Call Centre Tips.

Commerce I've just sent a version of the following to someone in a comment in the spirit of waste not, want not ... it's on the subject of dealing with a genuine complaint at a call centre. Based on my experience on both sides of the phone:

The secret of call centres (which people often don't really know unless they've worked for them) is that the person they're speaking to is always at the bottom of a very tall ladder. Oh and if you're especially nice to them, they're more likely to give you the world if they're empowered to do so.

If you can't get any joy from the initial advisor, you can ask to speak to their manager (sometimes call a team coach) either via a callback or they may take over the call. Often they're more likely to give you things like refunds or if it's a particularly bad failure on their part compensation.

If that doesn't work -- or they don't manage to convince you that the company hasn't done anything properly wrong (which sometimes they can better than the advisor), they too will have a manager (sometimes called a floor or ops manager) and someone above them all of whom you should be able to talk to if you need to.

That said, some places also have a customer care team and if you have a complaint you'll be transferred to there and it's their job to make you happy. That was a particular joy during my brief stint at Nat West because it meant that we personally didn't have to deal with the above escalation procedure.

Failing all of that there will be a proper complaints/escalation department abd you should be able to get their details from the advisor or by googling the name of the company and "complaints department" with the usual regional adjustments.