Dearest Sam’s Club Business Credit,
Thank you for the kind letter. I feel inclined to reply telling you why I have ended our relationship. For about 12 years, we had a pleasant relationship. It worked like this:
a) I shop at my local Sam’s Club
b) I pay with my Sam’s Club Business Credit (SCBC)
c) you send me a bill
d) I pay it.
It’s a pretty good system.
Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but about 3 years ago I drastically reduced the use of my SCBC account. You may have also noticed there was no decrease in my purchases at Sam’s Club. Something compelled me to get a MasterCard and use it instead. Read on to learn why.
In 2005 we moved from Michigan to Texas. One of my moving checklists is a list of all my personal and corporate accounts with utilities, banks, investments, credit cards, etc. On move day, which is already quite busy, I file a USPS change of address to forward mail and then log onto a bunch of web sites to update our postal address.
Everyone I do business with allows me to log on their web site and change my postal address. Yes, this includes business accounts with banks and credit cards. It is very convenient. If I forget anything important, it gets forwarded to me.
It’s a good system with one exception. One company requires that I submit a fax with my change of address request. I cannot update it on their web site. I cannot send an email. I cannot update it at a local store bearing their name. This company also stamps their statement envelopes with “DO NOT FORWARD,” so that they won’t follow me to my new locale. After the 2005 move, months went by before I was contacted by a nasty person who chided me for not paying the bill I didn’t get.
The nasty person was from GE Capital calling about my SCBC. I asked the nasty person why they don’t allow my statements to be forwarded. She told me it’s so that they can get my new address from the USPS and update their systems. Apparently several months of statements being returned wasn’t sufficient to warrant an update.
During the months of no statements, I had visited Sam’s Club stores and was never notified of the outstanding balance. I get regular promotional emails from Sam’s Club but no notification of the outstanding balance. After that unpleasant experience, I all but stopped using my SCBC. Don’t take my word for it, check my (now cancelled) account history.
Fast forward to 2008. It’s been several years of barely using my SCBC account. We’re talking 2-3 statements per year, one of which is because you automatically charge my business membership to the account. In May we moved from Texas to Washington and you’ll never believe what happened. (Hint: back up 4 paragraphs)
This time around, I asked the GE rep to cancel my account. I appreciate the letter of regret you sent but I do not believe you are sorry I’ve cancelled. If you really cared about my business:
• you would make it easy for me to manage my account information.
• my account would still be accessible so I can see my statement history, particularly the ones I’ve never seen.
• you would have updated my address and resend the statement, like my Credit Union did. In the first month.
• you’d have noticed that for the last three months, I’ve been shopping in Washington and am on Pacific time. You could have avoided waking me.
Bonus points are awarded for adding a notification feature that sends me an email or text message N days before it is due like American Express does. Shucks, ANY updates to your web site after a decade of stagnation would be welcome.
Goodbye SCBC.
# 6032 205 090 505190140
