‘Your call is important to us’: Lousy customer service sparks crackdown call
Long waits on the phone trying to speak to a human at big companies is infuriating Australians and prompting calls for tougher standards to make business lift its game.
When Karen Trudgian found herself needing to make a car insurance claim, it wasn’t long before it devolved into a “surreal” experience that most Australians are probably all too familiar with.
“I was sitting on the phone for hours getting to the limit of how long I wanted to be on hold,” she said.
“They say ‘we’re receiving an unusual volume of calls right now’ – but that’s every time you call over a period of three weeks.”
After a good deal of back and forth over almost a month and her insurer at one point attempting to charge her an erroneous excess fee, Karen finally had her claim processed with AAMI.
But it was such an arduous experience that she will think twice before making a claim again.
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“I’m still with them [AAMI], because I don’t really have confidence anyone is better,” Trudgian said.
“It’s late-stage capitalism really. What can you do? I’d think twice before going through it again.”
Consumer group Choice says Australians shouldn’t have to feel like they’re pulling teeth just to get decent customer service from businesses that should be prioritising it as their main function.
A survey of 6000 consumers published on Thursday showed 73 per cent have experienced poor service from a business in the past year, with 85 per cent believing things are getting worse.
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“From telcos, to banks, to insurers, to ride-sharing apps, it’s clear that far too many companies are giving consumers the runaround and creating barriers that prevent people getting the support they need,” Choice’s deputy director of campaigns Andy Kelly said on Thursday.
“Over half of the survey respondents reported they were trying to resolve a problem with a product or service they’d already purchased, so many were potentially paying for something they couldn’t use.”
Choice now wants the government to step in and create new standards that force businesses to lift their game, including outlawing a series of unfair trading practices against consumers.
Kelly said that under existing laws there isn’t much stopping companies from making it hard to resolve issues, including by maintaining arduous wait times at call centres.
“Most people mistakenly believe businesses are already required to treat consumers fairly, so people are expecting a level of protection that simply doesn’t exist,” Kelly said.
“Choice is calling on the government to pass strong new fairness laws that would make a raft of unfair business practices illegal.
“New fairness laws should prevent businesses from intentionally making it difficult to get problems resolved, like hiding contact details and deliberately creating lengthy hold times.”
Choice said such reforms could be fast-tracked because the Albanese government has already consulted on a proposed ban of unfair trading practices, which they also argue should be expanded to financial services such as banking and insurance.
Trudgian thinks a government crackdown is overdue too, saying reforms that force businesses to properly invest in customer service are needed to stop people going through ordeals like hers.
“There does come a point where if you can’t get a hold of a company it’s just not an effective service,” she said.
“If you can’t get through to them, then what’s the point?”
