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I have been trying to contact Barclays bank to ask a few simple questions about my mortgage which is not answered on their FAQ page. The phone says there is a 40+ minute delay and disconnected by after 30 minutes telling me to use the website. The website tells me to use the App for ID verification. The App says it doesn't recognise me and I should call the phone number. The phone tells me there is a 40+ minute wait and cuts me of....
Apparently if I send a formal email complaint to their complaints team the will respond in a 'timely' manner to every complaint raised. I am annoyed with how much of my time they have wasted and still want the answer to my questions but am getting no interest at all from them, even when I went into a branch to speak to someone so I thought I would make it more of a problem for them in the hope this provokes some response.
I want a script to send them a complaint Gmail every minute that I am stuck waiting on the phone. I will start the script each time I dial the number. The text for the email can be static but the Reference should start with a timestamp so that each changes with each email. If they keep my holding on for 45 minutes - they get 45 individual complaint emails, each with its own reference number. This can be started and stopped each time I dial and get cut off. Hopefully the volume of complaints raised with elevate the priority in their processing.
Can anyone code a simple script I can run on a Windows machine, start and stop easily and add my own text to the body of the email?
Google infrastructure has their own coding... you'll need the API's set up on your local machine though.
I do a load of stuff using google sheets and google drive and the scripts themselves are simple compared to getting it set up in the 1st place.
e.g.
scope = ['https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds','https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive']
sheet_name ='MASTER_ORDERS'
# add credentials to the account
creds = ServiceAccountCredentials.from_json_keyfile_name('focused-code-XXYYZZ.json', scope)
# authorize the clientsheet
client = gspread.authorize(creds)
Easy on linux, open a gmail account, enable external access then use curl to send emails via the gmail account..
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14722556/using-curl-to-send-email
It might make you feel better, but having worked in support I'm fairly confident that that sort of stunt would get you the bare minimum of assistance that the poor sod who has to close all those tickets can get away with providing.
Also, any ticketing system worth its salt will have a 'bulk close' function. And if theirs doesn't then, well, you're wondering why no-one is available to answer the phone...
Could create an azure Logic App - should all be drag and drop to create something to send a simple email. Dead easy to just loop/schedule it every minute... not sure whats covered on the free tier though.
But as above, if they're too busy to answer phones, do you honestly think spamming their mailbox will have an effect?
Yeah, I feel your pain but Cougar is correct. Modern systems are understaffed and waste your life. I often find that calling the wrong helpline, e.g. the business one, and being nice can sometimes get you through to a real person. Otherwise try their Twitter, then their complaints system and finally you can hit up the ombudsman. But it is so painful now. One of the things I check before signing up for something new is calling the helpline to see how bad it is
Try emailing
Jes.staley@barclays.com
CEO of Barclays should get you a resolution
TO all, like Cougar, worrying about the people having to deal with the spam - they will have a bulk close option so it will not overload them with work. What it might, I hope, do is trigger a KPI or quality measure warning in the system that will mean it gets bumped up to someone able to actually take corrective action.
It is not just me being petty, I am trying to play their system.
I will also see if a single email to Jes has any effect.
Thanks
What it might, I hope, do is trigger a KPI or quality measure warning in the system that will mean it gets bumped up to someone able to actually take corrective action.
More likely to flag you/your email as vexatious.
Raise the email to category for review - the email will have the couple of questions I need answering included so the expected action is to quickly answer the questions and then dismiss the emails under whatever rule they like. The aim is to get the questions answered, nothing more. I just wish that any of their official comms channels would allow this.
Try emailing
Jes.staley@barclays.com
Shame he isn't anymore, drop Venkat an email instead
as vexatious.
good word!
Email the CEO and cc your MP.
That's how I do it 🙂
Why not just send them a recorded delivery letter? Much more likely to get a response.
TO all, like Cougar, worrying about the people having to deal with the spam – they will have a bulk close option so it will not overload them with work. What it might, I hope, do is trigger a KPI or quality measure warning in the system that will mean it gets bumped up to someone able to actually take corrective action.
All you’ll do is trigger DOS protection at both Barclays and Google, and likely get your Gmail account canned.
