Opinion
 

Cougar 1Card more bothersome than useful 

by Tom Carpenter

Modern technology is a wonderful thing, most of the time. The double-edged sword of technology allowed me to call the Cougar 1Card customer service number and be placed on hold, on two telephones, simultaneously to listen for more than 40 minutes to a recording saying "the wait in queue time is approximately five minutes."

My first experience with the Cougar 1Card and student loan deposits will not be repeated. After a 50-minute wait I believed the matter was resolved to my satisfaction when I instructed the polite young woman, who finally answered the telephone, to empty my account and mail me a check. I figured it was the only way I'd get to actually access my student loan money this semester.

But wait -- which is exactly what the woman told me I'd have to do -- it would take eight to 10 days before the check would be mailed to my post office box, but (since I was online monitoring my account) I noticed an immediate $10 check-writing fee charged to my account. Everybody in the newsroom had a good laugh over that turn of events.

Let's see, $10 times a potential 35,066 students, 2,923 faculty members -- that equates to about a $380,000 windfall for the Higher One financial services company that administers the Cougar 1Card accounts if everyone at UH decided, like me, to end their relationship with the Cougar 1Card. I didn't know that abysmal incompetence paid so well.

The fiasco began when with my first attempt to use the Cougar 1Card at the UH Bookstore to purchase textbooks resulted in nothing happening.

"No problem," I thought. "I'll just run over to Rother's Bookstore and get some cash."

Well, what do you know, the "free" ATM machine inside Rother's was empty and the ATM outside Rother's Bookstore didn't work.

That was a bit irksome, but still only a minor problem. I decided to take my Cougar 1Card to my bank and have them transfer the funds into my personal checking account, but the Cougar 1Card account would allow only $200 to be transferred into my bank account. Two hundred bucks barely buys pizza for the newsroom.

I transferred the $200 and began a search for another ATM to get some cash. I found a machine off Highway 518 and Interstate 45 so I slipped my card into the slot and punched in my PIN number. A message flashed across the screen, "Wrong PIN, please enter your PIN number."

Unlike my other PIN numbers, the Cougar 1Card has only four digits, not six. I forgot about that as I punched in the PIN I usually use for everything.

Chomp! The machine ate my card and flashed a message stating that my card had been confiscated and informed me that I needed to get hold of the company that issued the card.

Really irritated now, I zoomed back to the UH campus where I was directed to the second floor of the Student Services Center.

Don't expect any help there aside from a phone number if you share my situation; they only take photographs at the campus Cougar 1Card office. They did give me the above mentioned toll free telephone number to call since Cougar 1Card has no representatives on campus to speak with about any problems.

About an hour after I made the call to the toll free number I was told that all I have to do is wait eight to 10 days to receive a check in the mail like the one the University should have mailed to me before the semester began. Meanwhile, Higher One profits $10 from its incompetence and UH makes $20 to issue me another Cougar 1Card to replace the one swallowed by the ATM off I-45.

It's true I contributed mightily to my dilemma when the ATM swallowed my card, but my biggest mistake was following the UH suggestion to use the Cougar 1Card services, a mistake I will not duplicate in the future.

It seems to me that the UH powers that be should ensure that a program performs for the benefit of UH students, and not for the Higher One financial services company that only allows students to access their money in minimal amounts and charges outrageous fees at ATMs.

Carpenter, an editorial writer for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.