For those of you who have read my earlier article “Banco de Oro Ate My Money” please bear with me while I rant some more about BDO’s Customer Service Agents.

The problem with Customer Service Agents at the Banco de Oro is they do not have a unified source of knowledge that they can study and pass on with confidence to their callers. Perhaps this may be because I am not a BDO depositor and therefore not worthy of the same treatment as one who is. But talking to different CSA’s at BDO is like talking to different banks altogether. The quote different policies, different standard operating procedures, and conflicting reports as to the status of your case.

The first CSA we spoke to refused to give us a Case number because I am not a BDO depositor. However, the third one I spoke to volunteered immediately to give me one and took down all my details. Other CSA agents told me I could not communicate directly with their ATM Centre, but then again, one CSA gave me the trunkline of the ATM Center and then from there I learned how to call the department that dealt with “other banks” that had issues with the BDO ATMs.

It was this way that I spoke to Mar of the ATM Center who told me that they had already released my money to Megalink the day before (Dec 9) and that Megalink should pass it on to Unionbank soon. I heaved a sigh of relief. I was several steps closer to getting my money back, almost there in fact. After I spoke to Mar, I called Unionbank again, who confirmed that indeed Megalink had communicated with them that my money was on its way back to my account.

After more than two weeks of not knowing whether I was going to see my P5K again, I finally did see it, when I checked my Unionbank account online, yesterday afternoon. No one from either bank called me as promised, to check if indeed I knew that my money was back. Certainly no follow-ups as promised by BDO’s CSA’s, perhaps because I was not a BDO depositor and did not deserve the effort.

I had the means by which to nag them into working on my case. I had phones both at home and in the office. But what if this had happened to someone who did not have the same means as I did, who could not spend the entire morning calling back and forth between banks.

What if this had happened to Manong Kardo the construction worker, who had attempted to withdraw his month’s pay but ended up with nothing? What if he didn’t know who to call, what if he didn’t know that he had to call and persistently so that he can get his money back? What would he do for two weeks or more, with no money to feed his family—and all that BDO can tell him is his transaction did not exist in their system?

One thing’s for sure though. I am never going to be a BDO depositor after this fiasco.