Monday, September 15, 2008

Outsourcing Mania

As a long time business customer of my bank, I was somewhat perturbed to get a call from a non-bank entity, per caller ID, asking for my routing number, claiming I owed fines I couldn't find through my on-line window into my accounts.

This all seemed rather suspicious. When I called back to confirm, the receptionist just told me to "have a nice day" although she did answer the phone "U.S. Bank".

I took the matter to my local U.S. Bank representative on Belmont & Main, who assured me, after poking around in my accounts, that everything was in order and no, they'd never farm out to a 3rd party collections agency so sloppily.

Later he called me back: in fact my bank is sloppy, and I do owe the fines, which I paid there and then over the phone. They do outsource to collections, even in less than 90 days.

Live and learn.