Patience running thin with the call centre...
 

Am I the only one who's finding it increasingly difficult to put up with the level of competency found at the new off-shore call centre? When they were just getting set-up and people started moaning I thought "Give it time, they'll learn and be fine in a few months". Not my experience....

1. Telephone check in that used to take less than a minute now takes four or five minutes.
2. If you haven't got your PNR to hand it takes them an age to find your booking using flt/date/name.
3. Tried using the "guaranteed seat on full flights" for gold card holders last week. Gave up trying to explain what I meant to the first person and asked for a supervisor. Supervisor told me he booked it for me but he didn't sound like he know what he was talking about. Rang the diamond club gold card line and asked them to check. Turns out I was only waitlisted - they never put the confirmation request through to revenue management. I would have turned up at LHR trying to get the 5.40 flight to Dublin on Easter Thursday - imagine the explanations you'd have to go through.
4. Had an open C class electronic ticket (DUB-LHR) now they can't find it using the PNR. They made a new booking for me and told me to bring the ticket with me :mad: it's electronic :mad: . Now I have a booking for Tuesday morning and I expect when I turn up at the airport they will look for a ticket and I'll be trying to sort this mess out at 0540. Lovely :td: :(

Am I the only one?

I have had a BD Gold card for years now but I think I've reached the end of the line with them.

Anyone any suggestions?

No, you're not the only one... I had an itinerary for two people. I needed to leave a day earlier and rang the call centre to make a change to my itinerary, leaving my colleague on the original booking. The agent sounded very unsure but assured me it was no problem. When completed, I requested an email confirmation.

Confirmation never came. Had to request it 3 more times - still never came. Eventually printed off the new PNR from the bmi website.

Arrived at airport to find flight overbooked and my name not on the list. One flash of the Gold Card with the website print off got the supervisor to put me on board (in C!!! :D - not bad for a H class ticket). Complained bitterly about the call centre and the supervisor agreed that she was tired of cleaning up their mess. I asked her to check if my colleague was on the same flight the following day; turns out that her itinerary had been changed and she was list for my flight . Had to get her changed to leave the next morning, as originally booked.

I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't had a Gold Card... no reservation, no seats available... no flight. Someone in Donnington Hall should be having a very hard think about this call centre. I work in a large international company - my IT support comes from India - and it's fantastic. In Ireland, Indian accents are rare so it took me some time to be able to follow their voices easily. Have it mastered now - no problem. However, some of the voices coming from the bmi call centre are just incomprehensible. And the service is just as poor.

I appreciate the notion that cost savings can be made. However, this only makes sense if it doesn't diminish with the value of quality of service and doesn't interfere with a company's ability to bring in the money. In this instance, I have lost faith in bmi's call centre - the service is unreliable; bmi will lose income because people like me don't trust them.

Sort it out guys.

I know it's not the answer to all problems, and I know you should be able to rely on the call centre, but... Do remember that you can now change and cancel flights online. It's fairly well hidden, but when you go to view your PNR, you now get this option (assuming you've booked the ticket online).

Personally, I've never had to have contact with the call centre (other than DC).

They are polite and eager but totally lack competence, clarity and what's cearly an emerging flavour is that they are so keen to earn your confidence they claim to understand and action when they haven't. I'm sure it's a culture difference rather than anything more sinister.

"Nice" was pronounced as ice as in icecubes. By juxtoposing a few of the letters of my name I became Mr "Elwis" as in Gracelands. T

Given up trying to check in. This is a part of a cunning plan to stop telephone check-ins.

Always check your reservation on www.checkmytrip.com - if you can while you are still on the phone with the agent. On Thursday I changed a miles+cash reservation from SIN to LHR and the flights kept disappearing off the reservation. In this case the agents were in Sheffield and, with one exception, were both courteous and knowledgable. It appeared to be system problems, but not something you want to have to sort out in the rush to clear security and board a plane.

Also, make sure you note down your e-ticket number (also visible on checkmytrip). This is helpful if the reservation completely disappears.

Regs,

- Simon

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421638

Apparently UA is going to close some Indian call centres, due to customer feedback!

Aaaargh!!!

Yesterday wanted to telephone check in MAN to LHR....rang the check in number; cut off 3x
Eventually got through to India and was told I could not check in on this number any more and was given another number which turned out to be dead. Rang back; very pleasant man again India could not have been nicer but after 18 minutes of him trying to work out how to check us in I frankly gave up. Rang the BMI Gold line to moan and got a chap who although not his job checked us in. What a complete mess!!

It's sad. If set up correctly, outsourcing can work exceedingly well. I set up an outsourced function in India last year which beats every KPI the old UK team struggled to achieve - plus the customers have told me they are happier now. However to do that you have to invest time and money in the planning and execution. It seems BD have just pushed the call centre to a third party without doing the preparation.

The eagerness to please is a cultural thing. It is easy to get around - don't use closed questions.

I have always called the team in Sheffiled and they have always been fantastic and very very helpful, especially when they made a huge cock up and they went to the end of the earth to put it right.