Here it is. Like you, I get examples of business incompetence every day. It’s always amazed me that the two industries that compete for this prize with me are airlines and electronics. Circuit City did so well that they went away. Best Buy and the cable companies are trying to follow them into the boneyard.
But, US Air took my prize for the dumbest move possible.
Today, I’m on the US Air web site to get my miles for my last flight with them. While there, I get a pop-up offering me up to $50 in some mysterious prize if I fill out a questionnaire. It’s only five questions and up pops the prize choices. I pick one and fill out the order and authorize the $4.95 in freight for the free prize.
I finish filling out the order get the acknowledgement of the order and the phone at my desk rings. It’s the US Air credit card fraud desk. I’m advised that I have suspicious activity on my card and if I don’t respond immediately the card will be deactivated. I’ve been down this road and it’s a royal pain when you have to re-issue a card.
Now, this is the truth, you can’t make this stuff up.
The suspicious activity in question is the $4.95 charge to my US Air card to pay the freight on the free item I got for filling out the US Air questionnaire. No kidding.
Can it really get any worse than this? How bad do you have to be to offer a free item, then force the person who got the benefit of your free item to work with your fraud control department to keep the customer from getting his credit card de-activated for $4.95.
Does anyone out there have any sense anymore?
