Frustrated man’s unbelievable text message exchange with major company sparks debate about Australia’s ‘horrendous’ customer service
- Bupa member, Dylan, wanted to cancel his membership with the company
- He shared text messages of his encounter with the customer service team
- He was told he couldn’t cancel it over text and needed to call up at another time
- Dylan shared exchange online which sparked debate over who was in the wrong
A Bupa health insurance customer’s frustration with the company’s customer service team has sparked an intense debate on social media about who was in the wrong.
Dylan, shared to Reddit a series of Whatsapp messages he had with a Bupa customer service worker when he requested to have his membership cancelled.
Back and forth messages revealed he wasn’t able to cancel it over Whatsapp and had to call up instead – despite already calling and not getting through to anyone.
‘Just have someone call me. I called you, you guys were busy and now I’m texting someone who can’t help me,’ Dylan wrote in one of the texts.
Dylan, shared a series of Whatsapp messages he had with a Bupa customer service member to Reddit, when he requested to have his membership cancelled
‘Have them call me, get your boss onto it – this is 2021.’
The customer service worker on the other end apologised and repeatedly told Dylan she was unable to submit his request and that he needed to call up.
Eventually the Bupa worker was able to pass on Dylan’s number to another team so he could be called up at a later date.
The interaction sparked debate on Reddit with some criticising Dylan for being ‘rude’ while others agreed that the customer service was unhelpful and he was likely receiving automated replies.
”Get your boss on this. This is 2021.” That is a demanding a rude statement. You could kindly say ”could you please escalate this to your boss? I’m frustrated by this situation”,’ one commented.
‘You’re being rude to someone who really has no power in the business.’
Others said they too had frustrating experiences with large companies’ customer service teams.
‘I do sympathise with you and the company deserves zero sympathy, but if it was an actual person you are dealing with – it is entirely possible that they cannot arrange call backs or whatnot,’ another said.
‘I don’t think (Dylan) was being rude at all, just direct with what he wanted. The wait times on a lot of calls to Australian businesses and services are horrendous. You mess people around like that and you can’t expect them to be cheery,’ one said.
A Bupa spokesperson said the WhatsApp service had recently been introduced.
‘We recently introduced WhatsApp messaging to help meet the growing demand for digital services, save customers time during busy periods and allow them to chat with our teams in a way that suits them,’ they said.
‘Given it is still a relatively new channel for Bupa, there are some instances such as cancelling services, where customers will still need to either visit our stores or call us.
‘We plan to expand the services available on WhatsApp in the coming months.’
Dylan’s text exchange sparked a debate on social media about whether it was fair for him to be ‘rude’ to the customer service team (stock image)