2nd rate customer service call centre's

[Russ]

Prepair for a rant attack!

How long are we going to have to put up with 2nd rate customer service from call centres where people pretend their name is Martin or Maria when we all know full well its NOT!

I am sick to the back teeth of dealing with companies (that sell themselves on providing excellent customer service) that divert my call to a 2nd rate call centre agent when I have a problem.

Can these companies really be saving that much money that it out weighs the need to provide good customer service? I would'nt mind if it was easy to vote with my feet and take my business elswhere, Iv'e done this before only to find that the company changes once Iv'e been with them for a while.

I can't believe that the long term impact on our own economy won't eventually impact back on the shoddy companies that are outsourcing their customer service responsibilities. There seems to be very little evidence of SLA's or KPI's and I know for a fact i'm not the only one who is sick of this practice.

This week alone I have encountered poor customer service from banking, insurance and mobile phone companies. I'm sure these companies don't give a fig about there customers! How could they???

Answers on a postcard to Angry McAngryson at Angry McAngry Street!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[mattk]

I'll be honest, in my experience I've received better customer service from Indian-based call centres (Admiral Insurance and HSBC) than I have from pig-thick northern's used by T-Mobile and Swindon Borough Council.

[Pebble Communications]

Time computers call centre seriously pissed me off when I'd just bought a PC from them and it was faulty. They deserved to go bust. I cheered.

I will never ever cross the door of Ikea as long as I live after a 5 month delivery nightmare (considering you buy the goods, have them in your hands, and give them to the delivery counter surely there couldn't be any problems?) Huh! Don't get me started on that one! Steam coming out of my ears just thinking about now - 4 years later. IT was so bad I couldn't even keep the wardrobe once I finally had it 'cos I couldn't bear to look at it.

Toys R Us - boycotted them ever since they ruined my 3 year old's Christmas morning by selling me a clearly second-hand broken toy castle with crayon scribbles all over the inside of the packet, and called me a liar when I complained about it. How do you explain to a crying 3 year old why Father Christmas doesn't hate you and you aren't a bad boy when faced with sort of evidence?

Fiona Bailey
Pebble Communications

[easyasit]

i think we had this argument before somewhere.

my problem is Indian call centres. someone who can barely speak english wanting to discuss your personal finances with you.
I have no objection to them doing a days work. However.
Being asked my surname a dozen times in one call gets a bit much. Plus the problem is they can barely understand a word you say either.

To be honest now, i will have little to do with any company that uses them.

Al

[ebonybailey]

Probably the worst of all has to be NTL really understaffed, and always getting it wrong, I defy anyone that they say that they know a company worse than that bunch.

[coxadmin]

I actually worked in a travel call centre in the early 1990s. It's not a great environment in which to work - for example out of our seven and a half hour day, we were permitted just 15 minutes per day to go to the toilet and do any relevant paperwork, which we had failed to do whilst we were talking to the callers. We also had to justfiy every minute over that 15 minutes per day that we weren't taking calls.

When you take that sort of treatment into consideration, is it any wonder that service is so often second rate!

[Hedgehog Toys]

I'm personally fed up with overseas call centres ringing me and asking for personal information before they even tell me why they are calling me. As soon as i hear a long pause from an unidentified number,,,,well i'm sorry but i put the phone down....

Although on a funny note, i was at my friends house babysitting when thephone rang, it was an overseas phone call and i explained that i couldn't help them as i ws babysitting. To which the caller seriously asked me why i was sitting on a baby?????? :D :D

[Jayne]

I'll be honest, in my experience I've received better customer service from Indian-based call centres (Admiral Insurance and HSBC) than I have from pig-thick northern's used by T-Mobile and Swindon Borough Council.

What do you mean by that Matt, maybe you like to re-phrase? :D

Jayne

[easyasit]

i had my number put on the nicensce call prevention registry.

By the same token though i do feel for those guys in the call centre.
Ther computer calls for them, one after another and all you do is sit and take the calls.

If is the same for helpdesk environment. Battery farm call centre environment i call it. I have seen it drive some ppl up the wall.

To be fare the call centres as much as we hate them go abroad for tweo reaons.

The are of course cheaper to run
Plus so many over here do not want the tat kind of work.

I mean given the choice, i would rather pick up a broom and sweep the streets than do call centre work

Al

[coxadmin]

After my 6 years working in one, I agree totally with you Al.

