Shocking Customer Services from Tesco Credit Card

PhylPho

A couple of weeks ago, I stupidly dropped my wallet in a restaurant while we were returning home from a long-distance trip. Fortunately, it was found by another customer who contacted me much later that Saturday evening when we eventually arrived home.

In the meantime, I had used my mobile to ring through to my bank (re my Visa debit card) and Tesco Bank (re my Tesco Mastercard) because nowadays, the sooner you notify of the loss of a credit or debit card, the better.

The number (on the back of my debit card) was answered instantly and from an options list I picked the appropriate one and that, too, was also answered immediately and the debit card stopped there and then. (A replacement was issued and arrived just two working days later.)

The number (on the back of my credit card) was also answered instantly and from an options list I picked the appropriate one and that was. . . not answered. At all.

The minutes ticked by and despite repeated recorded-voice apologies about how all our operators are experiencing a heavy volume of calls right now / our operators really wish to talk to you / etc etc. . . no-one picked up on my call.

I tried four times. That's: four times to attempt to report a lost credit card. An issue which every single card provider, anywhere, says it's *essential* to report to the provider at the earliest opportunity otherwise youj may be held liable for any losses incurred.

At 11pm that Saturday night, it *still* wasn't possible to get a response from Tesco.

Tried again at 9am on Sunday morning and, guess what? 'Our operators are experiencing a heavy volume of calls right now.'

I finally got through to Tesco at 11am, Sunday. And actually spoke to someone who was very helpful, i.e.: I explained that although my wallet had been found, and the Good Samaritan concerned was posting it back to me from the location 160 miles away where it had been 'lost', I had no certainty that the card hadn't been seen by a stranger who might've taken the number and 3-digit security code.

We agreed to put a temporary stop on the card for 5 days and then to re-activate if everything seemed well (and to monitor the card's usage online after activation.)

So, all was well. But Tesco's handling of this reported loss / possible theft was abysmal. I was naive enough to think that the Tesco extension for dealing with really urgent matters like credit card loss/theft would have a dedicated operator. Evidently not: I'm trying to alert Tesco to a potentially serious situation and all its operators are busy answering calls about ClubCard points.

Impressive? Not. :mad:

look_after_the_pennies

With regards to how many people should be staffed in a call centre, Tesco Bank should have the technology to be able to see which days and times are the most popular for customers to call and to staff accordingly. I've worked in a small call centre several years ago, and even then, the company were able to run call statistics. There was also a big screen on the wall which displayed the number of calls waiting and the length of time each caller had been waiting. However, staffing of their call centre is not my concern.
Unfortunately Tesco Bank do not offer an option to leave your details for a call back. Even when I ignored the automated options and stayed on the line, I was still in a queue. Unfortunately, they do not even inform you of your caller number.

dacouch

stephen77 wrote: »

SKy is quite rennowened for this as well.
Think it standard practise for lots of companies.

Do they offer you a ring back facility?

Try hitting the "0" key 10 times when your in the queue for Sky CS, not sure if it still works but this was the code the Sky engineers use to jump straight to the front of queue when they need to ring from a customers house

stephen77

dacouch wrote: »

Try hitting the "0" key 10 times when your in the queue for Sky CS, not sure if it still works but this was the code the Sky engineers use to jump straight to the front of queue when they need to ring from a customers house

Thank you for the tip. Will come in useful