<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MRLIMO:
However, I was informed on two separate occasions by different reps that "the department that handles online requests is backlogged and it would have been quicker to call in" my transfer requests.</font>
Isn't this amazing? This situation encourages people to use the
most expensive way to make a transfer request. You'd think they'd want to encourage people to use the web interface. The wording of the above statement strongly implies that there is some sort of manual process involved. It sounds to me that rather than do it right, someone slapped together a web interface. At the very least, it would be nice if the web site disclosed the fact that web requests would take longer, so that people in a hurry would know to call instead.
As an aside, my experience with making requests over the phone is that you should always call during times when the Club Rewards department is open and speak to them directly. They will enter the transaction while you're on the phone, and give you a confirmation number. If you make the request to regular customer service when Club Rewards is closed, you don't get a confirmation number, because they must send a manual request to Club Rewards to be entered the next day. At least this was how it worked a couple of years ago.