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Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

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Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#221

Post by pwython »

em500 wrote: post #118
olalonde wrote: post #62

It's weird to see all those negative anecdotes about Booking.com. As a counter anecdote, I've used them several times and they always seem to have much cheaper prices then the competition. I was also able to cancel my booking once without issue after talking to customer support. PS: Not in any way affiliated with them other than being a satisfied customer.

It's not weird at all, most forum threads involving huge companies attract largely negative comments (Google, Amazon, even Apple). By and large I'm happy with the services of these companies, but if you go by HN I can get my gmail shutdown with no reason or recourse and half the stuff I bought from Amazon is probably fake.

It's not just huge companies, it makes sense that reviews for anything usually skew negative. Because if someone orders a product/service that worked out great, not many people take the time to write a "thank you letter." But if something was amiss, the user will have no problem venting their (warranted) frustration. I would be livid if Gmail locked me out of my account for no reason, or I received a fake product from an Amazon seller, and would certainly let people know.

However, on the same note, I hate when I see someone blasting/suing Walmart or similar for what one cashier did to them. No amount of corporate training can prepare someone for a bad day.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#222

Post by Beltalowda »

sundache wrote: post #215
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands has liberalized worker rights to the point it would make Elon Musk cry. This place is a weird mix of Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism.

They CS people in Amsterdam aren't getting fired though.

And aside from that, you can't just transfer employment contracts to random third companies in the Netherlands either.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#223

Post by pfortuny »

charcircuit wrote: post #80
NumberCruncher wrote: post #57

In Germany this isn't a legal move. One of my former employees (global telco everyone knows) tried to do the same, namely moving the contracts of the employees to an other company. 200 of them started a class action and won easily. The company had to terminate their contracts (which means the employees are eligible for unemployment benefits, etc.) and had to pay a good severance. Something like (years of employment)…

Why is it illegal to fire people in Germany?

It is not illegal, it comes with strings attached because in general, in the EU the employee is seen as being the weak side of a contract, and is protected (to a point) against arbitrariness from the strong side.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#226

Post by vinay427 »

strzibny wrote: post #187
vinay427 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, after growing up in the US I have to do the same when shopping in Germany or Switzerland. It’s almost unheard of for stores here to offer compensation such as a refund or exchange for many situations commonplace in the US, and many customer service interactions for other things like a phone bill have exhibited stubbornness to arbitrary policies that borders on hostility IMO. I’m not sure sales tax…

No, I think this is about mental exercise. Do I have to go shopping with a calculator to know how much I am spending? To me personally it's weird. I come to shop with $5 but I don't know what I can actually buy...

Yeah, I understand. It's definitely not ideal and I don't want to sound like I'm condoning it because it really should be improved. I'm just not sure there's an obvious solution given the US/Canadian regional/local autonomy over sales taxes, but I'm glad to hear ideas. Most towns in California, for instance, have their own sales tax rates and while this could obviously be accommodated in retail spaces (at the cost of confusing national advertising?) it makes displaying prices rather complicated on online marketplaces which currently add taxes once a shipping address is entered during the checkout process. In contrast, despite the reasonable regional autonomy in Switzerland (not too dissimilar from states in the US) a national VAT rate avoids this issue.

The obvious exception is for marketplaces that sell to other markets. For instance, the prices on Amazon.de (Germany) change if a Swiss shipping address is entered due to the different VAT rate.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#227

Post by Freak_NL »

Kaibeezy wrote: post #217
Freak_NL wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Penguins?

Penguins. Suddenly, I have to do a double captcha not only on the website but on the iOS app too, every time. Find the penguin. Find another penguin. Congratulations, you're human.

Ah in captchas, I see! That one's new to me. Not sure what type of AI we're training with that one; not sure I want to know either.

> Congratulations, you're human.

Or a penguin.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#228

Post by em500 »

wraptile wrote: post #190
xsist10 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking owns Agoda https://www.bookingholdings.com/brands/agoda/

wow TIL. It almost feels that the hotel industry is just cancer all the way down.

The online travel industry is now mostly Booking Holdings, Expedia Group (both of which own many sub-brands) and AirBnB.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#229

Post by oversocialized »

not surprising. they lure programmers to Amsterdam and then work them to death on their ancient perl system. we used to laugh about this back in the late 2000s. all these big tech booking companies are scum anyway, like expedia too. the base databases they all connect to are ancient and use regex to parse out of giant text fields. previously they could see each others booking info so prices would stay more competitive but then some airlines started pulling out to make their own about ten years ago (they were all jealous of southwest who started after these databases were created so they have their own). lots of dumb tricks in the airline industry, like sometimes two one ways cheaper than round trip, how soon before flight to book to get best deals, which airports are cheaper on certain days, etc. company i worked at had former travel agents that got paid lots of money to help us program these things. it's completely arbitrary.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#230

Post by olalonde »

supergeek133 wrote: post #220

My first large employer was Best Buy, and at the time (and I believe still?) a large majority of their phone customer service operation was outsourced. I will still never understand why companies do this. Your quite literal last line of defense (and sometimes first) with a customer is people that aren't directly accountable other than a corporate contract? Never made sense to me. Also, the fact that they are generall…

> I will still never understand why companies do this.

Specialization and economies of scale. Best Buy's core competence isn't phone customer service. A phone customer service can specialize and develop tools and processes that Best Buy couldn't. They can also serve multiple companies with a smaller workforce due to increased utilisation rate (a bit similar to why cloud hosting has become so popular).

> Also, the fact that they are generally the lowest paid is also bizzare.

It doesn't require skills or training, almost anyone who can talk is qualified to do phone customer service. I had many friends in high school whose first job was phone customer service.

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