Customer SERVICE Consultants - OMG !!!!

[Sprucegoose]

I get the feeling with some consultants they are not interested in dealing with complexity.

Vodafone was hopeless. Amex was ordinary and I have been transferred back to Australian call centre for resolution. Citibank was not much better although they are improving.

I could be wrong.

I agree ......

 

[Isochronous]

Suncorp, Bankwest, NAB, QF - all very helpful in my experience.

 

[bass_ke]

Agree with isochronous on Suncorp, certainly very helpful!

I've recently switched banking and health insurance to small not for profits and have been amazed to have actual customer service again. My calls get answered straight away and I actually get help!

 

[harvyk]

Many of these Filipino staff would be able to get jobs elsewhere, but they haven't always had the opportunity in life to do that (although their economy is very fast growing, but this needs to continue for many more years.)

From what I've heard, getting a call center job in the Philippines is a very desirable job. Dad used to travel there for work very frequently, and he was saying to me that one of the people he worked with over there (who was both extremely smart and pretty much one of the best in field) wanted to throw in her career and get a call center job since they are held in such high esteem.

Not to offend the OP, but much of the world operates on a different date system to us... its not always 2014. In Dubai, Shanghai and Bombay its possible you will be in the minority date wise.

No excuse, if I do business with the USA I know that any date I'm given will be in the MM-DD-YYYY format. You'd think that a person who's sole job is to pretend to be a countryman of the person on the other end of the phone would know something as simple as what date format that country uses.

 

[Melburnian1]

harvyk, by 'elsewhere' I actually meant 'a higher paying job in a Western country.'

You are correct - call centre jobs pay well in Philippines compared to many other jobs. It gives the staff some disposable income, part of the reason that the Filipino economy is doing very well - better than Indonesia or Thailand, although I lack a window into what the relative situation will be in five years' time.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Agree with isochronous on Suncorp, certainly very helpful!

I've recently switched banking and health insurance to small not for profits and have been amazed to have actual customer service again. My calls get answered straight away and I actually get help!

Please name names

 

[harvyk]

harvyk, by 'elsewhere' I actually meant 'a higher paying job in a Western country.'

Just out of interest, what makes you think that everyone in the Philippines is simply there because they can't leave?
Sure there might be a few who would love to leave and travel the world / work in another country who can't, just like there are those in AU who would love to leave and travel the world / work in another country who can't... But the assumption that everyone wants to simply up and leave if they could?

 

[sampson]

Agree with isochronous on Suncorp, certainly very helpful!

I've recently switched banking and health insurance to small not for profits and have been amazed to have actual customer service again. My calls get answered straight away and I actually get help!

It's nice to not push 1, 2, 3, 4 and then find there's still no humans inside Telstra. Did Aliens abduct them for scientific experiments into why some corporations are really annoyingly stoopid

 

[harvyk]

It's nice to not push 1, 2, 3, 4 and then find there's still no humans inside Telstra. Did Aliens abduct them for scientific experiments into why some corporations are really annoyingly stoopid

That's why I tend to determine what key combinations are most likely to end up with me talking to an actual human in the area I wish to do business with. If I simply wanted information which required no human input, I'd look up the answer on the web...

 

[grigo]

The best and greatest Technical help I have ever come across is for HP Printers. Yes, these guys are based in the Philippines, but over the yeras whatever problems I have had (Printer not working, scanner not working etc), these guys know their stuff and have always been able to resolve any of my problems. Great Technicians and great after sales service.

 

[Quentin]

I recently have had the misfortune of calling the Foxtel 'helpdesk' a number of times. There's a company that could take some training in customer service. Predominately the calls ended with me being told by various 'consultants' at an Indian call center all the things - as a top line customer - that I could NOT do and what they could NOT do for me. They could replace my faulty box (for the 3rd time) with a refurbished box but they could not give me a new one. I tried, numerous times to explain that in the life-cycle of their boxes, at some stage - in order to be refurbished boxes - they must have been 'new boxes', so why was it not possible to start at the beginning of that food chain and get a new box? Apparantly this is not possible.

And on an airline related customer service gripe, try Jetstar airport check-in at Darwin. What a constant debacle. I recently had the misfortune of traveling with them to Thailand via Singapore. I booked and paid for (months in advance) the seat 1D and my traveling companion had done the same in 1F on the Darwin to Singapore leg. We had both purchased extra luggage allowance for our golf clubs and had booked specified seats on the Singapore to Bangkok leg. When i checked in I found that my companion had been given 1D and I was allocated 3D. I argued this point with the Jetstar check-in girl -and showed her the confirmed booking with the assigned seat - who, believe it or not, said to me "I guess it's not your lucky day"! Her resolution to the problem was for me to suck it up and write an email to 'customer service'. On boarding 1D was double booked, and my companion who had originally paid for 1F was told to vacate 1D (my original seat) for a taller traveler and he was dumped to 3A. Turns out, in conversation with the people seated in 1E & F that they had not booked nor paid for the front seats, but on checking in early had been told they could have them for free as they were empty. To compound this, the people sitting next to me in 3E & F had traveled from Cairns and had also paid for and booked 1E & F through to Singapore, but were shunted backwards in Darwin. I did write to Jetstar 'customer service' and after 8 weeks received an email that essentially informed me it would have been doen for saftey reasons but wasn't I happy the staff were able to get me near the front of the aircraft. No refund of my additional seat purchase, no apology, no reason to ever fly Jetstar again.

