Whistleblower - BBC1 Now

Broken_hearted

My sister went for a job at the Doxford park call centre when it first opened, one of the perks they advertised was the bonuses, freebies and prizes you could get for meeting targets. This was 7 years ago so it isn't just a changed in the last 6 months.She lasted 2 weeks before she quit and that was just the training.

Still Barclays call centres are better than Abbey's they lie outright and pretend to not understand what you are saying.

MORPH3US

CFC wrote: »

Call centre staff sell 'non advised' products - and by telling someone to shop around, he's implicitly saying that his product is not suitable for them, which is giving advice, which he is not allowed to do. That'll be another reason he got a big telling off, not just because he lost the sale.

Come off it!!!

Call me sceptical, but I doubt the goon who told him off even knows the FSA regs, nevermind cares about them!!

After lastnights programme it is obvious to anyone that the only reason he would have got a telling off is for losing the sale!

M

jeninbrighton

Okay, this is going to be controversial......

Yes, Barclays is a big corporation out to make money. (Isn't that the purpose of all companies??) But I'd like to stick up for them a little bit here.

I watched the program last night with my fiancé who is a Branch Manager for Barclays. He was shaking his head throughout the program at the lack of understanding of the reporter, and how they glossed over things, and twisted things to make them sound worse than they are.

Yes, they have targets to meet. You wouldn't get to use the service of a bank account for free if they didn't make money in other places! They don't hand out bank accounts out of the kindness of their hearts, they have to sell people additions accounts and contents insurance, etc to make a profit! The UK is one of the only countries in the world when you don't have to pay a monthly fee for a bank account.

Barclays DOES take mis-selling very seriously. The staff are constantly being reminded of this from all angles. Obviously BBC found some dodgy trainers, but that's not the norm. The policy of the majority of branches of Barclays is to sell products to a customer that will help them out and save them money.... this way they trust the bank, and will come back to buy more products - simple business logic!

Yes of course, sometimes you have staff who mis-sell to meet targets. Barclays has a zero tolerance on this, and will suspend anyone caught doing it. I've heard stories of it happening. With thousands of employees across the country, of course you're going to have some that will use sneaky methods to meet their targets.

Also - a couple of blatent lies in the programme last night..... they cannot, and do not hire anyone without running a criminal record check. It just doesn't happen. Also - you need to know THREE things to access someone's account... their name, their postcode, and their SORT CODE. You can't just go around looking up people's bank details if you don't know this information. That amateur reporter failed to mention that last night!

I'm no fan of the banks, trust me. And neither is my fiancé (he's currently claiming back bank charges from A&L. Bank managers are bank customers too!) But that show last night was a very weak attempt at typical BBC sensationalism.

That being said.... that trainer that said he didn't care about the cutomers, and the personal banker caught setting up fake accounts probably won't even bother showing up for work today! :rotfl:

gremlin

I watched this with a lot of interest because a I worked for a bank call centre for over a year and I can categoricaly say that the pressure for sales is high. I was taked on as a customer service agent but after training they start to pressurise you into making sales all of the time. People would call me in tears at their overdraft or other financial problems and I would have flags come up on the screen to tell me to that they didnt have insurance or sell them a CC etc.

I,and one guy in my team, used to refuse point blank to make these sales to people and we were both so vocal about it we would be seperated for team meatings whenever they tried to put the bite on. I couldn't live with myself for piling unwanted debt on to people. Every time they tried to pressure me (and they tried!) I would say that I was taken on as customer service - not sales!

They tried every trick in the book to get you to sell - they'd have Credit card promotion days, where you could win a TV, dvd player etc if you sold most CC's in an hour etc. Encourage rivalry between teams for nights out etc and some people really went for it.

I sat in with many calls with agents and some of them were so dammned obnoxious to customers all they wanted was to get their sale regardless.

On the issue of privacy - with the bank I worked for it was much more difficult to get access to peoples accounts - you needed a lot more information than the Barclays centre. But once you were in, the potential for fraud was unbelievable.

When our centyre was sent to India ( now being closed there too :rotfl: ) I was offered a job in branch, but, after speaking to some friends there I decided against it - the pressure for sales in branch is even worse with targets being raised constantly.

BTW I dont use call centres, I online bank for everything where possible. It's not foolproof but I think its the better option.

Tootsie_Roll

Broken_hearted wrote: »

My sister went for a job at the Doxford park call centre when it first opened, one of the perks they advertised was the bonuses, freebies and prizes you could get for meeting targets. This was 7 years ago so it isn't just a changed in the last 6 months.She lasted 2 weeks before she quit and that was just the training.

Exactly - I left the branch network for the bank I worked for in 1993 and moved to a head office role for exactly the reasons pointed out in the programme last night. This sort of sales, sales, sales approach has been going on for many years now - it's just a lot more public.

dianadors

I worked at a bank call centre for 8 years as a team manager. The pressure towards sales was terrible. We processed loans and had high targets to get customers to take repayment protection on loans and also "upsell" loans (so they ring in wanting £5k and you get them to take £10k etc). The process we used was dressed up as "customer service". We made it very easy and simple for them (to get into debt). I know that banks and building societies are business's, and lets face it, they do make a very very tidy profit. I left over 3 years ago and I couldnt work in that environment ever again.

immoral_angeluk

Oh dear.. our woolwich account is getting transferred to barclays soon.. might have to start shopping around for a new debt savings account!

cattie1

I really enjoyed watching this programme, it was very insightful, although I do think to get tv ratings up they try to only show the worst parts that they can find! but I know people who work in that call centre and I know the majority of that programme was true!
I went to lloyds tsb a while ago (before dfw!) (with 2 kids) and explained I was struggling to manage my finances as I had £9 left over to last every month after paying all of my bills, so the first port of call was for them to offer me a loan-which was declined! then the dozy woman sat there and said "you have no life insurance or home insurance what if you were to die and leave these 2 gorgeous kids behind!" (scare tactics) I left using the excuse my kids were getting rowdy but how could she possibly think I could afford life insurance and home contents insurance with the £9 I had left every month?!
they are unbelievable!

MORPH3US

jeninbrighton wrote: »

they cannot, and do not hire anyone without running a criminal record check. It just doesn't happen.

Can't disagree one the other points as your husband obviously knows more than I do about it, but must disagree with the above...

Unless the reporter was lying then 3 jobs were obtained without criminal reccord checks.

Later in the programme, they quoted Barclays as saying "we do check criminal reccords of all staff, but not as quickly as we should" Either that was to cover their back and they don't really, or it was the truth.

Either way the people in question managed to get and keep jobs for months without them being done.

M

immoral_angeluk

The thing with CRB checks is they can take ages to come through. I joined a nursery in june and had to wait til the following march before they sorted out my CRB so even if they have sent off for a CRB, they may be working there and not recieved it yet so the employer doesn't know if anything's wrong until it's too late.