Customer Service, at it's finest

A few weeks ago, the Koalaman received a letter from his bank stating that they were switching to a new debit card company. I reproduce the letter here:

Dear Mr. Koalaman

Going forward first direct will be using Visa for both debit and credit cards. Shortly you'll receive you new Visa Debit card which will replace your current Maestro Debit card. Once it arrives, please destroy your existing Maestro Debit card and start using your new Visa Debit card. To make sure it's easy to recognise, your new Visa Debit card has the word DEBIT in the top right-hand corner of the card.

Your PIN number will remain the same
We have simply replaced your card, so you won't need to change your PIN number. Your card is ready to use at over 24 million outlets worldwide. You can also use it to withdraw cash from over one million ATM machines displaying the Visa logo and guarantee cheques up to £100.

Online protection
You can register your new Visa Debit card online with Verified by Visa(TM). If you've never tried this free fraud prevention service, and would like to know more, then you can register your card details online when you use a participating organisation. For more information go to www.visaeurope.com/personal/onlineshopping

If you have any further queries, please contact us on 08 456 100 100.

Yours sincerely

Jason Sharpe
Customer Services Director

Naturally the Koalaman, having a pet peeve against redundant repetition in acronyms, emailed the company about the phrases (in red above) that he found to be incorrect. "By Mr. Sharpe's reasoning," he said, "My body is made of of DNA Acid, I watch BBC Corporation television, and I live in the UK Kingdom." He also wondered why the switch to a new card had been made, as it was not explained in the letter.

A few days later, upon arriving home after a day out, we found a large box in front of our door. We opened it and found 12 bottles of wine. There was no accompanying invoice or letter of explanation, so we assumed it was a prize from one of the (many) competitions that the Koalaman has entered.

And a few more days later, the Koalaman received the following message:

To: Mr Koalaman
Re: Visa Debit

On behalf of Jason Sharpe, please allow me to respond to the points you raised in your recent communication.

first direct took the decision to change to VISA Debit cards based on the much wider coverage VISA has throughout the world. VISA Debit is recognised internationally and accepted globally. Countries such as the USA are now much better represented through the move to VISA than was the case with Maestro.

Regarding the language used in our correspondence, you are of course correct. Whilst it has become common practice for examples such as PIN number, ATM machine (and others such as ISBN number or HIV virus) to be used in everyday speech, their use in the written format should be avoided. I note with some amusement that the term describing such acronyms - Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome (RAS syndrome) is in fact itself a redundant syndrome and an excellent example of self referential humour. Sadly, whilst I will strive to ensure that such grammatical anomalies are removed from our correspondence, I suspect that like many things in the English language they will eventually, through everyday use, become the norm.

Thank you for your message, it did make me think (and smile), something I hope you too will be able to do when enjoying a glass of wine from the case I have asked one of my colleagues to send you.

At first direct we are passionate about providing all of our customers with exceptional service so we're fully committed to proving prompt and accurate resolutions to any complaints. If you are not completely satisfied with our response, please tell us any time within the next eight weeks. To do so, you can telephone us on 08 456 100 100, send an electronic message via firstdirect.com, or write to customer relations. Otherwise, we'll consider this matter closed.

If we can't offer you a satisfactory resolution, you can refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service (but we really do hope it doesn't come to that). Further details about how to do so and about how we respond to complaints can be found on our website at www.firstdirect.com/howtocomplain.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Kind regards

Graham Smith
Head of Marketing Planning

Wow! Humor AND expensive gifts from a bank! And in response to someone pointing out errors (albiet in a funny way)!

May your bank be as nice as the Koalaman's bank!