No-one home at Spark

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › No-one home at Spark

blairm

54 posts

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#171065 4-Apr-2015 10:31

My father died on Monday and we've been trying for a few days to get the phone/broadband account transferred to my mother's name and arrange an email password for her.

After long waits Spark has called back as promised, and the call centre rep says they're tranferring us to someone who can help... and the phone rings unanswered (we've held on for up to 15 minutes before giving up).

I'd heard the service standards had fallen there, but is this the new normal?

Blair

nakedmolerat

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#1277070 4-Apr-2015 11:01

15 minutes is not that long especially in the holiday weekend.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#1277072 4-Apr-2015 11:05

Easter weekend, wouldn't be surprised if that department was closed

blairm

54 posts

Master Geek

#1277074 4-Apr-2015 11:13

Agree about today, but the other times were not during the holiday weekend - they were earlier this week.

qwertee

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#1277113 4-Apr-2015 13:22

So sorry for your loss.
This is one headache that you can live without!
I hope that this gets resolved soon.

chevrolux

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#1277124 4-Apr-2015 14:00

I'm wondering what is happening at Spark too.

I only have to ring 126 every now and again and it used to be they would answer almost immediately. The last couple of times though I have been put in to a queue and been told hold time could be 30 minutes to an hour! That's Vodafone spec!!

I wonder if they have quietly been restructuring teams to make them more 'efficient' but have taken people off phones.

jeffnz

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#1277126 4-Apr-2015 14:03

never had an issue conatcting Spark but never tried on holiday weekend. Try live chat on their web page.

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mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1277127 4-Apr-2015 14:08

You would have thought they would have had an answering machine to answer the call if noone is there to pickup. They are communications company after all that actually sell answering services.

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Abo

78 posts

Master Geek

#1277137 4-Apr-2015 14:43

mattwnz: You would have thought they would have had an answering machine to answer the call if noone is there to pickup. They are communications company after all that actually sell answering services.

Based on how telecommunications companies in NZ in general don't seem to want to provide adequate phone support (15 minutes waiting is really too long) doing something like that would be too hard for them.

(note: just because 30mins-1hour+ wait on the phone is standard in NZ doesn't mean its ok, you can call multi national companies who are bigger than any NZ company will ever be in other parts of the world at anytime and be on hold for less than 15 minutes, and they probably do the same call volume in a month than nz companies do in a year)

The problem with voicemail is that due to the ridiculous call waiting times in NZ most of the calls would be going to voice mail which means you would need to employ more staff to action the voice mails otherwise more will build up and the cycle continues, so I don't think it's the right answer.

I would just try again on Tuesday and hope to get lucky

michaelmurfy

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#1277162 4-Apr-2015 16:21

Here we go again...

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mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1277167 4-Apr-2015 16:33

Having dealt with canceling services after someone has died, I know how difficult it can be, especially in such a difficult time. When these types of companies are cutting costs by contracting out support offshore, it can make it even more difficult, especially if there are long hold times.. At least with Spark, they are a member of the TDR incase you have problems. I would suggest just emailing them your request, along with a scan of documents. Although finding an email address on their website is impossible. But if you contact them via their social media, they should give you an email address to use. NZ hasn't yet got as bad as the UK, with hold times with ISP, but it looks like we maybe heading down that track from the recent fair go story, with one ISP where someone was on hold for over 5 hours!!

Talkiet

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#1277180 4-Apr-2015 17:06

I sent Blair a PM at 10:40 this morning promising to find the right people to speak to and have call him on Tuesday if he's able to wait that long. (I'm not in a customer facing role at all so I have to get back into the office and start prodding people)...

Blair - did you see the PM?

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Sideface

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#1277194 4-Apr-2015 17:58

mattwnz: ... NZ hasn't yet got as bad as the UK, with hold times with ISP, but it looks like we maybe heading down that track from the recent fair go story, with one ISP where someone was on hold for over 5 hours!!

It was Vodafone. Surprise!

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blairm

54 posts

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#1277196 4-Apr-2015 18:10

Thanks, just saw the PM. I've sent you the details

nakedmolerat

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#1277261 4-Apr-2015 22:08

I suspect Spark couldn't cope with ex-Vodafone customers now moving with Spark after the exodus ;-)