To think if organisations had humans on the end of a phone line from the get go, they'd get all the business

[VoluptuaGoodshag]

Just that really. It's the modern age but I've just spent two hours of my life trying to log in to my bank account online then when I try to call the number given, I have to speak to a bot then get transferred to the wrong department or told just to go back online. I know this frustrates the hell out of every person I know. And this is progress?
What happened to direct numbers? For years I could phone my pension department from my first place of work and speak directly to a human if I was changing address. It was a joy but last time I did it they had sadly gone down the 0345 route and the customer experience goes out the window.

If a bank or any big business advertised that if you phone a direct number and at most you'll be in a queue but you'll definitely get through to a human in the first instance then everyone would use them. I used to be on first name terms with the receptionist in my local branch - gone are the days.

It's the 'say which service you are after' that really pisses me off. I don't bloody work there so I don't know what you're calling your relevant departments, only one of your employees knows so if I could just speak to one and let them make the decision of where to direct me, oh how fecking joyous that would be.
Rant over!

Where I used to work you could look up easily and phone the exact branch you wanted and get through straight away to a human, we very rarely struggled to answer the phone and service those customers in the branch. Since covid thats all changed there is only one number now and its centralised, there are hardly any staff in branches and our customer service rating has now gone down massively. Its such a shame, there was no reason for this it was just blamed on covid.

If my call is so important, why don’t you pick up the phone and help me? For years, I did these calls for my parents because they didn’t like this.

If that we're true, everyone would already be banking with first direct, where that's been the case for several decades.

This is why I bank with First Direct - you always get through to a human, no shouting at computer voices.

But why do you need a person at the end of the phone just to change your address in your pension? Logging into your account and updating it takes a minute.

I dislike intensely, the spiel that tells you that you can find the answers to your questions online. Well no, if I could have found it, I wouldn’t be trying to speak to an actual person. And live chats are just useless.

It’s why I get my internet from plusnet. Always lovely northern humans on the phone.

Yes! It would’ve so much easier.

I think you definitely have something there, OP 👍

My DD worked on a helpline and her job and others like it were made redundant by an automated system just after covid.

Its an obvious and easy cost cutting approach I suppose

I don’t understand why they all say ‘sorry we are experiencing a high volume of calls right now’. Have they not worked out that ‘a high volume of calls’ is actually normal for them and they need to staff the phone lines accordingly?

The robotic triage lady on the Department of Work and Pensions ESA helpline is the worst. I can hardly ever get past her. Of course public bodies don't have to worry about "customers" going elsewhere. At least there is that incentive in the private sector, if you can get enough customers to pay a bit extra for a human voice on the end of the phone you may possibly be able to compete with the cheaper digital-only alternatives.

Yes.

I also bank with firstdirect.

They pick up within a few rings and its always a human.

But why do you need a person at the end of the phone just to change your address in your pension? Logging into your account and updating it takes a minute.

Online systems don’t always work properly though. When I moved into my current house the online portal for my bank would not update my address. I couldn’t get through to anyone on the phone so had to go into a branch. When the staff member saw my address he chuckled and said he sees people from my street come in all the time, because for some unknown reason the internet banking system won’t accept the postcode and it must be entered manually.

This isn't my experience (and I phone a lot of banks/life cover providers for work). I often have to hold for a while but eventually someone picks up, even if they are sitting at their kitchen table.

I've just spent two hours of my life trying to log in to my bank account online

So clearly the Op would if they could. I have spent 3 hours over 2 months trying to get online with Santander. My voice I’d doesn’t work so I get cut off before I even get through to someone. The voice ID takes over 5 minutes a time.

For us, it's Mondays that are the busiest (most places are so avoid Mondays!)
The rest of the week is fine. We can't hire another 4 members of staff to work Mondays only. Staff levels are generally ok unless 3 people ring in sick on the same day so that's another thing that can cause it

Then you get weeks where Monday is weirdly quiet and for some reason you get absolutely battered with calls on a random Thursday which you can't predict

It's a really fine balance between staff levels and too many staff also means way less bonus for us, we don't want people sitting round waiting ages for a call

@Rebellious23 Yes but you used to get a message about how long the call would take to be answered or how many people were in the queue.
Now there’s about 3 messages about, call volumes, using the internet, latest security updates before they make you wait and then cut you off randomly if you’re unlucky.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz
erm I was ringing up a bank (on behalf of my mum), because I couldn’t get online. I do most of my stuff online and when it works it’s great but when it doesn’t it’s usually then you need to speak to an actual human and not a bot telling you to try online because of the unusually high volumes of calls at the moment.
But when calling any organisation the maximum amount of bot chat should be telling you how long you’ll wait in the queue. That’s it. People also don’t give out their direct numbers anymore. It all centralised. And those free 0800 numbers, ha - just stay on the line talking to our bot coz you’ll be charged for this call.
I never knew that about First Direct. Well done them.

I once waited over 3 hours for Santander not to answer my call!
Today I have been dealing with a Vodafone bot.
I fucking hate it - a bot is useless as the information is written out online anyway so the bot just regurgitates it. So knowing that what you want isn't written out online, you know the bot won't provide it either. Vodafone wanted feedback. Gave them zero stars with the comment "I wanted to speak to a human".

I'm with first direct they are absolutely fabulous

Just signed up to an Internet provider which I was very surprised to get straight through to a human (it won't last). I can also say that games workshop has excellent and very polite customer service (not very helpful lol)

Not looking forward to phoning virgin to cancel. Sky seemed very heavy on the old emotional blackmail when I cancelled, was very wtf.

I’ve spent hours on the phone, holding, to speak to someone at hmrc recently. Sadly no alternative for them 🤯 and each time the farce of ‘did you say xxx’ before you get anywhere near a human

I’m also with first direct, and have been since they started. I’ve had issues with their service this week, but it has been talking to people rather than bots. There was a lack of joined up thinking and accurate information though 🙁