[creacom]

There are good and bad everywhere and based in every country. Southern electric have a call centre in India and I spoke with 3 different people this week and they were all brilliant. Within 5 mins of me putting the phone down they had contacted an engineer to arrange an appointment with me.

On the other hand at home I get about 4 calls a week from people wanting to sell me a mobile.

We have a lot of call centres here in Scotland due to our wonderful customer service skills, tone and attitude :wink: If anyone disagrees with that Ill send the boys round !! :x

[MinuWeb]

I'll be honest, in my experience I've received better customer service from Indian-based call centres (Admiral Insurance and HSBC) than I have from pig-thick northern's used by T-Mobile and Swindon Borough Council.

There are alot of pig thick southerners that do this type of work as well, can't understand a word they say either.......

[dagr]

The only call centre I deal with regularly in the UK is that of the HSBC. I'm not sure if they're actually located on the Indian sub-continent, but most, if not all, had slight Indian-type accents. I must have spoken to at least 12 different people there over the last few months and all of them have been very good.

Not necessarily with the HSBC, my beef is with the automatic menu at the start ("Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Accounts, ... , 156 for information on hiking holidays in the Himalyas," etc). When I have to call the same number several times in the same day it drives me up the wall.

On receiving calls at home, a friend always asks the operator to speak slowly as he's been psychologically bruised after spending a spell in prison for fraud. This usually causes the caller to hang up straight away. Tempting, but I'm not sure if you'd eventually find yourself blacklisted somewhere.

[Emma Crabtree]

One of the joys of living abroad is this no longer happens to me! And when I get sales folk at the door (poor lad that tramps down our track) I do fob them off with my very bad Portuguese!

[Cornish Steve]

I heard an interesting report this week. Only one airline in the US has been profitable recently, and that's Southwest Airlines. If a customer dials the SWA telephone number, something remarkable happens: It's answered immediately by a real person. There's no voice menu at all, just a real person offering to help. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the company offering the best customer service is also the only profitable company in its sector.

[Tazuk]

AOL well say no more lol. There CS is pants and agian it is in india but I did get a resolution when i Phoned up there cancellation line and guess what?

I got through to someone in the UK and a higher level.

Problem with most CS is they sing from a script and not from experience, I used to work for a major airline that prides itself on great CS.

[confused]

Its disgusting how they call it customer service I have no objection at all the the call centre being abroad, however being able to speak and understand English would be a pretty good start, half of them dont even understand what you are asking of them, they simply repeat the same sentence over again, I was onto HP the other day on behalf of a customer, all I wanted was a replacement paper tray for a damaged printer, they insisted that I give them the serial number of the paper tray! (not the printer itself) In the end I rang sales rather than "support" and guess what, I got a nice English speaking lady who sorted it in about 5 minutes flat. My bank is now abroad, and they insist on asking me for some password or other, I have never had one lol.
The place I used to work moved a lot of their tech support abroad, and I was asked to monitor some of the calls for "quality", if it were up to me, the centre would have been closed, the advisors didnt have a clue, in fact I think this was one of them- tech support (http://www.scarysquirrel.org/special/movies/foamy/tech2.html)

[jklondon]

okay - so we all know theres a problem - whats the solution :P I ditched donhost yesterday because of poor support and went over to a more expensive solution from rackspace, so the quality of support clearly does drive demand.

personally for 80% of queries I wouldnt mind just interfacing with a instant messaging system as long as you could assure security.

[Urban Space]

they insist on asking me for some password or other

Lol you need to remember everything these days! Your cat's mother's maiden name, your dog's first car's favourite color, everything! :lol:

Liam

[Hayles]

What I don't understand is when I go through all the automatic log in stuff for HSBC phone banking (so MY details go up on their screen!!), the Indian person who answers ALWAYS says 'Good morning MR Howard, how can I help you...?'

:evil: :evil:

I'm sure I'm on the edge of being banned from our local Asda because of complaining about bad customer service. Why should 5/6 staffed be allowed to stand around chatting about their night out while I wait in the queue for 15 minutes?? I have 'mentioned' it to management on several occasions!

Hayles (Mrs Meldrew on a bad day) :lol:

[Urban Space]

Yea! The second you give them your postcode, woosh, there's every single detail about you! House number, phone number, email!

Spooky :shock:

Liam :lol:

[confused]

but I dont have a password!
You just reminded me, one of the cards I used to have, their support was just as bad, you had to enter the card number on the phones keypad, but then when you got through, they asked for it again !

[confused]

Why should 5/6 staffed be allowed to stand around chatting about their night out while I wait in the queue for 15 minutes??
Our local accident/emergency dept at the hospital is like that. All down to bad management I'd say...

