BPI Call Center undermanned or plain lazy?

Almost a week after I posted my BPI Trade password problem, I still have not solved it because it looks like no one’s around at the BPI Call Center.

On October 9, I made a gazillion calls to BPI’s customer support number 89-100 or 891-0000 but the only response I got was “All circuits are busy now. Please try again later.”

I did try several days later but I kept getting the same message.

Yesterday, November 3, I managed to get connected but — surprise! — the call center representative I talked to told me to call again because “there are no available agents in charge of Password Reset.”

That’s when I had it. I asked how many agents are assigned to do Password Reset. She told me there are a lot. If you have a lot, I said, then how come my problem a week ago is still not solved?

She apologized, then asked for my phone number so they can call me “the moment an agent who does Password Reset becomes available.”

Today — 24 hours later — no one from BPI Call Center has called me yet. Apparently, no agent has become available until now.

BPI’s customer phone support is obviously and terribly undermanned. Either that or they’re just lazy. You choose.

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36 thoughts on “BPI Call Center undermanned or plain lazy?”

  1. This is the reason why I stay out of these “small” banks.
    BDO, BPI, Metro Bank, Allied Bank just to name a few…

    Well you can say some of them are the biggest bank here in Philippines in terms of profit and depositor count but their customer service S*CKS B.I.G Time.

    That is the reason why I transferred all of my finances to HSBC and Standard Chartered. (Private Banking)
    If ever I need something like huge Deposit/Withdrawals Investment related transactions I just give my assigned relationship officer a call and he will show up in my doorsteps with what I need a few hours later.

    Now that is Customer Service at its finest.

    Reply
  2. yah bpi is very lousy nowadays., i’ve been loyal to bpi for years, but the problem is fast becoming unbearable. Loyalty is getting expensive by the day. Inflation, inflation, inflation…

    Reply
  3. That is so true. I had the same experience when I had a BPI password problem. I had to make the same call to their hotline, I was actually in front of a BPI representative inside a BPI branch and it still took them forever to answer. BPI reps must be immune to the amazingly slow service, the rep in front of me just shrugged her shoulders. By the way, the password problem has not yet been resolved. Richbast may be right about going with bigger banks

    But in fairness with real clerks at BPI, they do have this customer service promo going where they give you a small tag that says “Did I serve you well today?” or something to that effect and you have can place it in a box that says yes or no as you leave

    Reply
  4. Their lousy service also applies to e-mail communication. I wrote an e-mail in reply to an e-mail from them asking me to inform them if I wanted my online access activated, which I did. It’s been almost a month now and still no replies.

    Reply
  5. BPI says “All circuits are busy now. Please try again later.” – at least they are honest…

    BDO, on the other hand, has this looping song “At Banco de oro we find ways…”… very promising the first time you hear it, but if you hear it for 15 minutes or more, it’s annoying, sounds as if they are still looking for the “way” hehehehe

    Reply
  6. for some strange reason, when BPI redesigned its website a few months back, bumagal yung email responses nila. before i would email them and would receive a reply within 24 hours. ngayon, ang tagal!!!

    Reply
  7. I have experienced the same thing several times before. I sent them emails but got responses after 3-5 days. By the time they called me up, I already forgot what I wanted to ask!

    Reply
  8. I don’t know to your case but for me BPI’s service is ok. I had my BPI Express Online password reset before thru their 89-100 hotline service but everything went smoothly. I also emailed BPI Trade before regarding a query and they responded 1 day after. Maybe is it just a coincidence in my case?

    Reply
  9. Good for you, Aspiring Entrepreneur. Until now, two weeks after my password problem, I still have not logged in to my account. Good thing, I don’t have any stocks right now and I’m not planning to trade again otherwise I might have lost a lot because I can’t trade because I can’t log in to my account. I tried calling them again today and I still get that “All circuits are busy now” message. Well, what’s new.

    Reply
  10. I must say maybe undermanned. But hey, there are more important things to do than to rant right? Always give a benefit of the doubt. It does not sound right to pass judgement when you don’t really know what’s going on…

    Reply
  11. This is to complain about your call center agent “Bianca Santos” who attended our concern regarding my atm card that was captured in Alabang Madrigal Branch.That time May 9 2009 around late 10 pm -11 we were transferring our payroll. We used 2 cards. The other card used at station 4 atm of Alabang Madrigal was captured due to wrong pin encoded by my daughter.At around pass 11pm I was reporting the captured card and I can not remember the exact number the agent who claimed she was “Bianca Santos” immediately deactivated my 2 cards. Instead of helping and suggesting what to do eg. Transfer the fund thru phone to my uncaptured card she cancelled both of my atm without confirming with me which we were using for payroll. Our operation was interrupted. During that time we were transferring salaries to our employees who were affected in the Southern Luzon and Bicol Region I asked for her supervisor and it took half and hour before she gave the phone to ” Neil ” they did nothing I suggested if we could transfer funds from my daughter’s atm. We are so disappointed with your call center agents and supervisors. Their service is really poor.! !!! I even doubt the name she gave. Please verify the name and do action by retraining your agents they are very incompetent. They just answer phones and get off to it as fast as they could without even listening and analyzing the concern. Your agents are just satisfied that they receive high pay. The cause of this is unacceptable because it delays fund needed by our employees to do work while Ms. Bianca Santos just answers the phone and receive her pay. I reccommend for her termination and please investigate if they were really the persons as they claim to be “Neil” supervisor,thank you a feedback is really appreciated.

