Lets say it: Customer Support Sucks!

That is a great question! Perhaps we should write about it and charge people $19.99 for our ‘expert information’. :laughing: (making a joke based another recent thread with someone proclaiming themselves an airbnb guru…)

Perhaps since our first experiences were good we approached subsequent ones with an open mind and cooperative manner - I know I always try to approach such situations with asking if they can help me, not demanding a particular outcome - but I can’t assume that other posters on this thread don’t. @cabinhost certainly had a very odd experience in being told by cs that her listing does show when, in fact, it was not showing up in searches and she had several fellow hosts search for it. They gave her a totally lame excuse.

Let’s just hope our luck continues, and spreads to all hosts!!

Just take a minute and take a look at the comments on their brand Facebook page (www.facebook.com/airbnb). See how “happy” are their users with CS.

Outside the US, CS is terrible bad (the wrost I have experienced in my life). They work harder in trying you to desist from getting help that in actually giving some kind of help.

It’s definitely just not outside the U.S. I am in U.S. florborne and have had exactly the same experience.

@dcmooney - yeah, not sure about the different experiences, but it probably has a lot to do with what kind of issue the host has. I do remember the time you said you had to go up the chain - when the first rep. wouldn’t open your calendar, after the guest said she would cancel when she got home. Thankfully that is the odd ball for you, but that kind of incompetence is the norm every time I call.

Every single time there is a new announcement of a policy change, etc. - when I call NONE of the reps. have ever heard about it. Every single time. Not a single one…ever. I am not sure if the new change has not been communicated to them, which is just plain incompetence within management - or if they reps. are trained to play dumb.

florborne - I also think some experiences may vary depending on how persistent the host is. For example, in my recent issue, I was only showing in certain searches, and should have been showing in basic searches. The first rep. “pretended” to be helpful and said he would search in incognito mode - and Voila! - there I was, no issue at all. He said that Airbnb recognizes my computer’s IP address, and that is why sometimes I do not see my own property.

I am already familiar with Homeaway’s game of manipuating the searches and telling owners to clear their cookies, as if there is no issue. So I learned that searching in incognito does not hide my IP address, so I threw that theory out the window; and that’s when I kept calling and emailing and was being told outright lies. BUT the averge person may have just accepted the first response and truly thought that only the host cannot see the their own property, and felt that their issue was really resolved.

Another time I went round and round with Air regarding collecting taxes in my state. Three different reps. misinformed me of when that would begin, and I would no longer need to collect separately. The email they sent was ambiguous as to whether it would now begin to be added to reservations after let’s say September 1st, or if would begin on September 1st for any reservations being created on that date and forward. All the reps. gave me misinformation, and luckily one of my guests was able to show me on their end all of the charges so I was able to put it together.

Another time I went round and round regarding chargebacks because there was a change in their terms and conditions, and I wanted verification. It was the typical canned responses that completely avoided answering the question. I think about after 5 rounds the guy finally answered the question. But instead of finding out the answer, they will tell you to bring it to an attorney and have him tell you what he thinks.

And another time…OK - I will stop for now :smile:

I used to tell people that Air’s customer service was great, but that has all changed (at least for me). They are now right up there with Directv, Homeaway, Flipkey, Booking.com, AT&T, etc.

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This is an email I received a couple of days ago, from my search results issue that was not resolved. Plain incompetence:

"It’s been just over a day since reviewed your case. If your case is resolved, no further action is needed from you.

If you still need assistance from , please reply to this email within the next 24 hours. Otherwise, you’ll need to open a new case in our Help Center to reach a member of our team.

Thanks,
The Airbnb Team"

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Prediction:

Airbnb will go public (IPO), it will then take a new direction based on new cold-blooded management which will instantly DROP many of the services and options extended to hosts today, especially those that have proven impossible to apply or too high-maintenance to sustain. Of course, they will re-look at any and all aspects of the service that can lead to lawsuits. What is the overall outcome, I have no idea (actually I do). Either way, what we have today, will ultimately be viewed by many, especially those satisfied thus far by their service, as ‘the good old days’.

In many respects, I see the existing Airbnb model to be way too complicated and too prone to chance, especially in a very ‘chancy’ society (US).

And oh, taking the company ‘overseas’ or putting even more emphasis to markets outside of the US, is not beyond the realm of possibility. They are already doing that.

CS is good to guide you on how to use the site and that kind of things: You have doubts about how to change your payment system, edit your listing, add a Co-Host, etc. For those things CS respond fine (not great but OK).

CS is Terrible bad when YOU REALLY NEED IT. When you find a glitch that is affecting your account/listing CS is not there for you.

Yesterday I sent an email (big mistake!) and the CS assistant was doing his biggest effort to make me realized that everything looks fine and my browser was the problem (he just don’t want to READ the description of my problem). In this cases I need to requote myself many times.

Today I make a phone call with another one assistant and asks him to try changing my house rules by himself. He tried and he couldn’t make the change as it was supposed to happen because there is a glitch in my listing. Of course, he will not solve the issue but he will send this to the proper IT departament and I should hear back from them.

You would like know what will happen in a week or two? The same as always. I will get an automatic email asking me to rate them for their support. My ticket will be closed and my problem will continue there in my account. I will call CS again and the same useless support will star again, again. The goal of CS in this matter, is that I should give up and learn to live with the bug. THAT IS WHY CS SUCKS!

From time to time, I hear from others having the same issues as me and they get the same unsupportive response from CS. It is general thing that Airbnb don’t care about bugs. They will sit in your account and CS nor IT will do anything to help you. So if you think CS was great, just wait until some technical issue hits your account.

