Terrible customer service

[hattie43]

I have tried 4 times to get through to Barclays Bank customers services with no success .

Today I was on a mission . Held on one hour 15 mins , heard the music the whole reel and then a voice says we cannot connect you please try later .

AIBU to think something is going badly wrong at the moment . Why are customers treated with such contempt by some companies . I'm sure Barclays isn't alone .

Surely answering the phone is a basic .

Was shouted at in Wilco last week, terrible eye roll service in b&q. Local Sainsbury’s just a joke. Massive lines and staff chatting. Was with my mum and we were flabbergasted. I’m very nice to people in shops after working in hospitality for fifteen years and putting up with horrible people every day.
My childminder is being a nightmare, taking time off hither thither with a days notice. Staff in my team off sick all the time or asking to leave early.
I think it’s post furlough, people just lost the will to work.

I was pondering this earlier as I also had issues getting through to Barclays & was trying to sort out some insurance. Like a pp said when you call up virtually any company nowadays every option seems to direct you towards online support. It’s so frustrating when you just want to speak to someone! Saying that I find the online chat (with a real person) works ok.

I used to manage call centres and was also involved with a TUC sub committee on them. I call this the Australian system.....don't employee the correct number of staff as people will, in the main call back.
the Swedish mathematician, Eurlang developed a formula in 1919 to predict exactly how many staff are needed to answer all telephone calls. It can be ran on an excel spreadsheet so there is no excuse for not answering the phones

I’ve had the worst customer service ever from Boots, for something that’s their error.

Companies are trying to reduce costs by offering the bare minimum customer service. Some of them will go too far

Hate to break it to you but some companies had been using WFH call centre staff before Covid.

Others just outsource abroad. This comes with its own issues.

Either way the issue is lack of staff.

Call centres have a high turnover off staff.

Oh and I noticed with Barclays since the pandemic I've been talking to staff with British accents prior to that the accents were from abroad.

British Gas are awful too. Not only do they take forever to answer the phone but are totally incompetent.
We moved house recently. The builders had obviously used the gas and electricity (social housing) so we weren't responsible for paying the whole bill. Sorting it out with British Gas took 7 phone calls each one involved being on hold for over an hour. Possibly was harder since we don't use British Gas but it took ages to be able to go back to our supplier for some reason.
To add insult they then decided we must have used more electricity and gas than we'd claimed as a family of 5 couldn't survive on the readings we'd given. We had to get our energy supplier involved. They sent a years worth of readings to British Gas to prove our usage was low.
Never known such incompetence in my life!

Husband had loads of problems getting through to Lloyd's regarding a replacement faulty card as app would not let us do it. Could not get through to anyone and when we did once person did not understand what we wanted and conveniently cut us off. Luckily we had a week off and was by a branch in a town we visited. Went in and was all sorted by a helpful lady. I try and go to the doctors and book face to face now too. Its easier but luckily I mainly wfh so can do it.

I work in a call centre, in the office, not from home. When it is busy customers will take longer to ask their query as they've waited so long to get through, they seem to want extra time with you. Most calls start with a dig like "thanks for answering" when all you do is answer phones. The phone is not ringing while we party. They will describe in detail how long they have waited then not have their information to hand, give sloppy answers to security questions that require clarity and generally slow down the process. By the end of the call they are mostly appreciative of the help but please if you need to call a call centre remember that the person answering does not make major decisions so please don't give them advice on how to run a business and be ready with your query, be polite concise and courteous so we can deal with the call efficiently then move on to the next one.

Also don't ring on a Monday if its not urgent, everyone calls then.

Ooh I remember those. Big buildings on every high street. Now usually hipster bars or converted to flats 😂
my MIL won’t entertain the idea of internet banking or using call centres so popping into her ‘local’ branch is a 2 bus 90 minute journey. Progress eh?

3 hours I was trying to speak to someone via the British Gas app ‘helpline’ yesterday. I’d already given up on the phone number. There was agonisingly long waits for the original agent to even respond and then when they finally did there was really long waits between each answer I sent. I found out it’s not even live chat as I’d assumed, it’s basically emails you’re sending, they keep that quiet! Worst thing was they didn’t even resolve my query 😤

I shouldn't imagine it's contempt. There is a massive recruitment crisis, 1.2 million jobs unfilled. There's no easy answer, just not enough staff.

Write to the CEO. Surprising how someone gets in touch within hours and then your query is taken care of.

Not hate but I would like to correct you. Wfh is part of the solution. Technical advances make it easy to ensure people are working not slacking. There are just not enough staff to fill vacancies. Blaming people wfh is boring and misinformed.

Absolutely true.

I've found my bank (HSBC) is still good, but their call centres aren't in the UK.

I've had excellent service from airlines as well, even in the throes of early 2020 when I could actually hear the poor blokes kids in the background.

I suppose it depends on individual companies/organisations.

A very simple probate request, however, one will, one person inheriting, not big, not small, no debts, took 22 months to be granted with "Covid" being cited every step of the way.

That's just not true and is unfair. Not all jobs can be done from home and it doesn't suit everyone. But it is perfectly possible to be more productive from home and to sat otherwise is lazy and uniformed speculation.

Pharmacies were like that pre-covid though. Like post offices, they are not happy unless their customers have to queue for ages.

I know I'll get hate for this but it's the working from home effect. Trying to get through to any company since covid started has been a nightmare

It had a lot more to do with companies putting staff on furlough even though they actually needed them.

Like all banks they don't want to deal with people face to face these days , my local branch is open 3 half days a week . No good when you are at work when it's open .

Me too. When I complained about it the pharmacist phoned me up and was really nasty, condescending and denied that I had even been instore that day! She then phoned back half an hour later because she thought of some more lies to shout at me about. I just terminated the call and blocked the number as she was the nastiest lying bitch I've ever encountered. Head office later said "it's between you and the pharmacy, we can't intervene" 😡

😂😂😂😂
The nearest one to me is 15 miles

I bank with Barclays and in my city you have to go into the city centre to find an actual branch.

It certainly feels since Covid many companies just don't give much of a shit about customer service. Oh they put up with none for all that time, let's continue with that!

Any company that is still troting out Covid as an excuse can fuck off, there's been plenty of time to adjust.

Trying to get through to a human when your query doesn't fit the box is impossible with so many companies these days.

We have just moved and electricity is with Utility Warehouse. They wrote and said we had to call to change account name. We have tried. And tried. You get through (so they can say they always answer the phones) and then have to go through to Home Movers dept. Never managed to get through and been trying for a couple of weeks. My DH waited 2.5 hours on phone before being cut off. Last person who answered said it would only be five mins as he could see the queue for that dept was v short. Lie. Gave up after 20 mins. Can't send email form as every drop down problem says you have to phone so form won't send. Including to make a complaint. Eventually managed to beat the system by finding one dropdown combination that allowed us to actually send the form. What was the response? Please phone us. Now we have just received a letter in the mail saying if we don't get in touch they will cut us off! Absolutely unbelievable. Will try Chairman/MD as now getting desperate.