Busy FC Customer Services

Ok, so i appreciate that the last few days have been a busy time for the guys on the phone at customer services due to the weather in the US, but after being on hold for 12 minutes, (whilst also browsing on the website), the "Start Chat" appears. Annoying how they have people to do the live chat but not answer the phone???? surely these are the same people? I started the live chat and asked if someone could call me back. The answer was NO. Not ideal. I ended up holding for over 20mins. Once I did get through, the last two reward available seats I desperately needed to complete an over £3k booking were just reserved over the phone by someone else. GRRRRRRRR. I could still see them on the dummy booking but once I logged out.... waited on the phone for 20mins for the system to unhold them... v( They were gone.... Whole sale aborted. Really annoying. I dont want to come across as DYKWIA... but i'm guessing having the AU FC number makes no real difference in getting answered quicker. I am a huge VS fan but again.... it's the little simple things that they could fix easily that would just make the whole thing click.

[buns]

ISTBC but I think the Au Team finish at 8pm

In addition, if you are "holding" 2 Gs on your screen, it will appear to a booking agent that the seats have gone.

Leaving it half an hour or so will normally free them up again

buns

[Neil]

I can understand your frustration, but like you say, there is major travel disruption due to the East a Coast storms, so it is unfortunate but inevitable that the call centres are going to be busy with pax affected.

The web chat staff are not the same as those in the call centre.

Someone on the BA Fan Worship site was saying they had been on hold for well over an hour to BA today. Naturally they were told by the regulars that they were wrong, liars, cheats, charlatans, and were flogged around the fleet, and that was before breakfast.

I was waiting 40 minutes on a call to BA a couple of months back when there were no emergencies or bad weather to cause more than usual phone calls to customer services ..........

Totally understand, it's not really the length of time I have the real issue with. It's just that I would have thought having customer service agents available that can deal with ALL customer enquiries, be that calls, live chat and e-mail in that exact order of urgency seems to me the best option. Having owned a large national internet e-commerce site and had agents working for us myself this is what we did and it worked. It's a bit like the live chat agent saying "Virgin Atlantic, how can I help?" then "Oh i'm sorry sir you have come through on the wrong medium". I just thought that if you have staff available, use them to make money and answer the phone if there are long holding queues and not offer the live chat till things calm down again. (Sorry I cant actually serve you drinks, i'm only collecting glasses! HA, now thats a whole other discussion

I was waiting 40 minutes on a call to BA a couple of months back when there were no emergencies or bad weather to cause more than usual phone calls to customer services ..........

Yeah, tell them that on the Fan Boy BA site and see what THEY have to say about it !

I've given up moaning about hold times, but I totally sympathise -- I've started threads about this in the past. I know there is weather disruption at present, but it is a recurring problem that has existed for some time. The key is to get through to the premier team. I find the calls are then generally very good and they seem to be less keen to put you on hold.

I came to the conclusion that one reason for the holds was that the systems the agents were using were not enabling them to answer complicated questions easily. This was subsequently confirmed by an agent who explained how some types of upgrades had to be worked out by hand.

I was hoping that if I waited long enough that the "BA Fan Boy " site that Silver Fox referred to would become self evident. As it hasn't , please would someone explain which website he means ?! Not that I intend posting anything ..... :0

VS don't have any contingency for travel disruption in their call centre. I've found myself queuing for 15-20 minutes even at normal times. BA aren't any better.

I suppose the advantage for live chat is that VS agents could potentially speak with 3 customers at the same time, whereas a phone agent is 1 at a time.

I was hoping that if I waited long enough that the "BA Fan Boy " site that Silver Fox referred to would become self evident. As it hasn't , please would someone explain which website he means ?! Not that I intend posting anything ..... :0

I think he means the BA board on Flyertalk. Tread carefully..

I sympathize with you but am amazed that you only had to hold for 20 mins on the VS site, I had to hold for 32mins before the great US storm hit !

I was hoping that if I waited long enough that the "BA Fan Boy " site that Silver Fox referred to would become self evident. As it hasn't , please would someone explain which website he means ?! Not that I intend posting anything ..... :0

I think he means the BA board on Flyertalk. Tread carefully..

Indeed I do. Don't call their child ugly if you do go there under any circumstances, they are worse than the Moonies...

Thank you for clarifying that ! I certainly don't intend contributing to that site !!