Quick tip. Just press the button and sail through Customer Services.

Big_Kahuna

Nice to hear that somebody else out there has problems getting through to ntl...... My wife tried for two days, everytime she was told be an automated message that there was a half hour wait, to then be cut!!!!

I tried and after 40mins of holding i got through, told them i wanted to cancel my tv, phone and broad band because of poor customer service and walked away with everything at half price. So it was worth the wait in the end...

black-saturn

My parents just keep quiet. They then presume they have a non touch tone phone and they usually get put through to speak to a person straight away.

haze2807

That's what my mum's does, too.

extonjoe

Cautiouswithcash wrote:

So you get annoyed waiting in a phone queue for 3 minutes sat on your comfy sofa, bless. That company could employ 20 new staff costing £20k a year - £400k. You're okay paying an extra 50p on the price to cover that? And when companies outsource to save costs you complain they've got a slight accent! I've seen people when I'm queueing at the supermarket checkout, sneaking to customer services saying can I pay here as i'm more important than everyone else!

what sort of staff do you get for 20 k

Cautiouswithcash

Well the (heavily targeted) call centre person you speak to picks up around £12k, the rest goes on a chair, desk, PC, telephone, headset and any benefits such as PMI or pension. Oh, and let's not forget someone to train them and be their manager. A lot of people take out their frustration on the call handler (me!), use your energy more productively - go for a walk, or splash out a fiver on an extension lead so you can have your phone in the lounge! (use your quidco money maybe?!)

Teacher2301

Here is a little revenge trick I played on a call centre for BT about two years ago. I saw a BT engineer up a telegraph pole outside my house - next minute, I tried phoning and nothing. I phoned BT to complain and was put through to a call centre. I explained to 'Bruce' that my line was dead and I couldn't make any calls. 'Bruce' politely answered all my questions. Nothing happened so I phoned again and then, I gave 'David' three options (1 - to talk to me and give me a straight answer, 2 - to give me a refund for my now bigger mobile phone bill and 3 - to pass me to a manager -oh and press 0 to get an operator) and he had to confirm his identity with me. I kept asking him to repeat his option because my computer system had crashed (he he he). Anyway - I kept this going for 20 minutes (I kid you not - I'm a teacher and well trained in patience and the fine art of winding up pupils! Plus I gambled that he couldn't actually terminate the call - only I could otherwise I'd really complain. i bore him down through the beauraucracy of educational wit..I got bored! Next day, phoned again and 'WOW' and 'Hallaluha' a lovely girl called Tracy, from Ipswich who understood my cause for concer and she dealt with me in a loving and caring fashion. I recieved a cheque for £5.00 to cover much call costs and the problem was fixed that day. Teacher 1: BT overseas call centre 0. And this is a true story children. Ahh - now i feel much better - see - no need to bash the hash.

MrRincewind

bit confused as to why you bothered to complain "teacher2301" you could see that any problem that was in your area was being dealt with(also by your post i presumed you were`nt aware of the fault) spent valuable personal time calling taking up time talking to a operator whilst people are in the queue waiting with legitimate problems all for £5, not having a go, but theres alot of posts on here regarding waiting times and some times it seems like it can`t be helped when people are keeping operators tied up for 20+ mins for no good reason other than to have there time wasted

zipwen1

Cautiouswithcash wrote:

So you get annoyed waiting in a phone queue for 3 minutes sat on your comfy sofa, bless. That company could employ 20 new staff costing £20k a year - £400k. You're okay paying an extra 50p on the price to cover that? And when companies outsource to save costs you complain they've got a slight accent! I've seen people when I'm queueing at the supermarket checkout, sneaking to customer services saying can I pay here as i'm more important than everyone else!

slight accent!!!!!! yeah if your from India. took me bloody half an hour to get my overdraft reduced because she didn't understand a word i was saying. and half an hour repeating "can you reduce my overdraft to £500" gets bloody annoying. not to mention the first two who hung up on me :mad:

alias7

The # tip isn't that great. It barely works with most.

The ultimate way to beat the queue's is don't press anything - it thinks you have an old non-touch tone phone and transfer's you directly to an advisor.

Bob63

Cautiouswithcash wrote:

So you get annoyed waiting in a phone queue for 3 minutes sat on your comfy sofa, bless. That company could employ 20 new staff costing £20k a year - £400k.

That's a bit simplistic. If you hire extra staff and pay them £20k/year your actual costs would be way higher with employers NI, pension, office space, IT infrastructure etc. You are probably looking closer to £40k/year or even more.

And the solution isn't hiring more staff IMHO, it is getting more out of your staff by training them properly and paying them enough to care. I remember a few years ago that a large computer warehouse near where I used to live was robbed. All the security guards did was call the police then stand back and let the robbers do what they wanted to do. When I asked why that was I was asked in reply "Would you take a bullet for your employer when he pays you £5/hour?".

b.t.w. anyone who hates callcentres and telemarketers as much as me might find the following revenge call funny - http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/telemarketer-prank-p1.php (Mostly work safe)

Mike