Remember customer service?

Here's the situation: I just finished a 30-minute phone call with my credit card company, Chase. I had found a card from another company that I had signed up for a few months ago as part of a promotion but that I had never activated. I called the other company to cancel because I wanted to improve my credit score by reducing my available credit. This other company, Citibank, fell head over heels to keep me, but I was determined to cut up my card.

Then I called Chase, a company I have been with for several years. Longevity helps your score, too. I thought I would be able to reduce my rate just a bit -- from about 11 percent. So it took about 10 minutes to get an "adviser" to speak with. I told her that it was ironic that the phone message kept repeating that my call was valuable yet I had been waiting for 10 minutes. I explained I would like a lower rate. She said that, in fact, a letter had just gone out indicating my rate was to increase to over 14 percent. That set me off into my most calm cranky mode. I asked for a supervisor and was told it would be about a seven-minute wait.

So I waited. I got the supervisor, who told me she was not authorized to change my rate but that she could transfer me to a rate specialist. I agreed, but not until I had let her know that I was upset at the poor customer service today. Seven minutes (and the previous 10) had given me plenty of time to enumerate my displeasure. I wondered if Chase even wanted me as a customer. She explained that the delay in calls today was because Chase had just merged with another company and the computer systems were complicating things. She said it should be worked out in a month or so, and I replied I may not be around that long.

The rate specialist answered after just two minutes and quickly offered a rate of just under 11 percent, less than what I am paying now, and significantly less than what I would have been paying when the increase kicked in.

So I may still call Citibank back and ask for the same rate the offered, even just for a balance transfer -- like one percent interest on those. But when I am receiving an average of one pre-approval or other credit card solicitation every day, I would think that a company to which I have been pretty dang loyal would want to keep me as a customer.

Add to all of this that I tried to connect my cellphone to my computer to download pictures, and the software is only for Windows-based computers, not my Mac. So now I have to subscribe to a $5-per-month servoce or at least pay 25 cents per picture sent. That is a pain in the neck. Seems like if I bought the phone and I have the equipment, I should be able to get the pictures without paying the phone company to send them.

It makes one notice when we get good service. There are a few places where the service is exceptional. Les Schwab Tire Centers, for example, always have great service, even when the guys are super busy and stressed. They always run out to the car to greet you and they always want to help.

We need more of that.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.