GarynotJerry

Yes, I think all of those go to Uxbridge (formerly Sudbury)

Some of the calls, and all of the ba.com replies, seem to come from India, and my theory is that this is why you get such a variation in call centre quality. I think the rest of the calls probably go to BA employees, but who knows?

BLHD

Sudbury is still a very much active site for BA.

Where ba.com messaes are routed to depends on Exec Club Tiers etc.

Anonba

Delhi usually reply to ba.com emails then they are able to escalate the matter to newcastle or manchester.

FlyingPhoenix

Oddly, the address on BA.com has changed to Uxbridge

binman

That will explain the appallingly complacent replies from customer relations I have had this week. Now on my third attempt to have things escalated to organ grinder level.

GarynotJerry

Generally three phone calls is enough, I find. If you are trying to get somewhere with the ba.com people, you can usually get past them if you just keep trying. It can take far more than three tries, but the good thing is you can respond right away, whereas each go with the contact centre requires an interminable wait on the phone, if you can get through at all.

GarynotJerry

I don't know where the site is. I was referring to the address, which used to be Sudbury, but is now Uxbridge.

FlyingPhoenix

I don't entirely buy the idea that the Contact Centre problems are all down to outsourcing to India.

Often the most useless agents have British regional accents, so it can't all be the fault of Mumbai or Delhi!

And, outsourcing to India doesn't explain why the wait times are so appalling when you call.

I do get that if one is persistent, you can eventually get through, and if you call enough times you will eventually get someone helpful, but I shouldn't have to go through all of that!

GarynotJerry

Fair enough. True, people should not have to go through so much hassle. Just don't give up, just because BA makes it hard.

OkayThen

I think it is time to face some home truths. British Airways has had truly abysmal call centres for a few years now. A quick google search to show this is true:
2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...riticised.html
2013 http://crankyflier.com/2013/08/13/wh...rom-the-field/
2014 http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...er-hold-times/

Now, here we are in 2015 and the same situation.

BA clearly either doesn't care or it is intentionally making it as difficult to contact them by phone as possible.

BA clearly either doesn't care or it is intentionally making its call centre agents as incompetent as possible.

Various blogs, this forum, the mainstream media, and one can only imagine how many customer complaints to the airline, all sing the same depressing chorus.

BA isn't listening, or if it is, it doesn't care. But, I accept that. Frankly, if something aspect of British Airways must be "hell" as the OP put it, I'd much rather it be the call centres rather than maintenance, cabin crew, or flight crew. BA are still brilliant when you write to them, and I generally have no problem with BA staff at the airport.

Trying to get anywhere with the Contact Centres is like beating your head against a brick wall. Trying to get the airline to sort out the mess they have in regards to the contact centres is like beating your head against a thousand brick walls. Just don't bother!

Anonba

Im sorry but while i accept that the call wait times are bad and more contact centre staff are needed i dont think its fair to label us all as incompetent.

User Name

You're right. It is the organization that is incompetent, not the individual team members, who I am sure have to work incredibly hard under difficult circumstances.

paul4040

This.

It's absolutely a management problem. The call centre are obviously massively under-resourced and the consistency of handling is very variable.

OkayThen

I concede “incompetent” is a bit harsh. I still think the airline is actively encouraging a poor phone experience. For example, they don’t offer a “call back service” when their lines are busy, which would be extremely easy, and would even reduce their hold times for the people who decide to stay on the line.

One of their agents on this very thread stated they aren’t given scripts, which not only exacerbates long call times, but it also means you get very different information depending on which agent you speak to. They should absolutely have scripts available, but have the freedom to not use them if they would be unhelpful or robotic for a specific call.

I know from past conversations with their agents that they are given absurd targets for call times. I think it’s ten minutes per call or something like that. This goes hand in hand with not having scripts, by the way.

Another thing I can say, after past conversations with their agents, is that they don’t give them much training at all on the Executive Club, which given its complexity is ridiculous. I also have lost count of the times the Executive Club has launched something new, or had something go wrong, and the phone agents have no information about it.

It’s also pretty clear that the call centre staff do not have the same level of flexibility and empowerment you get when you deal with the airline in any other way. This is particularly true if you dash off a letter or email to their senior management, and especially true if you can be escalated to their “back office”

They don’t provide twenty-four hour telephone service, despite being a global airline.

They make it impossible to deal with any Executive Club specialists by phone, and instead have to send them a message. You then have to wait a day or so to get a reply, and you have no way of calling the person who is dealing with your issue even then.

I do honestly think that the contact centre’s main role is as a gatekeeper to keep all but the most persistent and seriously irate passengers from bothering British Airways.

atcer28

Well I just had a much better experience today so hopefully not a fluke! I have an ex EU to HNL which is suffering the usual multiple time changes and canx. The previous time they had managed to book us onto a flight that departed before we arrived as a result of an AA canx. That took a 45 minute hold to resolve but they did manage to fix it although I told them what I wanted to happen.

This time I was checking some time changes and noticed that 1 segment had completely disappeared (HNL-LAX) for no apparent reason.

I called the 0800 line even though this qualifies a BA holiday booking as we had added a night stop LHR hotel. If you phone BA holidays it is 0844. What sounded like Delhi picked up immediately! They then transferred me to BA holidays where I held for about 5 minutes. Once i got through to someone he was polite and very quick and the whole thing was resolved in a couple of minutes with an apology for the inconvenience.

What can't this be how it always is?