Gratitude and Apologies: A Memo from our COO

18 Oct 2012

The Author

Chief Operating Officer

Jason is a serial entrepreneur with a long history in financial services. He began his career making boxes in the shipping department of Deluxe Check Printers over 15 years ago. He’s come a long way since then, helping both public and private companies to build products that better meet the needs of their customers and to discover the digital world. Most recently he helped a large public company overhaul its strategy to offer multiple financial products tailored to the needs of students.

Jason believes deeply in the power of high technology to improve people’s lives. He has participated in high-tech start-ups as an advisor (of companies building everything from mobile phone apps to travel advice), an investor (as Managing Director at Rock Maple Ventures), and an executive (as the Chief Operating Officer of US Genomics). For Jason, PerkStreet’s ability to use technology to reinvent banking and rewards is what really gets him jazzed. Jason has a degree from Harvard University and is a frequent speaker on the subjects of innovation and customer-centric organizations. When not working from a coffee shop, Jason can be found doing just about anything active outdoors.

Photo by Bryce Vickmark Photography

Gratitude and Apologies: A Memo from our COO

Jason Henrichs 19 Comments

I want to thank all of you for your patience and support over the last few days as we worked out an issue that impacted many of you, and take a minute to explain what happened.

Monday morning, some of you began noticing that your available balance and the balance listed as available in your list of transactions were not matching up. The difference was caused by preauthorization funds not being released once a transaction cleared.

Here’s an example of what “preauthorized funds” means, and how it impacted your account: if you went to a restaurant on Saturday night, there would have been a hold on the funds until the transaction was processed a few days later. Once the transaction cleared, the hold should have been released. The error we were experiencing was that they were not released, even though the transactions were clearing.

This resulted in some of you being unable to spend even though there was money in your account. The initial fix implemented on Tuesday corrected the problem for half of the impacted customers, and we created a manual solution until the problem was completely resolved Wednesday evening.

We are all extremely sorry for the confusion and anxiety this caused. We take the responsibility of holding your money very seriously, and we deeply regret the severe impact it had on your lives. We also recognize it created concern, even if your account was not one of those impacted.

While it is impossible for everything to work all of the time, it took too long for us to get the word out to those impacted. We anticipated a solution sooner than it was available, and we should have immediately alerted all customers prior to when we did. While our processing partner worked to resolve the underlying problem, we should have been faster in creating a manual solution.

The lessons we have learned from this will be used to improve the speed and methods we use to communicate issues with our customers, and to target areas to improve in our incident response. We are working out a plan to make things right for customers for whom this was more than an inconvenience and will be following up with many of you individually.

We started this business to better serve customers and you’ve put your trust in us. Day by day we do our best to deserve this trust and to make your lives better. We appreciate you giving us the chance to reinvent banking.

Jason Henrichs 19 Comments

http://www.dadrenaline.com/ Christopher Pilon

I truly appreciate the sincerity and humility I hear in your apology, Jason. I am a huge proponent of using Perkstreet but also maintain a brick and mortar account in case issues like this arise. I guess my only concern, and you address it in your letter, is that there was too much time in between when the issue was known and when it was communicated. That being said, I do understand that Perkstreet may not have wanted to prematurely worry customers, especially with the possibility of a quick resolution. I was definitely one of those customers for whom this was “more than an inconvenience” as I happened to be traveling on business and did not have my brick and mortar debit card (my fault) but I will steadfastly maintain my relationship with Perkstreet for two reasons alone. You are honest and accountable – two things many businesses cannot honestly claim. Thanks for all you do. P.S. Hurry up with the iPhone app and Savings Account!!
http://www.dadrenaline.com/ Christopher Pilon

I truly appreciate the sincerity and humility I hear in your apology, Jason. I am a huge proponent of using Perkstreet but also maintain a brick and mortar account in case issues like this arise. I guess my only concern, and you address it in your letter, is that there was too much time in between when the issue was known and when it was communicated. That being said, I do understand that Perkstreet may not have wanted to prematurely worry customers, especially with the possibility of a quick resolution. I was definitely one of those customers for whom this was “more than an inconvenience” as I happened to be traveling on business and did not have my brick and mortar debit card (my fault) but I will steadfastly maintain my relationship with Perkstreet for two reasons alone. You are honest and accountable – two things many businesses cannot honestly claim. Thanks for all you do. P.S. Hurry up with the iPhone app and Savings Account!!
http://www.dadrenaline.com/ Christopher Pilon

