Would you like a platinum MBNA card?
Posted by Peter Endisch on August 11th, 2007 at 12:27 PDT (Miscelaneous)
I got a call today being offered a platinum MBNA card. Having had some time and being in a good mood, I decided to have a little fun and also make an important point (instead of hanging up). Read on.
MBNA rep: “Hello, may I speak to Peter Endisch”
Me: “Who’s calling?”
MBNA rep: “This is MBNA calling to offer Peter a platinum Card and blah blah blah…”
Me: “Wait wait WAIT!” (it’s hard to stop them talking once they get going)
Me: “How did you get my number? I never gave my number to MBNA”
MBNA rep: “Ah well we got it from the MBNA center. This is an automated call. I can give you the customer complaint number and you can talk to them about this matter”
ME: “Never mind, that would be useless waste of my time”
ME: “So what are you selling today?”
MBNA rep: “Well sir, I am pleased to tell you that you have been pre-selected to get the new MBNA platinum card with ultra low 1.9% interest rate and blah blah blah”
ME: “Hold on…HOLD ON!” (trying to stop the rapid-fire sales rep)
ME: “The only thing I am interested in is if your company has ethical / social and/or environmental programs attached to this card”
MBNA rep: “Err…I am not sure what you are talking about”
Me: “Let me explain: For instance, I am with Citizen’s bank of Canada. Their Visa gives .10c / transaction to an environmental fund which is then given to various environmental organizations to support them. Does your card offer something along those lines?”
MBNA rep: “Well sir, you’d be pleased to know that MBNA platinum gives you worry free shopping. As you well know, there are a lot of frauds and if a fraudulent charge is made on your card, you won’t have to pay anything, and blah blah blah”
ME: “Well that is not what I…hold on, HOLD ON!”
MBNA rep: “…and also, we offer…blah blah blah”
ME: “HOLD ON! This cannot be a monologue from your part, this discussion will have to be a dialog. Now, first of all, you never answered my question, and second of all, I am not interested you telling me how wonderful my worry-free shopping would be, because by law every credit card company has an insurance and the holder of the card is not charged for fraudulent charges. So I am not interested in your sales pitch on something that comes standard with every single credit card”
ME: “What I am most interested in though, is if MBNA even have some sort of ethical or environmental programme. I am not interested doing business with companies – especially banks, who make tons of money on us and don’t try to make this world a little more just and environmentally friendly”
MBNA rep: “Well eh..you see…”
ME: “Ok, since you don’t know, that means you don’t have such a programme. Please make sure to write in your notes that a customer declined your card because your company doesn’t have an environmental or ethical programme. Thanks for calling – goodbye”
As I am about to hang up, I still hear some indiscernable speech from the receiver…
CLICK.
Why did I do all this? Two reasons. I wanted to have some fun. But most importantly, because companies take notice of what their customers have to say. Everywhere I go, I make sure to make a comment or two about a company’s lack of vision on environmental, ethical and social issues. This feedback is more and more being read by company executives and if more of us did the same, we’d have products and services we would feel good about, instead of feeling guilty.
I also make it the point to choose companies I deal with carefully, and choose only those – when I can – that have environmental products and contribute towards a better world through different programs.
Some of them are: spud.ca and Planet Organic for our groceries, Citizens Bank of Canada for our banking, Mountain Equipment Coop for anything sports and clothes related and many other smaller stores that carry products and offer services we agree with. And if I want to buy someone a gift or a souvenir, I buy local products, often made by first nations and made with sustainable components
