3 dumb questions BPI Customer Service Call Center Agents ask

i called BPI Customer Service 89-100 today to ask them to reverse an annual membership fee charge on my credit card. i have had my BPI Credit Card for many years, decades and they have not charged me this fee. also, all other competitive credit cards from other banks no longer charge annual membership fees.

the call center agent told me she will check if their system is back online already.

and that is another issue with BPI – their computer / internet system seem to be offline often and this has been happening for many years. there have been times when you try to transact something at their physical branches and you can encounter their systems to be offline and you can’t transact anything with the bank that you are asked to return. if it happens at the physical bank, then it also happens on their telephone service which was what i encountered today.

i don’t understand why BPI, the country’s second largest bank have not fixed this problem of their computer / internet system being off-line from time to time. i would think being the second largest bank in the country gives them enough smarts and resources to fix this.

not only that, BPI is an Ayala – owned company, the Ayalas also own Globe Telecoms, the country’s second largest cellphone and internet service provider. for sure they are using Globe Telecoms. why wouldn’t Globe make sure BPI has internet service on a 24/7 basis?

unless of course these Ayala companies, BPI and Globe are both incompetent.

and true enough after a few seconds, the call center agent tells me their system is offline. she asked me why i called and i told her about the annual membership fee charge.

these were the 3 stupid things the BPI call center agent said:

1. she asked me to call back 89-100 since their system is down – i objected to this and told her the problem is with their company, their system is down that is why she was  unable to help me with my problems, i asked why was she inconveniencing their customer by asking me to call back when the problem is with them?  i also told her it is not easy to call 89-100. lines tend to be busy and how will i know when the system will be back online for me to call at the right time? she agreed with me it was not right for her to ask me to call back. so she said she will be the one to call me. and that is when she said the 2nd stupid thing.
2. she asked me what was the most convenient time for her to call me – this got me really ticked. so i asked her the question – if i told you the most convenient time for me for  you to call me, will you be able to call me at the time i identify? it was 11:30 am at the time of our conversation so as a theory, i asked her –  if i told you 2:00 pm is convenient, can you guarantee to me all has been fixed by then and will you call me at 2 pm? she answered – no sir, i can’t promise to call you at that time. i asked her why are you not sure if you can make that call? she answered – because sir i do not know what time the system will be back on line. i told her, do you now realize you asked me a stupid question? her reply – yes, sir. and from there, it led her to ask a 3rd stupid question.
3. she asked : will you accept my call after i fix the matter, sir?  that almost made me drop the telephone. i asked her:  miss – why will i not accept your call when you call me? i called you to fix something for me, i gave you my cell number and agreed for you to call me when it’s done, why will i not accept your call?  miss, that’s another stupid thing to say. her reply – sorry, sir. i will just call you after we’re back on-line.

i just couldn’t stand it so i gave her advise  and told her to stop solely relying on the script they were asked to deliver and start thinking first before saying anything. i told her understand what’s happening in the conversation and respond to it accordingly, don’t just parrot what’s on the script.

that was not the first time i have encountered such conversations with BPI customer service call center personnel and that is why i am sure it was part of the script they are being asked to deliver to their customers.

it is probably the fault of the heads of the call center company that BPI uses and BPI itself for coming up with such an inane script for their customer service personnel to deliver.

there are several problems here that the call center company and BPI have created:

1. they have asked their customer service call center agents NOT TO THINK, not to use their brains in talking to customers
2. instead of asking them to think and process things on their own, they have asked their call center agents to deliver by rote, like robots a fixed script to customers. this is the rule : do not think, just deliver the script
3. lastly, whoever developed the script these call center agents are delivering is an idiot. he/she developed a script that does not correctly predict what happens during calls and these are really  lines that make their call center agents sound stupid.

on the bright side, what this means is that the call center agent who attended to me (Mylie Mendoza ID #183xxx) strictly follows the script she was asked to deliver. the only problem is that she did not process the situation at all. but then, i think the rule given to her by her superiors at the call center was for her not to think, just deliver the prepared script.

and this is from the second largest bank in the country!