Talking to Barclaycard Customer Services feels like being scammed.
I know the questions and the conversation is account related but it just feels like the people in the Call Centres would be just as suited to selling virus protection for Microsoft or supporting the Visa or Mastercard security teams.
The Fraudulent Transaction
My mum, who is 92, a little hard of hearing but in full possession of all her faculties, called me yesterday to say that she had a message from Barclaycard telling her they were going to apply a £19.99 DD to her Halifax Current Account. She hasn’t used the Barclaycard in a long time and called me as she figured it must be some sort of scam thing.
We discussed the circumstances, and I concluded that she was correct.
I called Barclaycard on her behalf as it’s a right pain trying to negotiate the IVR, which always seems desperate to provide the balance on your account, and to be fair, it did confirm the £19.99 charge, but I only needed to confirm it once.
The Ordeal
I spent four hours on the phone, making five or six separate phone calls to a wide variety of phone numbers, all of which seemed to land on the same IVR that was still desperate to provide me with a balance.
I spoke to Customer Services, I spoke to the so-called Fraud Department, at one point I was put through to Barclays Merchant Services (or whatever they call themselves now) who wouldn’t speak to me unless I provided them with my Merchant ID and a brief synopsis of my settlement problem, I was transferred back to the so-called Fraud Department, and finally I was transferred to an English guy, who tried extremely hard to help me, but then told me that he was limited in what he could do because he wasn’t Customer Services, he was part of the team that provided service assistance to the branch network – just let that bit sink in!
The Experience
Navigating the IVR is a nightmare, requiring extensive keying, some voice instructions and the added excitement of avoiding the inevitable path back to an account balance. I was talking to my mum on one phone whilst navigating the IVR on another, and I got through to a geezer called Harhit (or so he told me); Harhit had a strong accent.
I provided him with all the account details and an explanation of the problem (including the fact that she was hard of hearing and 150 miles away), and he said he needed to speak to the account holder. She was on the other line and Harhit suggested that I conference her in, which I did. He then proceeded to ask her questions that she couldn’t hear and when she did hear, she couldn’t understand. I could understand, mostly, and I repeated the questions for her – explaining what she needed to do, and then Harhit accused me of prompting her.
Harhit eventually gave up and put the phone down on us, which as my experience unfolded, appeared to be a not uncommon course of action for the Indian Call Centre when faced with a tricky question.
I have, like many of us, had to face calls with scam call centres in India, and they do pretty much the same thing! It’s hard to tell the difference.
I called back and this time I ended up speaking to someone in the so-called Fraud Team. I explained the situation – 92, hard of hearing, stumped by the IVR, fraudulent transactions on the account – the person I spoke to told me they needed to speak to the account holder.
I offered to conference her in to save the IVR trauma and was told that the so-called Fraud Team wouldn’t accept a conference call. What they did suggest was that she got a friend or neighbour to make the call, and that would be ok – and that’s the so-called Fraud Team!
Would that really be ok?
I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that one would call me back in an hour or so, and it’s now been around 20 hours. I’m not saying they lied to me, but it does feel they weren’t quite on the level.
The Advice
On several occasions I was advised that if my mum was hard of hearing and if she had difficulty navigating the IVR, she should head off to her local Barclays Branch and talk to Customer Services there. She doesn’t drive anymore, she can’t walk far, the bus isn’t really an option, and the nearest Barclays Branch is 10 miles away in Doncaster. I told them this and they advised that she should visit the branch and talk to Customer Services.
The Quest
I continued my quest for customer service, by trying every number I could find for Barclaycard, and every one of those numbers dropped me into the same IVR, demanded absolute compliance with the IVR script and then dumped me randomly in any one of a number of departments, including the so-called Fraud Team.
At one point, I was routed back to Hamhit. Remember him? As soon as he realised what we were going to be talking about – a 92-year-old lady and fraudulent transactions – he dumped the call.
Now I know that what I / we wanted to do did not fit neatly into the Indian Call Centre Customer Services Happy Path, but there was still a customer services problem. Barclaycard Customer Services turned the customer services problem into a customer problem for the customer to resolve.
As it happens …
As it happens, I do have Power of Attorney, just in case I night need it in the future, but I have not needed to use it to date. The Barclaycard Customer Services and so-called Fraud Team kept asking me if I had Power of Attorney, but what they really meant was had my mum added me to the people who were allowed to talk about her account; it was clear that the Call Centre colleagues (staff) didn’t understand the difference between PoA and permission to speak.
A Power of Attorney must be registered, and that takes, according to the Barclays website, at least 10 days, so no immediate solution there.
This whole experience has been a bit crap, we have no idea what is happening with the account, and we have no way of inserting ourselves back into the loop.
The Customer Services team appeared to try to be more helpful than the so-called Fraud Team but both teams were blind to any problem that fell outside the script, and so we still have the problem.
The feeling I got was that Barclaycard don’t care; it’s no wonder they are winning in the complaints game and no surprise that they are consistently among the most complained-about banks.
What I took away from this is that Indian Call Centres are crap, but they are good enough for customers; the Branch Staff (oops! colleagues) get to talk to people in the UK.
