In short - they currently have different methods of chat access available. The “worst” version is no “chat now” or other button accessible at the end of the Help Screen, or in articles.
If you have that version of the app, and you need to chat to someone, there’s no obvious way to do so.
That is to say the way you accessed Chat isn’t possible for all users
(It can be accessed by typing “contact support”)
Maybe the people who voted “poor” on the MSE survey all have the version of the app where it looks like there’s no way to contact customer service.
I’m one of the people who has the “no chat” version of the app. If it wasn’t for the forum, I’d have no idea I could even chat to someone. I’d probably vote poor as well in that case.
Liked to thank for the explanation, not because I agree with differing access.
Has it ever been confirmed (more likely, denied) as to whether this is just one big A/B test?
Not a test, but staged rollout:
This is the forum’s discussion of the last MSE poll, way back when Coronavirus was just getting started.
Interestingly, with nearly double the number of voters for Monzo, only seven voted Poor.
Something has definitely gone very wrong at Monzo.
I think the poll is consistent with the trend in customer service over the last number of months. Interactions with CS has been variable for me ranging from pretty quick response times to waiting nearly 24 hours.
Regardless of the number of people who voted, you can see from posts on the community that support standards vary significantly.
There is a real issue here with consistency in service. Customers blindingly defending Monzo and hiding behind the fact that there was only 152 survey responses isn’t going to put pressure on them to improve that service.
Let’s not forget that MSE and Martin Lewis are generally well respected and trusted (anecdotal) and potential customers will take note of what they poll.
It hasn’t been many times. One occasion was because I needed stamped statements and that was handled brilliantly quick. One time was to raise my daily limit and that wasn’t answered until the day after by which point it was too late and I had to split a transaction over 2 days.
I am not a Monzo basher by the way. If you look through my previous posts you will see quite clearly I am a big supporter and defend them when appropriate. But I personally think the poll being discussed here seems to me to be fairly accurate of customer service engagement which is either great or poor.
Just on this point, this was due to regulatory changes. All banks were required to ensure their overdraft charges were presented as an annual interest rate.
And yet Resolver has Monzo at the top for best customer service of a bank…
It’s the so-called ‘challenger’ banks that top our excellent customer service charts for their current account services. Monzo’s Resolver score is an impressive 87%, followed closely by Revolut at 84%.
While both received a hefty five stars out of five for satisfaction and likelihood to recommend, Monzo stood out for their resolution and response times – meaning their customers felt they received a speedy communication process throughout their interaction.
Resolver seem to rate how quickly a firm responds to a complaint via its service while the MSE one is about Customer Service generally.
From reading posts here, even if you don’t like the MSE result, it’s clear that CS at Monzo had got worse over time - and sadly it’s by design.
I clearly recall one of their staff saying Monzo was going to be introducing changes which would prove unpopular with customers
Their methodology is even worse:
“Resolver requires a minimum of 30 customer feedbacks”
When did they say that? And why would they say it like that?
It’s not as easy for me.
The help page has no contact option. Instead, it encourages me to search the help pages.
If I find an article that looks like it might have the answer, I click it, read it, and at the end of the article says, “did this article solve your problem?” When I click no, it simply says, “thanks for letting us know! Your feedback helps us getting better at helping you.” At which point, I’ve reached a dead end.
If, however, my search results don’t show anything promising… well, I’m at another dead end. There’s still no contact us option.
It’s crap.
I agree 100% and when you see on here some of the things people go to the bother of asking chat, it’s no surprise they do this.
But…
This is the problem.
If it doesn’t solve your problem, then you should be able to get some help. Maybe it suggests another article first, maybe it does something else, no idea. But it shouldn’t be “Can’t help. Soz”
Every customer service issue I’ve had recently I’ve had to solve on my own, rather than wait for COps to do it. The problem is consistence and to an extent hiring qualities/what they’re looking for. This is compounded by reducing the number due to COVID19
Honestly, when I have a problem, the first thing I do is come on to the forum.
The only times I need to contact COps is for something I literally can not do myself, like raising the transaction limit, or reversing a cancelled transaction, or raising a card dispute.
IF things like that had automated flows (which they all could), then I’d be quite happy never to hunt around for the mysterious hidden button that allows me in to the mystical world of Monzo COps.
A shame that customers have to turn to a third party service in order to get decent customer service. No? 
It’s not something my business would be boasting about.
I had on instance of an incorrect bill address. So the money was taken from my account and held in Limbo,so I messaged COps and in between the 5 hour wait time the money had returned itself. I don’t know if there’s a help article that mentions this.
That’s literally what I have. I just go to help and scroll to the bottom and it’s there. I have also had great support for the rare times I have needed it tbh.