Well, I finally phoned them back. I helpful person on the other end of the phone was astounded that I had phoned 10 people, 6 of which had promised to phone me back, and not one of them had, except for 1, who phoned me back a week late. I practically made him promise 3 times to phone me back once he’d finished investigating where my card was. It was the usual story:

- Phone Delivery – “sorry, your card’s been delivered – in March”!!!!!!!
- Put through to Discovery Card – “They had the wrong card. I’ll look for it for you and phone you back before close of busines”

I’m going to phone Discovery again tomorrow. (Or later today). I’d like to see if they’re still saying that the card’s on it’s way. I’ve been thinking about this though. I wonder if they actually PAID for the Credit Reports that they pulled on me? Or if they were free credit reports. The reason I ask is, hopefully they didn’t pay to make up a code. Sometimes I just feel bad for them. THen I think that it’s actually me sitting here, waiting for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Do yourself a favour. type the following in Google’s search engine (or just click the link below):

“debt ‘credit card’ site:*.blogspot.com“

This will show you a TON of Blogger blogs on how people are trying to get rid of Credit Cards and all manners of related debt problems. They are suggesting all sorts of things like consolidating debt, announcing free credit reports and using them to analyse the problems, even going so far as to go for credit counselling to help with your debt management.

If anything, I urge you to read this article about how this generation is becoming know as the generation of debt. Could it just relate to americans? At the moment, probably, but as with everything, it will filter down. Check out our obesity problem now hitting South Africa.

Once again you might ask: “Why write this on the internet?”

Personally, I don’t think it should take this long to get a Credit Card. And I heard an ad on the radio by the CEO of the company asking users to take advantage of this product. My question is: “If the company is struggling with the applications as it is, why try and get MORE business? Sort out your current issues first.” Or, am I the only issue?

And what about all this inconvenience?

Well, I know that Discovery themselves won’t DO anything for me to make me happy. They told me as much. So, all I want is to share my story. I’m a little guy with a voice (or, at the very least, a keyboard), and I’m standing on my box in “Speaker’s Corner” on the internet, and venting my frustrations.

This is all I can do, because who will I spite by refusing this card when (IF) I get it? I already make good use of Discovery’s other products through their Vitality programme.

I am not writing this to discourage anyone from getting this card. All I would like is for people to read what I’ve written, and maybe leave a comment.

I will definitely keep the cyberworld updated on my progress. Wish me luck.

I phoned Discovery again today. Let’s see if I can get everything written in one post. Just to let you know, the total length of this call was around 10 – 15 minutes.

Me – “Hi, I had an upgrade approved and it should be shipping out now. Do you know where it is?”
HDJ 1 – “Let me check…….. Please hold, you’re going through to Customer Service”

…music… …ads… …music…

Me – “Hi, I had an upgrade approved and it should be shipping out now. Do you know where it is?”
HDJ2 – “Aaah, I see you’re upgrade was approved.”

Me – “Yes it was…?!?”
HDJ2 – “And your limits were increased.”

Me – “Yes they were…” (I’m still breathing deeply!)
HDJ2 – “Ok, that means it’s going to be delivered. Let me put you through to delivery.”

…music… …ads… …music…

Me – “Hi, I had an upgrade approved and it should be shipping out now. Do you know where it is?”
HDJ3 – “Ok, let me look……… But you got your card in December.”

Me – “Yes. The wrong card……. but that’s a long story that I don’t want to get into right now. Where’s my new card?”
HDJ3 – “Ok, please hold, let me check…”

…music… …ads… …music… …ads… …music… …ads… …music…

HDJ4 – “Hello, servicing department..”

<...repeat HDJ2's dialogue above (except for the transfer)...>

HDJ4 – “Ok, there is a bit of a back log at the moment, but the cards are being processed. I can’t give you a specific date, but the cards should be with the delivery company, and you should receive the card in the next 2 to 3 weeks…”

Well, it finally happened. No, no, no, don’t get your hopes up, I didn’t get a Credit Card…

I went to fill up with petrol, and with the Oil price and our slipping currency (an’ all an’ all), I paid the most I’ve ever paid for a full tank. The petrol attendant came back with the dreaded news:

“Sorry, but your card was denied.”