I truly appreciate the sincerity and humility I hear in your apology, Jason. I am a huge proponent of using Perkstreet but also maintain a brick and mortar account in case issues like this arise. I guess my only concern, and you address it in your letter, is that there was too much time in between when the issue was known and when it was communicated. That being said, I do understand that Perkstreet may not have wanted to prematurely worry customers, especially with the possibility of a quick resolution. I was definitely one of those customers for whom this was “more than an inconvenience” as I happened to be traveling on business and did not have my brick and mortar debit card (my fault) but I will steadfastly maintain my relationship with Perkstreet for two reasons alone. You are honest and accountable – two things many businesses cannot honestly claim. Thanks for all you do. P.S. Hurry up with the iPhone app and Savings Account!!
http://www.dadrenaline.com/ Christopher Pilon

I truly appreciate the sincerity and humility I hear in your apology, Jason. I am a huge proponent of using Perkstreet but also maintain a brick and mortar account in case issues like this arise. I guess my only concern, and you address it in your letter, is that there was too much time in between when the issue was known and when it was communicated. That being said, I do understand that Perkstreet may not have wanted to prematurely worry customers, especially with the possibility of a quick resolution. I was definitely one of those customers for whom this was “more than an inconvenience” as I happened to be traveling on business and did not have my brick and mortar debit card (my fault) but I will steadfastly maintain my relationship with Perkstreet for two reasons alone. You are honest and accountable – two things many businesses cannot honestly claim. Thanks for all you do. P.S. Hurry up with the iPhone app and Savings Account!!
http://www.facebook.com/billandannaburnett BillandAnna Mari Burnett

I too have a brick and mortar account just in case and it is definitely helped during this transition. However, this does not deter my business whatsoever if anything makes me want to share the word more because honesty is hard to come by with businesses these days. I will say that once I noticed the error and reported it I then joined the facebook conversations to keep myself informed with the latest news. I would also like to say that I was amazingly surprised at how Perkstreet responded to nearly every customers concern on the facebook page. That is real customer service when you don’t even have to call to get an answer. I felt like my bank was reachable at any media I was able to use at that moment. Thank you for being a great bank!
http://www.facebook.com/billandannaburnett BillandAnna Mari Burnett

I too have a brick and mortar account just in case and it is definitely helped during this transition. However, this does not deter my business whatsoever if anything makes me want to share the word more because honesty is hard to come by with businesses these days. I will say that once I noticed the error and reported it I then joined the facebook conversations to keep myself informed with the latest news. I would also like to say that I was amazingly surprised at how Perkstreet responded to nearly every customers concern on the facebook page. That is real customer service when you don’t even have to call to get an answer. I felt like my bank was reachable at any media I was able to use at that moment. Thank you for being a great bank!
http://www.facebook.com/billandannaburnett BillandAnna Mari Burnett

I too have a brick and mortar account just in case and it is definitely helped during this transition. However, this does not deter my business whatsoever if anything makes me want to share the word more because honesty is hard to come by with businesses these days. I will say that once I noticed the error and reported it I then joined the facebook conversations to keep myself informed with the latest news. I would also like to say that I was amazingly surprised at how Perkstreet responded to nearly every customers concern on the facebook page. That is real customer service when you don’t even have to call to get an answer. I felt like my bank was reachable at any media I was able to use at that moment. Thank you for being a great bank!
http://www.facebook.com/billandannaburnett BillandAnna Mari Burnett

I too have a brick and mortar account just in case and it is definitely helped during this transition. However, this does not deter my business whatsoever if anything makes me want to share the word more because honesty is hard to come by with businesses these days. I will say that once I noticed the error and reported it I then joined the facebook conversations to keep myself informed with the latest news. I would also like to say that I was amazingly surprised at how Perkstreet responded to nearly every customers concern on the facebook page. That is real customer service when you don’t even have to call to get an answer. I felt like my bank was reachable at any media I was able to use at that moment. Thank you for being a great bank!
Kristofer Zanardelli

Christopher,
I, like you, maintain a brick and mortar account for instances like these. It saved me this time. I, also, appreciate the things that Perkstreet is doing in the banking industry and will maintain my banking relationship with Perkstreet

Jason,
What is the likelihood of this happening again?
Kristofer Zanardelli

Christopher,
I, like you, maintain a brick and mortar account for instances like these. It saved me this time. I, also, appreciate the things that Perkstreet is doing in the banking industry and will maintain my banking relationship with Perkstreet

Jason,
What is the likelihood of this happening again?
Kristofer Zanardelli

Christopher,
I, like you, maintain a brick and mortar account for instances like these. It saved me this time. I, also, appreciate the things that Perkstreet is doing in the banking industry and will maintain my banking relationship with Perkstreet

Jason,
What is the likelihood of this happening again?
http://profiles.google.com/thisisaliecalledlife Byron Burns

I appreciate the clarity. I, too was affected, but luckily I had a bunch of cash on hand to deal with not being able to use my account. I also have a credit card that I can use in such emergencies. I have moved my payroll direct deposit to my brick-n-mortar until I can be sure Perkstreet has resolved the issue fully. Once I am sure I’ll be back. Its not the end of the world! Perkstreet has taught us all to be better prepared for emergencies and this is just one of those situations that being prepared can really help you deal with this easily. <3
Jason

