Barclaycard making me chew holes through my own teeth

[Damini]

Gah. If I have to speak to someone in India one more time I will run outside and just start throwing ninja stars around.

I got phoned sometime last month by Barclaycard to make a payment on my card. I had flu, and was feeling a bit wretched, and not really all that inclined to talk. I got ill on the 26th of August, and was only really feverish for a few days, so that gives me a rough idea of when it was. I don't like making payments over the phone, so requested that I make a payment online, and was told that they needed a payment today on the phone, and that an internet payment would take time to process and I would get a late fee. I asked a few questions to assure myself that it was genuinely barclaycard, and was told my minimum payment needed, and a few other details that I can't remember. The woman had quite a thick indian accent, and that added authenticity.

So I give over my debit card details, and security number on the back of the card, and wait until she says the payment has gone through. She asks if I want to set up a direct debit, and I decline.

So, I go on holiday to Greece, and get umpteen messages through from home that Barclays need to speak to me urgently.

I have to spend over forty minutes on the phone to Barclaycard from Greece, repeating the same shit over and over again, as they say they have no record of my payment and now I owe them more money. The phone bill itself costs me a fortune, let alone the late fee, and the hassle of then having to phone natwest, and cancel my debit card (in case it was a fraudulent call - no money had been taken from my account by barclaycard or anyone as yet) and the cost of those phone calls, and so on.

So now I'm trying to phone Barclaycard to get a clear idea of what the hell is going on. WHY WON'T YOU LET ME SPEAK TO SOMEONE ENGLISH? It is doing my head in. I'm ex directory, and shred everything in the universe because I like making confetti, and can't work out if I have been scammed or if Barclaycard are shit, and I'm really pissed off. Is there anyway anyone knows to actually speak to someone who doesn't burst into flames when you steer away from their accepted script? I asked to speak to someone in england, and they simply put me through to "Sandra" who was someone trying very hard to do an English accent. It made me laugh a little, until my rage melted my eyes and I had to hang up.


Someone make it better.

 

[Lazarus]

find a friend who can speak to them in their own language

Penjod
Majeva
Gandu

are all words they should understand

 

[mycenae]

poor dam, I have the same issues with the blighters who for 3!

 

[throdgrain]

I dunno if you know this, but I work in a call centre that rings people who are in arrears on thier credit cards Until recently, for a company called, err, Barclays

I work/worked for the Monument brand, which is down the scale from Barclaycard, which makes me wonder why Barclays a) sold our card to Americans, and b) use an indian call centre for thier own customers. Its wierd, no one likes it, I dont understand why they do it, sure it saves money, but its bad for thier precious brand, motto of which is/was Customer - Care - Community - Collegues (cheesy ***** ).

Having said that, there's a few asian people who work where I do, and I often hear them saying "no, Im in Crawley" in a confused voice, I can imagine whats being said to them

edit PM sent to you Damini.

 

[Gumbo]

I hope it's sorted for you and I share your pain of dealing with indian call centres, but please, don't ever give your card number to someone who phones you.

 

[Thornbeard]

Had the same trouble just last night , problem is my Ulster accent makes it impossible for them to understand me at all :touch:

 

[Damini]

I hope it's sorted for you and I share your pain of dealing with indian call centres, but please, don't ever give your card number to someone who phones you.

Kenny said the same thing, and normally I don't, but was feverish and I become pathetically easy to pressure when I'm ill*, and the threat of an additional late fee swayed it for me. Lesson learnt.







*once I went to order Chinese when I was poorly, and when I couldn't make up my mind they sensed my weakness and kept offering me extra dishes. I spanked £35 on chinese for two

I wasn't even all that hungry.

 

[GReaper]

I can understand how frustrating Barclaycard telephone support is, after being unable to login to my account online the support they gave was non-existent. If for some reason their script can't answer the question they'll try to figure out an excuse which will get you off the phone.

I'm shocked at how these companies don't really care about their reputation. Poor customer service is already ruining the reputation of companies like Virgin Media, it may save some money outsourcing support to India - but it doesn't make your customers happy.

 

[Tom]

Join First Direct. Calls answered in seconds, and the call centre is in the UK.

 

[Kryten]

Be blunt and very specific.

