Barclays - another useless 'foreign' call centre

jd87

I'm not going to say Indian because it might not have been India, but I have just had some travel plans totally messed up by a guy in a Barclays call centre.

I need a Visa Electron card in order to avoid paying Ryanair card payment charges (see other threads on this). I knew I had an old Barclays account which used to have an Electron card with it. The card has long disappeared though so I called them up to ask for a new one. I asked the guy on the phone, "will it definitely be the same as my old card, will it be a Visa Electron?" and he assured me that it would.

Today the card arrives and it is a Visa Connect card, utterly useless to me. I call them up and get through to an English guy who tells me that my card had been "upgraded for my benefit" and that if I want to downgrade I will have to go to a branch. In the meantime the offer I was hoping to get with Ryanair is slipping from my grasp. You would think the people in the call centres would at least know the diference between one kind of card and another.

Rant over.

dmg24

I think that Barclays have a call centre in Leicester ... are you sure that your call was overseas, or are you just assuming that because the service was bad? :rolleyes:

uktim29

dmg24 wrote: »

I think that Barclays have a call centre in Leicester ... are you sure that your call was overseas, or are you just assuming that because the service was bad? :rolleyes:

Something else also made me laugh:

jd87 wrote: »

I'm not going to say Indian because it might not have been India

So why even write that then? :rotfl:

jd87

dmg24 wrote: »

I think that Barclays have a call centre in Leicester

:rotfl:





filler filler filler

wearside_2

I received a call out of the blue on Monday from a Scottish lady who said that she was phoning from Barclaycard. She started by asking for my date of birth to confirm my identity I said that I did not know who she was and asked her to confirm that she was in fact from barclaycard by quoting some information about me;) She said that because of confidentiality she couldn't so I told her that I was not prepared to give her any of my information:D She then said that I could phone an 0844 number to confirm her identity, leave a message for her to get back to me and she would phone again:eek: I decided that as I only used my Barclaycard for the £25 payment as mentioned on MSE earlier in the year and had no wish to use it further, I would not bother.

I do wish that all financial institutions would stop making cold calls asking for personal data as I am sure that some of these calls are bogus, where innocent people have given all requested information then been defrauded:eek:

jd87

Wearside, I would say that definitely was bogus. How would calling an 0844 number (v. expensive) ad then having her call you back verify her identity. Any call you receive asking for such information is definitely a scam.

mookie

jd87 wrote: »

I'm not going to say Indian because it might not have been India, but I have just had some travel plans totally messed up by a guy in a Barclays call centre.

I need a Visa Electron card in order to avoid paying Ryanair card payment charges (see other threads on this). I knew I had an old Barclays account which used to have an Electron card with it. The card has long disappeared though so I called them up to ask for a new one. I asked the guy on the phone, "will it definitely be the same as my old card, will it be a Visa Electron?" and he assured me that it would.

Today the card arrives and it is a Visa Connect card, utterly useless to me. I call them up and get through to an English guy who tells me that my card had been "upgraded for my benefit" and that if I want to downgrade I will have to go to a branch. In the meantime the offer I was hoping to get with Ryanair is slipping from my grasp. You would think the people in the call centres would at least know the diference between one kind of card and another.

Rant over.

When a card is ordered on the Barclays system if its a replacement to a recent card then they only get the option to replace it not a selection of other cards they offer. So you would have got an Electron.

But if your card was issued a long time ago like you say then when they initiated the card it would of been a new application which automatically credit scores you for a new card and you qualified for a Connect card which is what they issue you with. When they assured you the card would be the same as before they most likely thought you meant in terms of that you would not just get a plain cashcard which carries no benefits, there is a marker on your account which tells them whether you are an account which only gets a cashcard regardless of whether you want a better card.

They may not have directly ignored your request it may of been that the system defaulted to a Connect card, I am not sure what levels the person you spoke to has on card ordering but it is normally only a Personal banker or Manager that can override the system if a specific request is made.

If it bothers you that greatly, you may be able to explain to the manager the reason you specifically want an electron card, in the meantime they may be willing to cover the charges as a goodwill gesture so you can get the deal on the Connect card (if I'm right in thinking the charge you are trying to avoid is the charge they make when you pay by debit card?) A new card should take 3-4 working days to arrive but you cannot rely on this as they can take longer.

dmg24

jd87 wrote: »

:rotfl:





filler filler filler

Are you going to justify your comments with a proper response, or are you some neanderthal that has not noticed that some Indians do live in the UK?

wearside_2

jd87 wrote: »

Wearside, I would say that definitely was bogus. How would calling an 0844 number (v. expensive) ad then having her call you back verify her identity. Any call you receive asking for such information is definitely a scam.

That is exactly what I thought. When I mentioned it to my wife she said that she probably would have given out the requested information as she would not have thought it could be a scam:eek:. I have explained to her that there are some bad people in the world ,who would like our hard earned money:rolleyes:

Princess826

I recently had my Barclays bank account cloned, the person I spoke to in the call centre did not even know what that meant, you would think some basic training would help!!

jd87

Just an update on the original issue in my post. I went into the branch today to ask to be downgraded to an electron card, she looked on her system and it said the card I have been issued is called a Connect (Electronic) card and she said this has replaced their Electron cards. Can anyone verify this, or was she as ill-informed as the call-centre?