Lovely British Airways

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gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
quotequote all
How can the national carrier of the UK not have a manned call centre?? ive had a flight cancelled, Johannesburg to cape town due to comair going bust. I need to enquire if my car hire is still valid? no info that its not but to assume could be dangerous and bloody expensive. Ive checked my account and ive not had any refund. Does anyone have a number that is attached to a phone that is answered the other end..
I drove from Ramsgate to Gatwick to go to customer service to find no BA staff at all, just agency workers, I then went to Heathrow and was told by one member of staff to call the same number that no one answers.. This is me done with BA, useless company.

blue_haddock

3,142 posts

66 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
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Over the last two years i've dealt with BA over several changes to holidays when changes to the green list etc meant changing our holiday destinations and i never had any bother.

I now have the name and email of a specific person and i just meail her and she responds pretty quickly and has been a great help.

HotJambalaya

2,023 posts

179 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
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why dont you just call the hire car company and see if they still have your reservation on file?

Jamescrs

4,450 posts

64 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
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Bizarre to think I used to.work.in their call centre in Manchester, they also had call centres in Newcastle and Glasgow but that was nearly 20 years ago.

Sorry OP not helpful I know.

gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
quotequote all
HotJambalaya said:
why dont you just call the hire car company and see if they still have your reservation on file?
Ah yes I would but they close at 4pm.. ill try Tomorrow.


gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
quotequote all
blue_haddock said:
Over the last two years i've dealt with BA over several changes to holidays when changes to the green list etc meant changing our holiday destinations and i never had any bother.

I now have the name and email of a specific person and i just meail her and she responds pretty quickly and has been a great help.
Sharing is caring smile

Alorotom

11,907 posts

186 months

Friday 24th June 2022
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I know a couple of people who work in the Newcastle "customer service centre" (friends of friends) and theyre all still WFH mainly and lots have left for better/less hassle jobs and of course WFH doesn't really lend itself to the home environment etc.

When I needed to speak to them I used the normal 0344 493 0787 number but called about 3-4mins before opening so by the time I navigated the automatic system I was one of the first to be answered (at 6am).

steveo3002

10,493 posts

173 months

Friday 24th June 2022
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finding this sort of thing with everywhere i call ...some automated system basically telling me to f.o

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Friday 24th June 2022
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gtidriver said:
How can the national carrier of the UK not have a manned call centre?? ive had a flight cancelled, Johannesburg to cape town due to comair going bust. I need to enquire if my car hire is still valid? no info that its not but to assume could be dangerous and bloody expensive. Ive checked my account and ive not had any refund. Does anyone have a number that is attached to a phone that is answered the other end..
I drove from Ramsgate to Gatwick to go to customer service to find no BA staff at all, just agency workers, I then went to Heathrow and was told by one member of staff to call the same number that no one answers.. This is me done with BA, useless company.
First thing before most will be able to help you is the question of if this is a BA direct booking or BA Holidays. If it is BA Holidays getting through to the main BA numbers will not get you where you need to be. Sometimes they can transfer you..... other times not. As with any call centre timing is everything however, so dialling around 8am in the morning to the UK centres will work best.

There are no customer services desks at LGW or LHR or other airports by the way that can address the issue you raised. Unfortunately you did not know this so both journeys were wasted.

dundarach

4,963 posts

227 months

Friday 24th June 2022
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How?

Because people want everything as cheap as possible, whilst at the same time continue to support organisation and Governments which allow massive profits and bonuses.


gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Finally got through to Avis, car hire cancelled good of them to tell me that.. Am I wasting my time complaining to BA as im now going to be out of pocket by over £500 plus my time and fuel and parking yesterday.

gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Wondering if phone ba in a different country would work?Maybe they employ phone operators in foreign lands...

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
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gtidriver said:
Finally got through to Avis, car hire cancelled good of them to tell me that.. Am I wasting my time complaining to BA as im now going to be out of pocket by over £500 plus my time and fuel and parking yesterday.
Yes you are wasting your time, because they give you numbers to call & nowhere imply you should go to airports to resolve such issues. I may be being harsh & I understand you are pissed at them, but thats the way it is. Airport customer service centres only handle on the day issues.

gtidriver said:
Wondering if phone ba in a different country would work?Maybe they employ phone operators in foreign lands...
Sometimes the call centres in US, Germany, India are more contactable.

djc206

12,241 posts

124 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
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GT03ROB said:
Sometimes the call centres in US, Germany, India are more contactable.
My wife had some luck with the Dutch or German one recently. Dutch one might even actually just be German, my wife is terrible at identifying accents. Anyhoo she dialled the Dutch number and they answered almost immediately and resolved the issue that the U.K. call centre claimed they couldn’t in minutes.

gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
gtidriver said:
Finally got through to Avis, car hire cancelled good of them to tell me that.. Am I wasting my time complaining to BA as im now going to be out of pocket by over £500 plus my time and fuel and parking yesterday.
Yes you are wasting your time, because they give you numbers to call & nowhere imply you should go to airports to resolve such issues. I may be being harsh & I understand you are pissed at them, but thats the way it is. Airport customer service centres only handle on the day issues.

gtidriver said:
Wondering if phone ba in a different country would work?Maybe they employ phone operators in foreign lands...
Sometimes the call centres in US, Germany, India are more contactable.
I got through to BA in the uk today, before yesterday all options and combinations ended in a message telling you that all staff where busy. Theres a new message now informing you of possible strike action.. after that you go through he options menu and 45 minutes later someone picks up, there was no one at the call centre taking calls, the operator had never heard of a passenger doing a 250 mile round trip to speak with customer services and seamed genuine when he said that wasn't on..Anyway im to keep all receipts and send them in after the holiday, ive rebooked the flights and car hire. Fingers crossed.

austina35

334 posts

51 months

Monday 27th June 2022
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Just returned from a week in Portugal for a holiday. Flew there and back on BA. 1 hour delay going out and on time for the return flight.

Cant fault BA. Relatively easy check in on both flights and no hassle in the airport despite the large numbers of people travelling.

Even when I had 4 holidays cancelled during covid, BA gave me every penny back. I have never had any problem with them in 30 years of using them.

I'll be booking my next trip this week.

blue_haddock

3,142 posts

66 months

Monday 27th June 2022
quotequote all
gtidriver said:
blue_haddock said:
Over the last two years i've dealt with BA over several changes to holidays when changes to the green list etc meant changing our holiday destinations and i never had any bother.

I now have the name and email of a specific person and i just meail her and she responds pretty quickly and has been a great help.
Sharing is caring smile
You have PM

gtidriver

Original Poster:

3,334 posts

186 months

Friday 1st July 2022
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Thank you, sorry ive just seen this.

lornemalvo

2,167 posts

67 months

Saturday 2nd July 2022
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Customer service in almost every area of life has taken a nose dive. The most lasting legacy of Covid, the lockdowns and working from home culture is an unprecedented level of laziness and apathy and an acceptance that providing a poor service is absolutely fine. Our collective work ethic took a massive hit.

psi310398

9,036 posts

202 months

Saturday 2nd July 2022
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lornemalvo said:
Customer service in almost every area of life has taken a nose dive. The most lasting legacy of Covid, the lockdowns and working from home culture is an unprecedented level of laziness and apathy and an acceptance that providing a poor service is absolutely fine. Our collective work ethic took a massive hit.
That’s a bit unfair, at least on BA staff. I’ve generally had excellent service when I can run a human being to ground.

Things went to st in a serious way when the board appointed Alex Cruz to run the place as a budget airline charging premium prices. He’s been shown the door but it will take time for BA to recover from his stewardship.