    Reply
  12. Well, Come to think of this. These customer service representatives of bpi are not the one processing our requests. They forward our request to the concerned departments that’s why sometimes it takes several days for our requests or complaints to be processed. The hardest thing on their part is that what they are dealing with are monetary transactions. Sometimes we need to become more patient. Bpi has thousands of clients that are calling 89100 each day and let’s say there are about 300 customer service representatives. So on our part, we should not really be patient. They are more than willing to help us if we will show our support and understanding.

    Reply
    • if BPI got a lot of transactions to attend to, they have to increase their manpower IF THEY REALLY WANT TO SERVE BETTER. what’s happening is that BPI is just wasting the time of their clients by making so many follow-ups before the issues are resolved.

      Reply
  13. i hate the fact that they force you to change your password every time (or your account will be deactivated). and you can’t use the same password you’ve already used before. so you have to remember an all new password different from the 5 ones you already used in the past. and you have to use letters & numbers but wait…you have to remember it without writing it on a piece of paper. and when you forget it, they will not answer your call…and it will take years for you to reset it!

    i recommend firstmetrosec.com.ph!

    Reply
  14. @josh, that’s not enough excuse. Customers should not be made to understand that the company is understaffed and should be patient. Do that and the clients will run to the company’s competitor. Customer satisfaction must be a primary concern of all companies. If there are valid complaints, the company must apologize and address them, not tell clients to be patient and to understand the company.

    @Dennis, that I too don’t like with my BPI online account. They said it’s for our own protection but as you correctly pointed out, we end up with several passwords we use only for BPI so in case we forgot them, we’ll have to call the BPI hotline again. Better if they’ll disallow only the previous password used not all of the passwords we used in the past.

    Reply
  15. it is the worst broker in the world.
    whenever i try to access my account, i get a message that it is blocked and i must call a very expensive number.
    it must be a subsidiary of the telecom monopoly. this is the only explanation that i have.
    for trading of stocks it is completely unuseable

    Reply
  16. i enrolled a third party account on my online banking before,and now want to remove it,how can i do it?i dont have the atm card number.we dont have communication already with that person.pls help.

    Reply
  17. i enrolled a third party account on my online banking before,and now want to remove it,how can i do it?i dont have the atm card number.we dont have communication already with that person.pls help.

    Reply
  18. I’m also experiencing bad customer service from BPI direct,I think 3 or 4 weeks ago I emailed their customer service asking what kind of account should I open, because I cannot reach them via phone, apparently their toll free no. and other nos. are not reachable via a Digitel landline. I got tired waiting for their response, so I went ahead and applied an account. A week  later my card was delivered to the local branch I chose and I made an initial deposit to activate my account. After a day I decided to check my online banking since I already activated my account it should be activated as well,but it’s not. So I decided to send them an email again about this concern and to my surprise I found a reply email from their customer service, what’s a funny about this is that it’s a reply about the the inquiry I made 3 weeks ago. Talking about good customer service huh? I decided to email them back and they responded w/in 24 hours saying that they don’t have any excuse on why their response was so late.And regarding my online banking concern they told me that it’s being investigated by their team but up to now I haven’t got anything from them yet. To think that I’m only waiting for their activation email for online banking. BPI is such a big company with POOR customer service.

    Reply
  19. i’m cutting my BPI credit card and will be transferring to BDO.  Same with my checking account.  Their BPI customer service is plain stupid.  While their branch numbers don’t pick up the phone.  Branch numbers:  845-5531;  345-5979.  These were given to me by a certain Ethna Leonas, Supervisor (daw) of their phone bankers.  I’ve been calling these numebrs 10x already. No one bothers to pick up.  as for 345-5979, the man who picked up the phone said, wrong number daw.

    Reply
  20. bpi support 89-100 is suck and all of them are lazy. i have disputed transaction that is almost a year now and still unrelsoved. You will get same and same answer from them that they are waiting for feedback from the service unit… suck!

    Reply
  21. Their customer service really sucks! I had a problem with a deposit I made via ATM and it didn’t reflect on my account and it’s been three business day as for today. I have called their support center three times and they don’t do anything to help you, the only thing they do is VERIFY your details. What a shame, I have worked in this industry for foreign companies and I understand their line of work but their service is just not acceptable. Even if I go to their branch, I get the same service, slow and very unprofessional. No wonder why my parents withdrew all their savings after 20++ years and used BDO. Though, all of my major savings account were at BDO, I have to use BPI since I need it for Gcash transactions. I’m crossing my fingers that I will get a resolution from their branch later on, but I doubt I will as I don’t want to waste my time with all their lazy employees. I’ll just have to close my account and tear their stupid ATM card.

    Reply
    • Yes mam your right and it happens to me now. Almost 2weeks nothing happened on my complain. There bank tellers ang 89100 customers assistance really sucks. Shame on them.

      Reply
  22. no doubt why I did experience the disappointment with the BPI 89-100 or 89-1000 THE ANSWER… “All circuits are busy now. Please try again later.” I tried calling these numbers when my account was debited since Monday its Friday now, and still I was not able to connect and talk to any agents, BPI should deactivate their hotlines because it doesn’t serve its purpose.

    Reply
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