 

[ronone69]

Customer and services are at different ends of the spectrum for most large organisations. Their processes having nothing to do with providing service - they are all designed to protect the cough of the directors. Citibank are hopeless. Have been for years. Amex are a little better. I find most of the airlines actually better on the phone although I find SQ very hard to deal with on the phone. Utilities, forget them, would not know a customer or service if they fell over it. Telstra, a joke, Foxtel - see Telstra

 

[Mr_Orange]

Suncorp, Bankwest, NAB, QF - all very helpful in my experience.

Definitely agree on Bankwest. They are awesome in my experience.

Some small praise for Citi too in one situation. I was abroad and used Skype to call the 1800 Select number (I don't have Skype credit and I'm not a Select customer). I explained my situation and asked to be connected to the normal call centre which the Aussie on the end of the phone happily did.

 

[legroom]

Definitely agree on Bankwest. They are awesome in my experience.

Some small praise for Citi too in one situation. I was abroad and used Skype to call the 1800 Select number (I don't have Skype credit and I'm not a Select customer). I explained my situation and asked to be connected to the normal call centre which the Aussie on the end of the phone happily did.

Maybe that was why you had a happy tale !

 

[BAM1748]

Definitely agree on Bankwest. They are awesome in my experience.

Some small praise for Citi too in one situation. I was abroad and used Skype to call the 1800 Select number (I don't have Skype credit and I'm not a Select customer). I explained my situation and asked to be connected to the normal call centre which the Aussie on the end of the phone happily did.

Amazes me how Bankwest and Commonwealth are at completely different ends of the service spectrum.

Matt

 

[JohnK]

No refund of my additional seat purchase, no apology, no reason to ever fly Jetstar again.

Woeful customer service.

I am able to sleep at night knowing that Jetstar will never have the opportunity to treat me this way.

 

[Rox]

The best and greatest Technical help I have ever come across is for HP Printers. Yes, these guys are based in the Philippines, but over the yeras whatever problems I have had (Printer not working, scanner not working etc), these guys know their stuff and have always been able to resolve any of my problems. Great Technicians and great after sales service.

That must be a different department to the one servicing HP computers. I was just about to mention them as a bad example. They are woeful, and seem to take delight in passing you to someone else. I suspect I covered 3 continents in one phone call once.

 

[Jurahn]

If you are ever having trouble when placing an order with Amazon, I'd strongly recommend using their Live Chat option under "Contact Us" - I've had great customer service from them on two occasions using this. Both times, my "call" was answered almost immediately, and as soon as I explained the problem, the CSA immediately took steps to sort it out and pretty much resolved the issue on the spot. No "I'll have to check with my supervisor" or "we'll need to look into this and get back to you" or trying to fob you off or pass the buck. Late last year, I'd placed an order and selected at checkout to be charged in USD, but was somehow charged in AUD instead, so of course was subject to Amazon's exchange rate rather than my 28 Degrees Card's rate. No problem, they swiftly worked out the difference in the amounts I was/would have been charged, and a credit was processed immmediately to my card. Then a few months ago, I was trying to order a DVD but there was no option for standard shipping to Australia, as there usually is, only the Priority Shipping which practically doubled the cost of the DVD. Hopped on to Live Chat to query it, the CSA asked me the details and what shipping rate I was seeing on the order - and immediately came back with the reply that if I would like to go ahead with the order, she would waive the shipping costs due to what appeared to be a problem in their system. She waited on-line while I placed the order, I gave her the order number and within a couple of minutes I received the email with my amended order total and that was all that was charged to my credit card. You can also opt to have a transcript of the chat sent to your email address so you have a record of everything that's said, which would be great if any follow-up was needed. Absolutely brilliant.

 

[TomVexille]

If you are ever having trouble when placing an order with Amazon, I'd strongly recommend using their Live Chat option under "Contact Us" - I've had great customer service from them on two occasions using this. Both times, my "call" was answered almost immediately, and as soon as I explained the problem, the CSA immediately took steps to sort it out and pretty much resolved the issue on the spot. No "I'll have to check with my supervisor" or "we'll need to look into this and get back to you" or trying to fob you off or pass the buck. Late last year, I'd placed an order and selected at checkout to be charged in USD, but was somehow charged in AUD instead, so of course was subject to Amazon's exchange rate rather than my 28 Degrees Card's rate. No problem, they swiftly worked out the difference in the amounts I was/would have been charged, and a credit was processed immmediately to my card. Then a few months ago, I was trying to order a DVD but there was no option for standard shipping to Australia, as there usually is, only the Priority Shipping which practically doubled the cost of the DVD. Hopped on to Live Chat to query it, the CSA asked me the details and what shipping rate I was seeing on the order - and immediately came back with the reply that if I would like to go ahead with the order, she would waive the shipping costs due to what appeared to be a problem in their system. She waited on-line while I placed the order, I gave her the order number and within a couple of minutes I received the email with my amended order total and that was all that was charged to my credit card. You can also opt to have a transcript of the chat sent to your email address so you have a record of everything that's said, which would be great if any follow-up was needed. Absolutely brilliant.

That's really good to know

 

[Jurahn]

That's really good to know

Yes, I was amazed, especially after years of dealing with customer service here! The first time, I was actually in the US, but didn't have access to a landline and didn't want to spend a fortune ringing them on my mobile, so gave the Live Chat a go, and I'm glad I did! I think it's available 24/7, as when I in the US I contacted them on a Sunday and the second time, I was back here in Australia and it would have been either very late at night or very early morning in the US (depending on where the Amazon call/chat centre is based).