Qantas call centre staff lying about their real location?

[Mattg]

I've heard several reports recently about Qantas' offshore call centre staff claiming they're in Hobart when asked, when they are in fact overseas (most likely Manila).

Has anyone else noticed this lately? I sure hope these staff haven't been instructed to outright lie to customers about where they are.

BTW - while you can usually tell when you're speaking to someone in Hobart based on their Australian accent, a non-Australian accent doesn't necessarily mean you're not talking to someone in Hobart. I believe there is at least one Malaysian and a South African working in Hobart. But those are very much exceptions.

 

[Ade]

I've heard several reports recently about Qantas' offshore call centre staff claiming they're in Hobart when asked, when they are in fact overseas (most likely Manila).

Has anyone else noticed this lately? I sure hope these staff haven't been instructed to outright lie to customers about where they are.

BTW - while you can usually tell when you're speaking to someone in Hobart based on their Australian accent, a non-Australian accent doesn't necessarily mean you're not talking to someone in Hobart. I believe there is at least one Malaysian and a South African working in Hobart. But those are very much exceptions.

I never thought about this until now ... Going by my experience, I have spoken to staff that say they are AKL based, having sub-continent accent - may be the really are AKL based ... or ...

 

[gethsemene]

As quite a few of them are patients of mine, a lot of them may be actually in their living rooms, I don't know how particular Qantas are about the WFH being actually IN Hobart...

I normally know because I start talking about the weather outside (although you can prob just guess windy and a bit chilly)

 

[Blackadder]

I've heard several reports recently about Qantas' offshore call centre staff claiming they're in Hobart when asked, when they are in fact overseas (most likely Manila).

Has anyone else noticed this lately? I sure hope these staff haven't been instructed to outright lie to customers about where they are.

BTW - while you can usually tell when you're speaking to someone in Hobart based on their Australian accent, a non-Australian accent doesn't necessarily mean you're not talking to someone in Hobart. I believe there is at least one Malaysian and a South African working in Hobart. But those are very much exceptions.

Does it really matter?
As long as they are competent in doing their job. If you have a problem with someone just call back later.

 

[markis10]

It’s really none of our business where they are, so why put them in a difficult position which could be seen as harrasment, certainly not respect !

 

[PERLHR]

It’s really none of our business where they are, so why put them in a difficult position which could be seen as harrasment, certainly not respect !

Why is asking for their location in today's world seen as harassment or putting anyone into a difficult position! Humans are no longer allowed to interact without someone taking some kind of offence. ? Seriously the world has gone crazy!!

 

[Mr_Tee]

It’s really none of our business where they are, so why put them in a difficult position which could be seen as harrasment, certainly not respect !

I agree completely here. If they are doing their job it should not matter where they are located. and nobody should be asking.

Would somebody start asking where someone with an Australian accent was based and then start thinking that they were lying if they said Melbourne when you think they might be in Toowoomba? I doubt it.

What does it matter if there are Malaysian or South African accents in the Hobart call centre?
What does it matter if there are Australian accents in the South African call centre?

To suggest that QF are instructing their staff to lie about their location is a pretty long bow to draw here.

This line of questioning is borderline harassment and has racist undertones in my view.

 

[RooFlyer]

BTW - while you can usually tell when you're speaking to someone in Hobart based on their Australian accent, a non-Australian accent doesn't necessarily mean you're not talking to someone in Hobart. I believe there is at least one Malaysian and a South African working in Hobart. But those are very much exceptions.

I usually just comment something about the weather. If it’s Hobart then they’ll chuckle and say something too and recognising that I’m also from Hobart I usually get a little bit more service.

It’s really none of our business where they are, so why put them in a difficult position which could be seen as harrasment, certainly not respect !

I agree that outright asking them is rude but knowing where they are is a metric of how reliable they are.

 

[ChrisMars]

I agree completely here. If they are doing their job it should not matter where they are located. and nobody should be asking.

The thing is, they are not doing their job properly.
Call it training, call it culture, call it tooling, I am sure it's a mix.
The point is Hobart agent do stuff other agents routinely fail to do. It's a fact.

 

[RooFlyer]

What does it matter if there are Malaysian or South African accents in the Hobart call centre?

The topic isn’t about what accents they have. It’s whether they are identifying their location, if asked, accurately or not.

To suggest that QF are instructing their staff to lie about their location is a pretty long bow to draw here.

No one is saying that Qantas is instructing them. A question has been asked, based on what the OP has heard, that’s all.

 

[kpc]

Pretty obvious where they are based on accent and competency. I never ask where they are bar an oblique reference to weather if I think they are in Hobart.

The Auckland centre is very obvious based on accent

 

[serfty]

It’s really none of our business where they are, so why put them in a difficult position which could be seen as harrasment, certainly not respect !

I agree completely here. If they are doing their job it should not matter where they are located. and nobody should be asking.

...

It is not so much competence, it's the tools staff have been given. There are other posts in this forum that indicate "Hobart" based staff generally have a more powerful tool set than those elsewhere, enabling them to assist with greater efficiency.

 

[markis10]

Why is asking for their location in today's world seen as harassment or putting anyone into a difficult position! Humans are no longer allowed to interact without someone taking some kind of offence. ? Seriously the world has gone crazy!!

Because it’s irrelevant. Let me give you some context, 10 years ago I resigned as a moderator of this forum to concentrate on a massive career change from IT to Telco. Part of that induction to the Telco world involved sitting in on call centre calls for a day.

I was with a team where some members may not have been brought up with English as their primary language but their skills were 5*. Every second call to the non English centric staff somehow drifted into were we where located, which happened to be hunter street in Sydney!

Asking call centre staff for their location is harassment, it’s got nothing to do with their job or individual skill set and is bordering on racism, as if where you work locality wise defines the limit to your skills.