"I demand to speak to a manager who is based in the UK and speaks better english so we can understand eachother properly. If you can't do that, I am within my rights to halt all payments until your services are corrected"

Failing that, have a google for Barclaycard's Northampton number and demand to speak to a supervisor there. Any problems at all, speak to the CAB or if you're happy enough to deal with it yourself, put it all in writing to them and specify very clearly the issues you are having with their callcentre. Give appropriate times and details of your telephone call, state it was made whilst you were on holiday in Greece, and that you expect the problems to be sorted and you compensated for the cost of the unnecessary telephone call caused by problems at their end.
Of course if the money actually came out of your account, provide a copy of your statement highlighting the payment - if not because of an issue their end, say you understand they often record some or all calls and they need to check the recording.

The beauty of writing is, it's not easy to misunderstand something, so if you're clear and concise, they can't argue with it. Add at the end that you understand human errors occur even with the largest organisations and if the problems are sorted out, you're paid for the cost of the call(s) and they can apologise, you'll be happy - if they can't, you will be getting legal advise and contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Office of Fair Trading.

I've spent a long time this year writing in lots of legal mumbo jumbo to credit card providers who are sworn to rip you off at every possible opportunity, so you're welcome to prod me on here or IRC for a little help if you need.

 

[Lazarus]

but we all know Damini cant write.....can she?

 

[Kryten]

That's a point - didn't think of that. Maybe rather than threaten with the FOS and OFT, threats such as "you'll be haunted by ghosts n stuff!" might be better

 

[throdgrain]

Be blunt and very specific.

"I demand to speak to a manager who is based in the UK and speaks better english so we can understand eachother properly. If you can't do that, I am within my rights to halt all payments until your services are corrected"

lmfao Is that what you think ? Damini be careful, hes going to tell you to get a new power supply in a minute

 

[Kryten]

But without it she can't expect a reliable power source! :touch:

Learned in the months of creditor-baiting that "within my rights" doesn't actually mean a rule, law or obligation but almost sounds like it - i.e. in this case, Damini would be morally correct in expecting a problem with a service fixed before she is charged or pays further for said service.
It is all utter bollocks at the end of the day, but by showing you're not a pushover and you do want to be treated like a person and not a doormat and/or a random customer number you're more likely to be sorted out quickly.

 

[Damini]

To be honest, I'm appalling at writing a formal letter. I have written an e-mail to barclaycard, and told them that I'm not giving them any money until they can give me an explanation of whats happened, and that I want someone based in the UK to discuss it with. I also told them that talking to their call centres is as much fun pulling your own teeth out, and then thrusting them into your eyes. Please refer back to my statement about being lousy at writing formal letters

 

[Kryten]

well it's in writing - that's the fundamental part, they can see exactly what you're saying and have to reply to you also in writing, where they can be equally clear.
It shouldn't really matter how good or bad people are at writing formal letters - I'm only any good because I had to be to save my own skin - but there's a lot of discrimination still involved, even in the worlds of red tape and political correctness. If a representative of Barclaycard gets an email that looks like it's been written in text speak, they'll assume the author is a 14 year old and will treat them as such. This shouldn't be the case at all, but unfortunately it is

(Of course I'm not saying you're writing style is that bad, it's not!)

As I said though, offer stands - if you need help, I'll glady write you a letter and leave you blanks to fill in details for them etc.

 

[Scouse]

You've not been scammed D. They do call you up and demand payments off you. They ask to take you through security first - so if you don't want to talk to them then you can refuse to identify yourself. I like to f*ck with their heads a bit.

If you want to know why it's such a problem - it's because the people they hire for call centres are f*cking monkeys. Simple as that. They follow simple scripts with on-screen prompts and still make loads of mistakes.

I've been involved in the setup of many a call centre and they are all chav rutting centres. We even found human shit in the centre of one of the call centres once

 

[xane]

You should consider the direct debit option, really. I'm terrified of Credit Cards and I only have one with a DD on it because (a) you get to pay it right after you are paid which helps me emormously, and (b) you get "cash back" deals with DD, generally about 0.5%-1% by default, but anything up to 10% at certain shops.

Of course, if you don't have any money in the bank to pay the DD, that's another problem.

 

[throdgrain]

Direct Debits arnt always such a good idea. Where I work you have two options, dd for full balance or minimum payment. What happens is this do the minimum payment, pay for 2 years, then find out thier account balance has decreased by about 2p ALWAYS PAY MORE THAN THE MINIMUM AMOUNT.

Also, if your account is over the limit the DD will still only take the minimum amount (this is often 3% of the balance) but add a charge for being over. After 2 years your account will have gone up by a few hundred quid!

