To wonder if any call centre is not "busier than normal at the moment"??

[CollieFIower]

Or "experiencing a higher number of calls" or whatever chirpy message they play on repeat. I actually cannot remember the last time I had to ring any customer helpline for any business or govt department and didn't get told some version of the above!

If you're always that busy then no you're not busier than fucking normal, this IS YOUR NORMAL and you might as well just stop trying to gaslight your customers into thinking otherwise.

And breeeeeeaaathe. May as well settle in for some yoga with Adrienne while I wait for Royal Mail to answer

I'm going to sound like a proper grumpy old woman here but so many organisations trying to persuade you that everything can be done online....even if you're Internet literate - which everyone on this thread clearly is- actually it's not always possible. Sometimes there is an issue that can't be resolved online or answered by their online chat facility, and you need to speak to an actual person.

The fact that there are always a high number of callers to call centres and huge queues in the bank/post office suggest that actually a lot if people still need to speak with a real person (and I absolutely hate speaking on the phone so if there was an alternative, I would have done it!!)

I agree that customer service has nose-dived since the pandemic. It's deteriorated on the other side of the fence, too, as no one has any patience anymore. That said, making two phone calls - maybe the only two I'll make throughout the entire year - took an entire afternoon, to huge conglomerates whose apps didn't cater for my query. Big bosses: this happens. Put at least one sodding human on the helpline for these occasions.

Let me tell you about my recent experience with Sainsbury’s Chop Chop. If you’re not familiar with it it’s an app run by Sainsbury’s designed to get a small top-up shop delivered to you in as little as 60 minutes. I’ve used it quite a few times and been quite happy - it was great when I had to isolate for covid.
So I placed an order about 9:50am and the app said it should arrive by 11 - fine. About 11:30 I had not received the order so I rang customer services - much holding while they contacted the store doing the delivery and I was told to wait a little longer. At 1pm or so I still had nothing so I rang customer services again and they said that they would get the store to
call me. No call came so I called the store. Again had to hold for ages but eventually spoke to the order picker who said that my shopping had been taken to another customer’s address by mistake and that she had explained this to customer services when they had first called! However she was very apologetic and said that I reordered she would prioritise my order so I did
this. Of course I had already been charged for the first delivery but she couldn’t refund my money or credit me for the first delivery. Hello customer services - again!

Next thing I knew, I got an email saying that
the second order had been cancelled. I called customer services again and was told that
this was because “The store had some technical problems”. At this point I ordered what I wanted another way.

A week went by and I had not received the refund for the non-delivered order so I called customer services again. They said that the could only find my payment if I could give them the time it went through which meant calling my
bank to get that information and then calling customer services back!
Frankly, all the calls, time on hold, repeating myself just isn’t worth it. I won’t be using Chop Chop again.

I think it’s just forever now!

In person is no better. This evening a server snarled at my son whilst ordering his subway. She literally shouted at him when he didn't hear her (he has hearing loss). I was standing right there. Shameful.

The worst thing I have come across now is instead of music playing there is a voice reading out random bits of news or celebrity gossip.

With music, I can put the phone down on loudspeaker and get on with something else until I hear a voice, then I pick the phone up. Having a voice all the time means I have to listen and hold the phone, and hear the same few bits of crap 'news' over and over.
What fracking idiot thought that was a good idea?

I wondered the same thing last week as every time I called the number the same message played!

A couple of things I'd like to say.

My gps surgery is (suprse!) Often too busy to take your call immediately, but tells you where you are in the queue and gives you a choice to receive a call back on the number you are using (helpfully, it also reasures you that you won't loose your place in the queue.

secondly, I phoned my bank (first direct) yesterday and my call was answered within three rings.

So, good customer service can be achieved. Above are two ways of achieving it.

Ha yep

It’s almost impossible to talk to a person at Vodafone

They cut you off and send a link

Being kept waiting for an hour whilst being told the same recorded message on repeat, interspersed with awful music, doesn’t tend to put customers in a friendly mood.

Staff shortages all over.

I guess it's part Brexit, part The Great Resignation, part the ageing demographic.

Calling any London County Court. An hour wait, through to a call handling centre rather than the actual court, they don't know the answer so tell you to send an email which they will aim to respond to in 20 working days. Hearing is in 5 days so, awesome.

@Chias I get that, but it's not the person who answers the call fault, they can only talk to one customer at a time. They are just as frustrated as you and to then be shouted and screamed when they just want to help is soul destroying.

British Gas answered the phone to book my annual boiler check within 1 minute this morning. Nearly fell off my chair.

@BowlofNothing if you are treated appallingly badly by a company, it is not actually possible to speak to the person responsible, so you just have to hope the call handler passes on your message. They are the only person made available to you.

Scottish Power - usually rubbish about being busy. Email on this address.

I email on said address (enquiries@) to get a reply - we don't deal with enquiries over email.

any 'messenging' including facebook answered by bot.

I'm now with Octopus.

So far they are in the wrong too - but in the wrong direction. They have told me they owe me as for some reason their gas reading doesn't tally with my closing reading with Scot Power - in my favour

Until call centre workers get paid a decent wage that reflects how rubbish it is to be a verbal punchbag for your company's failings, there will never be enough of them to staff the phone lines effectively.

Totally!! It’s so bloody annoying and they don’t ‘value’ people’s custom if they don’t hire enough staff to stop you having to wait two hours 😡 😡 The Covid excuse is well over. Companies have always been crap, now they’re just hiding behind this as an excuse.

😩😩😩 Oh God yaaaaas THIS 👆🏻

It boils my piss 🤬
I recently had to make a call to deal with a very important, time sensitive issue that could not be done online.
1 hour 53 minutes on hold,
passed through 3 call handlers who all
asked me the exact same questions.
I was fizzing !
The third call handler got it ten barrels 😬

It’s an overhang from covid. But the cheeky fuckers have stuck with it cos it suits them.

I hate it. And they often don't do their job properly when you ask them. had such an issue with the bank yesterday. Took me hours and then turns out they hadn't done what I needed them to do. V frustrating

Don’t do that! You’ll be waiting 24hrs on the floor with a broken hip for your ambulance

i got shouted at by an AO representative because I didn’t want to take out their appliance cover 😂

The third call handler got it ten barrels

Which is why there is a shortage of call handlers - because people like you are unloading your frustrations onto them. Not number 3's fault that numbers 2 and 1 couldn't help you and didn't pass on your details.