Contacting Support - No Phone

Potential-Monke

So i've been 'fighting' with my bosses for a while. When I started in this job 2 years ago, it was for online web/sms chat and email support (and Twitter/Facebook, but we don't do those). The company, a self monitored motion & cloud based CCTV company (there's like 20 of these globally, so don't ask who), used to offer phone support but haven't since I started. it clearly states it on the website.

Every day, without fail, there are escalation requests for callbacks. So much that we're now in a limbo where we don't offer it, but if someone wants it we'll give it, except there's no time and the issues can't be fixed because lack of money/investment/engineers. But we're still expected to fix the issues even though they can't be fixed, and over the phone to screaming Americans who think their life has ended because they didn't get a notification of their dog humping the furniture.

Anyway, do you prefer phone support? Do you prefer to speak to an individual, and if so do you do it knowing that they're the lowest paid person in the company who most likely don't have the information/fix due to lack of communication/investment by the powers that be? Personally, I much prefer chat services, but the same issues exist, either useless agents or lack of caring by the company.

It's forever getting harder to get through to someone these days too. Try calling Vodafone and actually get through to someone, it's all self service or callbacks. There is no option to speak to someone on 1907 anymore. And the chat is manned by someone in Egypt pretending to have an Irish name and getting paid about €60 a week (average income in Egypt is €5060 a year).

It would be lovely to have competent staff full stop, but that's too much to ask as 99.9% of companies don't care about the frontline staff and don't provide the tools/information they need to fix things. In my own situation, i'm the next step up so I take escalations and give advice to agents when they're troubleshooting, but even at that the buck stops with me and there's no one above me (there is, but they don't care enough to help). There are known issues for the 2 years I've been here and they're not being fixed.

Anyway, rant over. Poll added. For the sake of the poll, we'll pretend every agent is amazing and can fix your issues regardless of the method of contact, so which method would you prefer?

We can also use this thread to just vent if you're a customer or staff of these idiot companies. Because who doesn't love to vent? I just did!

Feisar

I find AIB great to deal with on the phone.

Edit - I'm not commenting about AIB in general just their customer service systems.

odyssey06

Ideally at Level 1 on a community forum but always with the phone option if it's not straightforward.

Boom_Bap

I would love to operate the boards.ie phone support line.
I'd say it would be legit call after legit call

ILoveYourVibes

No I need you to hold me.

Del2005

I hate calling support and knowing within the first few seconds that the person has no idea what your problem is, I don't particularly care if it's chat or phone based, but spending ages onto support when you know that they can't help is a nightmare.

What's worse is when you end the call saying that its been fixed and getting the same person who has no idea again when you call back!

Greyfox

If customers didnt waffle about irrelevant crap all the time it might actually be worthwhile having a decent phone suppport system. Some companies have ok customer support but at the end of the day it doesnt make economical sence for any comapny to invest in greater customer care, all customers care about is getting cheaper deal.

Floppybits

Del2005 wrote: »

I hate calling support and knowing within the first few seconds that the person has no idea what your problem is, I don't particularly care if it's chat or phone based, but spending ages onto support when you know that they can't help is a nightmare.

What's worse is when you end the call saying that its been fixed and getting the same person who has no idea again when you call back!

How would someone know what your problem is within the first few seconds, Are they mind readers or something? Usually for most normal people a couple of minutes to explain the issue is needed so the poor person can then start trying resolve the issue.

do you go into the Dr and as soon as you walk in the door the Dr says whats wrong and gives ya prescription and off you go without even sitting down or explaining whats wrong?

miezekatze

I hate having to call support, if there's an email or web chat option I'll always use that.

Bobblehats

Use web chat there’s always some indian on hand to bail you out. That much is guaranteed

Del2005

Floppybits wrote: »

How would someone know what your problem is within the first few seconds, Are they mind readers or something? Usually for most normal people a couple of minutes to explain the issue is needed so the poor person can then start trying resolve the issue.

do you go into the Dr and as soon as you walk in the door the Dr says whats wrong and gives ya prescription and off you go without even sitting down or explaining whats wrong?

Because you know by their questions, which they are reading from a list, they are going the wrong direction and no matter what you say they keep asking the wrong questions because they don't know what they are doing.

Seanieke

Potential-Monke wrote:

And the chat is manned by someone in Egypt pretending to have an Irish name.

Ah Aoife from Vodafone 🀣

Graces7

Seanieke wrote: »

Ah Aoife from Vodafone ��

Now that brings back memories!