MANHATTAN, New York-
Everyone remembers the tragic oil spill on March 24, 1989 of the Exxon Valdez, where the tanker hit Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef, and spilled approximately 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean; an ecological disaster still be felt today, more than 20 years later. I know, some of you have been trying to forget about that mishap for years, I’m sorry to have reminded you of it. I guess you could say Exxon is not perfect, and that all companies will make mistakes, but the Valdez, that was a biggie and I believe/hope Exxon is still paying for it today out of their deep pockets.
But what about other mistakes the company has made? Mistakes that are more comical in nature than anything else, and don’t really cause any damage to anyone or anything, but really leave you asking yourself, “What the hell is going on?” That’s exactly what Manhattan accountant Frank Van Buren was asking himself after a recent dealing with Exxon. Van Buren is a business owner, and for 17 years has loyally used an Exxon gas card for his company.
One day when Van Buren noticed his card was about to expire, he naturally called customer service and ordered two replacement cards. He received the cards, but two weeks later he received a mysterious box from Texas (left on his front doorstep). In the box he found 1,000 exact matches of the two cards he had already received with his name and account number on each. Immediately, Van Buren called Exxon to complain. Embarrassed and apologetic by the mistake, the Exxon representative asked him to immediately shred the cards, which he did over a three hour period.
End of story? Not quite. Not too long after another box arrived on his door step, looking much like the first box. The mystery box was easily identified on round two, another 1,000 card each in Van Buren’s name and account number. More upset this time, he called Exxon again and they said they had no idea what was going on, but would inquire with Citibank, who handles Exxon’s accounts. Citibank was also baffled and apologetic. Van Buren said he did not want to deal with the cards on round two and wanted to return them, but the return was refused……are you kidding me? In the end it was also disclosed that none of the 2,000 extra cards had any activation stickers, that are used to prevent identity theft. Hmmmmm……. the last time I saw a credit card without an activation sticker was, um, never.
The moral of the story: Some billion dollar companies need to spend a few more billion and get their #$@& together.
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