Last week I sadly experienced another company taking a customer’s goodwill and throwing it away. In this case, not quite (yet) one for the list of companies of which I am not a customer, but still an egregious failure.
Coles is my local supermarket, part of a large Australia-wide chain. I am a member of their loyalty rewards program and have been mostly happy with their service over the last two years. They recently started adverting a store credit card through their loyalty program. I happen to be considering getting a credit card (I don’t have one at the moment), and this card met my requirements (most in Australia do not). So I went to to their website to apply.
The first page asked for my name, email and phone number, and detailed the remainder of the process. Reading this page I noticed two things: firstly, that I was missing some necessary documentation; and that upon clicking continue they may use my contact info to follow up the application. I decided to come back the next day with the documents needed. I did not click continue.
Withion a few minutes of closing the webpage I get a text from Coles stating that my application had been saved, and a link to restart it. I thought that a bit cheeky, since I definitely didn’t click continue and they clearly took my details off the page asynchronously. Never mind, I wasn’t particularly upset. However, in the following 24 hours they sent two texts, two emails and TWO phonecalls - all trying to push me into completing the application. Does anyone actually respond positively to this harassment? I certainly don’t. If they are like this before I finish the application, imagine what they would be like after! The last call ended with me stating forcefully (but hopefully politely) “delete all my details and never contact me again”.
While I will likely shop at Coles again, I will never have one of their credit cards. It is also extremely unlikely I will use any of their other non-food offers. I have already turned off all marketing email through the loyalty account. Not that I feel in any way loyal anymore. This week I will be shopping at Woolies.