On Hold: First Direct customers are complaining about call wait times
First Direct is in danger of losing its customer-service crown because it cannot get a handle on call wait times.
For years the telephone and internet-only bank has topped satisfaction tables, and in January was named the ‘best British brand’ by the Institute of Customer Service.
But a spate of ‘bad’ reviews on Trustpilot has already dragged the bank’s rating on the site to just two out of five.
‘They are not interested in telephone customers,’ one reviewer wrote. ‘I waited more than two hours to get to speak to somebody.’
Twitter is also littered with complaints, with one customer told there was a 20-minute wait to speak to its fraud team.
James Daley, of consumer group Fairer Finance, says: ‘It is completely out of character for First Direct to be receiving all of these complaints.’
A First Direct spokesman says: ‘We offer our sincere apologies to customers for this.’ The bank is also hiring and training more call centre workers.
