Rant - Why aren't companies hiring for customer service!!!!!

[hamsterjill]

I bank at a local credit union. Needed to call their customer service line this morning to validate my account because they recently changed their automated banking system.

I was on hold for over THIRTY minutes before getting to a human being. Even then, the representative couldn’t answer questions. Completely unacceptable in my view but certainly not uncommon these days.

The USA needs to seriously be reminded what customer service is and how important it is. With so many people looking for work, the lack of representatives available is absurd. The lack of training is just incompetence.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Unfortunately, the customer service area is a nightmare job...from what I've heard. Taking

abuse from callers (not all of the time), etc. is not a fun job.

And you're absolutely right, it is an important area. Being a rep is one of the few points that a corporation is exposed to live customers, etc.

And some companies screw up by not hiring enough reps or outsourcing reps overseas (although, this trend seems to be reversing itself, companies are bringing customer service rep jobs back into the US due to language difficulties, etc.).

[TheBlackAdder]

51. They are. . . In India.

.

I'm on the phone right now about a bogus Yahoo Business charge on my credit card.

Offshore.

.

[lindysalsagal]

53. Sometimes the indians are ok.

But sometimes they only read the screen and select the available options, If your'e not one of the options, you're sol.

[TheBlackAdder]

54. I was getting the canned responses that didn't quite fit with the issue. 1.5 hours later call ended.

.

Yes, having them correct a clerical error on their part and refunding my credit card required me being on hold for over and hour. The guy was asking all kinds of PIA which was not required to resolve the matter and I put a stop to that.

.

[SheltieLover]

2. Because they don't have to

Overworking the employees they have equals more almighty profit.

I couldn't agree with you more - they need to GET ON IT regarding customer service! I wait that long to pay my mortgage, speak to a utility company, or any other service. Gawd help those who need to speak with Social Security Administration or IRS. Wait times are often well over two hours.

They are NOT investing in customer service or their employees either!

[forgotmylogin]

28. I work in CS.

Last edited Mon Apr 19, 2021, 09:43 PM - Edit history (1)

There's a metric called "occupancy". Ideally they want just enough people to answer the calls coming in with minimal wait. Some companies manage this to a fine line. When agents are sitting waiting for a call (which is how calls get answered quickly) they are considered "unoccupied" and often the client wants to minimize agents doing nothing, so they will pull agents offline for training, or offer voluntary go-home, or in some cases send them home.

Not agreeing that is right, but that's what happens. Often there is a slow period early and they'll let agents go home, then the queue gets slammed again. For the call center metrics, it's better to show the employees are busy than not busy.

[hamsterjill]

57. I figured it was like this.

And that really sucks for the employees. Doesn’t help the customers either when the call volume goes back up with fewer to answer the calls.

[Dustlawyer]

3. One of my big pet peeves is getting the recorded message on a marathon hold like this

where the recording tells me that my call is very important to them. If my call was important they would have someone speaking with me by now!

[csziggy]

29. Yes and when they have those messages, they repeat them every 30 seconds or so

Even if they had decent hold music - rather than crap music on a damage recording or constant advertisements - they interrupt it far too often to tell us how important we are to them.

I don't understand why companies do not provide a call back service. My web hosting service does that - if they can't pick up immediately, they will offer to call back on the number you are on. You don't even have to enter anything other than year (1) or no (2). Usually the call back is in less than five minutes. Obviously they have plenty of very good support people, but even so the call back service reduces customer's frustration and frees the customers to do something else while they are waiting.

On the other hand, massive companies like Verizon can't be bothered to offer such a convenience, proving that their customer's time is of no importance to them. And I know the customer service agents end up having to deal with the frustrations of people who have waiting for ages with their non-stop ads. I have never had a wait time of less than 45 minutes with Verizon, and similar for other large companies.

[Dustlawyer]

49. The last 2 times I had the call back option they never called back.

[csziggy]

50. Oh, that stinks - what company? nt

[Dustlawyer]

55. One was Chase Bank. I don't remember the other.

[csziggy]

56. Thanks - I'll put Chase on my list of companies to avoid. nt

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. Well, first off

companies hate their customers, so they damn sure don't want to spend money on helping them. Their preferred business model is for you just to drive by their office and throw money on their driveway, then go away.

