, just take it as a lesson you needed to learn I suppose.

Car battery dies abruptly, November 17, 2005. I get a jump, drive to Advanced Auto Parts, buy new battery ($68.77). This is in GA, where I go to college.

Fast forward to February 2006. Moved to AL. Car won’t start. Completely dead. I borrow a car, buy a new battery at my local shop, install new non-Advanced battery. I later stop by a local Advanced Auto Parts, explain my situation, and ask if I can bring in the old, useless to me now battery, for a refund. “Sure, no problem!”

2 weeks later I am in the store with my battery. Associate Robert tells me there is nothing he can do for me. Is the manager available? Robert waddles to the rear of the store, and talks to a guy on a bucket looking at something on the shelf. 3 minutes pass, Robert waddles back up front and tells me he can test the battery, and if it has a defect code, he can give me a new one.

I don’t want a new one. But I’m getting no help here, so with the hope there is something wrong with it and I can talk to someone about Robert, I let him continue. Several minutes pass, Robert ignores me because he knows I’m pissed by now. The battery finally finishes the test, maybe 5-10 minutes later. Robert waddles over, grabs my battery, waddles back, and plunks it down on the counter. “There is nothing wrong with this battery. I can’t do anything for you.” “May I speak with a manager?” “He’s in an interview.”

…no he isn’t. He’s sitting on a bucket. $^&((^%. “Okay… well is there a corporate number I can call to get some help?”

“There is no corporate number you can call.”

….

HAHAAHAHAHA. This is corporate America, bud. There is always a number. Shocked, I say, “Well…… I guess I’ll just have to take my business elsewhere in the future.”

To which Robert gives the kicker, “That’s fine.”

Wow. Sending me elsewhere. Fantastic! So I come home, look up at their website, find the investor relations number, it is in Roanoke, VA. I switchboard Advanced in Roanoke, and discover a listing that has no “We install this and that” section. Boom. Gotta be it. Call it, it’s an Area manager’s voicemail.

I eventually get the district/area manager for my local store. He apologized profusely, asked when I could go back to the store, he called the Store Manager and Assistant manager and informed them I would be coming in the next day, and they would give me my refund. Asked if there was anything else I could do. I should’ve asked for $50 worth of gas, but I was calmed down by this point.

I get my refund, the assistant manager doesn’t apologize, doesn’t shake my hand, just gives me my refund.

Did Robert know who I was? What if I’m the son of a local shop owner with 5 locations that only uses Advanced? What if I’m the President of a car club with 100 members that work on their cars and get everything @ Advanced? All for $68.77… and in reality, they refunded me $75.xx. Ridiculous.

[[sorry this was so long]]

I was just hoping you could take a step of those high horses for a second. That example was one in which the analyst was simply adding to the conversation and MAKING FUN OF HIMSELF in the process. Kevin, he never said that he was blaming his superiors or going the last mile. And Mario, thats great that you’ve been in this line of work. And I’m sure in all your experience, you’ve not had one single typo in any presentation you’ve ever made. And that definitely makes you qualified to tell someone you don’t even know that he’s in the wrong line of work. Sheesh. I echo Ramit’s sentiments: “Chill.”