[KM-Tiger]

Competition will eventually sort it out.

Sooner or later one of the big banks will be advertising:-

"100% UK Call Centre"

[Urban Space]

And the rest will follow! :lol:

Liam

[Cornish Steve]

Why should 5/6 staffed be allowed to stand around chatting about their night out while I wait in the queue for 15 minutes??
Our local accident/emergency dept at the hospital is like that. All down to bad management I'd say...
Airport security has to be the worst. Two lines open and about 50 people chatting among themselves at the back.

[SillyJokes]

Competition will eventually sort it out.

Sooner or later one of the big banks will be advertising:-

"100% UK Call Centre"

Yes, it's the one where the woman says,"My shop open all hours, my bank early doors, my Indian round the corner, my bank customer service in India (although they had to change this line)" etc

People always remember bad customer service.

[vvaannmmaann]

This is totally symptomatic of the British.We all complain,but never do anything more.
I can think of several businesses near to me that I will not use,and every chance I get I warn other people about them.
I am seriously researching prior to investing in an American business that offers a service for "seniors" (got to love the Yankee PC mafia) their USP?,humans that answer their telephones,and solve the problem.

[derson]

I've worked in call centres in the UK for the past... 7 years, and I have to say... I have worked in some atrocious places.


I worked for a major UK bank in their debt collection department as a Team Leader, and some of the things that would happen in there could only be classes as... well, probably illegal.


I worked for a very big, if not the biggest underwriter of home, car, pet insurance companies, again... it's no wonder why people would cry hysterically down the phone, or threat us (on a daily basis) with the information we gave out.


However, my last job was working in a UK call centre of a mobile phone operator, and they were pretty good, apart from a few people up in Glasgow skimming credit card numbers and selling them on (they're in jail now though, guess it didn't pay off in the end).



I could tell some stories from these place that would make your eyes water.

[Simon-M]

My curry house has an English call center. Vinda WHO???

On a more serious note, a lot of credit card details have been sold in India by unscrupulous call center IT employees. There was a sting type operation on the TV last year about someone looking to by financial data. They had loads of it for sale in India. Card numbers CVV codes the lot. All from UK people who banked with banks using call centers in India.

Some were from Mobile phone companies as well. The trick was to say some of the info back to you (they were missing some) so you would think they had all the data and were just doing a security check on you. You then read back your full Card number pluss the CVV. Bingo.. they got all your details now.

Simon

[Cornish Steve]

Despite the lop-sided results of the poll (which is two years old, by the way), we know it's not true: We don't boycott companies with second-rate call centres. In reality, we choose companies based on a variety of factors: price, convenience, reliability, etc. Customer support is just one factor of many, and it may not beat out price, for example. We put up with poor support if it means getting better overall value.

First-rate customer support is expensive. It requires good people, good training, and good monitoring. When cutting costs, it's an easy target. As company, would you rather cut your prices by 10% and increase hold times by several minutes, or would you rather be the most expensive product on the market but deliver excellent call centre support? The answer depends on the company's strategy, so in a sense both answers are right.

[derson]

Yeah, credit card details were a big issue at my last work place.
We were told to, if needed, to write down all credit card details in booklets for later reference in case we got anything wrong, once the book was full it would be placed into a blue bag, which then would be carted off to some truck the next week for shredding.

Bits of these booklets were scattered all over the floor outside by the "shredder" van, and throughout the whole call centre for any Tom, Dick and Harry to see.

No matter how big the company, or how secure you think they are… they’re not.

I remember a lady calling up to cancel her business mobile account (bought through a reseller) she was just out of her 14 day cooling off period.
She had 37 phones on each on a one year contract, or so she though… wrong! They were all on a whopping 48 month contact, needless to say, she went through the roof.
The reseller she bought them through had gone bust (within a space of 2 or 3 weeks, I’ll never know how), and I basically had to say (upon strict instructions from the area director) ‘tough, it’s not our problem.’ I was on the phone to her for just over 2 hours trying to sort it.


