We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls....

Sales are far more important to them than service.

Agree. Service doesn't matter much to a lot of companies.

Also “your call is important to us.” Yes right, so important you don’t employ enough staff to answer the calls.

In the case of Lloyd’s Bank last week, I was told it would be at least a 40 minute wait!

Obviously all available staff are otherwise engaged, either feeding, mucking out or exercising the herds of black horses that are always galloping about madly in the adverts,

??????

Getting through to the GP surgery can be as bad.
All the rigmarole first (Welsh and/or English) then find you are tenth in the queue.
30 minutes later a receptionist might answer.

Calendargirl

^In the case of Lloyd’s Bank last week, I was told it would be at least a 40 minute wait!^

Obviously all available staff are otherwise engaged, either feeding, mucking out or exercising the herds of black horses that are always galloping about madly in the adverts,

??????

Calendargirl

Luckily we still have a branch here - although the bank clerk couldn't sort it she got through to someone who sounded very far away who did manage it.
She may have been galloping along the seashore at the time.
???

Hurray - I was able to order groceries online!!

Oh, Gawd yes! I had a problem with a credit card a few days ago - a website rejecting it for no apparent reason - so we called Barclays - it was an hour and a half with the speakerphone on before they replied! And then - after several minutes of all the usual rigmarole, the woman told me she couldn’t do anything since I wasn’t the main account holder - she’d need to speak to dh!
By which time he’d got fed up and gone for a walk.

Before he came back, though, I tried it on another site where I usually buy my knitting yarn (so more for the already colossal stash) and it worked fine, phew.

I did have a good moan at the Barclays woman (nicely, while saying I knew it wasn’t her fault) and asked whether the delay in answering was down to COVID staff shortages.

‘No, it’s because so many branches have closed and so many more people are doing everything online.’
Bloody Barclays! ??

The message on our GPS phone says they are receiving 800 calls a day. We think it’s the same 50 people calling over and over again

And PS, Barclays was playing the most bloody awful music while you were waiting. I did ask the woman whether it was on purpose, so that we’d hang up and go away!

I’ve often been utterly sick of the Four Seasons (poor Vivaldi would be turning in his grave, I’m sure) but it would have been bliss compared to the racket I had blaring out on the speakerphone for an hour and a half.

I was 162 in the queue last week when I tried to ask British Gas why my fixed tariff bill was going up by £50 a month when I had used less energy than this quarter last year and was £56 in credit! I gave up so will have to try again in a week or so. I did try using Chat online but the robot said it did not have the answer!

I am awaiting the answer which says "As usual, there is a very long queue of callers waiting to be served, but we are offering a choice of music while you wait. For contemporary pop dial 1, for jazz dial 2, for the Great American songbook dial 3, for classical up to 1750 dial 4, for post 1750 classical dial 5," etc.

Way back in the early 1990s, I worked for Brtish Gas involved in monitoring call centre responses.

Any district that did not answer customer phone calls within 2 minutes was in big trouble. It affected the managers payrise and pomotion prospects.

That was then. Now you are lucky if you get an answer within 2 hours.

grumppa

I am awaiting the answer which says "As usual, there is a very long queue of callers waiting to be served, but we are offering a choice of music while you wait. For contemporary pop dial 1, for jazz dial 2, for the Great American songbook dial 3, for classical up to 1750 dial 4, for post 1750 classical dial 5," etc.

That would help. Some of the music adds to the stress.

DHL only play River Deep, Mountain High. Suggesting they will deliver everywhere - just not very promptly in the Highlands of Scotland ?

Totally agree. And even worse is when a computer answers the phone and you can't speak to a real person. Branches of large supermarket chains and other stores often won't give you the phone numbers of local stores. Saga - 70 minute wait to answer a call if it's a follow-up call for a holiday booked, but are quick enough to answer if you want to book or give them money!

I got it when trying to ring the doctor. When I finally through the receptionist said "they're very busy, there's one GP off sick, their screens are full". I think she expected me to say I wouldn't bother!

I just tried to make an x-ray appt and got the most complicated ever email address to contact. The Tories are trying to run the NHS down & they are making access difficult

They introduced that recording usually because their customer service team was usually very understaffed and they thought that would explain the long wait!
These days, many people would like to think that they are the only person that is trying to call a service, so believes that the call should be answered on the first ring !
But on the other hand, if they don't feel that their query is not being given enough time, they still aren't happy !

And what about the cost of these calls unless it’s an 0800? I’ve decided that there is no such thing as music played while on hold which doesn’t end up driving you CRAZY! What have things got to when you’re surprised when you’re answered quickly!

Yes, I had a query at the beginning of the week about travel arrangements. Due to Covid shortages we have a high volume of calls - please leave a message and we'll get back to you within 3-4 working days. How about sending an e-mail? We'll try to answer within 4-5 working days.

This stressed me out rather. I like to be prepared but I had to just turn up on the day and ask a human being behind the desk - he could only answer part of the question. The bus driver wasn't sure but thankfully a couple of kind passengers knew and were helpful. It's got to some pitch, hasn't it, when the customers know more than the staff?

Even worse is when they put you on hold for 10 mins and then just cut you off, as happens here in Spain with some services. Again, who's paying for the call?

What annoys me even more is when the message goes on to give a stern lecture to callers about not being abusive to their staff.
When you’ve had to wait more than an hour to speak to someone (as I did when trying to phone Northumbria Healthcare Trust last week) it’s very hard to maintain even a semblance of civility towards the person who finally answers.

Insurance companies in Denmark used to be the very worst in this respect, but someone must have told them so.

Now, after informing you that you are currently no. 37 in line, they state press no. such-and-such if you want one of us to phone you back.

And sometimes they do actually phone back!

Yes absolutely everyone apart from friends and family !

I am in the process is switching banks as my old bank, who I have been with for more years than I can remember, probably forever, no longer take calls from customers! I have always done everything online when ever possible but I just needed a simple question answering, got the usual, recorded excuse regarding the unusual volume of calls they were dealing with, then told to go to their website, etc etc, “unless your call is urgent” I held on and held on listening to the messages and instructions on how to resolve my issue and eventually, after about 20 minutes of holding they cut me off!.,!. That was the last straw, I am not prepared to be treated like that, so me and my money are going elsewhere!

I was browsing a holiday travel site that we used pre Covid. It was for a holiday to the USA, but didn’t say if booking premium economy was an option. I decided to ring and ask, but after a long wait, I gave up.

Couldn’t see why that sort of information was not on the site really. Not the prices, but whether it was an option.