Like Tree6Likes

Waiting time when calling a bank

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    487

    Waiting time when calling a bank

    I just called the "hotline" at BOCHK, and I had to wait 21.35 minutes before someone answered.

    Hong Kong banks are really a fucking joke. Not only you can't trade in any other country (apart from China and USA for some banks), but they don't even bother answering a "hotline".

    What is your record of waiting for someone to answer a "hotline"?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884

    You do realise that businesses are not operating exactly as normal these days, right? And that demand for phone banking services vs counter services has probably gone up a lot.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Cramped island
    Posts
    5,585

    Can you give a rough estimation of how much money you have actually let BOCHK earned from you ? (i.e. in their terms, the 'wallet').. minus the cost of maintaining the infrastructure to answer your phone within 20minutes.. then you can judge if that's a good deal..


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    487
    Quote Originally Posted by freeier:
    Can you give a rough estimation of how much money you have actually let BOCHK earned from you ? (i.e. in their terms, the 'wallet').. minus the cost of maintaining the infrastructure to answer your phone within 20minutes.. then you can judge if that's a good deal..
    Many many thousands of dollars over the years. What is the salary of someone answering the phone? My rough estimate is about $100 an hour. They can hire another 10 people to answer the phone, instead of making people waste their time!

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Cramped island
    Posts
    5,585

    Ask them to assign you a RM that can answer your phone..

    jgl likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Manchester, UK
    Posts
    7,790

    I called up HSBC last week as I couldnt find my security dongle, kept waiting to talk to a human and i finally gave up around 25 mins, luckily i put it on speaker phone and kept doing my work at home.

    Ps i found my dongle so it was good I couldnt get through or they would have cancelled it I think.


  7. #7

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    119

    Have you tried logging in online banking on your PC and using the online chat function? Immediate response to my query whether a marketing call was from them.


  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by john_1122:
    I just called the "hotline" at BOCHK, and I had to wait 21.35 minutes before someone answered.

    Hong Kong banks are really a fucking joke. Not only you can't trade in any other country (apart from China and USA for some banks), but they don't even bother answering a "hotline".

    What is your record of waiting for someone to answer a "hotline"?
    After almost a decade here, I have perfected how to get a person on the phone in as little time as possible. The secret is never press any buttons when given a set of options and always pick report a lost or stolen credit card.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    Beautiful Britain
    Posts
    2,089

    I love my ‘First Direct’ bank in the UK (owned by HSBC)

    Usually answer the phone within the first few rings. Straight through to a real person, no menus to navigate. Staffed by local UK people not a call centre in a India or the like.....and it’s free!

    chuckster007 likes this.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    487
    Quote Originally Posted by Praetorian:
    Have you tried logging in online banking on your PC and using the online chat function? Immediate response to my query whether a marketing call was from them.
    Yes, that's what I did, while waiting for the guy to answer the phone. It wasn't immediate, but definitely much faster. I still waited for the guy to answer the phone, to check how long I had to wait, and for telling the guy that their hotline was "a fucking joke" (I think that's the words I used.

    I still wonder why they can't hire more people to answer the phone. I guess online chat is "manned" by AI?

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast