INGDirect.ca Online Support - Crapfkntastic! (Part 2) Resolution

Well having waited over a week and sending 3 follow up emails a response was finally issued to me by INGDirect.ca. Am I satisfied? Well Kinda. The email is good, what I had hoped for and more than I expected. However in the end I feel less secure about getting assistance from ING Direct Canada`s support staff. My advice to everyone is ask by email, and if you need to ease your mind go ahead and ask by chat but I wouldn`t act until that email response comes in. Or is you are daring and don`t mind interacting with humans you can just call. Two answers are better than one!

Here is the response


Hi,

My apologies for the delay in replying to you. Although this isn't an excuse, it's been busier than we've expected this month - adding more time than it usually takes for us to investigate, action, and get back to you.

I've looked up the chat and reviewed the emails you've sent us, and the agent you chatted with was incorrect. Mr.Pink has given you the correct answer that we don't accept travelers cheques for deposit. I've coached back the correct information to the agent you chatted with, going over all the types of deposits we can and cannot accept. We do have an internal knowledge base that our agents use, but as this agent was confident in his answer he did not consult it - and we've addressed that as well.

Thank you for your feedback, and for following up with us on this. Your feedback helps us to keep accountable and continually improve on our customer service. If you have any other good or bad experiences, we welcome you to share them with us.

All the best,

Q.
Savings Email Team  


 Not bad eh? Well thats all for now.

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INGDirect.ca Online Support - Crapfkntastic! Poor Service Woes

It`s really great that ING Direct Canada has online chat support! It`s so convenient to be able to simply ask someone a question directly and get an answer instantly. No waiting around for emails, you can keep chatting till everything clear and with ING you know you are speaking with a trained professional...or so I thought. I went from loving to hating ING online support within a weeks time. Although I have had good experiences in the past this one almost cost me up to $800. Below are my email transactions with ING, originally I had inquired by both chat and email about depositing travelers cheques.


Received: 01/30/2012 07:55 AM
Subject: travelers cheques
Hello I am an ING client currently living in Japan. I am wondering if I order travelers cheques from my Japanese bank if I could mail them to ING and have them deposited into my ISA. If so, what fee's would be involved? If not, are there any other types of foreign money transfer services offered by ING?
Thank you

Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:49:14 -0500
Subject: travelers cheques [Incident:]

Hi, We don't accept travelers cheques, however, we can accept wire transfers sent to be deposited into your ING DIRECT account -fee free! To receive a wire transfer, you'll need our BIC code which is: INGBCATT. Generally, the funds take about 3-4 hours to be deposited into your ING DIRECT account. The exchange to Canadian dollars is done by the bank sending the funds to us. We can accept wire transfers from almost any country. Be sure to check with your bank in Japan for any fees that may apply. Thanks for saving with us, Savings Email Team

That was all good, problem is that online chat support told me the opposite!!! Unfortunately I don`t have the original chat log yet. But I have these emails.


Subject: RE: travelers cheques [Incident: ]
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 07:36:30 -0500
Hello,

Thank you very much for the email. Letting me know about the fee free wire transfer is quite helpful, I will probably do that.

I would like to bring to attention a serious problem, if you could please forward this email to whom it may concern.

After having asked my question regarding travelers cheques by email, I found that someone was available in chat support so I desided to ask them for a quicker response. This was Tuesday January 31 2012, morning between 8AM and 11AM. Unfortunately I do not recall who I chatted with but I am sure that chats are logged, a search of logs at that time for the phrase "japanese bank" should easily bring up the chat.

I opened by saying "I am wondering if I send travelers cheques to ING if they could be deposited into my ISA"
the reply was yes, perhaps "we can do that".
I asked if it was ok that my cheque came from a "japanese bank" and I was assured that it was no problem.
We discussed fees, and I asked if I send the cheque to the same address as when I first opened my account, the answer was "exactly".
That was the end.

This is obviously in contrast to your email response, and I assume that this email is correct and the chat support was wrong. After the chat I found the info needed to buy the cheques. I was planning to buy $10-15 thousand dollars worth. There would have been a 1.5% fee for the service, the exchange rate had about a 2% commission on it. If I had bought the cheques and found them unusable I would have to have then converted back to yen as a simple refund is not possible, a further 2% commission would have been taken.

My loss would have been 5.5% or $550 - $825 and somehow ING would probably not claim liability so I would be out.

I'm wondering how it was possible to be given completely wrong information. If there is a manual or bible to assist chat support with answers, was it used?

I would like a follow up with answers and an explanation. Also I would like to know what actions will be taken by ING.

Thank you for your help Paulo, unfortunately not everyone is helpful at ING.

I`m still waiting for a response and sent them a follow up today....

"One week ago I had a big problem with ING online chat support. I sent a complaint last week and am yet to recieve a response of any type. Below you will find my past email. I would hope to recieve a swift response having had none so far on this issue."



Whats your take on it? Have your own problems to share? Leave a comment and lets hear!


     -Sign Up Now at ING Direct.ca (don`t forget to copy an ING Direct Canada Orange    Key  33885729S1)       
     -See our original post About the ING Direct Canada Orange Key for more information.

     -Keep an eye out on our Contest Page to see our latest contests and contest winners!