You can pay a Shannons greenslip online in minutes without talking to anyone. Then in about 30 seconds its also updated to ServiceNSW and you can pay your rego renewal online. I've often done this at 9 or 10pm.
Insurance policy hit !
- Thread starter N5GTi6
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Don't know how the system works, we're all dialing 13 GO GO aren't we?
The people I've spoken to live all over Australia.
I've never spoken to a robot at Shannons, perhaps that is only for certain services?
try now ... you cannot get through, you go through endless robotic shit ... hours and hours of queues ... the last guy I complained to at a car meet .... I ask WTF is going on, why isn't the phone being answered. And apparently they were in the process of training up, I think he said 500 people. The call center used to be in Australia, I have no doubt they have shut it down and outsourced it (or shut it down and re-directed the entire shannons traffic to existing call centers under suncorp).I ring Shannons quite regularly (I have a habit of changing vehicles quite frequently, as do the two offspring that are on my policy), I have never had to wait long, have always spoken to someone friendly (with a good grasp of English).
I've made 4 claims over the past 20 years, all of them were dealt with in a timely manner, and all were promptly paid out at the agreed value.
Maybe us Queenslanders are on some sort of "preferred customers" list.
Its some of the worse shit I've tried ot deal with on the phone in years. I don't do hours on phone queues.... if I'm forced to do that shit, I immediately change to a different company. the can shove there phone queues where the sun don't shine.
The main reason I haven't already changed insurance companies .... is how the hell will I get through in order to cancel the policies ? (it woudl be quicker to put a block on my credit cars, than ring that place. that's how much they have aggravated me ...).
Shannons' 13 number is a redirection service from your local area. It is relayed to wherever Shannons wants your local call to be sent. Once you are connected, the Shannons system can send you somewhere else again.
A NSW Greenslip is compulsory third party injury insurance. MANY years ago it was included as part of the registration renewal but it was hived off - for reasons I've forgotten.
In a minor twist, CTP is included as part of the meager amount we pay for historic/classic car registration renewal. So rego and CTP for an historic car in NSW costs $46 pa and gives 60 personal use log book days plus any official club events.
Challange accepted.
Just spoke to a lovely young lady called Khalia who said she was based in Victoria.
Took 3 min 12 sec to go through the usual Glen Martin, "press 1, press 2" etc plus the product disclaimers. Got put straight through to the young lady, no robots at all.
I'd been a bit slack and hadn't changed the rego number on the Berlingo when I put the plates on the Austin, and hadn't insured the Austin at all. So I took the opportunity to correct this.
12 minutes later all was taken care of, the new plates are recorded on the Berlingo and the Austin is now comprehensively insured for $8500 at a cost of $152 PA.
As I said, I can't complain about Shannons at all.
Maybe customers get special treatment if they have more than 10 vehicles on a policy.
You won't get 3 minutes at this time of day in Sydney to be redirected to one of those nice people. The phone system doesn't know how much you insure, though cashwise it's a lot less than me. If dollars had anything to do with it Sydney would have first dibs always.
There are benefits to living with the bananas.
The annoying robots live in the compulsory third party department, so Qld misses out again.
There are benefits to living with the bananas.
The annoying robots live in the compulsory third party department, so Qld misses out again.
Its possible there 500 new staff have come online now. I certainly hope so as they were appalling to deal with. There staff would have leaving in droves, not only were there nowhere near enough, all you would get is abuse from everyone screaming at you they'd been trying to get through for hours/days/weeks. No pay would be good enough to put up with that for a job!Challange accepted.
Just spoke to a lovely young lady called Khalia who said she was based in Victoria.
Took 3 min 12 sec to go through the usual Glen Martin, "press 1, press 2" etc plus the product disclaimers. Got put straight through to the young lady, no robots at all.
I'd been a bit slack and hadn't changed the rego number on the Berlingo when I put the plates on the Austin, and hadn't insured the Austin at all. So I took the opportunity to correct this.
12 minutes later all was taken care of, the new plates are recorded on the Berlingo and the Austin is now comprehensively insured for $8500 at a cost of $152 PA.
As I said, I can't complain about Shannons at all.
Maybe customers get special treatment if they have more than 10 vehicles on a policy.
One of the menu choices did encourage me to make my changes online, but it also gave me the option to speak to a team member, which I elected to do.
After they introduce themselves, I always start the conversation with "How are you today"?
Straight away you could hear the change in the young lady's intonation today. "OH! I'm well, how are you"!
I bet they get sick of dealing with arseholes.
