RME

Revolution Money Exchange scares the pants off me. I did sign up, and had some trouble verifying my account because I've lived at my house for less than a year. I called customer service and they answered me very quickly the first time. The guy I spoke with was friendly and sharp. He told me to expecy an email from them by Monday (it was Friday evening), and that I could fax in some utility bills to confirm my address. The email never arrived, so I called back on Thursday, and waited for a long time. Someone finally answered. He was friendly, but not as sharp, and I stayed on hol while he brought up my account for an interminable hell of twelve minutes with the worst hold-music I have ever heard. Ever. He finally came back and told me to go ahead and fax everything even though I had not received the email, so I guess that is all straightened out. Overall, I'm going to give them a B+ for customer service, but a C for organization.

Some guy named Tripp has introduced himself on the Etsy forums as an ambassador of RME. He's getting bashed for opening a so-called "sock puppet" account in the name of promotion, but he is offering himself for questions in a thread on RME. I think it's noble that he's there, but I have no doubt that he was ultimately sent there by RME and that no matter what he does on the forums, he is definitely promoting good will for RME. Ah, well. His answers are vague or very pre-fabbed and seem drafted by a stadium full of lawyers, but I expected as much. My biggest beef is that he skirts the issue on the topic of information sharing.

When we sign up for an online service, we expect that online service to allow us to communicate with them via the internet. As a financial institution, they gather sensitive information such as your name, address, and social security number. What stinks is that they require to you to opt out of the haring of that information with third party affiliates (read: "marketers") by sending in a written statement with your name and social security number. Just long enough for them to sell that information for a buck. I don't mind all this deceptive information sales, but can't their guy be upfront about it? They don't harge any fees like Paypal, but they have to make their money somehow. I just wish they would find a better way to do it and give us an online opt-out.