Recently, I wrote about BNY Mellon’s inept handling of 2010 1099-OIDs for Israel bonds, my relief that the State of Israel had decided to replace BNY Mellon with Computershare as the fiscal agent for Israel Bonds purchased in the U.S., and my hope that Computershare would be better than BNY Mellon.
Less than 12 hours after I posted that blog entry, I received email from someone at Computershare:
Hello Mr. Kamens,
One of my colleagues reads your blog and came across one referencing State of Israel Bonds…
We certainly hope to live up to bondholder expectations and believe we are off to a great start.
In the blog I noticed you referenced a question as to why two separate accounts were being maintained for you (and your wife) and the answer lies in legal requirements we are obligated to adhere to, but which may be easily cured…
It seems that one of your accounts include middle initials of you and your wife, while the other does not. Pretty annoying, I’m sure, but we can help with that if you like.
If you want to resolve this, because some of your accounts are in certificate form, normally you would need to give us a call so that the proper forms could be sent out to you for return, along with the certificates. I can facilitate sending the forms to you if you want me to do so, just say the word. Otherwise, if you want to leave things as, you don’t need to do anything…
If you do write about Computershare and the fiscal agency again, feel free to remind folks that we welcome opportunities to service them and have several options for bondholders to access, and influence, information on their account ranging from securely logging in to their account via www.israelbondsdirect.com, to our toll free customer service lines (1-866-SOI-DIAL (764-3425)), and of course, snail mail addresses…
Thanks again for the welcome note on your blog!
OMG, that is so freakin’ unbelievable.
Glad to hear it … as an employee of State of Israel Bonds, we’ve worked hard to make sure State of Israel’s new Fiscal Agent provides the customer service our customers expect.
That’s awesome. Man, companies need to realize that customer service will win them so much more loyalty and business than just doing what is cheapest on paper.