Another example of web site stupidity.
When she finishes at university this summer my step-daughter is planning to go travelling. To make this a bit easier for her we decided that we’d give her one of our credit cards. That’s a pretty standard thing that parents do, isn’t it?
I decided to make her an additional cardholder on my Egg card. The process seemed easy enough. I just had to fill in a simple form on their web site. There were no problems and the site told me to wait seven to ten days.
Seven to ten days passed. And then another week. The card didn’t arrive. Yesterday I decided to email them to find out what had happened to the card. Today I got a reply. Apparently you can only have two cardholders on an Egg account. And because my wife is already on the account I can’t add anyone else.
That seems like a rather silly restriction to me, but I suppose they have to draw a line somewhere. But given that this restriction is in place, surely it should be reflected on their web site. Checking again today, I see that the option on their site is labelled “add a second cardholder” and not, as I assumed previously, “add an additional cardholder” – so that should be a big clue. But that’s not really enough is it? They’ve got the details of my account. They know the account already has two cardholders. Why even offer me the option to add another one? And why allow me to go through the process of adding a new cardholder and tell me at the end that everything is fine and that I should expect the new card to arrive in ten days? I hadn’t bothered to chase them about it I could still be under the mistaken impression that the card was on its way.
Here’s what they should really do. Leave the “add a second cardholder” option, but when someone who already has a second cardholder on the account chooses that option, display a message explaining why they can’t add a third cardholder. Doesn’t that seem simpler? I wonder how much time their customer service team have wasted answering queries like mine.
I’ve now applied to add my step-daughter to my Virgin credit card instead. Currently I’m the only person on that account, so it shouldn’t be a problem. They say the new card will be with us in seven to ten days…