Intuit Values Customers at $25

I work with Intuit Merchant Processing to handle the credit card processing for my various businesses. I’ve usually been very happy with their service, but was concerned today re: how they dealt with a rather simple customer service call.

Before going into this, let me be clear that I’m not concerned regarding a mere $25. Instead, I’m concerned with how Intuit Merchant Processing dealt with this customer service issue. At some point in the near future, I may take my $25 (and $1,000′s in merchant processing) somewhere else since they seem to be focused on $25 fees instead of long term customer relationships.

—-update—

UPDATE 3/15/2010

As you can see in the comments section (click here to see directly), an Intuit Merchant Processing rep reached out to resolve this issue after this blog spread. I spoke with this rep via email and was contacted by the manager of their customer service call center on 3/15 via phone.

Long story short, I was refunded the fee I was charged and was told that the initial representative didn’t know the background of the situation which is why I was handled the way I was. It’s commendable that the manager reached out to me to resolve the issue, but I felt as though the rep’s manager (who was consulted by the rep during our initial call) should have handled this issue on the initial call as I did explain the entire background of the situation.

It shouldn’t take a blog post and a few tweets to get the manager to react, although I do commend her increased efforts these last few days after the fact. I appreciate their monitoring of social media and prompt followup to resolve the issue.

—end of update—

Intuit Might Do This To You Too

Without boring you with the detailed timeline of what led up to this, I’ll summarize by saying that I had to close all my bank accounts / credit cards late January and re-open all of them the same day due to a security breach at my bank.

Because I had new bank accounts with new account numbers, I had to make changes with Intuit Merchant Services to ensure that they had the updated checking account.

I Dealt With This Quickly

Long story short, I was notified by my bank on a Thursday night, spent all day Friday at the bank closing / opening accounts (on my birthday lol), and called Intuit on the Monday morning to confirm the change in accounts.

I was told the process to make this change and implemented it right away…a bit of a hassle but reasonable.

I Notified Them In Advance About Potential Fee

I specifically told the reps at Intuit Merchant Processing on that Monday that the old account was closed and that it couldn’t be used anymore. They said they’d note this in their system and make the account changes quickly to avoid any “account charge rejection fee“.

The Account Seemed to Change Successfully

It took about 10 business days of back and forth to finally make the change. It was tedious and a bit of a hassle, but it finally got changed and all was well.

Then They Fee’d Me

On my next statement I had a fee because they attempted to charge my old account after my initial conversation with them regarding my accounts being changed. This occurred after I said (and they confirmed) that the old account wasn’t usable and shouldn’t be charged.

I Was Confident They’d Solve This

In seeing this fee, I assumed it was just a glitch in their system and that they would reverse the fee since there was documentation that I had done everything in my power to work with them in advance of the account being charged and getting a fee.

Very Unhelpful Service at Intuit

Their response when I discussed this on the phone was that it was my responsiblity to notify them that I was changing my accounts 10 business days in advance of changing accounts. That would be understandable, except for the fact that we spoke prior to the account being charged a “rejection fee” and they confirmed that they would ensure this didn”t happen. Secondly, I didn’t choose to make the account changes. I was forced to make the changes Friday at my bank and notified Intuit immediately to get the gears in motion on their end.

How Much is a Customer Worth To Intuit?

The $25 fee is not my concern. The time I spent on the phone with them was worth much more than this $25.

The way in which this situation was handled by Intuit is what truly concerns me, especially in this type of customer-centric social media world.

Intuit’s accusation that “it’s your responsibility” and “we can’t make this change since it was your fault” shows me that they aren’t thinking in terms of long term customers. They’re thinking in terms of collecting their $25 fees and hoping customers don’t cancel.

Avoid Intuit If Possible

I’m not saying that I’ll cancel right away, as this would just take more of my time to get done. However, I’ll be sure to steer associates of mine away from Intuit Merchant Processing based on the way they deal with customers over a meager $25 fee.

Don’t Make This PR Mistake With Your Company

A little bit of customer service goes a long way. If they had at least aknowledged that I tried to get this handled on my end and worked with me a bit, instead of literally saying “it’s your fault“, then I would’ve forgot about the $25 and moved on as a happy Intuit customer.

But the way Intuit Merchant Processing valued me at $25 incredibly pissed me off. At some point in the future, I may take my $25 (and $1,000′s in merchant processing) to someone else.

What is Good Customer Service?

Leave a comment re: a good vs bad customer service example you have had in dealing with various companies. Intuit may be able to use some of these examples in their improvement for the future…