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I had this same issue with not being able to edit my house rules. Others on here reported it too. I finally was able to change them a few weeks later. Who knows if could even change it today though.

When I hear about something like this from many users and the issue happening still months and months later…I do not believe it is a glitch at all. Air just refuses to admit they may be doing A/B testing, and it is intentional. I can see them removing house rules section later on down the road, and they want to be like Booking.com where they create the listing.

I feel your pain. :rage:

Let me give you a quick update about this. Just now (less than 5 min ago) I got a response back from the CS assistant that holded my call today that the tech team found everything working well in my listing. He tried to do it by himself and realized my listing was having a problem Don’t you think that kind of answer is VIOLENT?

Should I reply? Should I talk to another CS representative to expect the same answer? Is there a tiny possibility that I could say Airbnb CS give you a great service?

I guess the tech team DECIDES which issue gets solved and which not. They don’t have enough resources to solve them all and it is a VERY BUGGY site. They might get back to CS saying this is not going to be fixed not now, no never. And the CS guy needs to be clever with his answer to make you desist from getting help about this. They are well trained for this. When they realized you are going to stay forever asking for a fix they just cut all communication sending you an automatic email to close the ticket.

Yes, they SUCK!

I don’t understand these statements. I realize that you are upset, but if you could clarify, I would appreciate it.

The house rules issue is a tiny one, It is a buggy site and I have learned to live with a lot of bugs.
It frequently found the site telling me that my account isn’t authorized to log into the site when I open it but I found a workaround by hitting the inbox icon. Forget about talking to CS about this they will give me a BIG headache and they won’t do anything to help me.

The big bug that makes me anger is the one that substracts my star rating when someone rates me. I found 2 others users in this forum having the same problem as me and CS was totally unsupportive to them also. I reported this 6 months ago and my last 30 reviews weren’t add properly to the total. Seems to happen to some accounts when their listings go beyond the 200 review. Don’t ask me why as I don’t know but the problem starts exactly at review number 200.

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Sure, I can clarify. The CS representative that my call, tested my issue by trying to make the change himself. Of course, the glitch in my listing didn’t allow him to make the change. He said he was sorry about the problem I was having and that he need to send this to the IT departament which seems fine for me (though I always know how it ends). 10 minutes later I got an email from him saying that the IT department checked there everything works fine in my listing. I mean,

HE EXPERIENCED THE GLITCH and NOW HE IS TELLING ME THAT EVERYTHING LOOKS FINE, TICKET CLOSED! It is VIOLENT

That’s exactly what I experienced over and over and over again.

Airbnb invited me to a Superhost forum in Sydney and we were to be given $100 for our time. I would have jumped at the opportunity except that the event was at a location over an hour from where I live and I couldn’t go because I had guests checking in that evening. Lol.

But you’re right. I’m always incredibly polite when I deal with Airbnb. I understand that the young people on the phone are often untrained and in first jobs. It helps enormously if you approach them with suggestions such as “I’m sure you’ll know much better than me, but I was wondering if xxx might be a solution to the problem.” I’ve had to cancel three times because of glitches in the system and each time I have to run the gauntlet of ‘am I going to lose my SH status’ and have my listing blocked. But I’ve never been aggressive or accusatory towards Air staff. And they’ve all been fabulously helpful with me. And I’ll always remember that once after a difficult guest, Air sent me a present! Clever marketing and keeps hosts on side.

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When I phoned them, the guy that handles my call is SUPER NICE. They always seem they understand the host and will work hard to provide you a solution as quick as possible. Step two is the email. You get an email that is COMPLETLY unsync with what you have already talked on the phone. And it always looks like it has closure even if the problem is still there (If there is something else we can help please reply to this email). Step three is you trying to requote yourself and reminding the guy what you have already discussed on the phone. Step four: Is the guy converted in a robot, and saying that there is nothing else he can do about this issue. A few days later, you get the feedback email to evaluate the experience dealing with CS.

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Imagine the insanity these reps have to deal with every day. It is a wonder they last a month. I hope they are well paid.

We’re doing it again - in each others brains :slight_smile:

I’ve always found them to be wonderful and very helpful.

It is absolutely uncanny how similar we think. I don’t know if we could have a normal conversation in real life, because we would be finishing each other’s sentences constantly without a hitch. :slight_smile:

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Haha…again, this is EXACTLY my experience…lol.

The part about the email not being in sync with the phone call is spot on. Even though the rep. will admit on the phone that there is an issue, the email will state something else. And it does take some type of thought to do that. So it’s apparent they are trained to lie for whatever reason.

Yes. The communication seems to be very reasonable and polite over the phone. Once the email communication starts it seems you are talking to someone completely different and unsupportive. They couldn’t treat you that way over the phone. The email give you an appropieate distance from the user needed to say the kind of answers you are going to say.

IT might be in a bottle neck and they need to filter out who gets a solution and who not. I’m not very sure if my tickets truly go to IT. Maybe CS holds me for a few weeks and get back to me saying whatever to close the ticket. If I show you the glitches in my account you will not spent a second realizing the are really glitches. I can believe the clever minds of IT never being able to find one bug not to say to fix it.

One time I did have to be a bit pushy, but I continued to say “I know you’re doing your best, and I do appreciate it (but you don’t know what the hec you’re talking about)…”

We all want to be loved, respected, appreciated. Even better, to feel that we are in a position to be a hero ; )