Also, if you're in financial trouble, dont go putting the phone down on people ringing you, that is the behaviour of a fucking idiot. Talk to them, quite often they can help you with fixed payment agreements and suchlike.


Sometimes they are just twats mind

 

[MYstIC G]

Till someone clones your card and your DD takes £3,000.00 out of your bank account.

 

[throdgrain]

If you want to know why it's such a problem - it's because the people they hire for call centres are f*cking monkeys. Simple as that. They follow simple scripts with on-screen prompts and still make loads of mistakes.

Yet again ,wrong, Ive done this for a year, earned large money for very little hours, and we never use a script or anything, and certainly no on screen prompts.

SOme of the people who work here are stupid, but not all by any means, and they're sure as hell not as stupid as the mugs not paying thier bills and wondering why they're getting hassle.

Oh, and squeaking "no eeenglish" dont save any £12 charges either

We have a couple of server admins here btw, who walk about like charlie big spud, but earn half what I do, and have an even more boring job

 

[Scouse]

Yet again ,wrong, Ive done this for a year, earned large money for very little hours, and we never use a script or anything, and certainly no on screen prompts.

Dunno what kind of call centre you're working at but I've worked at/set up about 20 of them over the past 9 years and all of them, bar none, are rammed to the hilt with chavs.

And if anyone working in a call centre earns more than me for answering the phone (or managing the monkeys who answer the phone) then I'll eat my own poop...

 

[xane]

Till someone clones your card and your DD takes £3,000.00 out of your bank account.

My main complaint about my CC company is they are too sensitive to anything suspicious. When Paypal charged me £1 to check out the CC and then put it back again, the card was instantly blocked, yet I shell out over £3,000 in one transaction the other day and not a sausage.

My card has been cloned twice and both times they've phoned me before I've even known about it, besides, chip and PIN has virtually knocked out cloning.

It would take four to six weeks for a fraud to pass through the CC, and I'd get a statement at least 2 weeks beforehand, so sucks to be me if I missed something like that.

 

[dysfunction]

Till someone clones your card and your DD takes £3,000.00 out of your bank account.

Luckily I'm prety much up to my max limit so anyone who attempts to DD my account with £3000 will come short!!!

 

[Ch3tan]

And you will get the charge for a failed DD

 

[throdgrain]

Dunno what kind of call centre you're working at but I've worked at/set up about 20 of them over the past 9 years and all of them, bar none, are rammed to the hilt with chavs.

And if anyone working in a call centre earns more than me for answering the phone (or managing the monkeys who answer the phone) then I'll eat my own poop...

Ive managed around 600 to 700 a week take-home for the past 8 months or so. That was at BARCLAYCARDS call centre. Hey maybe you earn more than that, if so good luck to you.

Maybe you know everything about everything. Or maybe its just another (yet another) internet opinion

 

[Scouse]

Ive managed around 600 to 700 a week take-home for the past 8 months or so. That was at BARCLAYCARDS call centre. Hey maybe you earn more than that, if so good luck to you.

Maybe you know everything about everything. Or maybe its just another (yet another) internet opinion

We all have 'em m8. I was going to say "don't take offence at this..." before I posted but you were pretty firm in telling me that I was wrong so I figured slap you down a bit

 

[throdgrain]

Yeah because you are wrong

 

[throdgrain]

Hang On

I dont want this to descend into some silly bloody arguement.

Let me just say, you said that all call centres were inhabited by chavs and worked from scripts.

I just pointed out that I work at one, and more importantly the actual firm that this thread is on about, and I earn (what I consider) good dough for doing practically fuck all for a very short day. God I make more that I did running the bike shop, with all the grief that carried with it.

I dont ever work from scripts, and niether does anyone else.

Oh. And I dont think anyone could ever call me a chav

On the other hand, the reason I earn pretty well is because they have a big commision scale. AFAIK no one else where I work really does it like I do. that dont make me all that popular.

Its also a shit boring job for me, because its so easy as much as anything, and I doubt Ill do it much longer, I may die of something.

It does employ a lot of foreigners. Hardly any of them make the big commision, except one bloke, whos a good bloke that I like.

There is stuff you have to say on every call. Maybe thats what you mean by scripts Im not sure. You have to tell the customer how much hes being charged and that. But thats just sensible really.

Sorted I hope

 

[Ch3tan]

Oh and welcome back xane