Complete and utter incompetence by Hip "Support"

George DeKornfeld · May 2021

Yesterday I received a new debit card from my bank and went to the Members Area to change over. Here and on HipPostcard, each time I tried, after entering the new card information, I would get an error message saying "we are unable to complete your change.' Much to my delight, I then got a phone call from my bank, wondering what was going on and to tell me they locked my card. After I got that cleared up and my card was re-activated, I contacted "support" to report the issue. After asking me several inane questions, one of their emails finally sent me two links to try to switch my account info. Mercifully, the one to HipStamp worked, so there was one out of the way.
I then clicked on the link to do the same on HipPostCard, and ended up with a 'Page not Found' error message. I told "support" about this and got a 'whoopsie....my bad' for a response. Back and forth with more screen shots and inane questions while being urged to re-enter my card info via the normal route. Net result: same result with my debit card getting locked a total of THREE TIMES yesterday, each necessitating time on the phone with my bank. The last I heard from "support" yesterday was they were bumping my issue up the ladder to someone who might have a clue.
Nothing until this afternoon so I emailed support again, to whit:

"Any news on this? Is this issue resolved so I can try switching cards again?
My card got locked Three times yesterday because of all the attempts."

The response I received? Well, here it is:

"Hi George,
Thank you for your patience.
Were you able to update your card successfully this time? Let me know if you are still having issues!"

Did she read my f'ing email? Am I to assume reading comprehension is a problem here as well? With all the problems this site has had in the past week, I'm about done (as it turns out, eBay's managed payments aren't so bad after all, and that's where most of my sales are). Imagine the squawking from "support" at the beginning of next month when they try to get their cut from my HipPostCard account and can't because my old, dead card is stuck in there. Hours of my life I won't get back. Unbelievable!!!!!!

Henry Brooks · May 2021

Talked to the old head of IT at the government agency I used to work for. He said get used to it because all todays programmers know is to copy code from books. They are clueless as to what they are doing.
Remember how intuitive Bidstart and Stampwants were. Remember all the data that was at your fingertips without loading hundreds of CSV files? That was because they were programmed by programers who knew what they were doing. He said it would appear that the post SG debacle programming was done out of a textbook with all the dropdowns, clicks, etc. if something breaks they are clueless as to a fix.
He said they have hired back half a dozen programers who took a buyout to be able to fix problems because the new hires are clueless.
Based on the noted lack of reading comprehension I wonder if support has been off shored. I had a go round with Staples and the non answers were so bad I sent a registered letter to their corporate headquarters. I was amazed when I got a response from the office of the President thanking me for presenting the problem in a clear and concise manner and that they were becoming slowly aware of the extent of the problems. There resolution was more than generous.
Pretty obvious there was a dramatic change in support and that many are unable to figure out how to contact t them directly.

George DeKornfeld · May 2021

Well, FWIW (and I'm no IT guy), I figured it out myself and got the change thru. Dunno what the original issue was, but I talked to my bank again (and guess what? My card was locked again!!!!). So after I got my card un-locked for the fourth time, I asked the nice lady if its possible that Hip wasn't on their so-called 'White List.' Sure enough, they weren't, so she made some adjustments on her end and stayed with me while I tried again and voila, the change went through.
One would think that IT would have come up with this as a possibility, but you're quite correct Carol, IT here is helpless and clueless, and I agree, it seems highly likely its been off-shored (especially since there were so many different names responding to my emails).

Wayne Camolli · May 2021

Back when I actually worked for a living, one of my jobs was to manage the Customer Service Reps (like trying to manage a herd of cats). The hardest thing was to convince them it was better to solve their problem over the phone that to listen to the screaming if they actually came into the shop. The rules were simple: SAY you are going to fix the problem AND THEN MAKE SURE IT IS FIXED. Blame in on me or the lazy production people, but then fix it...believably.
Not happening these days.

George DeKornfeld · May 2021

Here's the email I got when I advised "support" that I had already solved the issue:

"Hi George,

That is great to know!

Our team has been diligently working on resolving this yesterday and I was making sure everything is fully resolved before getting back to you with an update, but glad it has worked!

Please feel free to reach out if you ever have questions."

Although that may be true, it still most likely translates into: 'Thank goodness. We were hiding, hoping it would go away.'

Jaysper Asuncion · May 2021

Hi George,

First, let me apologize for the difficulty you've had with this process and that we weren't able to resolve this issue for you right away.

While we use a system to be able to verify card information, it allows us to view limited information for security purposes. As each customer's bank settings may differ, investigating these sorts of issues on our end can take some time. It is a rare situation that required further checking into our system which was in the process yesterday when you were able to find a resolution through your bank. We would like to assure you that the in-house support agent that assisted you had escalated the matter, which is why you spoke to different agents.

I do understand your feedback and frustration, and I will be addressing this communication with the agent and the team.

George DeKornfeld · May 2021

Thank you for reaching out, Jaysper, and for the clarification.

I did need to change my debit card information with about 15 other sites and only had trouble when it came to Hip. I also encountered similar difficulties here with a change 2 or 3 cards ago (which is why I finally recalled the work-around). It would be nice to see the process streamlined for all.

Complete and utter incompetence by Hip "Support"

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