I had tried using my debit card to
pay for the bill at around 2 to 3 am on 23rd of
February and the card was experiencing problem. I had asked
the merchant to try utilizing the card again but nevertheless, the
card had failed me again. I was very upset in regards to the
situation and embarrassments that I experienced when it was my
birthday and my debit card failed me. Imagine the embarrassments
that you would feel if your debit card failed you in settling the
bill which you know you have sufficient amount in the bank to pay
for it. I called in to demand for an explanation for the failure of
the card after the bill was settled by other means.
I admit I was very rude and agitated
during the call but what I got from the other end of call was craps
and silence. The reason that the duty supervisor or manager was
that the system was under maintenance during this timing and that
the merchant was instructed to call the bank if such error had
occurred. Apparently, there were no procedures that were passed
down to the merchant that I was at the time of the incident or
perhaps, all merchant had not been equipped with such knowledge.
Disappointed by the reasons, I request a better answer from someone
of higher authority.
I was contacted by DBS/POSB call
center again but they gave me the same reasons with no assurance
that such incidents would not happened again. In fact, they should
be glad that they did not promise that.
Yesterday, 6th of March,
the same incident happened to me. I called in again and asked why
is there no backup system in place to actually prevent such
incidents to happen especially it had happened before and to me as
well. I was told that all cards were rendered useless in the time
frame and I am not the only one. I am utterly speechless for the 2
times bad experiences within a period of less than 14 days and no
satisfying answers or actions were taken.
Come this Monday, I would be going
down to the bank to terminate the cards I had and change back to my
old nets card. I do find that it is pointless in having the cards
when the bank simply do not care about the consumer and let them
strangled in such situation while not offering help at all. Imagine
if you were overseas and that is your only mode of payment left
when it happened.
I do not see the reason why I should
be paying this type of customer service and experiences. Diners,
Citibank, UOB had not failed me before. Why should a bank that is
established in my country be the one who give me such embarrassing
experience and crappy reasons?
My only advice to the existing card
holders, please use your card during this time frame (2 to 3am) if
you expect to be humiliated by the bank. There will be no backup
system going to be in place despite numerous feedbacks to ensure
that card utilisation would not be affected by the maintenance that
is going on daily during the time frame.
Maybe it is just POSB card. I never
did have any problem when I was using a DBS debit card in the past.
This reminds of an incident a few years back when my friend’s POSB
debit card was declined while my DBS debit card went through.
Perhaps that was a double standard all along in this
establishment.
