Higher than expected call volumes...

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marpada

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#3135974 28-Sep-2023 15:20

Some companies don't even offer a contact phone (or at least they tried their best to hide it) and instead force their clients to use Whatsapp or Facebook. I'm looking at you Contact Energy (the irony of the name is not lost on me)

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floydbloke

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#3135988 28-Sep-2023 15:41

marpada:

Some companies don't even offer a contact phone (or at least they tried their best to hide it)...

...and then their webform offers about 5 options in a drop-down to select what your query pertains to...none of which actually cover what your question or gripe is about.

After I was born, I didn't talk to my parents for two years.

Handle9

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#3135996 28-Sep-2023 15:58

Rikkitic:

Senecio:

No business will ever put on more staff to the point where they are no longer experiencing "higher than expected call volumes". That would just be burning cash unnecessarily having idle capacity sitting around not being utilised.

Maybe they abandon their dinosaur thinking, rediscover the value of customer goodwill, train their workforce to be flexible and step into other roles depending on the need of the moment?

They'll do that when customers buy based on customer goodwill, not on the cheapest thing that vaguely meets a description of what they want.

Behodar

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#3135998 28-Sep-2023 16:01

Rikkitic:

In my experience call-backs are not honoured more often than they are.

I'm not going to name names, but for sheer absurdity one particular company takes the cake. It's been three and a half years since I logged my request and I'm still awaiting a response. I chased them up around 18 months ago via a different contact method and was told that I'd reached the wrong department but that I'd definitely be contacted eventually.

allan

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#3136138 28-Sep-2023 21:44

Behodar:

Rikkitic:

In my experience call-backs are not honoured more often than they are.

I'm not going to name names, but for sheer absurdity one particular company takes the cake. It's been three and a half years since I logged my request and I'm still awaiting a response. I chased them up around 18 months ago via a different contact method and was told that I'd reached the wrong department but that I'd definitely be contacted eventually.

After that length of time, I think it's definitely time to name names...

Goosey

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#3136143 28-Sep-2023 21:58

marpada:

Some companies don't even offer a contact phone (or at least they tried their best to hide it) and instead force their clients to use Whatsapp or Facebook. I'm looking at you Contact Energy (the irony of the name is not lost on me)

err on their contact page, there’s a few numbers… you just gotta expand the categories….it’s all under those socials images.

gzt

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#3136163 28-Sep-2023 23:03

cddt: ASB is shocking in this regard. Sit on the phone for an hour to get through to a real person, only to be told they can't help me and I have to go into a branch, go to the branch, queue up for an hour, only to be told they can't help me today and I have to make an appointment, the next available appointment is in two weeks. Oh and appointments are only available during restricted business hours, God forbid you are employed and can't take several hours off to complete what should be a minor administrative task.

I went to the mall on Sunday to use the cash machine for card activation and was totally shocked to find ASB open. They did appear to be doing appointments of some kind. I had some other things to do so, in I went. It's no use to you if they closed the ASB in your town but you could always drive to Auckland.. : p

KrazyKid

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#3137272 1-Oct-2023 09:42

Westpac won the prize the other day.
"Your expected waiting time is 16 hours and 10 mins".

I hung up.

rugrat

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#3137359 1-Oct-2023 13:33

Rikkitic:

BlargHonk:

I don't mind the long queues as long as they offer a call-back option. I would much rather you call me back 1hr later than have to sit on hold for that long!

In my experience call-backs are not honoured more often than they are. Apart from that, I am nearly always busy doing something. I don't just sit and wait for the call. When (if) it comes, it nearly always interrupts something else. That is not how I want to live.

I missed a call back from WINZ, then get a text giving me a different number to ring and my position will be held. Ring different number, was number one in queue and was talking to person in under two minutes. Brilliant system. Only flaw sometimes wouldn’t offer call back as to many people, found though if rang 10 seconds later most times second call got put in queue.

Also it was a few years ago, missed call back from Spark, when rang back it recognised I had rung earlier and bumped up the line, don’t know if still as good today.

So it’s not necessary have to answer when call back happens if system set up well.

2degrees answered my last couple of calls in about 1/2 hour. Big improvement, though maybe I got lucky. It can take over 10 minutes a person though, so when it says you are 2nd in queue wonder if it’s divided by number of operators, i.e 100 people answering phone, you are 200th person waiting.

rugrat

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#3137362 1-Oct-2023 13:48

On subject of bank appointments did a walk in at ANZ branch to load a power of attorney.

After spending about 30 minutes with me told me it can’t be done as a walk in and have to make an appointment. Appointments at that branch were all booked for next month so couldn’t make an appointment there, but found another branch where one was available in a months time.

Would have put complaint in with banking ombudsman, but don’t think they tick bank off, just sort out problem and by then most of month probably gone. Also have another way of accessing accounts in meantime, but if didn’t it would mean persons money would not be available to them for the whole time, and all money would be locked up.

This is a different power of attorney to my other thread and this one is valid, just the wait time to get the bank to load it seems ridiculous, and in some situations the wait time could have bad consequences.

vexxxboy

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#3137389 1-Oct-2023 16:12

You have not been fustrated until you try to do anything with MSD [WINZ]. They have call back and it works well, but and it's a big but, unless you call before 9.00am then it is very unlikely you will get hold of anyone that day. you will just get a recording saying they are to busy and call back later which means the next day in most cases. For a service that is meant to help people in dire straits it is almost criminal how they treat people.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Rikkitic

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#3137390 1-Oct-2023 16:29

I don't normally have much to do with WINZ. As a pensioner with overseas pension, I have to get a form stamped once a year to prove I am still alive but that is all.

Until last year our local WINZ had a special section for pensioners with chairs we could sit in while waiting. This was excellent.

Last year they closed the pensioner section and now we have to just stand in the main queue. There are no chairs for anyone. As an elderly person with back issues that cause me real pain if I have to stand more than 10 minutes, I find this new lack of service inexplicable.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

networkn

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#3137434 1-Oct-2023 19:16

freitasm:

But that requires more people, training, and actual thinking beings instead of script-followers. You know this all costs money.

And they can't have money going out.

To be fair, people are at an all time high sensitivity to cost increases.

How many threads get started here a month people looking to save a couple of dollars a month on their ISP bill, then the same person sucks 15 pages of interactions from others when their connection isn't 'working' properly.

Handle9

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#3137436 1-Oct-2023 19:20

networkn:
freitasm:

But that requires more people, training, and actual thinking beings instead of script-followers. You know this all costs money.

And they can't have money going out.

To be fair, people are at an all time high sensitivity to cost increases.

How many threads get started here a month people looking to save a couple of dollars a month on their ISP bill, then the same person sucks 15 pages of interactions from others when their connection isn't 'working' properly.

Then treat their customers with some respect and remove the “unusual call volumes” message. They are normal call volumes, they just aren’t going to resource those volumes.

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