It is rare that I take a grievance to the internet for solutions but the BMO takeover is so disastrous that I am out of solutions with these people.
I had to request a new DC after the card being used on a fraudulent website. Upon it's discovery I immediately called Diners Club to request another card. Of course the card never came next day delivery as promised, and after requesting a tracking number none could be found.
I then requested another card; it never came, this time standard USPS 7-10 business days. After nearly a month, they have refunded my annual fee but still no Professional Diners Club Card. I have probably spoken to 7 CSR's all forwarding up to the Supervisors, and no action.
What are they thinking? Is this reverse business development? Why give a 20k line but not issue replacements? Are they just trying to kill the brand? What can the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau do to force BMO to deliver if there are enough complaints? Please help.
My card was used fraudulently a month ago. I called in and was sent a replacement card, by regular mail. I didn't ask for next day service.
Fraudulent charge continued to appear (I checked online, and the listing there didn't really say the charge was on the old card, not the replacement I received, but anyway..). Called in and they offered to send me another replacement card. It arrived by next day courier service.
It's become quite amusing after over 15 calls to various "supervisors" and their "elevating the issue to the next level" over and over again. It's been nearly 1.5 months of no card. I am just curious to see what they really do; I could care less anymore. My take is that they are seeking to shed their unprofitable US cards despite stellar credit ratings. The CSR's are great but a few "supervisors" are very sloppy. I am waiting for the class action law suit and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate these monkeys. Then the fun begins.
Last edited by urbansuite; Jan 9, 12 at 10:58 am..
The term "Corporate" means that the contacts listed therein work at at BMO's corporate offices. As far as I know they should be equally responsive to an inquiry from a Professional or a Corporate cardholder, but my account has no problems and I have not needed their assistance.
Don't waste your time with the contacts at Diners previously listed. Contact Steve Pedersen (steve.pedersen@bmo.com) who is the BMO Vice President in charge of Corporate Payment Products. You may also want to call CEO Tom Milroy's office. You WILL get your issue resolved if you contact either of these people. BTW, BMO is embarassed (and rightfully so) about this mess. They know they have blown it with the Diners Club Card.
Last edited by mia; Jan 11, 12 at 8:56 pm..
Reason: Redact employee detail.
It's become quite amusing after over 15 calls to various "supervisors" and their "elevating the issue to the next level" over and over again. It's been nearly 1.5 months of no card. I am just curious to see what they really do; I could care less anymore. My take is that they are seeking to shed their unprofitable US cards despite stellar credit ratings. The CSR's are great but a few "supervisors" are very sloppy. I am waiting for the class action law suit and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate these monkeys. Then the fun begins.
My card was cloned and used fradulently in November. They quickly caught it and called me to confirm. I asked them to overnight a new card to home, which they did, but the delivery company missed the delivery. I called and they sent a new card overnight to my office which I received. However I have had no online access to any transactions past my November 10, 2011 statement and not to Club Rewards. I contacted the corporate staff mentioned in the Elevate post above and have been in weekly contact with them by phone, but the situation keeps getting worse. This morning I cannot log-in at all and was told that the site will be back up today but I and others who have had their cards compromised will not have access until some unknown future date.
And as the new card is chipped I was looking forward to using it in Europe, but will use AMEX because of the DC 3% foreign transaction fee.
I finally received my card! Short of a lengthy diatribe about the who and why, I will focus on the process as feedback. In essence, the nearly 2 month delay was due to a "computer glitch." Potato, potatoe. PM for details.
If you have any issue with BMO that has taken an extended period, you're better off NOT going "internal." By "elevating the issue" to the inept "supervisor(s)" (expletives eliminated), I endured an entire month of pure frustration.
Things were expedited upon filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to the folks at CFPB, consumerfinance.gov, the bank has a timeline which to respond to your complaint; your complaint is noted and tracked. Upon filing, I was contacted by none other than Wendy Velasquez, the contact posted by MIA. She was efficient and professional despite not having an immediate answer. She kept me apprised the entire time she researched it which eliminated the confusion and condescending demeanor of her previous contact at BMO. Who cares if she elevated the issue, she gets the credit for fixing it.
Thank you MIA for your advice. If anything this shows Wendy is doing her job, and in this case, with the help of the CFPB.
The card received is a chip and pin type but now we are still working on getting the PIN part of it (don't know why this is an issue) and restored online access.
Who knows if I'll keep the card going forward but this exercise shows how the BMO views this product. BMO is not an American bank, it is 1 of 5 major banks in Canada which control 90% of the market; do they really need to invest in stellar service? Without identifying other issues, the BMO Q4 report should also indicate strategy with the brand.
I would say that the profile of the average Diners Club user is a safe credit risk based on my research but are we really worth the resources and effort? One thing resonates for certain: Carry another card as a backup!
Last edited by urbansuite; Jan 20, 12 at 7:09 pm..
I finally received my card! Short of a lengthy diatribe about the who and why, I will focus on the process as feedback. In essence, the nearly 2 month delay was due to a "computer glitch." Potato, potatoe. PM for details.
If you have any issue with BMO that has taken an extended period, you're better off NOT going "internal." By "elevating the issue" to the inept "supervisor(s)" (expletives eliminated), I endured an entire month of pure frustration.
Things were expedited upon filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to the folks at CFPB, consumerfinance.gov, the bank has a timeline which to respond to your complaint; your complaint is noted and tracked. Upon filing, I was contacted by none other than Wendy Velasquez, the contact posted by MIA. She was efficient and professional despite not having an immediate answer. She kept me apprised the entire time she researched it which eliminated the confusion and condescending demeanor of her previous contact at BMO. Who cares if she elevated the issue, she gets the credit for fixing it.
Thank you MIA for your advice. If anything this shows Wendy is doing her job, and in this case, with the help of the CFPB.
The card received is a chip and pin type but now we are still working on getting the PIN part of it (don't know why this is an issue) and restored online access.
Who knows if I'll keep the card going forward but this exercise shows how the BMO views this product. BMO is not an American bank, it is 1 of 5 major banks in Canada which control 90% of the market; do they really need to invest in stellar service? Without identifying other issues, the BMO Q4 report should also indicate strategy with the brand.
I would say that the profile of the average Diners Club user is a safe credit risk based on my research but are we really worth the resources and effort? One thing resonates for certain: Carry another card as a backup!
Wendy Velasquez has been my contact as well, and while she has been unfailingly polite, her responses have been mostly useless. Online access to my account was probably available weeks ago, if I had been able to speak to an actual IT person instead of clueless CSR's or a polished Executive Communications person like Wendy. Instead it took my sending screenshots of what I was seeing to get them to solve the problem, and tell me to re-register which is what I had been suggesting for weeks. The ultimate insult was today when I was offered 2,000 points in compensation ($13 or $20 depending on how you use it) and I hung up on Wendy. I then found surprising forfeitures in my Club Rewards so sent yet another screenshot and she finally told me she had "escalated" the issue. When I sent that I also copied the CEO and head of Corporate Cards mentioned in another post.
I'm embarrassed for the part of my family that lives in Montreal, including one who works in IT at BMO, but is not involved in the conversion.
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Spoke to Diners (USA) on Wednesday about two unrecognized transactions. One domestic and one in UK. Credits to offset both had already been posted to my account because they had recognized a problem. There was an exchange rate difference on the UK transaction which left me out $0.02, and that was fixed during the call. Replacement card and PIN were delivered 9:30 Thursday morning.
Diners Club BMO CS Strategy for Replacement Card
Cancellation time
