Welcome to a hair-pulling post that is also known as the frustration of dealing with Envision Financial’s Collabria Mastercard.
Most of the time when we have issues dealing with credit card companies, it’s due to billing problems.
I have a more unusual problem. I’m trying to make things right.
And Collabria, the company that handles Envision Financial’s Mastercard, is having none of it!
Envision Financial
Envision Financial is a pretty useless credit union in British Columbia.
I’ve already dedicated a blog post to them.
To sum it up, Envision Financial is ass wipe.
Before making a decision to merge with another credit union and become known as Envision Financial, named after a toilet paper company, they were known as Delta Credit Union. I got a Mastercard through them over 20 years ago with a $20,000 credit limit. I’ve never requested a higher limit in all these years. That amount is fine.
Originally the Mastercard was sourced through CUETS Financial. I’m sure good old ass wipe Envision did something to piss off CUETS because that’s just the type of company Envision is – going around alienating others.
After falling out of grace with CUETS a couple of years ago, Envision switched their Mastercard to Collabria Financial.
I’m guessing Envision chose Collabria because it’s more in tune with their philosophy of lousy customer service and general indifference!
Vancouver Aquarium
On April 29, 2020 I visited the Vancouver Aquarium’s online gift shop and purchased two face masks. Total cost $55.97.
I didn’t particularly want them, but they’re having financial difficulty due to the coronavirus pandemic, and had closed to the public. The aquarium depends on admission fees to feed the sea life in their care, which includes marine rescue. I wanted to help out, even though it’s been years since I last visited the Vancouver Aquarium.
Swamped with orders?
I waited and waited for my masks.
Keeping in mind, the Vancouver Aquarium is less than an hour’s drive from me. The masks are not traveling a great distance.
There was an overwhelming response for face masks and the Vancouver Aquarium got behind in production.
I received at least one email apologizing for the delay.
It was a little annoying, but understandable.
My face masks are shipped!
In June I received an email from the Vancouver Aquarium saying my face masks had shipped! Yay! They provided a tracking number.
After a week, I still hadn’t received my masks.
Remember. They’re not traveling a great distance to get to me.
I went to the Canada Post website and inputted the tracking number. Canada Post has also been swamped with the increase of people shopping online. My guess is my package was cooling its heels in a sorting center and hadn’t gone out for delivery.
However, Canada Post says no such tracking number exists.
What is going on here?
Who’s the shipper?
I haven’t the slightest idea who is shipping my face masks. The Vancouver Aquarium didn’t email me that information.
I found a website that helps people with tracking numbers when they don’t know who the shipper is.
Eventually I tracked the shipping number to Purolator courier.
This is a problem.
I have a post office box. Only Canada Post can deliver to a post office box. Couriers don’t have keys to Canada Post mailboxes. They can’t deliver to post office boxes.
It is very important to note that when I bought the face masks, nowhere did it say they would be sent by courier. If that information was on the order page, I would have given them a street address.
It seems to make more financial sense to stuff a couple of lightweight face masks into an envelope and mail them. Even with tracking, it’s cheaper than a courier.
Vancouver Aquarium ignores me
I tried to phone the Vancouver Aquarium gift shop, but there was no answer and no answering machine to leave a message.
There was a way to contact them by email, so I tried that, and explained the problem.
I can see with an overwhelming number of face mask orders, the Vancouver Aquarium gift shop probably hired additional staff for shipping.
I’ve worked for companies that use couriers, and it’s all done through the courier’s website. Here’s what happens when you put in an address with a box number. The courier’s system flags it as an incorrect address. However, it does give the shipper an option to force the address through.
Clearly that’s what happened in my case. And if it happened to me, it probably happened to others too!
Canada Post boxes have a mailing address for the number that starts off with RPO. That stands for Royal Post Office.
Clearly the genius doing the shipping for the Vancouver Aquarium ignored that RPO on my address. When the courier’s website flagged an incorrect street address, the shipper should have checked the shipping label, noted the RPO, and put it aside for mailing through Canada Post.
Or the shipper could have sent me an email or picked up the phone and asked me to provide a street address instead.
This did not happen. Instead my face masks were driving around in a Purolator truck on a doomed trip to nowhere because of a bad street address.
Vancouver Aquarium keeps ignoring me!
After a couple of weeks I sent out a final request for resolution email to the Vancouver Aquarium gift shop letting them know I was unhappy with being ignored and that their shipper screwed up and sent my face masks out with a courier instead of Canada Post.
I asked how they planned to fix this, and told them if they refused to answer, I was going to put a chargeback in on my credit card. I gave the Vancouver Aquarium a deadline of two weeks to contact me on how they planned to make this right.
All the Vancouver Aquarium had to do was resend my face masks by Canada Post, and keep me updated.
The Vancouver Aquarium decides I’m bluffing and ignores me.
Chargeback
I hated to do it, but because the Vancouver Aquarium had zero interest in contacting me to get this resolved, in late June, 2020, I phoned Collabria and put a chargeback in on the $55.97.
Face masks arrive!
