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

I get “your call is important to us…” at the Medical Centre. Not as important as it is to me, mate.

And then to be advised to call at the end of the week if not vital - but it’s Friday for gods’ sake!

I do not blame the surgery, I put this at the door of government, underfunding, under-staffing, under-mining, they want shot of the NHS and that’s it.

Artaylar

I am right now 10 minutes into what I have been advised will be a 90 minute wait to speak to somebody at Barclays.....sighs....

Last Sunday my son rang Barclays around 2pm as he had seen an unauthorised payment on his account. Out of sheer bloody mindedness he left his phone connected to the queue for non-existent Customer Service until close of business at 6pm - never got through!!

At AAGA4 exceeding just, just another damned excuse for poor productivity and failure to provide the service we are paying for.

In this age of working from home, I strongly suspect that many a recorded message should be one of the following.

I'm sorry I cannot answer your call right now as
" I'm loading the washing machine"
" I'm doing the school run."
" I'm just preparing tonight's evening meal"
" The mobile hairdresser has just arrived"
etc. etc. etc

I work for one of these companies. The abuse from customer's is unbearable. Nobody wants to work in a call center. We are always advertising for staff. Rember it's not the agents fault.

My credit card company gives you an approximate waiting time - great! The only problem is that it's a premium line. The last time I tried it was an estimated 1 hour wait at 17p per minute equating to a charge of more than £10!!

I usually shout down the phone 'well, you should employ more people'. Makes me feel better. When I finally get through I am polite to the person on the other end.

My DD had an emergency, and asked if I could draw some money out to lend her for a few days. She can't get to her bank, and is only allowed £250 a day from the cashpoint.
At one time you could just go to the bank and draw out virtually as much as you wanted, over the counter. I know from experience that this is no longer the case, so I tried to phone TSB's local branch to ask about cash availability. They usually answer quickly, but several tries produced an 'unable to answer your call' message, so I decided to go in person.
The branch has been 'renovated.' There is no longer a secure counter with 2 or 3 assistants. Now there is one lady alone at a desk, trying to cope with everyone. When I finally reached her, and mentioned the lack of phone contact, it turned out that she was expected to answer the phone too, but couldn't cope.
Surprisingly, though, she was able to grant my request for £1,000, as long as I didn't mind having it in £50s.
I wonder how long it will be before they announce that , in future, they will only be open for part of the week. They still want our money though!
As for interminable phone queues, I'm still recovering from listening to the CanCan for 40 minutes, the other day while waiting for an answer. When I finally got through it was to an Asian gentleman. I couldn't understand him, and he seemed to have trouble understanding me. Then he asked me to hold, and left me for 10 minutes, wondering if I had been abandoned. My query was eventually sorted out, at much cost to my nerves!

The Government dont have anything to so with the customer service queues at GP Surgeries. Its the GP surgeries not wanting to use the telephone service and using e-consult instead. We will probably find out that any Government in power dont really care about what the every day people want they will carry on with electronic everything until there is no one left to complain about it. They also wont do anything about the state of the other things in this country. You get what you pay for and if we dont want to pay then we cant expect to get good service.

Good afternoon, its funny you should mention this as I got this message yesterday afternoon when phoning to renew my RAC membership for the year. My heart sunk but a lovely lady answered in the first couple of minutes and my query was dealt with efficiently and quickly.

I just waited 50mins to talk to British Gas who we were transferred to when PfP went under. This is the second day running that dealing with British Gas has reduced me to tears. I finally admit that they have defeated me and I'm not one to give up easily - the interchange began back in September!

I think all of their recorded messages have become like wallpaper to them and no-one checks to see whether they are still relevant. Imagine telling customers yesterday and again today that it is much easier to do things on line when their website, app, phone numbers were all down! They seem to enjoy winding customers up before they even get to speak to anyone.

I think for the sake of my blood pressure I am going to have to take my business elsewhere. I have seen no evidence that they want to learn from their mistakes and improve. I've given them plenty of constructive feedback! They used to be a good company. Hey ho.

Morag65 I am always polite and repeatedly tell the agent that it is not their fault that it is the company I'm cross with. Having said that some agents try to solve myproblem before actually listening to what my problem is!

