Halifax Credit Card Scam

StevieJ

So the 'Sorry all our operators are busy at the moment we will be with you as soon as we can' is not making them any money?

Almost_In_The_Black

Of course it is, but compared to other income streams available, balanced against the cost of running a call centre and with the potential risks to customer attrition of long wait times/poor grade of service the margin is not high enough to make this a sensible business decision.

StevieJ

Almost_In_The_Black wrote: »

Of course it is, but compared to other income streams available, balanced against the cost of running a call centre and with the potential risks to customer attrition of long wait times/poor grade of service the margin is not high enough to make this a sensible business decision.

So why do they do it?

Almost_In_The_Black

Simple, it's far cheaper to staff up your call centre so that (for example) 80% of your calls are answered within 20sec than it is to have every call answered straightaway. Otherwise you have to have staff sitting idle waiting for the next call to come through which is a large waste of money. So the trick is to minimise idle time in your call centre Vs the risk of keeping customers waiting.

Obviously this doesn't work in all cases because forecasting call volumes is not an exact science and it may not be possible to recruit sufficiently to meet demand, so there are some times where queues do build up and there's not much that can be done.

If you want some further detail do a google search for ErlangC - this equation is the basis for calculating staffing requirements based on incoming call volumes. There are lots of calculators on the web which give you an idea of how it works, you'll soon see that the number of people (and thus staffing cost) of increasing call length by a few minutes vastly outweighs the few pence that a bank would earn.

regularsaver1

so why not use the phone in the branch

PROLIANT

Here is a soloution to the problem, online activation, Microsoft do it so why not banks? Put in your card number, follow the security screen then there you have it, one activated card.

NickX

Sorry but I disagree with some points on here - I think when the Credit Card company are making money from the call by way of an 0870 or 0845 number, then it is in their interest to keep you on hold and I think their systems are designed to deliberatly keep you on hold for a while, often having to get through an annoying menu system before you speak to a human, and this is a ploy to maximise the revenue from the 0870 \ 0845 call.

As I said previously these numbers are a SCAM, always use www.saynoto0870.com until they are outlawed.

PROLIANT

NickX wrote: »

Sorry but I disagree with some points on here - I think when the Credit Card company are making money from the call by way of an 0870 or 0845 number, then it is in their interest to keep you on hold and I think their systems are designed to deliberatly keep you on hold for a while, often having to get through an annoying menu system before you speak to a human, and this is a ploy to maximise the revenue from the 0870 \ 0845 call.

As I said previously these numbers are a SCAM, always use www.saynoto0870.com until they are outlawed.

Totally aggree with you, these numbers are a scam, but for the sake of one 0870 to activate a valuable tool like a credit card or debit card I think we can allow one exception.

veryunsure

I entered a similar tale to this a few months ago and was told off for using the word scam. I'm not sure what this thread is about anymore - sales techniques, call centres, 0870 numbers or what!

I agree that the cross sell is wrong when you have called only to activate a card. However, the person on the phone is doing a job and probably treated as the lowest of the low in their organisation and told off for even sneezing! So it isn't their fault...and please be polite and persistant ... 'no thank you, I have cover already' usually does the trick. Go into repeat mode if needed!

I look forward to the banning of 0870 numbers but not seen anything to support this - is it correct? If so, about time.

agsnu

veryunsure wrote: »

I look forward to the banning of 0870 numbers but not seen anything to support this - is it correct? If so, about time.

http://www.btbroadbandoffice.com/0870

Looks like a lot of numbers will just move to 0871...