It was an email by Citibank (Shittybank) thanking me for going paperless with Citibank Electronic Statements.
Technology is changing the way we work and live in a faster way than before. From taking public transport to ordering of food, from watching TV programs to banking, technology is disrupting all kind of industries in unexpected ways.
Banks are also jumping on the bandwagon to be ahead of competitors and Fintech companies, which are threatening banks' businesses and its very existence and survival.
Technology helps to improve efficiency, lower costs, increase productivity, reduce human errors and create new businesses and opportunities. It also makes life easier and more convenient for people.
In fact, you'll be hardpressed to find a bank which is not into something to do with technology.
And when you look at all the banks, there are essentially no differences in the new services and products that they offer online or on mobile, except for the names they call them.
In fact, Citibank has been trying to get me to subscribe to their paperless statement many years back. Their marketing message was to go green and save the environment, if I remembered correctly. And I think they do offer some form of incentive to encourage me to switch over. Of course, saving manpower and postage costs are the other reasons they did not mention. Not to forget the huge amount of capital investment they made to acquire the technology (software and hardware) to support online statement.
I tried it once and revert back to physical statement cos I tend to forget to log in.
And it's not responsibility to helps the bank saves money.
Technologies might have improved over the years and made logging in a breeze.
In a final effort to switch its customers over to online statement, the bank issued a notice informing its customers that there will be a charge for physical statement in future.
And when this still didn't work to imgrate stubborn customers like me to switch over, they simply inform you what they've done after they've done it.
I seriously do not remember signing up to go paperless with them and wonder why they are putting words into my mouth.
This reminded me of my broadband contract which was up for renewal about a year ago.
I went down to the shop to renew my contract and was told the plan I was on is no longer available. The staff offered me two new packages which were about 10 to 15% more expensive than what I was paying. He said all plans now are using new technology which is faster and more reliable.
There were no notifications informing me that my plan was obselete, which they could easily do with an email (they have all my contacts to contact me). There was no special rates for existing customers to imgrate them over to the new technology. It's either you take it or leave it.
Had Citibank tried to find out why customers like me are not switching over to paperless statement when it first implemented this service, they could probably gain insights and improve on their system. And if they really listen, I might have considered switching over without the need for them to do all kinds of stuff to make me change.
Shoving something down your customers' throat leave a bad taste.
That's why I refused to go down to their branch to close down my account which has one cent left.