Rowyn
I don’t know how much you know about working from home but I can assure you that my daughter and friend who both work from home are monitored from the moment they log on.

It took DH 2 years to sort out his energy bill! They were charging him for his own energy plus the energy of someone else’s rented property with the same name. Endless phone calls, waiting for hours, no call backs that were promised etc. Finally he threatened them with the Ombudsman and his problem was sorted super quickly.

It seems that customer service is a dying breed. I feel so sorry for all of those call centre operators who must face abuse on a daily basis, generally through no fault of their own. Not to mention all of us who waste hours of our time trying to resolve issues that can only be dealt with by TALKING TO A REAL PERSON!!

Perhaps we should begin by charging them for our wasted time at the same rate as they charge us for energy.

Nobody answers. I think I would just write a letter with a stamped addressed reply envelope.

I've noticed that BUPA are less accessible on the phone than my previous, smaller provider. Of course, queueing generally us a way of cutting employee costs and shifting the cost onto the customer.

I don't understand why, if most of their staff are/were working from home, why would that make it harder to get through, surely they have the computer in front of them, same as if they were in a big office, and probably with less distractions too! Pathetic excuse!

Trying to get through to my GP's surgery can take an age. Having got through and listened to a litany of does and don'ts, opening hours etc etc etc you get the message " you will now hear Radio Two while you wait to speak to the receptionist". If you ring first thing in the morning you are subjected to Zoe Ball being overexcited - at midday it's Jeremy Vine. Even "Greensleeves" playing on a loop would be preferable.

I fully appreciate what you said about we are experiencing a high volume of calls. I may be very wrong but from my own experience this has become much worse since Covid and people working from home. I rang for an appointment with my consultant got through to his Secretary after an age n then could barely hear a word she ssid due to really bad roaring noise. She told me she was out shopping n a motorbike had gone by. This was 10.30 in the morning. Sometimes I feel so frustrated I feel like the tv character Victor Meldrew.

The message that annoys me most is 'an unprecedented number of calls' every single time I call. I have asked when the best times to call are and pointed out that for some reason I always seem to join an unprecedented number of callers and when is it a normal number of people trying to get through but they fiegn ignorance.

DVLA are a nightmare, can't get through on the phone, no email address but there is a fax number. DD found out there is a way to send a fax via email, quick response from DVLA finally but still no licence renewal, ah well still waiting for that.

Today has been a prime example of good & bad customer service, rang my House Insurance Company, phone answered promptly & politely, query sorted quickly.

DWP to sort out Mum's Pension Credit, didn't have to wait too long & query sorted.

Last call for the afternoon DWP again to request a form for my PIP, I gave up over 55mins later without getting to speak to a human. Start again on Monday morning.......sigh

Jess20

The message that annoys me most is 'an unprecedented number of calls' every single time I call. I have asked when the best times to call are and pointed out that for some reason I always seem to join an unprecedented number of callers and when is it a normal number of people trying to get through but they fiegn ignorance.

Unprecedented:
Meaning - never done or known before.

It's a joke, isn't it Jess20 because it is the norm.

Neither does "Unusually high number of calls" mean anything either because it is usual, not unusual.

... And then the recording points out that most queries can be answered via the website. Its a devious plot to get the public to stop bothering them for simple things. It's the same with applications for benefits which are turned down first time and granted on appeal and even trying to get through to see a doctor. Make it difficult and half the callers will give up and stop bothering them.

Witzend, many years ago when my dad died, I had to phone Sky to cancel his Sky package, if I remember correctly it took me a while to get through (very pre covid days, so no excuse there) music was played while I waited, it was horrendous, soul destroying, and not helpful at all. When the phone was eventually answered, it was a young Scottish lad who went through the usual "script", and my first question to him was " who picked that awful music, can you report back to your bosses that I almost lost he will to live hanging on the line". He was apologetic and considering why I had phoned very helpful all the way through the conversation!!

Also it usually requires serious detective work to even find the number in the first place.
And as previously mentioned, a sales call is answered immediately , a query some time after the twelfth of never.