Management needs to experiece how difficult it is to get through to you via 131245

[Suz78]

twice a  week  at least  20  of your  senior managers and  three of your  board members  and ten team leaders  at  RANDOM times   need  to  dial  131245  WITHOUT WARNING they are going to try  to get through.  Then  with  a  stop watch  at the  ready  they  need to  record  how many  minutes  it took to  get through.

result 

1.  they  will change  the annoying  recording  saying  you  have to wait  up to  5 minutes.  It is NOT five  minutes.  it is  well over  30 minutes.

 2. Management  needs to  accept  that not enough staff are employed  on the  phones.  yes managers say  it is all about  "customer service"  but  FAIL  to  grasp  that  their  decisions  are destroying  customer service

3. I tried at  9am  -  stopped  waiting  after  25 mins. /  then I tried at  4.30 pm-  stopped  trying after  36 mins.  then  I tried  at  6.15 pm =  gave up  waiting at  30 mins as phone needed recharging.  then  tried again  at  7.20 pm  and  had  to  give up at 8.01pm     it is NOT the  fault  of your  staff  -  the fault is all about  management  not  providing enough people on the  phones  HANG  YOUR  HEADS  IN SHAME.  SAWater is  not  great  -  but  they  answer  far  more  promptly  than you.  Corona virus  is  NOT an excuse  because  staff can work from home  using  a work  provided mobile phone.

and  NOW  my  problem is  STILL  NOT  RESOLVED  and  I need to  speak to someone  at  AGL

And  NO  I do  NOT want to interface  with  an electronic robot  via  an online bot  -  I want  to  discuss the  problem  with  a  real  person  at  AGL

[David_AGL]

Hi @Suz78 . Thanks for the feedback, and I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations with getting in touch with us by phone.

We're aware that there have been major impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak on call centre capacity and this has affected wait times. Unfortunately it's not actually possible for call centre staff to work from home using a provided phone, as call centres require much more dedicated technology infrastructure than that. However, we are investigating ways to work around this.

Your suggestion about management trying the call centre experience from the customer side is a great one,  and you'll be pleased to hear we do already pursue initiatives just like that to monitor the customer experience.

Finally, we understand that some people much prefer to speak to someone over the phone than to use online channels, but given the current circumstances, it might be faster to get assistance through the web chat or through the "Message Us" function on My Account, at least until phone capacity can be increased.

For more information on how AGL is responding to the current situation, take a look at https://www.agl.com.au/coronavirus?cidi=A10492