Why are hold times so long to talk to a US Bank CSR?

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

Who said anything about calling the branch?  He said CSR, not branch.

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Someone brought up calling the branch in this thread. I said that's probably not a good idea.

[Sharingan]

I, too, have noticed the ridiculously long wait times for U.S. Bank customer service. I've actually resorted to calling them during unconventional hours on a few occasions for anything I needed, and I've had quite a bit of success too with 0-4 minute wait times. There are certain hours of certain days that I wouldn't expect people to even think about needing service for their bank products, and that's not necessarily during the middle of the night either.

I don't have this issue with any of the other banks I have cards with, only U.S. Bank.

[creditguy]

I will say though, regardless of wait times, US Bank CSR's have been some of the nicest and friendliest people to talk to and that's saying a lot when you're contacting a bank or credit card.

[Anonymous]

Surprisingly Bofa has the nicest and most English speaking reps out of all the banks I deal with. Last time I talked to US Bank CSR was in 2014 and it was pretty good.

[Scupra]

You can do what I did and become friends with a branch manager I just email him now lol

[14Fiesta]

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

Us Bank is not small by any means... They handle Elan as well who does lending for gosh knows how many banks/cu's..  They have huge call centers would be my guess..  Maybe no one wants to live in Farg o?

With above said the few times I have had to call I have been on hold maybe 1 min max?

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Bingo! I live here and even I can't wait to move once I graduate college.  

Whats causing the huge wait times for CS? The Fidelity conversion. I believe we had around 6 million cardholders before the conversion, and the conversion added about 500-600K new cardholders. This is causing our service times to skyrocket, as you see now. (Pre-conversion you could reliably reach a rep in 3 minutes or less.) Another issue with the conversion was a miscalculation on how many cardholders would use a rep vs IVR. They had planned on only 15% of Fidelity Visa cardholders on needing a rep, and the rest seeking help online or though the IVR. Instead I think the numbers have been around 40% of Fidelity members opting to speak with a live person. If you do the math on the conservative estimate, thats likely 200K calls from Fidelity members alone, not counting the existing 6 million accounts serviced by us. We have 3 call centers that handle inbound CC calls - Fargo ND, Coeur d' Alene ID, and Overland Park KS. 

Now at Fargo alone I'd estimate we have about 800-1K service advisors that take calls for our credit cards. I'm not sure how big or how many employees the other centers have. 

The point to all this is - I apologize and please try your best to be patient while we work though these issues. We are hiring at all locations trying to combat the increased call volume, and it is expected that a significant chunk of Fidelity calls will slow down once the conversion settles and its business as usual for our cardholders.

Disclaimer - All of the above opinions expressed are my own and in no way reflect on the thoughts or opinions of my employer, US Bank.

[Anonymous]

14Fiesta sure do appreciate getting info on the long telephone call waits! As Paul Harvey used to say: "... and now the rest of the story ...".