I've had some very pleasant conversations with the Shannons' staff over the years. Young guys in particular ask lots of questions about some of the weirder vehicles I've had.
Then again, maybe they're stalling so they don't have to take another call, and get abused for something that's not even their fault.
One of the menu choices did encourage me to make my changes online, but it also gave me the option to speak to a team member, which I elected to do.
After they introduce themselves, I always start the conversation with "How are you today"?
Straight away you could hear the change in the young lady's intonation today. "OH! I'm well, how are you"!
I bet they get sick of dealing with arseholes.
I've had some very pleasant conversations with the Shannons' staff over the years. Young guys in particular ask lots of questions about some of the weirder vehicles I've had.
Then again, maybe they're stalling so they don't have to take another call, and get abused for something that's not even their fault.
Oh yes, I used to have lots of pleasant conversations with them. It can't be done if you have been in endless phone queues... And no matter what option you choose (I tried all of them over hours... days .... weeks ....) .... you just CANNOT get through to any human. And when you finally do, they are a very stressed out person with probably 100 people in a queue ... every one of which is incredibly pissed off.
In frustration I jumped onto there facebook page to ask what the hell was going on .... Every comment on everything they had posted was "ANSWER THE GOD DAMN PHONES". It didn't matter the topic, it was just really angry people like me that had gone there to try and get through to them in any way.
What is wrong with using BPay? no human interaction needed
BPay isn't accepted for third party..
(When the bank accepts the card payment the computer notifies www.service,nsw.gov.au. Provided that an inspection station has also notified that you are roadworthy, you can then pay the rego tax . Service.nsw doesn't like cash either).
(When the bank accepts the card payment the computer notifies www.service,nsw.gov.au. Provided that an inspection station has also notified that you are roadworthy, you can then pay the rego tax . Service.nsw doesn't like cash either).
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My experience with Shannon's is very similar to yours Mr Greenpeace.One of the menu choices did encourage me to make my changes online, but it also gave me the option to speak to a team member, which I elected to do.
After they introduce themselves, I always start the conversation with "How are you today"?
Straight away you could hear the change in the young lady's intonation today. "OH! I'm well, how are you"!
I bet they get sick of dealing with arseholes.
I've had some very pleasant conversations with the Shannons' staff over the years. Young guys in particular ask lots of questions about some of the weirder vehicles I've had.
Then again, maybe they're stalling so they don't have to take another call, and get abused for something that's not even their fault.
Fair enough we get our CPT and Rego all in one bill down here in the island state which has the option of being paid by BPay.
Maybe we are not as far behind the times as I thought we were down here.
For me, that's almost a deal-breaker. I have a pathological aversion to being asked how I am. Couple of reasons. I can't tell lies and say I'm fine if I'm not. And I actually avoid assessing how I am. SO being asked it makes me stop and think about it, which I would prefer not to do. So I usually deflect the question with something like, "yes, thanks", or even "hello" again. I make an exception for anyone who knows me well enough to care about my answer.
Roger
straying off topic, but... on "how are you?"
I studied a couple of languages at uni, plus linguistics. Linguistics is an interesting topic, it's more or less about the mechanics of how languages work. Shame my lecturer took this incredibly interesting topic and made it mind-numbingly boring, but...
One of the things we looked at was the function of some words / phrases in a conversation, and how they aren't always what they seem at first glance. One of these is "how are you?"
Generally it is NOT an enquiry about how you are. It is just an ice-breaker, a polite formality. As our language has evolved over time to be more casual and less formal, especially in Australian English, the expression has changed from "how do you do" to "how are you."
Young women going to elocution / deportment classes and learning to be "ladies" used to be taught that the correct answer to "how do you do" is NOT "well thank you, and you?" it is just "how do you do?" with the two apparent questions going unanswered. It was a bit of a class marker - if you answered "well thank you" you had just revealed that you were a bit lower class than someone who knew to say "how do you do." I don't like such snobbery but that's how it used to be.
There is no good reason to take offense at the simple opener of "how are you." If you don't want to give anything of yourself, just say "fine thanks" and the conversation will move on swiftly from there. If you can't bring yourself to say "fine" when you aren't absolutely 100%, then try one of my favourite not-answering-the-question responses - just say "well I've still got a pulse." It usually gets a laugh. But "fine" doesn't have to mean "perfect," it can also mean "I'm giving you a generic response to get past this awkward point in the conversation." It is itself a bit of a non-response, just a polite, non-confrontational one.
