Janine R. Wedel: It Was A Wonderful Life: My Odyssey with Bank of America

The origin of the word “credit” is the idea of “trust.” Judging from the success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the readiness with which we are swiping our credit cards, there’s plenty of trust to go around. But my recent 20-plus hours on the phone with no fewer than 20 Bank of America representatives indicate otherwise. And as a student of complex organizations, I’ve been pondering what happens to society when trust is no longer woven into our interactions with the bureaucracies on which we rely, be they corporate or government.

I was trying to clear my credit record after a mortgage lender told me my otherwise stellar credit history–which I hoped would win me a favorable interest rate–was severely damaged because of an overdue Bank of America credit card balance. When I’d cancelled–or thought I cancelled–my card last May, I was told I had a zero balance. I had a cancellation number and the ID number of the customer service representative I talked with to prove it…

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Janine R. Wedel: It Was A Wonderful Life: My Odyssey with Bank of America

Source: The Huffington Post/em>