American Express's Serve needs some work
Serve is (roughly speaking) American Express's response to services like PayPal and Dwolla. I became a member through RevolutionMoney, which they bought out. Here's my recent (poor) experience:
* The initial problem arose because I selected the wrong email address to send money to. My fault, certainly. But simple to fix, right? The money wasn't even in the account yet.
* But no! It turned out I could not retarget sent money, even though the ACH transaction that was to fill my account with the necessary funds had not been completed.
* I tried to cancel it on the website, but was told I could not stop an ACH transaction. Once the ACH had completed, It was stuck in pending and I didn't even have a cancel option.
* I sent a message to support via the website contact form. I was not told that there was a response via my email address (greenreaper [at] hotmail [dot] com).
* When I checked the contact page, it was not clear that there was a response, either - the response was added "below the fold", beneath my initial contact.
* The response (which did in fact come on the same day I'd sent the request) said that I had to phone in anyway.
* It took several moves through the phone tree to get to an operator.
* The connection was poor and the initial representative could not hear me very clearly.
* *Neither initial rep nor supervisor could change the target address, nor could they cancel the pending transaction*
* The supervisor knew that the funds would return to my account within seven working days, but not what day that actually would be for my specific transaction.
* The supervisor promised to find out and call me back. Almost 24 hours later, I do not have the information promised.
I'm *guessing* that since the ACH transaction completed last Saturday, kicking off the outbound transaction (#94NHYTTPVD), it'll take another calendar week (until next Wednesday) for me to get my money back. From my current experience, I suspect it won't tell me when that happens. (Then I have to send it to the email address it needed to go to.)
Don't get me wrong - this was initially my mistake. However, the end result was not a good support or product experience. It compares poorly with competitors and I am more inclined to use and recommend them as a result.
I do not really blame the support representatives for this, more the system that they are interacting with, which does not appear to empower them to do their jobs, any more than it empowered me to avoid a support request in the first place (by, say, letting me retarget a pending transaction, or telling me the address wasn't linked with a Serve account).
Oh, and the kicker? The third-party support response survey I was sent about the phone call timed out (who lets sessions recycle after thirty minutes?!). When I tried to return, I was told I couldn't submit "another" survey, even though I hadn't finished. So I'm posting it here, for all to see.
Update (11 May): Serve's social media group apparently has greater access than the front-line support; my issue was escalated and resolved earlier this afternoon. I hope the underlying issues can also be resolved eventually.
* The initial problem arose because I selected the wrong email address to send money to. My fault, certainly. But simple to fix, right? The money wasn't even in the account yet.
* But no! It turned out I could not retarget sent money, even though the ACH transaction that was to fill my account with the necessary funds had not been completed.
* I tried to cancel it on the website, but was told I could not stop an ACH transaction. Once the ACH had completed, It was stuck in pending and I didn't even have a cancel option.
* I sent a message to support via the website contact form. I was not told that there was a response via my email address (greenreaper [at] hotmail [dot] com).
* When I checked the contact page, it was not clear that there was a response, either - the response was added "below the fold", beneath my initial contact.
* The response (which did in fact come on the same day I'd sent the request) said that I had to phone in anyway.
* It took several moves through the phone tree to get to an operator.
* The connection was poor and the initial representative could not hear me very clearly.
* *Neither initial rep nor supervisor could change the target address, nor could they cancel the pending transaction*
* The supervisor knew that the funds would return to my account within seven working days, but not what day that actually would be for my specific transaction.
* The supervisor promised to find out and call me back. Almost 24 hours later, I do not have the information promised.
I'm *guessing* that since the ACH transaction completed last Saturday, kicking off the outbound transaction (#94NHYTTPVD), it'll take another calendar week (until next Wednesday) for me to get my money back. From my current experience, I suspect it won't tell me when that happens. (Then I have to send it to the email address it needed to go to.)
Don't get me wrong - this was initially my mistake. However, the end result was not a good support or product experience. It compares poorly with competitors and I am more inclined to use and recommend them as a result.
I do not really blame the support representatives for this, more the system that they are interacting with, which does not appear to empower them to do their jobs, any more than it empowered me to avoid a support request in the first place (by, say, letting me retarget a pending transaction, or telling me the address wasn't linked with a Serve account).
Oh, and the kicker? The third-party support response survey I was sent about the phone call timed out (who lets sessions recycle after thirty minutes?!). When I tried to return, I was told I couldn't submit "another" survey, even though I hadn't finished. So I'm posting it here, for all to see.
Update (11 May): Serve's social media group apparently has greater access than the front-line support; my issue was escalated and resolved earlier this afternoon. I hope the underlying issues can also be resolved eventually.