Kristofer – I would say the likelihood of this occurring again is very low. In the 4 years we’ve been with this processor it has not happened. This is also the longest we’ve seen an issue of this severity unresolved for long and I think part of the problem is diagnosing why something that previously worked broke for only a small number of people. Just so those who weren’t impacted know the scope, we were still able to process checks and ACHs, it was the card transactions that took some time to develop a manual workaround. If this were to happen again, a robust way to handle this manually now exists. We spend a great amount of time dissecting any event that happens so we can prevent it in the future as well as improve our response to the unexpected. ~Jason
http://www.facebook.com/jaymie.mason Jaymie Mason

Aside from a mild heart attack from thinking that i had gone over my weekend perkstreet budget and ths slight headache from trying to compute the math that at just didnt add up, it really wasnt a big deal for me. These types of things even happen to the big boys. My only complaint was that I had to call in to find out what was going on. When this issue was recognized as even being an issue, some sort of email should have gone out or a little message put up on the website that gives a person an advanced warning (“We are currently experiencing teh difficulty, and the balance shown may not reflect the true balance in your account. We apologize for any confusion and are working to resolve”). U cant always prevent these types of issues from happening but you can get out in front of it to help ease concerns. Thats my only gripe, or suggestion rather.. These are all growing pains and I have no doubt PS has learned all that there is to learn from this situation. IM STILL GONNA ROCK MY GREEN (and black) CARD!
Jonathan Price

I would sincerely appreciate it Perkstreet could setup a txt for balance feature like Paypal, Wells Fargo and other banks have so that an account holder DOESN’T have to log in or use an app in order to see available balance? Jonathan Price, A proud Perkstreet account holder!
Jonathan Price

P.S. I have been told that Perkstreet is working on email/txt notifications so that like Paypal an account holder can STOP FRAUD IN ITS TRACKS by simply being able to notify an account holder each time their Perkstreet M/C is used, this way, any account holder will get notified instantly on their cell phone and that should totally eliminate fraud on its own since an account holder what know instantly if anyone is using their Perkstreet M/C besides them!!! This is the 1 feature that I love about Paypal is that instant notification each time it is used with merchant name and amount of purchase in the notification! Jonathan Price
Steve

This is the first time I have heard of this issue so apparently I was not affected. But I still read the statement from Perkstreet and was quite impressed with your honesty about the situation. So now more then ever I feel comfortable about letting you guys hold my dough! Keep up the good work and hope you’ll be getting a savings account soon.
http://www.facebook.com/dale.c.clausen Dale C. Clausen

Hi Jason at Perkstreet,
Thank you for posting this. I had gone to the grocery store, and was boggled by the fact the card machine would only debit X amount from my account. I keep a spare $20.00 in my wallet which is normally relegated to my “blow pile” so crisis averted. Comedically enough the cashier at the register apologized to me for their machines being temperamental. Funny, as one would think you would get that oh you derelict with no money in your account glare. Ah, I said it is an imperfect world and these things happen.
Just wanted to say you Perkstreet are in the definitely DO NOT SUCK pile!!
Happy Perking.
Dale in NYC.
VeryDisappointedInPerkStreet

I have had nothing but bad experiences with Perk Street. They are the worst bank I have ever tried to work with. I tried to set up an account last year and they messed up everything with entering some random account number (not mine I provided) as a funding source and then locking down my account and asking me to jump through a million hoops for their mistake. On my 2nd swing I tried to sign up for a new account in 2013 after I closed out my 1st attempt. Simply put, more of the same BS. Who the heck do they hire for employees, 3 year olds? I have had 4 attempts in trying to set up an external account to put money in my account. I am still waiting for them to get it correct on their in, and this all started back on 2/8. Just this last Monday I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Dawn I guess in their support center. I was told yet again for the third time, everything was corrected and I will see my verify amounts in two days. Six days later on a nice Saturday, I go to verify my external account, and wow not a surprise at all. The amounts still are not in my external account. And the mini cherry on top of the normal cherry on top of the milkshake of crap Perk Street calls an online bank, My new bills I paid on 2/28 will now be late. When I made the payment I was told they would be delivered by 3/4, and now they just magically changed the date to 3/6. I have the screen printed showing 3/4 and their rep tells me that is now a mistake. This means they haven’t even sent out my payments and it has been 2 full business day. Way to stick to the advertising of bill pay in 2 business days. I called to verify these issues. I just got off the phone to learn, my external account verify amounts were never sent by Dawn even though she gave me her word everything was good. Also I was told Perk Street recommends 6 days for bill pay even though when you pay it says it can be done in 2. I was told it rarely gets sent or processed in 2 days internal. STRIKE 3! This bank is a bunch of BS and lies.

The Author

Chief Operating Officer

Account