[Diamond_Dog]

9. LOL! So true.

[MineralMan]

5. COVID-19 has disrupted customer service a lot.

Most are working from home right now. In many cases, they do not have the same access to customer records they had while working in a central office.

I've had to deal with a lot of customer service people in dealing with the estate for which I am the executor. The problem exists everywhere right now, from government agencies to insurance companies.

What I have discovered is that I get the best, fastest service by calling the moment the customer service hours begin in the area code I am calling or where the organizations headquarters is located. By being one of the first callers of the day, I have often avoided long waits on hold, and have caught the representatives before they become frustrated.

Since their access to files is slower than usual, I have also learned to be very patient with them. I am always polite and never allow my frustration to be noticed.

As always, having all of the information they may need right at hand and familiar to me, I am able to provide them with the information they require efficiently and accurately. To avoid errors, I spell things using the military phonetic alphabet for spelling commonly misheard letters. I speak, spell, and provide numbers slowly and very clearly, to allow for easy data entry. I always ask for things to be read back to me, whether they are numbers or words.



I need their help, so I work very hard to make their jobs easier.

So far, this has worked very well for me.

[hamsterjill]

14. I am always polite.

I’m a paralegal by trade and I have my ducks in a row before calling - always.

It is not the fault of the person on the other end of the line that the owners/shareholders of the company don’t care about their customers. BUT, it does make customers think about moving their accounts.

In my particular case here, all of this was caused because a credit union employee who set up the account several years ago used a file number assigned by the Secretary of State as opposed to the TIN assigned by the Comptroller. Because she, obviously, hadn’t been trained to know the difference. The error is theirs entirely yet I’m having to spend MY time getting it fixed. It’s irritating to say the least.

[MineralMan]

18. Ah. I understand. You talked to someone who didn't understand

the situation. Inadequate training. Escalate to the next level. Insist on speaking with that representative's supervisor as soon as you discover the incompetence. Insist. Always escalate when you face incompetence. It's not your job to train the phone representative.

I faced something like that with a delay in issuance of my mother's death certificate. I was not informed of the delay until it was almost too late. I immediately escalated the call to the director of the funeral home, once I understood what had happened. I explained that they had made a mistake and had notified the wrong person to supply the cause of death. I told him that i would call back, shortly, and that I expected him to pick up on my call immediately.

I made a couple of calls to discover who should have been notified and who should have supplied the cause of death and called those people, to prepare them to get ready to get busy.

Then, I called the director of the funeral home, explained what he had done wrong and told him exactly what he needed to do to correct the error, which was a violation of the California code for funeral home operations. I cited the code number, which I had been given in one of the other calls.

Then, I insisted that the entire process needed to be completed by the end of the business day, or I would contact the state regulatory agency director. I knew that person's name, via a Google search.

To make the story shorter, by the end of the day, the death certificate had been issued and recorded, and the director of the funeral home hand-delivered copies to the estate's attorney and FedExed my copies for Saturday delivery.

I ruined that funeral home director's day. He was not at all amused, but he got the stuff done and avoided being investigated by the regulatory agency.

The estate's attorney called me after receiving the death certificate. "How the Hell did you do that in one day?" he asked.

[csziggy]

30. Thank you for the Phonetic Alphabet

I've always known there was one out there, but never thought to save it so I end searching for the correct words for letters. I just saved the image from your message and will keep it on my desktop for future use.

I've never had trouble with people understanding when I say numbers. My biggest complaint is when people rattle off their number on telephone messages. It's not a race, please say the number you want a return call on slowly enough to be understood! Some customer agents have seemed surprised when I give them my phone number or credit card number slowly and clearly, giving them time to enter them on their screen.

[Jetheels]

42. I never heard of phonetic numbers. I don't get how 5 is fife. 3 is tree? 9 is miner? Huh?

[MineralMan]

48. 9 is Niner.

[Jetheels]

61. Oh right niner. But really,

Tree sounds like how a child would say three. And fife is a musical instrument.

[MineralMan]

65. Those numerical phonetics were designed

to be heard and understood in adverse conditions, and over poor communication devices. They sound silly, really, but do eliminate mistakes in transcribing numbers. They're not really necessary in most telephone conversations, unless there is a lot of background noise.

What is more important when giving someone a series of numbers is to speak slowly and clearly, and not get ahead of the person who is writing them down. It's also important to say numbers one digit at a time if the number you are providing is a long one or an important one to get right.

