On Sat my wife took a journey into the twilight world of the new VFNZ Egypt call centre...

Call was to inquire about some bestmate charges that should not have been applied - looked like a simple stuff-up with her starting on a new plan, nothing too complicated.

So she called 777, and spoke to somebody who seemed to be in the new VFNZ Egypt call centre (An earlier call in the day to do a change of address confirmed that it was the Egypt call centre). They asked her for a bill number, which she didn't have since she was checking the charges online for an as-yet unbilled month. The CSR didn't seem to understand this and continued to insist on a bill number, even after she gave him the dates concerned, should have been a simple matter of looking at the account for that period.

Eventually the CSR got flustered and insisted that he couldn't help her. He told her to try calling back on 777, maybe the next person who answered could help. But when she pressed him he then insisted that nobody could help with her inquiry.

So she asked to speak to his supervisor. His reaction - 'We don't have supervisors' (!!!!). She then asked for his name - he supplied his first name. She asked for his surname or an employee number that could be used to lodge a complaint - he refused. At that point she gave up and finished the call with a 'thank-you'.

She then called 777 again - this time she asked immediately to talk to a supervisor to make a complaint. Suddenly it seemed that supervisors do actually exist, after taking some details this CSR put her on hold while he talked to the supervisor. But then he came back on the line and said 'I've talked to my supervisor and he is not available, he'll call you back within 1 hr'. Better response, but odd that the previously non-existent supervisor is now 'busy', especially after the CSR has apparently just talked to him.

2 hours pass and no response, I arrived home and call on 777 her behalf to try to sort this out. This time I get through to a supervisor who is very helpful, notes that the original problem has been sent to the accounts department for resolution and offers to investigate the original CSR. And to call when progress has been made. Finally, a proper response.

So we were both a bit stunned by the whole thing - surely the CSRs know that their calls are logged and recorded. Trying to cover up their own incompetence by telling straight-out lies on the phone is just silly! Not a good look.

Neither of us hold any particular opinion about where VFNZ want to site their call centres, however the attitude she got from them very much left the impression that this overseas site really didn't care about VF or their customers, the CSR just wanted to end the call as soon as possible.