High Call Volumes = Understaffed?

Everytime I call the Flying Club to make a booking I experience the message of 'we are currently experiencing high call volumes', this morning they appear to be experiencing higher call volumes than usual as I am still on hold to make a new booking and have been so for over 20 minutes so far. It seems no matter which large business I call nowadays I get this message as soon as I finish dialling the numbers... whats the longest you have waited to speak to an agent to make a booking? I am now 22 minutes... and still going...

[:w]

I was gonna add that nearly every company i call has this message played automatically but you mentioned it. 20 minutes holding seems a little longer than usual but certainly have waited longer too.

cheers

alex

They should be more honest. 'I'm sorry, we are saving money by not having more staff. Please hold the line'. The ones that tell you what position you are in are quite good, though I suspect those pesky golds get inserted higher up the call queue.

If they have revenue earning phone numbers and make you hold that's even worse. [V]

I waited 27 minutes this morning on the Premier line...but at least its a freephone number...[:)]

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by locutus
They should be more honest. 'I'm sorry, we are saving money by not having more staff. Please hold the line'. The ones that tell you what position you are in are quite good, though I suspect those pesky golds get inserted higher up the call queue.

If they have revenue earning phone numbers and make you hold that's even worse. [V]

I totally agree with everything you wrote, at least the ones that tell you your position offer a glimmer of hope.

Originally posted by Penny_L
I waited 27 minutes this morning on the Premier line...but at least its a freephone number...[:)]

Your lucky, I don't remember the exact time, but I was on hold for premier something like 50 minutes plus

It's like the boy who cried wolf - more and more companies seem to be experiencing 'high call volumes' recently. I take it with a pinch of salt.

I find calling later at night helps.

just had the most appaling service. rang to confirm a held reservation. yesterday it was confirmed i had 2 EC to PE upgrades. so today i call to confirm. after the usual delay 'due to high call volumes' i then get some idiot who first tries to tell me I have to use 75000 miles each. then after he puts me on hold for nearly 15 minutes he decides its one !! so i aks for a supervisor, hold again for 10 minutes at which time i put the phone down and fire off a very unhappy email . the booking runs out at 10am tomorrow, if they mess me about i will not be happy. sod the polos and pens , having to deal with a call centre in Bombay is the sort of **** that will lose Vs customers if they dont look out.

Well I completed my booking yesterday after having 2 more frustrating calls with India, the first in which I was informed Crawley opened at 10 and then at 10.15 being told that actually Bombay now handles all calls.

After being promised a call back in no more than 30 mins (eventually got it 2 and a half hours later) I phoned the FC gold line. Lo and behold a nice young lady in sunny Sussex put me on to a supervsior who at least completed the booking. I did however have to lose another 40000 miles and my request for compo was first answered with an offer for 2000 and then 4000 miles which I think is pretty derisory so its time for a nice letter to CS. Lets hope the reply doesnt come with a stamp saying 50 rupees

I tried calling FC last week, it took 20 minutes and a number of seemingly daft options to get through. When I did, it seemed pointless as the online price for 2 tickets to JFK was actually less than trying to book an FC Companion flight.

I tried calling FC last week, it took 20 minutes and a number of seemingly daft options to get through. When I did, it seemed pointless as the online price for 2 tickets to JFK was actually less than trying to book an FC Companion flight.

Ahh the marketing ploy that is companion fares...

15 mins yesterday afternoon to get through, eventually picked up by Premier team (noted they been unidated with BA related re-books). The phone-in options do need streamlining - how many times do you need to be reminded about providing passenger information ?|

Even the premier team is responding much later to calls recently, and that's outside of weather and BA-related upsurges in calls. At least calling the premier team gives the option for a callback.

I've no doubt that VS has cut staff during the recession, I would expect that. Currently as bookings seem to be rising again, any business is challenged to recover service levels while being very wary of adding cost.

I've only ever once had to call India, and I got a pretty decent response, but thankfully Au status gains access to different teams of people.

[mitchja]

VS are currently advertising for contact center staff (see here) so they are obviously aware of the situation.

VS have announced they are opening a new call centre in Swansea - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8568200.stm" target="_blank
which might help in 2 years time!

VS have announced they are opening a new call centre in Swansea - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8568200.stm" target="_blank" target="_blank
which might help in 2 years time!

Looks like it starts even sooner ^)

The company says it plans to open the new centre at Alexandra House in Swansea by September

Well let's hope 'Deputy First Minister and Economy and Transport Minister' Mr Jones knows more about the Welsh economy than he does about the world's largest airlines :w .

It would be a start, i know I shouldnt compare the Virgin brands but they do come under the same umbrella so I will. I have a card with Virgin Money, whenever i need to ring up for a query i get a British call centre. If Virgin Money can why can't VS? Its the same with all big companies running this type of operation, we had a LLoyds and E.ON call centre near us, the first shut last September and the latter to go this July, both moved overseas. n( Hopefully VS have learned there lesson by opening a new centre in Swansea. P.S on the time thing, its actually never been more than 10 minutes, perhaps i got lucky? y)

I've experienced similar problems recently on the phone but I've also had problems with emails not being answered.

Following a recent trip from Washington in UC, I made a complaint about the entertainment system completely failing in the whole UC cabin.

I received an automated response stating I would receive a reply within 21 days. Didn't receive anything, so I sent a polite reminder and still didn’t get a reply, so I sent another email complaining about the lack of response.

Finally today I received a response approximately six weeks after my original email.

In the email I received, they apologised and said that they had 'recently had some of the customer relations team move onto pastures new' which had caused the backlog. They have apparently now recruited more staff and they assured me that it was temporary setback. Let's hope it is!

I received 8K miles for the inconvenience, but it's shame that I had to complain so many times before even receiving a response.