Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World 13th Edition by Kathryn Rentz,Paula Lentz

Exercise 42

You are a branch manager for a large bank. On July 1 the bank began assessing a $15 surcharge to all debit cards that had not been used in six months. The $15 fee was deducted from cardholders' checking or savings accounts. Eight weeks before the July 1 deadline, the bank's customer service department sent letters to all debit cardholders whose cards had been inactive telling them that if they didn't use their cards by July 1, they would be assessed the $15 fee. Customers were also told that if they no longer wished to have the card, they were to call an 800 number to deactivate it. In addition, all cardholders were reminded that after July 1, they had to use their cards at least once every six months to avoid the fee. The notice was also placed on cardholders' monthly statements, posted on the bank's website, included in the bank's quarterly newsletter, and advertised in branch office lobbies.
After July 1 customers with unused cards were assessed the $15 fee. Many customers who somehow missed the notices of the policy change called customer service to express their anger and disappointment. Once the customer service representatives reminded these customers of the multiple notices regarding the fee, most grudgingly accepted that they should have paid more attention. One particularly angry customer, though, was not satisfied with this explanation. After her phone call to customer service, Laura Nelson wrote a letter to you, the branch manager, saying that the bank had done an insufficient job in informing customers of the fee. She said a phone call would have been the best way to let her and others know, and she wants the $15 fee returned to her account. She says that if you don't give her the $15, she will take her accounts elsewhere.
You believe that the bank did all it could do to inform the customers. Making phone calls to all of them would have been unreasonable and inefficient. Besides, in a society where phone scams and financial fraud are becoming common, would she have thought a voice message about a $15 fee on a debit card was credible? Write a response to Ms. Nelson denying her request to return the $15 to her account. Retain her goodwill so that she does not take her accounts to another bank.