Even more important is to have the person taking down the number read it back to you. Preventing transcription mistakes can save tons of time and ensure that the numbers are correct. Numerical transcription mistakes can cause big problems when dealing with people on the telephone.

[Jetheels]

67. Ok I researched this and one website calls it aviation English.

My ear is kind of understanding how the 3, 5, and 9 could be confusing if spoken regularly.
Thanks for posting, I didn’t ever hear of numerical phonetics previously.

[MissMillie]

6. Cable company...

We got an email about our wi-fi security and we just wanted to verify that it was from them (as opposed to a scam). It's a 2 minute phone call, or so you'd think.

took 30 minutes to get to a human being.

[wnylib]

37. That was quick. I got a phone message

about my Social Security account that I suspected was a scam. Wanted to verify it. I waited for 30 minutes before getting an offer to leave my name and number for a call back. 30 minutes later I got called back.

A few months after that, I needed to verify banking info with Social Security because of some changes and automatic SS withdrawals. I gave up on daytime calls after a few days and stayed up to call in the middle of the night. (Glad they have overnight phone hours.) At 2:00 a.m. I waited over 2 hours before my call was taken. Kept the phone on speaker so I could do other things meantime and was startled when I heard a voice. Had almost forgotten about the call.

[Diamond_Dog]

7. I sympathize with you, hamsterjill.There is an article

in today’s New York Times, but’s behind a paywall, on why businesses cannot find enough workers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/upshot/unemployment-pandemic-worker-shortages.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=The%20Upshot

Reasons include....

Pay is too low in many jobs.

Employer (or business environment) not taking sufficient Covid precautions.

People who still have children home from school or caring for elderly relatives don’t want to risk being exposed to Covid and bringing it back home and they cannot find childcare or elder care they can afford.

Haven’t been able to get vaccinated yet.

Still a lot of age discrimination out there, even though older job seekers are more often vaccinated.

The article hints that, as more people become vaccinated, this will ease up. Of course we still have a large percentage of Covid deniers who won’t get one, which is always a worry.

[mwooldri]

8. "I used to be a people person, but people ruined it."

Had nearly 20 years experience in customer service. My job was eliminated (nearly 3 years ago now). Couldn't get another "customer service" job... The cable company, health insurance companies, etc., didn't want me. Ended up getting my CDL and now drive a truck. People still want goods...

[live love laugh]

10. Customer service died some time ago. At this point they just take your $$ and give you the finger.

[csziggy]

31. Comcast showed them the way from over forty years ago

I've never subscribed to Comcast, partly because their customer service was unbelievably rude to me about 45 years ago. The building I lived in did not have Comcast wired in, but their junction box was just outside my window. The box leaked enough signal to interfere with my antenna reception. Back then, Comcast only carried a signal from about 6 AM to midnight or 2 AM - there was no night programming on the channels they carried in that market. During the hours Comcast was not on, I could pick up all sorts of channels from Atlanta and other places far away. Yes, some of that was because of signal skip, but I couldn't do it before Comcast turned off and after it came back on in the morning. And while Comcast was on, I couldn't get a clear signal from the local, powerful over the air TV station.

When I called Comcast to complain, the basically told me to fuck off. My landlord was not going to pay for them to wire his building so they knew they would never get business from any tenants - so they just didn't care what happened to over the air signals. Later, when I lived where I could subscribe to Comcast, I refused to subscribe. Comcast will not get my business, ever.

[live love laugh]

33. Comcast is HORRIBLE. I recently spent two hours on the phone only to be hung up on.

I won’t bore with details but at the beginning of the call the auto-message asked if I would be willing to complete a survey after my call.

After two hours, the auto survey never happened. I guess they knew what the response would be after two hours.

[csziggy]

34. Yes - they were bad in the mid-1970s and from I hear, have just gotten worse

I'm glad I learned how bad they were before I ever gave them a dime.

[SheilaAnn]

11. Try looking for a human to talk to at AT&T. Unbelievable. n/t

[TwilightZone]

12. That's intentional.

They off-loaded almost all of their support to automated processes, even scheduling of in-person technicians.

[Throck]

13. Unfortunately this has been the norm for years.

I'm beginning to think some of the Karens in the world just might have it partially right.

[hamsterjill]

15. It IS the norm.

But why do we tolerate it? I mean seriously? As a collective, shouldn’t we demand better?

