Several years ago I received a credit card from Westpac with a $2000 limit, shortly afterwards I relocated to the United States. Upon discovering that there were no means to make payments through ATM's here I called Westpac's "dedicated customer relations team" to enquire about my options for repayment, only to be told that I was "not eligible for phone banking". As I saw it I was not requesting "phone banking", I was making a valid, general enquiry requesting advice on how to repay my debt. I then emailed and received no response.

Consequently 5 years down the track I find myself receiving an urgent late night message from a friend here in the United States to call someone in Australia. Already in distress taking care of a family issue in Florida I called the number to find it was an agency known as Credit Corp. They explained to me that given the time difference I had a total of 3 hours to deposit almost $3000 via credit card into my deactivated account or I would face "escalated legal costs and consequences", as though I was some criminal fraudster trying to weasel my way out of a relatively small debt. The hour was late and my husband, my only source of income was currently in transit to the other side of the country and obviously not able to rectify the situation in that time frame. I was left with no other option than to contact family members in Australia to assist me.

I now find myself $3000 in debt to a family member who most certainly doesn't have that kind of money to outlay in such a short period of time, I have been placed in a position where I must somehow acquire the funds to repay this debt in a very limited amount of time, an added strain placed upon my family here in an already trying period of illness and have been humiliated in front of my peers who were led to believe that some dire family emergency was in progress from the tone of the "urgent" messages left for me with them.

All of this inconvenience to myself and their "business" could have been avoided had their "dedicated customer relations team" actually participated in customer relations. One simple answer via telephone 5 years ago or one brief email response and none of this would have ever occurred. I have alerted all friends and family members holding personal and business accounts with Westpac and urged them to retain the services of another institution as soon as possible so they may avoid unnecessary grief caused by it's non existent customer service.