Feel free to feedback to Qantas your experience but don’t put down a worker by requesting the locale, if enough feedback at corporate is received they will realise their empowerment of staff/contractors is lacking in areas, and they will have real data rather than assumptions to work with.

 

[PERLHR]

Because it’s irrelevant. Let me give you some context, 10 years ago I resigned as a moderator of this forum to concentrate on a massive career change from IT to Telco. Part of that induction to the Telco world involved sitting in on call centre calls for a day.

I was with a team where some members may not have been brought up with English as their primary language but their skills were 5*. Every second call to the non English centric staff somehow drifted into we were located, which happened to be hunter street in Sydney!

Asking call centre staff for their location is harassment, it’s got nothing to do with their job or individual skill set and is bordering on racism, as if where you work locality wise defines the limit to your skills.

So with your experience you are actually displaying an unconscious or maybe conscious bias! . As a skilled negotiator ...I happen to enter into many different conversations....some I would probably put into the "disinterested" bag but nevertheless it's part and parcel of getting to know who you are talking/dealing/participating with. Two sides every story....but I guess we are drifting of topic....maybe.

 

[flyingfan]

IMHO If there are 'sides' I see both. It wouldn't surprise me that customers are demanding staff say where they are and being nasty and very judgey based on the answer. But on the other hand I think there are many reasons for all the discussion here on trying to get Hobart and avoiding some of the others like South Africa. If staff were equally competent and trained everywhere it'd be a non-issue but things are never that easy. IME and YMMV

 

[madrooster]

Has anyone else noticed this lately? I sure hope these staff haven't been instructed to outright lie to customers about where they are.

Yes. I've personally had it twice within 24 hours, because I was specifically looking for HBA-based staff (see the bottom of this post as to why).

I never thought about this until now ... Going by my experience, I have spoken to staff that say they are AKL based, having sub-continent accent - may be the really are AKL based ... or ...

I can confirm that AKL does have a few sub-continent accented staff. You can usually tell who they are as they have a slight kiwi accent.

Does it really matter?
As long as they are competent in doing their job. If you have a problem with someone just call back later.

I agree completely here. If they are doing their job it should not matter where they are located. and nobody should be asking.

Would somebody start asking where someone with an Australian accent was based and then start thinking that they were lying if they said Melbourne when you think they might be in Toowoomba? I doubt it.

What does it matter if there are Malaysian or South African accents in the Hobart call centre?
What does it matter if there are Australian accents in the South African call centre?

To suggest that QF are instructing their staff to lie about their location is a pretty long bow to draw here.

The thing is, they are not doing their job properly.
Call it training, call it culture, call it tooling, I am sure it's a mix.
The point is Hobart agent do stuff other agents routinely fail to do. It's a fact.

The key issue is the fact that not all of the contact centres are created equal.

Oneworld awards that exceed 10 fare components, will not auto price in Amadeus. This is an Amadeus pricing engine limitaton. This means that the taxes and surcharges need to be manually calculated and depending on the carrier mix, manually ticketed.

Only HBA has staff who are of a higher pay grade and have the training to complete this. Even then, HBA staff sometimes calculate the taxes/surcharges incorrectly and I have to query and explain why a certain tax is not meant to be collected.

So yes, in certain explicit contexts, it is necessary to seek HBA-based staff because the other contact centres cannot handle the issue at hand. It's not about race - for example BA has some quite capable staff (actual BA staff, not contractors) based in DEL who I've spoken to over the years and they are not any worse than their MAN, LHR or NCL based counterparts.

On a related note, the CPT, MNL and SUV contact centres can call an internal helpdesk for assistance. This internal helpdesk are a team that are non customer facing but are based in AKL. This helpdesk is not fully capable of full manual taxes/surcharges calculation either. They can do simpler things but not full blown 16 segment awards, so it gives rise to even more of a need to seek assistance from the HBA-based team.

 

[Mattg]

Does it really matter?
As long as they are competent in doing their job. If you have a problem with someone just call back later.

This is not a question I ask as a matter of course, as it often doesn't matter. And I would never "demand" to know in a way that is disrespectful.

However, there are some things that only the Hobart agents can actually do, as they have different tools at their disposal, as @madrooster has explained above.

It is not so much competence, it's the tools staff have been given. There are other posts in this forum that indicate "Hobart" based staff generally have a more powerful tool set than those elsewhere, enabling them to assist with greater efficiency.

Exactly.

As long as the person I'm talking to can effectively respond to my request, I don't care where they are. It depends what I'm trying to do. On many occasions, I've been told by agents in CPT that there was no award availability on a flight, but then when I call back and get HBA, they can see and book it. As just one example.

 

[dajop]

As long as the person I'm talking to can effectively respond to my request, I don't care where they are. It depends what I'm trying to do. On many occasions, I've been told by agents in CPT that there was no award availability on a flight, but then when I call back and get HBA, they can see and book it. As just one example.

I've had the same experience with South Africa call centre. But wait for when Manila is online and problem solved (with award tickets). I (presumably) have no access to Hobart call centre, so it's not a factor for me.

 

[PERLHR]

for example BA has some quite capable staff (actual BA staff, not contractors) based in DEL who I've spoken to over the years and they are not any worse than their MAN, LHR or NCL based counterparts.

Yeah but we all know as does Flyertalk BA forum that the Newcastle based staff are the best ever! It's proven..(and I am not from Newcastle...not that judging by some of the comments here that is of any relevancy. ..

 

[madrooster]

the Newcastle based staff are the best ever!

The NCL based staff are mostly sales agents now for the likes of BA Holidays. The gold, GGL and YouFirst lines now only go to MAN since about 2019 or 2020.