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'Apartheid' call system filters out poor Barclays clients

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    'Apartheid' call system filters out poor Barclays clients

    Thousands of struggling bank customers will be connected to Indian call centres while more affluent account holders will get one in Britain.

    A new banking phone system will identify those with low credit approvals and put them through to India.

    Those who have considerable savings or a credit limit that allows them to borrow around £500 from the bank or buy its products will be connected to a British operator.

    Bosses hope the new line will filter out their customers who do not have the money to buy the bank's products so their British staff will potentially be able to sell to every caller.

    Barclays is testing the system and call centre staff have been briefed that it will start on April 1.

    One Barclays sales executive said: 'Before we've had people ringing up who have been overdrawn, so we haven't been able to sell them anything.'

    Critics say the bank is only interested in people with cash and not the genuine concerns of millions who have queries about the state of their finances. (AtW's comment: no comment)

    Eddy Weatherill of the Independent Banking Advisory Service said: 'This is an apartheid system and certainly preferential to their wealthier customers.

    'This is not intended to give the best advice, but a chance to make more money.'

    Barclays was one of the few banks to not borrow from public funds during the banking crisis last year.

    A spokesman said: 'Customers will speak to different teams in different locations depending upon the nature of their query.'

    Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...r-clients.html

    #2
    Good, no point wasting money on the riff-raff ......... cmon we are contractors, we are hardly likely to fall into the poor man group.

    Comment


      #3
      Sounds fair enough to me. Good business model.

      Apartheid, noun. The official system of segregation or discrimination on racial grounds formerly in force in South Africa.

      Don't see the connection to Apartheid though (or is it clever enough to detect accents too?).

      Comment


        #4
        And in other shock news, banks are found to like making a profit...
        ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

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          #5
          Not exactly news or restricted to banks.

          Noticed how, for example, insurance sales teams are UK based and their back office is based in India?

          So, once they've got your money, they get the cheaper Indian bods to 'look after' you once you've signed up.

          Try discussing a car accident with them!

          More Than do this. T0ssers!

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            #6
            I must be on their poor (service) list. I recently attempted to open a foreign currency account with them and got passed to India. I couldn't work out what the guy reading the script was saying, but I did glean enough to work out that I could arrange to open one at a branch. I declined whatever it was he then tried to sell me and the customer satisfaction survey. I'd wasted enough time already.

            But the service didn't get any better at a local branch, the woman was out of her depth and couldn't find the relevant form, and didn't even know if it existed, so I gave up. I use my Barclays account less and less these days.

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              #7
              P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

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                #8
                Originally posted by NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25 View Post
                Good, no point wasting money on the riff-raff ......... cmon we are contractors, we are hardly likely to fall into the poor man group.
                Is that like the blue man group but with hobos?

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by TimberWolf View Post
                  P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.
                  Agreed. Cater Allen are better though but out of the "normal" banks First Direct are great.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Clippy View Post
                    So, once they've got your money, they get the cheaper Indian bods to 'look after' you once you've signed up.

                    Try discussing a car accident with them!

                    More Than do this. T0ssers!
                    Been there. Have been known to hang up and try another operator because of strong accents which I couldn't understand.

                    The other one was 'free' travel insurance through my bank. I needed to clarify that they were OK with an existing condition and couldn't understand what they were saying so 'risked' it.

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