The Fraud that is costing us telephone charges whilst hanging on for service...

brucie24

fudgeukraine wrote: »

Perhaps these businesses genuinely do have high call volumes.

Consider, people working 9-5 need to call some place that's open 8-6, then they'll only be able to call at 8, 1 (lunchtime) and 5. Therefore, you'll have thousands of people trying to call at these times when they can't call another time. Try calling outwith these times and often you'll get through a lot faster.

Same works during the early evening - avoid places between 7 and 9, try after this and you should be quicker.

As someone who does not work 'normal' hours I can unfortunately vouch for the fact that it makes very little difference at which time of day you try to call you still get the dreaded "your call is important to us" - of course it's important, keeping you hanging on the line makes them money :mad:

The problem with say no to 0870 is that some of the geographical numbers given are just constantly engaged which can be equally frustrating

peterbaker

dmg24 wrote: »

So again I ask, where is the fraud?

It is wrong, I wholly agree. But not fraud ...

Hi dmg

My assertion on the question is that they are obtaining money by deception.

That IS fraud.

brucie24

DMG-

The Fraud is also in the fact most companies still insist the calls are 'local' or 'National' rate when they no longer bear any resemblance to the rates most pay for such calls nowadays.

Im_Nanny_Ogg

peterbaker wrote: »

uktim29 - Parts of Scandinavia still retain proper respect for customers. It is so good that for some globalised products I have called the support line there instead of UK. They often speak better English than UK Customer Services too!

ianian - well Ian Ian, what can I say? Your imagination on this occasion only allowed you think of me 100% engaged in a failed telephone call, did it? Like most people I have a speaker phone which is enough for me to monitor the call while I get on with something else. I think you miss the point entirely. Are you a call centre manager??

We have unprecedented levels of fraud in UK society today. There is so much that we allow it to wash over us like water of ducks backs. Does everyone agree with me that this never-answered or slow-answered customer service line problem is indeed fraud by the companies concerned?

A long time after your original post but yes, I entirely agree.

Of course it's fraud.

Orange are particularly bad, but I think the worst I ever encountered was the Immigration Office. When my American husband was applying to come over here, he filled in a form online. It had a space for date of marriage on a Fiance visa form. As we weren't then married the form was impossible to complete and we were told if he applied by post it would take up to 10 weeks longer. So he phoned their offices. The cost to call was a staggering $3 per MINUTE. We had no option but to call and he expected to be put through immediately. At $180 per hour most people would expect personal service?

Alas no, we weren't and he hung on until his sisters (where he was staying at the time) call limit of $60 was almost reached. Eventually, someone answered just as the limit cut the telephone call off. He was furious.

$60 to ask them how we dealt with the mistake on their newly redesigned forms only to get nowwhere. He was staggered to be kept waiting.

We eventually filled in the form with a wedding date of 1900 LOL, so that they would realise it was a mistake.

But, yes, I do think it's fraud of the highest level as these companies advertise these costs 'to speak to a customer service representative' NOT 'to be kept hanging for ages before speaking to a customer service representative'.

Im_Nanny_Ogg

dmg24 wrote: »

So again I ask, where is the fraud?

It is wrong, I wholly agree. But not fraud ...

Hard to see what you're missing to be honest.

They say call to speak to customer service assistant, NOT call to hang on for 20mins before we consider putting you through. It's obtaining money by deception.

If you did sometimes get through to a real person immediately without first being kept on hold, it might be less fraudulent, but that doesn't ever happen.