Top Tips:

1 – Never buy from a reseller, try go direct if you can.
2 – Call centre staff don’t need to ask your bank or credit card details to confirm who you are. Staff are just pressured heavily to ask this to keep the DPA people happy.
If they persist, only give them the last 4 digits. If they’re still not happy. Hang up and ring again, or get a manager (they hate taking phone calls and will do anything to get rid of you fast)
3 – If you ask to speak to a manager and they say they’re all busy, it’s a lie, all lies. Get forceful, the operator on the line will cave in and get a manger, if only to get rid of the call.
4 – ALL of the call centres I have worked in have claimed to record ALL telephone conversation, this is crap. On average, only 53% of calls are recorded. This can work heavily to your advantage. Try record your own calls (I do)

[sherza]

:|
Having worked in International Call Centres (from UK to USA) here in South Africa, I think it important to advise that most employees are requested by the International client to change their name to one that is easy to pronounce.

I can understand the frustration of receiving 2nd rate customer service (whether in your home country or a foreign one) and of course you're right;this is unacceptable, in any language, with any accent!

Most of the outsourced call centres advise the employee to answer honestly and correctly, should the client query the location of the call centre or the birth name of the call centre agent.

I know that this mail might do little to assuage your anger but I think that you need to report shoddy service directly to the companies concerned. If enough people do that, these companies will need to act.:)

Prepair for a rant attack!

How long are we going to have to put up with 2nd rate customer service from call centres where people pretend their name is Martin or Maria when we all know full well its NOT!

I am sick to the back teeth of dealing with companies (that sell themselves on providing excellent customer service) that divert my call to a 2nd rate call centre agent when I have a problem.

Can these companies really be saving that much money that it out weighs the need to provide good customer service? I would'nt mind if it was easy to vote with my feet and take my business elswhere, Iv'e done this before only to find that the company changes once Iv'e been with them for a while.

I can't believe that the long term impact on our own economy won't eventually impact back on the shoddy companies that are outsourcing their customer service responsibilities. There seems to be very little evidence of SLA's or KPI's and I know for a fact i'm not the only one who is sick of this practice.

This week alone I have encountered poor customer service from banking, insurance and mobile phone companies. I'm sure these companies don't give a fig about there customers! How could they???

Answers on a postcard to Angry McAngryson at Angry McAngry Street!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[Bliam]

I would do everything it took to avoid a store with terrible customer service

[RedMacbeth]

Top Tips:

1 – Never buy from a reseller, try go direct if you can.
2 – Call centre staff don’t need to ask your bank or credit card details to confirm who you are. Staff are just pressured heavily to ask this to keep the DPA people happy.
If they persist, only give them the last 4 digits. If they’re still not happy. Hang up and ring again, or get a manager (they hate taking phone calls and will do anything to get rid of you fast)
3 – If you ask to speak to a manager and they say they’re all busy, it’s a lie, all lies. Get forceful, the operator on the line will cave in and get a manger, if only to get rid of the call.
4 – ALL of the call centres I have worked in have claimed to record ALL telephone conversation, this is crap. On average, only 53% of calls are recorded. This can work heavily to your advantage. Try record your own calls (I do)


I realise this is a much older post but i felt the need to comment on such myths. Whilst i'm working on the launch of my online business i'm still currently in full time employment with a large UK based company, well known for excellent customer service and i'm proud on the service i offer but the majority of 'top tips' are incorrect.

1. I couldnt agree more.

2. Data Protection is taken very seriously by my employer. If the customer is unable to anwser their account password. We need to ask back up security questions, one being bank account/credit cards details. We do not need all figures but certain ones e.g last 3 and first 2. I cannot take details such as address or date of birth. Anyone can find this out! If i breach data protection then yes the company can be fined/bad press etc but the individual advisor can now be prosecuted. So i can gain a criminal record or a fine. Will i risk this? No. No matter how much fuss the customer kicks up. The will not gain access even if they speak to a manager.

3. Managers are busy sometimes!!! I cannot stress this enough. We pride ourselves on completed call backs. My manager will always call a customer back at my request. Managers tend to have meetings (or lunch!) together so at times all managers/supervisors plus the senior managers are absent. Managers also have sick days, holidays, training etc. No matter how aggressive a customer is or how forceful, i simply cannot fulfil their request to speak to a manager if there is none available.

4. All calls into or out of the centre are recorded. Any disputes then the call is pulled and listened to by management. The data protection act is also their to protect the advisor. You need to make them aware you are recording them and if you use the recording without permission this is breaking the law.

Rant over lol :p

[Richie N]

HSBC always get my name the wrong way round which gets a bit annoying after a while, after telling them everytime what it is and they still get it wrong.

BT are the worse culprits, passing you around pillar to post.

Most major companies now outsource to a different country, I tried Elephant insurance and they outsource to Canada, was impressed with their service and at least they can understand what you are saying.