Lovely. NOT embarrassing at all!!! Thank goodness it looked like he was used to situations like this. He told me how to use a Debit Card, bless his heart. But no, not the lovely Discovey Debit Card. That has been cut up for something like 29 weeks now. Wouldn’t want anybody abusing it now, would we?

Well, I guess it’s near the end of May now. It’s taken a while to write the story so far, and yet there seems to be more. If you’ve read this far, well done. I’d just like to outline a few things I’ve learnt from all this.

1 – Is Discovery a bad company?
No, I wouldn’t say so. It just looks like they don’t really know how to handle new processes very well. Let’s just say I think they’d qualify as a CMMi Level 1 company.

2 – Is it easy to get a Credit Card?
No. Unless you spend a LOT of money and owe people money, it would seem. I’m not saying you’re completely in debt, though. I think it’s a case of owing a lot of money, but still making the correct “minimum payments” required. Then you’re a good payer, and you can get a credit card. But apparently you can’t be a good payer if you don’t owe money. One of life’s little hiccups.

3 – Are all Help Desk Jockeys bad?
No. I am just SO glad I am not one. Imagine having to deal with clients/customers like me when your company offers you no support…

Hey. GUESS WHAT!?! My card was approved. I guess I have HDJ 2 to thank for that. So when will my card arrive?

“I’m afraid there’s been a delay with the cards. They will only come out near the end of May.”

HDJ 2 finally phoned me back. She said that she was trying to find out exactly why my card was rejected. You see, she was thinking along the same lines that I have. There were 2 possibilities for my card being rejected:

1 – I had outstanding debt –> This was proved to be false, because I don’t have a credit profile.
2 – I don’t have a credit profile –> Ok, I have a car that a bank decided to give me money for. I have a house that the bank decided to give me money for. I don’t have any accounts anywhere because I don’t like owing money. If I want a shirt, I draw the money, and buy the shirt. Fine. They don’t know if I spend money well or not? But I sent them my financial details, and to me, putting 1 + 1 together should give you 2. It gave SOMEBODY here -100.

So, HDJ 2 would like to find out what’s happened, and why the Bank/Discovery won’t approve my willingness to give them money. She’ll phone me tomorrow…

Back to the Helpdesk Jockeys. LOVELY. I phoned quite a few times this week, so let me sumarise.

HDJ 1 – I told him that I was tired of trying to find out why the card was rejected. ESPECIALLY since I was dealing with Discovery directly, so Discovery should be telling ME why it was rejected. NOT make me go hunting for the reason. So HDJ 1 said that he would try and find out what a T100 code was. He would phone me back the next morning.

NEXT DAY:

HDJ 2 – After waiting until the next afternoon for the phone call that never came, I phoned again. HDJ 2 said that I couldn’t speak to HDJ 1 (obviously). Nicely enough, she volunteered to try and see what people (like the Finance Dept.) were saying about code T100. She would phone me back in the morning.

NEXT DAY:

HDJ 3 – Sorry, you can’t speak to HDJ 1 or HDJ 2, but the system said that HDJ 1 has sent a letter as to why the card was rejected. Expect it in the post any day.

Lovely, on top of all this, the company also uses snail mail (which, by the way, still hasn’t arrived, 1 month later).

So, the phone call to ITC. And for those who don’t know, ITC is a company that keeps details on your credit profile. This includes when, where and how often you have applied for credit.

Anyway, the phone call kind of goes like this:

“Hi. I believe I have outstanding debt. Could you tell me what a code T100 means?”
“I’m sorry, what is a T100?”
“I have no idea. I was told it was an ITC code and it means I owe somebody money.”
“Well I’ve never heard of this code.”
“Oh?”
“What are your details and I will check your profile…”
“blah blah blah…”
“Sorry, there are no details for your name in our system.”

So, for the second time in 5 months I have proved to myself, and OBVIOUSLY, to myself ALONE that I do not have a bad credit profile. Forget bad credit profile, how about NO profile whatsoever. This might not be the best of things either though. Read the next post to find out why.