The increasing inability to actually contact customer services (not OcUK)

Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2015
Posts
12,616
What gets on my nerves are companies that have about 20 minutes of IVRs and automated messages just to end up with "Did you know... You can find the answers to 90% of queries on our website. Goodbye!". Even the automated chat bots on the sites just want to send you to FAQ pages. If you're lucky, after 15 minutes with the bot (after numerous chat resets) you'll get a "Thank you, your request is #GB6623660 - one of our team will endeavour to respond to your query with 7 business days. Response times may be affected further by Covid 19". These types will not get my custom unless absolutely necessary.

Yep same applies to live chat, many websites are also now hiding live chat and contact us phone numbers away, instead almost every link pointing to a FAQ. The effort I had to go, to contact microsoft xbox support was a real eye opener. I had to ask on this forum and google on how to contact them.
 
Commissario
Joined
16 Oct 2002
Posts
2,768
Location
In the radio shack
but it's still true about OcUK.
If people used the Customer Support forums, they'd get a response. I've just had a quick look and I can see that pretty much every single thread posted there has had a reply from the shop. It's the preferred way to contact OcUK and they are responded to.

If someone posts in the main forums asking for customer support or asking a question that only the shop can answer, they get pointed towards the customer service forum. The person who posted in this thread saying they've given up hasn't posted there. If he did, he'd get a reply.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 May 2011
Posts
11,878
Location
Woking
If people used the Customer Support forums, they'd get a response. I've just had a quick look and I can see that pretty much every single thread posted there has had a reply from the shop. It's the preferred way to contact OcUK and they are responded to.

If someone posts in the main forums asking for customer support or asking a question that only the shop can answer, they get pointed towards the customer service forum. The person who posted in this thread saying they've given up hasn't posted there. If he did, he'd get a reply.

I appreciate that and I'm aware that we aren't supposed to complain about OcUK customer service on this forum. But the forum is part of the business and contacting the business by phone is next to impossible, which is what this thread is about.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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18,175
Location
Santa Barbara, Californee
The IRS here in the States is in a ridiculous state - only one in eleven calls are being answered - the rest are just given an answer "due to high call volume, we cannot take your call at this time, please try again later" At the same time, they are sending out notices to people saying they must contact the IRS to discuss their tax situation, with penalties for failing to do so. At least with companies you can usually try to take your services elsewhere!
 
Associate
Joined
8 Feb 2021
Posts
31
If people used the Customer Support forums, they'd get a response. I've just had a quick look and I can see that pretty much every single thread posted there has had a reply from the shop. It's the preferred way to contact OcUK and they are responded to.

If someone posts in the main forums asking for customer support or asking a question that only the shop can answer, they get pointed towards the customer service forum. The person who posted in this thread saying they've given up hasn't posted there. If he did, he'd get a reply.

Thats fine if your actually aware of the forum! If your a random person scrolling through the Internet shopping for pc parts you may not be aware of that.
So a phone call would be your first option.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,601
Location
Nottingham
Quite simply the cost to run a call centre is ridiculous as is the turnover in staff. Most companies are going for livechats now as 1 customer service rep can be answering multiple queries at one time rather than just 1 call at a time. People are more inclined to message an online chat while doing other things and respond to it rather than waiting 30 mins on a phone call.

If anyone is turely interested i can provide some insight into the demand on a business from a telephony point of view as its basically part of my job
 
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