[Throck]

16. We do demand better.

We just get ignored.

[hamsterjill]

17. I guess that's right.

I wrote a bad review. It made me feel better.

But I know that no one gives a shit.

[Jedi Guy]

35. "But I know that no one gives a shit."

That is absolutely the case. Before I jumped to administration, I worked in quality assurance for my employer, a financial institution. When you hear the "this call is being recorded for quality and training purposes" message, I was the guy listening to the call and scoring the interaction. My experience was that for just about any markdown on an evaluation, the employee and/or their manager would happily litigate every single point right into the ground, to the point of outright gaslighting.

I went into the role with a desire to help my colleagues improve their skills so they can provide better service to our customers. I left the role jaded, cynical, and disillusioned. Management kept telling us how important the QA program was... right before gutting it and making it absolutely toothless. We were a necessary evil, for all intents and purposes.

Part of the issue is that so many people these days are utterly incapable of handling any criticism, no matter how constructive or gently-worded it might be. Frontline representatives would freak out and start screaming at us if they got a bad result, and management tolerated the behavior. Several times I was told to reverse a negative mark because someone was "upset" or "felt attacked." They weren't interested in improving; they were interested in being told how wonderful they are.

[pwb]

19. Too much money is going to profits. Joe Biden is

fixing that. Maybe you know this but hitting 0 as your choice of options usually brings a live person. If they offer to call back that works for me too. Some people especially seniors do not have unlimited minutes on their phone. Yep they need to do better.

[ZonkerHarris]

26. 0 doesn't always work anymore. Too many people were onto it so companies have changed it

not a default anymore on 80% of phone sytems

[ripcord]

20. On hold for over 6 hours with California EDD

And I thought dealing with the DMV was bad.

[Runningdawg]

21. Customer service is a joke

Hubby needs his phone for work, without one they will fire him. His less than a year old iPhone LITERLLLY BLEW UP. They sent him a new one but refuse to activate it until he sends the verification code they sent to THE OLD PHONE. No matter how many times or to whom he explains the catch 22, there has been no help. 26 days now and counting. Good thing his dad is a lawyer, I have a feeling we are going to need one before this is over.

[Politicub]

22. Customer service reps are run into the ground. And they are viewed as

easily replaceable.

Like so many other jobs, they have nearly-unattainable benchmarks for number of calls handled, resolutions, etc. And, like Amazon warehouse workers, if they meet their goals then the goals are made more stringent.

It would be great if people could have a little job security or a safety net to catch them once they are inevitably let go.

[fescuerescue]

23. They are figuring out that they don't have too

Since we'll just buy the product anyway.

[Midnight Writer]

24. The purpose of a customer service line is not to help the customer.

The purpose is so the company can claim they have a customer service line.

It's a gimmick, just like a "money back guarantee" on a two dollar item.

[forgotmylogin]

58. CSRs are often very limited in scope as to what they can actually do.

I understand it's frustrating, but realize taking out that frustration on the person you're talking to usually won't help anything.

I get frequent calls about people needing to update their address/contact information but *we cannot do that*. I don't have the physical controls and access in my system to accomplish data updates. I have to refer and sometimes transfer callers to a listed number or their administrator who created the account who does have access. I'm not transferring because *I don't want to help you.*

Understand that CSRs will almost never not help you for no reason. We understand that the sooner we can accomplish what you're calling for, the sooner we can get you off the phone (which makes you happy and reduces our average call handle time, which is a good thing.)

If the CSR says they cannot do what you are asking, believe them. They might need to transfer you to a department that *can* help you, or it may just be impossible or not allowed. Frequently callers want to speak to "my supervisor" when I won't give them the answer they want, but in most cases my supervisor will tell them the same thing.

I believe many callers believe they will somehow gain leverage and strike the Fear of God into me by asking for "my supervisor" like my supervisor is going to punish me for not making the caller happy, but again - I am *always* following the rules when I say I'm unable to do something a customer asks. I cannot do it. The "supervisor" I transfer you to is a veteran agent on the escalation team who is going to say no again in a more polite or perhaps blunter manner. If there were a process to accomplish what people ask for we will always help the customer. We don't like telling people no if we don't have to. If there is a way to do what the caller is asking for, we will know about it - it's rare that we're just ignorant about how to accomplish something. We're either restricted or actually unable.

If we *don't* help callers with processes that we *can* help with, that's when we get in trouble when they audit our calls.

