Bureaucratic Quagmire swept aside

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

In another thread I posted about clouds on my title caused by failure of a banker to notice my county recorder of deeds that an interest in my property was extinguished as to a prior note holder when the obligation was sold from bank to bank.

Well the former bank is out of business and the new bank (Countrywide) didn't record (it was their responsibility) and the years ticked by.

Now, that failure to record is jeopardizing a Re-fi.

The Customer service people tried and tried to help and every time they failed. They failed because they were using the resources they understood which might apply the the normal course of issues that they regularly deal with. This problem however, was not in the regular course of things. ERGO they failed and while their failures consume time, the clock is ticking on my lock-in rate.


So I did a little research online and managed to find the name of the bank's General Counsel (press releases). The Bank's Central office phone system lets you speak the name in to get the person. I spoke that name.

I got the assistant of the bank's GC. Instantly I had a competent person who could sweep aside the quagmire of banker bureaucracy with little more than a phone call.

Within minutes I was talking to a person in the president's office & it was the exact person who could solve my problem.

All I had to do was be pleasant and state my issue succinctly and everyone was into cooperation and helpful mode.

So the lesson is:
When dealing with a big beaurocracy find the name of the person at the top of the heap and talk to whoever picks up the phone in that person's office.

[Lee Schierer]

Quite often I find the same answer, go to the head person, will resolve the issue. Underlings trying to do their job without involving the boss often stonewall customers, hoping I guess that they will give up and go away. Usually one phone call or letter to the head person resolves that.

I had a dispute years ago with a local car dealership over some poor maintenance they did on a car they sold me. I was getting no where with the local people. I wrote a letter to the head engineer of the foreign car company (found his name in a business registry) and explained the situation in detail. Within a week of sending my letter I received a phone call from the Director of the US office asking if my problem had been resolved. When I said no, they apologized and said they would be in touch. Within a half hour the owner of the local dealership called and asked when I would like to bring my car in so they could fix the problem at no charge.

If you write letters, write "personal" on the envelope and most secretarys will not open the letter.

[John Schreiber]

I've had similar experiences. Out of the blue, we started getting calls from bill collectors relating to a hospital bill we had received less than a week ago. No one could help us and with our near perfect credit history, this was quite distressing.

I wrote to the president of the hospital and copied everyone down to the person who answered the phone. The hospital president called me. Arranged for it to be fixed, then apologized. I then received apology calls from everyone else I sent letters to.

People are generally good and they want to help, but they feel limited by their place in a bureaucracy. It shouldn't take a president to sweep away problems. Any trusted employee should be able to fix them.

[Lee DeRaud]

People are generally good and they want to help, but they feel limited by their place in a bureaucracy. It shouldn't take a president to sweep away problems. Any trusted employee should be able to fix them.

Unfortunately, in a frighteningly high percentage of organizations, you can count the number of "trusted employees" on your thumbs. The default assumption seems to be that the people actually doing the work are (1) actively trying to rip off the organization or (2) prone to screwing up in ways that leave the organization open to litigation. This does not tend to foster a "can-do" attitude on the part of the average worker bee when dealing with customers.

There, I've gotten my daily ration of cynicism out of my system...life is good.

[Belinda Barfield]

If you write letters, write "personal" on the envelope and most secretarys will not open the letter.

Cliff, I'm glad you got the issue resolved and appreciate you sharing the ordeal so that others can benefit from your experience.

Lee, way back when I took some business class in high school we were taught to type in bold on the envelop "Personal and Confidential".

I had a similiar experience with a car I purchased that ended up being a lemon. It was in the repair shop more than it was out. I've never been shy about picking up the phone or writing a letter. So, I wrote a letter to the head of the auto plant in Bowling Green with a copy to my local dealer, the Better Business Bureau, AAA, the Chamber of Commerce, and the state agency that oversaw enforcement of the Lemon Law. Within a week I was assigned my own "Personal Technician" who traveled from Bowling Green to Augusta, GA to evaluate the problem. He made three trips for issues with the car before it was declared a lemon and the dealer gave me a brand new car. Unfortunately, I had to return to that dealer's service center for routine maintenance and they hated to see me walk through the door.

Sadly, you had to spend your time to fix a problem that never should have existed. At least you didn't get trapped in that black hole of the automated phone answering system.

[Mitchell Andrus]

you can count the number of "trusted employees" on your thumbs.

But Lee, I'm all thumbs.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Ouch.
.

[David G Baker]

Another thing I like to do when I have issues with a company is to take names. I try to do it in a very subtle manner before problems start so I don't get a false name.

[Belinda Barfield]

Good idea David. It's much easier to kick butt when you take names first. I'll try to remember this in the future.