And a mail bomb is a type of denial of service attack that’s actually illegal under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. So if Barclays got particularly arsey, the boys in blue would be round. Well, probably not, you’d probably just get a strongly worded email about being a naughty boy.
The contact centre tech I work with (which I happen to know Barclays use) would just delete them all as duplicates anyway, despite your unique reference.
Approx 45 emails in a hour is not a denial of service attack and the police will not be around.
A DOS attack will not be triggered or seen as being a DOS attack by the Barclays IT security systems.
Resolver?
Why not visit a local branch and have a meeting with one of their mortgage people?
Seems less effort and more constructive.
In my experience Barclays are one of the better customer service banks! So consider your actions carefully - if you did this to my business I’d consider you the sort of person I no longer wanted to do business with. That might not be so easy for a mortgage provider but im not sure id want to test where the limit is for their legal department to find a way.
I expect every time the BOE changes their base rate they get flooded with calls. What I discovered during Covid lockdowns was there were certain times of day you just couldn’t get through to Barclays (I had a short period where I needed to talk to them almost every day for a few weeks) but others where it was quite slick. Unsurprisingly 5-6pm is the worst time to call. 9.15 seemed to be quite good - after the people who call before work but before the “I must call them in the morning” people start. I did mention this on a call once and they said definitely get in before school finishes around 3.30 as then you get a rush of childrens account queries and parents after the school run.
Write to the newspaper. That stuff always gets sorted including freebies for good will.
It is of course well documented that in multinational corporations employing tens of thousands of staff many of whom work in various support departments, the CEO will drop everything to handle every minor end-user customer enquiry personally. Back in the day it was a common occurrence for Bill Gates to storm into Microsoft Tech Support raging "what do I pay you lot for, I've just received an email, Sheila in Sandusky Ohio can't print in yellow! You know what, forget it, I'll ring her and sort it myself!!"
What will likely happen is that an email to the CEO will end up redirected into Support with all the others. If you're really lucky, it might get tagged as some sort of priority executive complaint. If you're unlucky then it'll just end up in the bit bucket. If and when it gets to Support it will be on the desk of a minimum wage agent whose opening mindset will be "this little bollocks thinks he's being clever by emailing the CEO."
I've worked in or adjacent to many, many support departments of varying prestige over the years and they all had one thing in common. The best way by a long chalk to get a favourable response is to get the person dealing with your query to care about it. Conversely, being the biggest pain in the ass possible will get you lost in the system for as long as they can get away with ignoring you.
Being nice will get you a long way. Trust me.
What I discovered during Covid lockdowns was there were certain times of day you just couldn’t get through to Barclays (I had a short period where I needed to talk to them almost every day for a few weeks) but others where it was quite slick. Unsurprisingly 5-6pm is the worst time to call. 9.15 seemed to be quite good – after the people who call before work but before the “I must call them in the morning” people start.
Yup, there is a truth to this. Back when I worked at Time the Tech Support desk was battered with calls (not least because what we sold was shit). In the early days there was no IVR so to the customer it just rang without answer. Queues were so long that it was common for BT to terminate the unanswered connection (IIRC it was a 2-hour cut-off). But we all started at 8:30am in a 'bums-on-seats ready to take calls by 8:30' regime. It was dead, you could get through instantly if you called; it was tending towards 9am when everything lit up.
It will differ for different call centres. Shift workers may balance out the load to a degree, overseas call centres and 24/7 support departments will have a different pattern again. But there will be a pattern. If you're calling at half 4 on a Friday then, well, so is everyone else.
People are morons. Go round a supermarket half an hour before closing on a Sunday afternoon, it's rammed to the gills with pensioners doing a weekly shop. Why?! Look at support opening hours, think about it, game the system.
Few of the customer service places round here actually publicise their busy (and quiet) periods.
"If possible, please call between 13 and 15, or after 18, we will be able to handle your call quicker and more effectively."
Basically first and second line are relatively quite, so both easy AND hard questions can be answered in minutes (rather than hours).
I got a call this morning from a very helpful lady at Barclays who was able to answer most of my questions and promised to email the details for the request.
Nice to get a positive response