[Midnight Writer]

59. It's not the fault of the Reps. It depends on the commitment of the company to service.

If long hold lines are a regular thing, then there are not enough Customer Service Representatives on duty. The company can fix that by hiring more.

If the Representative can't help on basic, common questions, the company needs to train them so they can.

It is cheaper for the company to have a poor Customer Service Program.

In your experience, did you feel like it was adequately staffed and that Representatives had a firm handle on what they were doing? Does the company pay enough to attract talented people?

[forgotmylogin]

60. Realize that a lot of customer service is done by outsource companies.

(Again, not excusing this, but in the interest of explanation...)

When I say "outsource" that doesn't always necessarily mean call centers with reps whose first language isn't English, although that is a part of that.

Some companies run their own call centers however they want.

Others may "offload" their customer service to an outsource company. There are many in America, but they may also run branch call centers in the Phillipines or Bangalore or other locations. (Many Filipino reps speak English quite perfectly and you'd never know they were overseas.) In this case, the outsource is essentially a combined call center company who handles having phones and desks (or a stable of home agents) and the communication infrastructure to take on projects quickly and efficiently. Some minor projects will have all their CS outsourced. They can do temporary projects such as telethons (I've done "Stand Up to Cancer" ) or longer term/permanent ones. They often close and open at the Clients's preference and it's a business decision.

Other Clients may partially offload, meaning they will hire so many seats to handle first-level inbound general customer service - agents who can answer general account questions who are basically "vetting" calls. Ones that require more specific handling will get transferred to the company's internal customer service where they can do things the outsource reps cannot. It's cost effective for companies to train base-level reps to handle 80% of volume, and then only escalate calls with more difficult issues to the "true" call center. So in many cases the agent callers are mad at are specifically not trained to handle every problem. Yes, it's annoying to be transferred again to "someone who can handle that."

So when you call in nowadays, you have to go through the dreaded "robot voice menu" (another cost-saving mechanism) often that is the first layer that tries to determine what issue you're calling about to route you to the correct type of rep and call center the first time, or just give out a mailing address if necessary. Customers *hate* these of course, but if they bypass this, they go to the first available low-tier rep who then vets the caller, helps if possible, and then they route to the correct department.

Clients do this structure all differently, and it's a business decision how many reps are available at any given time on each line, and how fractured the departments are. Some clients want occupancy at 100% constantly, some will settle for 75% for customer satisfaction and to reduce wait times. Managing this is a treacherous seesaw: short waits=extra agents paid to not be working a call 100% of the time.

I agree that it would be nice if they would always have plenty of personnel on duty so nobody has to wait, but as I posted before, that requires having "too many" people staffed, and agents getting paid to sit unoccupied waiting for calls is a negative metric most clients wish to avoid.

[ZonkerHarris]

25. I was just on hold for 40 minutes and then disconnected. Another 30 minute mark just passed....

[NQAS]

27. My "favorite" line is. . .

we've had higher than normal call volume, so you have to wait.

WTF? You have higher than normal call volume? Then hire enough people.

I'm sure it's a crappy job. But someone has to do it, so hire those people. Train them, pay them well, and you will have happy customers.

For example, I had to call Verizon Wireless the other day to sort out an international calling problem. The rep understood precisely what my issue was, asked me to hang on for a minute, and 30 seconds later she was back, having resolved the issue completely. Cancelled one plan, reinstated another, deleted some charges. Done. This is a far cry from customer service previously.


The reality is that customer service across the board is something of a crap shoot. I think it takes a memo from god to connect with an actual human being at FedEx. My local power company went from being connected right away to an actual human to an automated response process that is appalling.

[Jedi Guy]

38. "we've had higher than normal call volume, so you have to wait."

In fairness, unforeseen call volume spikes do happen pretty frequently, especially if there's an outage of some kind, like no connectivity or authentication not working. Call volumes are generally forecast based on past data, so they can't take certain things into account.

On top of that, no call center is going to pay people to sit around and not take calls, so from their point of view, long hold times are the lesser of two evils as opposed to having agents sitting there doing nothing.

[TreasonousBastard]

32. It's not just customer service-- customers are the problem! Companies long ago realized...

that customers are simply a necessary annoyance to getting at the cash transfers they really want.

Products are the same way-- annoying things that those nasty customers are always complaining or asking questions about.