About one week after I put the chargeback in on the Mastercard, the face masks were delivered to my post office box!
I immediately phoned Collabria and requested that the chargeback be reversed because I had now received my purchase.
End of story, right?
Nope, because I am now dealing with a Mastercard company that has adopted the Envision Financial philosophy of doing piss all.
In the meantime, check out the Vancouver Aquarium face mask. It is really cute and well made. It’s comfortable to wear and I’m happy with the purchase.
Except – did I really purchase it?
$55.97
You’d think that would be the end of the story and all is well.
But, this story is just beginning, and this post is already getting too long! I should have titled it the saga of dealing with Envision Financial’s Collabria Mastercard – ha ha!
Month after month I receive a statement from Envision Financial Collabria Mastercard showing the $55.97 credit. That must cost them about $5 a month in postage, supplies, and wages for the person in the mail room.
I phone Collabria every time my monthly statement arrives, asking what’s going on. Why is this reversing the chargeback taking so long? I’m told it’s in the works. I’m told it takes time. Generally I’m met with indifference.
Yup, exactly like dealing with Envision Financial!
I’ve made it very clear that I won’t be using the credit card again until this chargeback reversal gets cleared up.
The money belongs to the Vancouver Aquarium!
Get off your asses and take care of it!!!
Information about account
On the back of the Collabria statement is “information about your account”.
It says if there are errors on the statement to contact Cardholder Services at 1-855-341-4643 or email info@collabriacreditcards.ca. Clearly phoning that number hasn’t worked, so I have an ah ha moment, and send an email explaining the problem, including my account number that is on the statement. This is a different number than my credit card number.
I get a response from “Eva” that is about as useful as a one cup bra on a 44DDD woman.
Contrary to what the “information about your account” says, “Eva” tells me that email is for basic information and that I should call 1-855-341-4643 for assistance.
The more likely story is that “Eva” has better things to do with her time than provide “customer service”. Too lazy to pick up the phone? That’s a value Collabria has inherited from Envision Financial ha ha!
One more try!
Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, but on January 2, 2021 I try the customer service phone number one more time. The automated system asks if I want to speak with a rep in English or in French. I press the option for service in English. A man with a very thick Quebec French accent answers and speaks so rapidly I don’t catch his name. Lucky for him or he’d be featured here.
Once again I explain the problem and ask what’s taking cancelling the chargeback so long to go through.
He says to me: “So you want to make a payment on your account?”
What the hell, buddy???!!!
Does the fact that I’m in a CREDIT position and my statement shows -55.97 and zero amount due mean nothing to you? I’m dealing with geniuses everywhere I turn!
So I just said: “forget it, I don’t want to talk to you anymore”.
And I hung up.
I give up! I am never phoning that number again!
QUOTE: “So you want to make a payment on your account?”
Envision Financial Collabria Mastercard
Website assistance?
One might think in this day and age that there should be some place online that I can get assistance.
Collabria Mastercard has a website, but there’s a pop up box that won’t go away so you can’t click on anything.
It looks like there’s all kinds of information available on their webpage, but this box won’t go away. There is no X to close it. Neither does clicking outside the box close it. You have to enter the name of a financial institution that you’d like to apply for a credit card and that’ll take you to that bank or credit union’s website.
Not helpful.
I mean, what the hell, Collabria? Did you hire former CIBC developers to build your webpage?
However, when I was on hold on the “customer service” line, I got another website where I can enroll my credit card. Hmm, that might mean I can send messages while logged on there.
I enter the website and it asks me for my financial institution. Then it lands me on this page: https://envision.mycardinfo.com/Enroll.aspx
Looks pretty easy. All I have to do is enter my card number, the security number on the back of the card, the expiry date, and my birthday. I have most of that info on my Mastercard. My birthday, I already know from memory – ha ha!
I hit the “Continue” button, and this is what happened next:
A big fat red error message.
What the hell? It doesn’t even give me a clue on which one of the things I entered might be incorrect. I’m holding on to the Mastercard and I know my birthday. There is no doubt in my mind there are no typos and the correct information is entered.
I should have known anything associated with ass wipe Envision Financial would be an exercise in frustration. Collabria Envision Financial Mastercard sucks!
I give up!
So I’m done attempting to get this chargeback reversed.
The only other thing I can think of doing is filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, which I still might do because those monthly statements showing the $55.97 credit are going to keep pissing me off.
I don’t understand why the Vancouver Aquarium hasn’t disputed the chargeback with their financial institution. That’s what they should have done months ago, but obviously they don’t have their act together.
In just a couple more months Collabria Envision Financial Mastercard will have spent the same amount on mailing me statements as the cost of the face masks.
No one can ever accuse me of not doing my best to make things right here. When you’re dealing with financial institutions whose moral philosophy is the reverse of mine, there’s not much else that can be done.
My apologies to the Vancouver Aquarium. I hope you ended up hiring a better shipper.
Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on January 4, 2021.
CHECK OUT MY FACE COVERINGS!
MORE READING:
The Devastating Arrival of Collabria Mastercard to Coast Capital Savings
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