It’s really tedious how some people insist on dragging this down to a Monzo vs Starling debate.
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Not quite accurate when he was replying to the guy who had a reactionary-move to Starling because of chat issues.
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Yeah, that. I was not the person who brought Starling up here to start with, and it is not wrong to compare the two when explicitly a CASS to Starling is presented as a solution to potential chat woes
If anyone is looking for a bank to compare to Monzo, I think Starling is the obvious comparator.
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To be clear, for me it was just that it’s the other bank I have an account with.
I didn’t mean to make it in a ‘Monzo vs starling’ way. Perhaps I should have just written ‘I’m switching away’, that would have been enough.
I mean if you hadn’t actually read this post you wouldn’t have switched in the 1st place, you’ve already said you didn’t know the button had vanished on your app making it slightly harder to type contact us. If you’ve never noticed the button had vanished up until this point then what’s it matter
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Here an idea… lets maybe not turn this into a thread attacking someone or judging someone for cassing over to another bank. Not very monzolike
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Perhaps it’s also related to the fact I then went looking as to why it was missing and found that it’s part of some ‘business sustainability’ drive because ‘many people don’t read the help articles’, according to Monzo staff.
They seem to have judged that I won’t know when to speak to staff and that I’m likely to waste their time if I talk to them. Overall I just think that’s a bad attitude for them to have towards me, their customer.
It’s not just about wanting to be able to access chat but also not being made to feel like if I do I’m some sort of unwanted business expense / dent on their profitability they could do without. And sadly that’s the impression I’ve been left with.
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I agree. I think I’ve probably already over explained my thinking here. At the end of the day I felt this wasn’t acceptable and I’ve left. I think that’s all I’ll say on the decision now. Up to other people how they feel and up to me how I feel.
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Not defending Starling in particular as I’ve had issues with their support in the past, but there is a notable a difference between phone lines being busy (due to higher load, reduced staff, etc.) and intentionally making it harder to get in touch as part of a cost saving measure.
In the same situation as the tweet, Monzo’s phone line would have disconnected the user and a chat response could be hours to days away. 
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At times though the chat function is closed saying customer service is closed overnight. It’s not there if you need it.
Monzo know full well that they’re not going to respond overnight anyway but they removed it to lessen the amount of queries that they’re getting in…
Not to mention the phone line for as long as I can remember intentionally disconnecting people after waiting in a queue for 5 or 10 minutes. Plus the phone line’s response to everything is ‘Send us a message in the app’ and in the event that fails it’s ‘send us an email instead then’. I think if Monzo could get away with turning the phones off entirely - they would.
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Not sure if others are different but when I go click “chat with us” out of hours I get this.
Personally I like this way of doing it.
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That’s much better. I think the ‘It’s an emergency’ must be a recent addition.
This message makes it much clearer and still gives an option for those who really need it. The right direction indeed.
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I tried to check the other night and I’m sure it was after 8pm but I didn’t get that screen, I got straight through.
Same, when the thread first came up I tried, and I still get through to the messaging screen.
I take it then there is overnight support available, just for emergencies only? So it’s not “Chat is Closed”, it’s “We deal with emergencies at night”?
Subtle difference there, but it is important: Say I have a non-emergency issue but due to a work schedule am unable to utilise chat in it’s opening hours, what do I do then?
Part of the asynchronous nature of Monzo’s chat meant that could be easily managed. Drop in a message when it’s convenient for me, and let it get picked up when the queue opens up.
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Yes, there should be an opportunity to leave a message overnight which can be looked at in the morning.
I think the screen with “It’s an emergency” could make this clear - instead of “Got it” closing the chat, it would open up a message for looking at later, placing it into a non-priority queue. At the same time, there would be a real-time chat if you selected the emergency option, which would go into the separate emergencies queue. The backlog would then be cleared during the working day, and repeated the next night.
I think this would work quite well for most people as the things you really need immediate help for qualify as emergencies anyway, so no problem there, and the other things could be sorted a bit more seamlessly than having to wait for the “opening hours”.
You don’t want to have to come back later to type the message, when it could easily be done on first-launch of the chat.
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Nothing to do with that there’s people on here without premium who can access chat straight away
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I guess they won’t be running that ad again.
If they did - 2 years after they ran it the ASA would be in touch saying they shouldn’t have, with zero consequence.
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I have the chat button available and I can send a message at any time, but I don’t know if anyone will reply before the morning.
Previously it was hidden and I couldn’t send a message out of hours.
Probably an A/B test.
I’m not registered as vulnerable or anything with monzo.
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