A CS hotline, then, becomes absolutely the worst thing a business can imagine and all thoughts about them are put to the back burner.

[bucolic_frolic]

36. Customer service is expensive

So jobs are sent overseas, CS department is run on a shoestring and understaffed, new personnel is undertrained.

If it doesn't produce incremental (new) revenue for the company, it's not important.

[Marie Marie]

39. "Customer Service" has become a joke.

Been wanting to write a rant like yours for years now but I've always stopped myself because I knew that just writing about it would piss me off. Putting a customer on hold for (minimum) 30 minutes or (maximum) hours is unacceptable for someone paying for your goods or services. They obviously have too few people to handle the volume of calls and they have to know this - just don't care.

Not proud to say that I usually end up losing it and ranting at the person who eventually picks up my call. This is usually followed by my apology to that person saying, I know this isn't your fault but who else can I complain to?

What each and everyone of you said above - YES YES YES! It is infuriating!!

[LittleGirl]

40. That's not a bug, that's a feature!

Customer support is a capital investment that is expensive.
And, truly, they don’t give af.

[Bev54]

41. I used to work at a bank and that was a problem 20 years ago and

is getting worse. What I would suggest is you attend your financial institution and ask someone in the branch to give you a business card with a direct number on it so you can phone the branch directly and they can field your call and direct you to the correct person in the branch. I worked on the business side but any clients or anyone who complained when they found out I worked there, I would do the same for them, give them my business card or if in the branch a card from someone on the personal banking side. It was a frustrating for us as our clients because we got the wrath of the clients coming in. These decisions are made at the executive level not the branch.

[fwvinson]

43. I tried my hand at customer service, once.

The calls were constant. And, nobody was happy. And, we had around 100+ people answering phones. I couldn't take the abuse too well, as it turned out. Some very rude people out there.







































































=

[aggiesal]

44. U.S. Customer Service is now U.S. Corporate Service ...

When I was growing up, it was "The customer is always right".
Now it is "The customer is always wrong, and that's not corporate policy. We don't care about our customers, because another person will buy what we are selling (whatever that is)."

If a company wrongs me, I won't put up with it. I immediately go elsewhere.

[IronLionZion]

45. COVID spreads fast in crowded call centers

which is dumb since it could easily be done from home if companies would pay for the set up.

It varies, there are some that are required by law to be in the US, like for many government agencies. Corporations would often use overseas call centers.

[cayugafalls]

46. I work in customer service...this thread has been a fun read.

I often get the 'are you a real american'?

The only advice I can give to ya'll is to understand that you are speaking to a real person who has feelings and is just trying to do their job without getting dinged and meeting impossible metrics. Be human and if you meet an ugly rep, asked to speak with their manager.

I've learned to:

1. Take no offense.
2. Let them vent.
3. Accept the blame.
4. Try my best to make them happy.
5. If I can't, apologize and let them know I tried my best.

I realize there are a lot of offshoring of call centers and the quality of the agents has dwindled, but, I care about people and feel like I am doing someone a service when I take their frustrations head on and take ownership of the problem.

It helps to have a good personality and be an outgoing caring real person.

[helpisontheway]

47. My son does tech support for a computer company

It has been a lifesaver during Covid. He was able to make decent money and stay safe during a pandemic. However, some people are so rude. They call for help but are swearing at him. Smh

[lindysalsagal]

52. A citibank rep just let the call die after 10 minutes: She couldn't be bothered.

I called back, got a different one, problem solved.

Another one was health insurance. Same story. That was 3 calls. after 30 minutes searching their website for the answers that weren't there.

[JCMach1]

62. They are, but salary levels are south of $15... i.e. starvation

Wages

[Celerity]

63. Telephone customer care here in Sweden is the best I have encountered.

Almost never get a person who has not resolved the matter quickly (if it is their company's fault). Super polite and knowledgeable, and will engage in a nice chat if you
wish.

[BradAllison]

64. If I call my local credit union, someone in the office answers, usually a teller

Usually it's on the first ring, and then depending on what your looking for they transfer you to someone in the office.

Which in it's day was praised as opposed to a big offshore phone bank, but I guess times change again.

[hamsterjill]

66. Indeed they do.

I’ve been with this credit union about 8 years. In the beginning, service was great. But as it’s grown, it’s become more “corporate” and less customer oriented unfortunately.