"We have to be competitive"

[mrs_sweetpeach]

That's what the customer service supervisor told me when I asked why Chase has implemented a processing fee for payments made by telephone but not those made via the internet. What did this mean? Citibank and MNBA charge for telephone payments so Chase "has to" too.

Believe it or not, this was actually an improvement over the answer I received from the customer service representative. His answer was "because a memo came down from Corporate."

I really wonder what's wrong with people. My boss attributes much idiocy to innumeracy. I know that I myself am mathematically challenged, however the folly of trying to attract and retain customers by implementing an industry's worst practices makes me think that innumeracy can't possibly be the only problem.