Barclaycard’s business avoidance marketing campaign

I just had a great offer from Barclaycard for balance transfers.

It was the usual thing, a marketing letter in the
post with a big headline:

"0% on Balance Transfers until October 2009"

At the end of the letter, there's a bunch of cheques to send off to pay for things at 0% for 10 months.

Great!

It also says to
call the customer services number so, as I fancied an
immediate balance transfer, I rang the number.

“I want to make a balance
transfer as per your offer that arrived in the post this morning”, I say.

“Oh
yes sir, we shall send you details in the post”, they say.

“But I have the details here.  They came in this morning's post and it says
to call this number,” I prod.

“Yes, but
we cannot do balance transfers on the telephone”, they respond.

“So why does it say to call this number on
the offer letter?” I beg.

“You call this number to ask for balance transfers, and then we send you the confirmation numbers for a balance transfer in the post,” they continue.

“Then what
happens?” says I, confused.

“When you get the letter with the confirmation numbers in the post, you call
us back and then we can do the transfers”, they
clarify.

So that's really clear: send out a marketing letter asking for customers to call to give you their business, and then tell them you cannot take their business until they receive another letter and make another call.

Perfectly non-sensical.

Happy New Year!