I must admit I didn't follow this advice myself a few years ago, on the way home after a bad day. I stopped at Woolies and at the checkout, a friendly young attendant persisted trying to get a conversation going when it was late and I wasn't in the mood. When he got to "and how is your day going?" I responded "well, my mother just died so pretty bad, really." His face fell and he looked really sorry, I felt like such a prick afterwards. I didn't need to hit him with that.
I studied a couple of languages at uni, plus linguistics. Linguistics is an interesting topic, it's more or less about the mechanics of how languages work. Shame my lecturer took this incredibly interesting topic and made it mind-numbingly boring, but...
One of the things we looked at was the function of some words / phrases in a conversation, and how they aren't always what they seem at first glance. One of these is "how are you?"
Generally it is NOT an enquiry about how you are. It is just an ice-breaker, a polite formality. As our language has evolved over time to be more casual and less formal, especially in Australian English, the expression has changed from "how do you do" to "how are you."
Young women going to elocution / deportment classes and learning to be "ladies" used to be taught that the correct answer to "how do you do" is NOT "well thank you, and you?" it is just "how do you do?" with the two apparent questions going unanswered. It was a bit of a class marker - if you answered "well thank you" you had just revealed that you were a bit lower class than someone who knew to say "how do you do." I don't like such snobbery but that's how it used to be.
There is no good reason to take offense at the simple opener of "how are you." If you don't want to give anything of yourself, just say "fine thanks" and the conversation will move on swiftly from there. If you can't bring yourself to say "fine" when you aren't absolutely 100%, then try one of my favourite not-answering-the-question responses - just say "well I've still got a pulse." It usually gets a laugh. But "fine" doesn't have to mean "perfect," it can also mean "I'm giving you a generic response to get past this awkward point in the conversation." It is itself a bit of a non-response, just a polite, non-confrontational one.
I must admit I didn't follow this advice myself a few years ago, on the way home after a bad day. I stopped at Woolies and at the checkout, a friendly young attendant persisted trying to get a conversation going when it was late and I wasn't in the mood. When he got to "and how is your day going?" I responded "well, my mother just died so pretty bad, really." His face fell and he looked really sorry, I felt like such a prick afterwards. I didn't need to hit him with that.
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As one who worked for some years answering calls, I actually found the callers who asked how I was to be irritating. They've called, I've answered (actually my verbal response when answering the calls was pre recorded), so let's just get on with it.
Working at a call centre is a high pressure job, and it becomes clear that those who ask how you are are trying to gain some sort of advantage, when it really won't make any difference.
Working at a call centre is a high pressure job, and it becomes clear that those who ask how you are are trying to gain some sort of advantage, when it really won't make any difference.
Conversely anyone that knows me well enough, know I care how people are, the final career of my working life is founded entirely on caring how people (usually who I've never met before), actually are.
When I was managing at the abattoir in a previous life, all the employees had to go through my office to clock on and clock off, and I would make a point of being there for both occasions.
Saying "how are you" in the morning always elicited a response (that was overwhelmingly positive), and with the guys driving high risk machinery, it was an opportunity for me to smell if there was alcohol on their breath or not, and reassign them if necessary. Then I would be there in the afternoon to thank them for their day's efforts.
There was one miserable c#nt in his 50s who, (when I'd ask how he was) would always say "up the shit, but thanks for asking". But I didn't let him wear me down, every morning I would make a point of saying "G'day Dennis, how are you mate"? After 5 years of "up the shit", one morning he actually said "no good" and teared up. His mother was really unwell, but he didn't want to let the team down.
I sent him home and told him to take as much time off as he needed. His mum ended up passing, but when he eventually came back to work, every time I said "good morning mate, how are you" he would respond with a half smile and say, "good thanks boss".
I like to think my methodology was successful, my department had, (by a huge margin), the highest attendance rate, and my staff turnover rate was 25% of the company average, some years I wouldn't lose anyone.
When I first took the department over, it had the highest turnover rate on the plant (160% PA), and a diabolical attendance record.
Sure it could be mentally draining, and was certainly stressful at times, but putting the extra effort in to retain skilled employees, was far better (and safer) for everyone, than losing them, and having to train new ones.
It's a long standing habit, whether I'm making a Drs appointment or enquiring about a car part, I will always ask the person on the end of the line how they are, and for me it is a genuine enquiry.
I've never had anyone (that are apparently easily offended) hang up on me yet, and the vast majority of people respond in kind, so I'm not going to change any time soon.
Life's too short to be miserable, I'll leave being a cynical sad sack up to others.