Discover Slower Than George W. Bush

You think George W. Bush was slow to respond when Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast back in 2005? They weren’t as slow as Discover Financial Services was to respond to Hurricane Irene.

I got this email from Discover on Sept. 14, more than two weeks after Irene slammed into my hometown. As you can see, Discover was concerned about “the recent disaster” that affected my “community.” Oh, and of course, that I can always count on Discover in case on an emergency.

Great! Thanks! Maybe they saw I haven’t used my account. Maybe they didn’t notice my available credit is so low that I couldn’t use my card to buy a hammer and nails at Dollar Tree (which I don’t even think takes Discover).

Either way, is two-plus weeks a little late to react to your customer’s needs? Will Discover send me an email in mid-January with a holiday offer? How about reminding me to get my wife a Valentine’s Day gift in March?

As for personalization, if Discover was going for that, they missed the mark. Sure, my name is on the email (as is the last four digits of my account, so I’m 99% sure this isn’t a fishing scam). But with everything else being so generic – and late to the table – it might as well been addressed to “occupant.”