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I know they are short on revenue. But as a customer I don’t see that as my responsibility. It’s their problem not mine. I occasionally buy their ‘sorry to do this but it costs us money’ thing, but I just can’t live with a bank that tries to hide it’s customer support line from me. It just makes me feel like they don’t trust me and that if I contact them it will be a waste of their precious time.

Well. There. I’ve reacted and I’ve switched, and I feel better for it.

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Chat is still there if you need it. You’ve just changed banks because you have to search for it.

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Pretty much yeah that’s why I’ve changed.

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Although I’d point out it’s the last straw rather than the only factor. The long wait times, the automated nonsense that starts the chat play a part too. I just want a bank that’s easy to contact and which welcomes customers to speak to them and it seems that’s no longer Monzo.

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I would imagine most chats start like that now

Starlings doesn’t. I just tested it, it asked me to say what I wanted and I got a response in 15 minutes :man_shrugging:

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By way of comparison, I thought I’d have a look at some other banking apps to see how easy their support/help/chat/messaging/customer service functions are to find.

Here’s what I’ve found from the ones I have.

AMEX: Help icon at top right of app
Barclays: Help icon at bottom of app
Halifax: Support icon at bottom of app

Mettle: Account icon at bottom right > Get Help
NatWest: Help icon at bottom of app
RBS: Help icon at bottom of app

Starling: Menu icon at top right of app > Help
Tide: Support icon at botton of app
TSB: Menu at top left > Help Centre

Essentially, getting support in banking apps appears to be universally easy for the non-Monzo apps that I have installed on my iPhone.

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You have a lot of banking apps!

But I agree, Monzo lag a long way behind on customer service.

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Just for comparison I have had to wait long times to get a response from Starling in the past. Worse still when they responded I couldnt reply as I was not my phone at the time and they closed the chat and I had to start again.

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At least you have a chat button. No chat button for me. Have to search help first. Unacceptable.

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So as a premium customer please may I say: I reallllllllly hope not.

Monzo was built on accessible banking for all and if there is an issue with chat we should all have it. I don’t want a second class customer service to exist. If there is an issue let’s lobby for better together.

Edit: Fixed a typo

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Pay extra just to get basic chat support? :astonished:

I wonder if any/many support staff have been laid off? Might explain the recent changes :thinking:

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Just from today:

Let no-one pretend that Starling is immune from this

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Some of them are furloughed, or were. And the Vegas office closed, which was where the out of hours support was supposed to come from.

But it’s also feels from staff responses that this is a long term strategy to reduce customer service and therefore increase profitability (‘create a sustainable business’).

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Maybe a few additional words could be added there. I’ve seen no aim to reduce the actual service itself, just be able to cover it with as few people as possible and to automate in every way possible. This is inevitable as customer numbers and issues grow otherwise you’ll have tens of thousands of COps

Other FinTech banks and institutions will have to look into this as well in time. Maybe Starling have grown just slow enough to keep up or have had customers that have fewer problems or other magic fixes, but will that scale if they move from a million customers to two or three million? We shall see

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I’ve seen no aim to reduce the actual service itself

Customer service was 24 hours and now it isn’t. That’s objectively a reduction in customer service.

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I’ll give you that particular point, but it’s during an unprecedented global pandemic though, so not part of the long term strategy I would say

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I guess you are a glass half full guy!

Personally I see the chances of 15 minute wait time targets and 24 hour service that once existed resuming as extremely slim to zero.

Time will tell I guess.

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I dunno, i just hold an app only bank to a a higher standard.

They dont have branches or even reliable phonelines for contacting when you have issues so should be extremely easy to contact with chat.

I get they arent profitabale but cmon they really need to focus on providing a good service if they want to grow and become profitable.

I was trying to persuade my mum to move over to monzo as her main bank instead of just a holiday card, if i dont have trust in that she can get the appropriate customer service when needed then ill tell her not to bother

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