Why Do Some Companies Try to Lose Customers?

This past Sunday I do something I almost never do, I actually visited FordCredit.com to try to find out exactly where I am with my loan and when I will be free and clear of having to make another a car payment.  Within seconds of bringing it up I remembered EXACTLY why I never go to their site and quite truthfully why I'll never use Ford Credit again to finance a car.

A bit of history.  So in some ways I should be a bit more sophisticated with how I remember my credentials for websites.  And yes, I know there are services out there made for people like myself that are afflicted with this totally curable disease, but let's face it, my authentication problems only really exist with sites that I don't frequent that often.  Knowing this, I tend to rely pretty heavily on the password recovery features that sites like these offer.

With FordCredit.com however (I will attempt to get that site reference in there as much as possible) they have a unique twist with their password recovery option.  In order to use it you must have your account number. This is an odd thing since:

1. I don't receive paper bills that would have the account number printed on it (unbelievably their site actually makes this suggestion).
2. Their second recommended approach for recovering your account number was to call their customer support number, enter my SSN, and retrieve my account number by listening to my account summary.  Which of course if I did that why would I even need to use their website?

I would love to know who within their engineering team had the 'fabulous' idea that my account number was such a vital piece of information to securely retrieve my credentials?  It's not as if there are not other ways to go about verifying who I am.  In fact, pretty much any site today does this by allowing users to answer security questions or in some cases (like my bank) placing a voice call to my house or text a code to my cell phone that allows me to reset my password.

It just strikes me as completely disappointing that instead of having the opportunity to form some sort of symbiotic relationship with FordCredit.com where I could have shown inherent value in going through Ford again to finance my car, instead whenever I visit FordCredit.com I am always  left with a dirty taste in my mouth and can't wait for the day when my car payments are complete.  From my perspective it really appears as if they are throwing me away as a customer.

When as a Software Developer I ask "Really?"

This morning as part of our company's new Information Assurance initiative I was required to sit through an on-line training for security policies and procedures.  For me personally it was beyond boring and in truth something we are required to do in order to meet certain governmental standards.  While I certainly understand the benefit for those that are not as "technically savvy" as myself, my only thought was how quickly could I get through the presentation and to the test awaiting me at the end of the training.

The purpose of this post however was that I had to share the image above.  Aside from the fact that the Click here link didn't do anything, it just killed me that they picked a seemingly random time period to dictate how long to wait before trying to get help.  Not 30 seconds... or even 45 seconds, but if I was stuck on the page for longer than 40 seconds then THAT is the time when I should get worried.