Is anyone getting help from CS?

[Inna22]

Math/rhetorical question. Even though there is not enough CS, there are still hundreds on staff. That means someone should be getting help. I have not received a reply to open tickets for 4-6 weeks. In fact, none have been resolved or even answered once. All different topics including simple site questions, so it is not like one department is backed up.  If they laid off 25 percent, shouldn't it take 25 percent longer to get help? If I was getting replies in 5-7 days in the beginning of pandemic, should I be hearing back in 7-10 now?  What are all these people doing that are working there now? Has anyone received any help in the last few weeks?

[Super47]

@Inna22

To reach the correct calculations, one must first be in possession of the correct figures... never a simple or straightforward proposition with Airbnb, I fear. 🙂 

In reality, the "Airbnb laid off 25% of its workforce" story - accompanied by Brian Chesky's "I love you all.. it's not your fault" global press release/open letter to his 1900 ousted and devastated employees - was only the one part of the picture that the company wanted the world to see. And by several accounts, they went to some lengths to keep the real figures hush-hush (see Reddit thread below) The Community Centre's own Nick did however post some figures back in May, stating Airbnb had lost almost 80% of their global support network, which - given the dearth of available support agents over the past several months - would appear to be much closer to the mark, and more accurately reflect the complete breakdown in the support services that we've all been seeing in recent months. 

Whilst the 1900 official Airbnb employees who received the endlessly-publicised super-generous severance packages of 14 weeks' pay plus benefits were indeed reasonably well compensated, what was kept very much quieter was the low-key dumping just two weeks earlier of thousands of contingent workers around the world - in US, Barcelona, Cork, Bucharest, Berlin, Manila etc - who learned of their own demise over a Zoom-type video call, with no forewarning. By definition, a high proportion of those contract workers were call centre/customer support staff, and most received only a single week's pay to see them on their way. A number of the contractors had also been at Airbnb for several years and some were doing exactly the same jobs, with the same duties and responsibilities, as Airbnb’s official employees - yet received radically different treatment when the axe fell.

Those unfortunate workers were the collateral damage we didn't get to hear about, but we certainly do get to experience the effects and consequences of their absence, on a daily basis.

We're now being assured by the new Global Head of Hosting that Airbnb is "working hard" on hiring and training 2000 new customer support staff to meet the unprecedented levels of demand, and that the new hires should be on board "within two months". And it does appear that Telus International (formerly Voxpro) - the company to which Airbnb outsources its call centre operations - has begun recruiting again in Cork and Romania, and that Directly is currently canvassing for hosts to act as "Community Experts".. but whether or not all those brand new hires will have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of Airbnb's exceptionally complex and fluid policies and processes to provide an adequate and efficient service, remains to be seen 

Which begs the question though.. why suddenly decide now - when we seem to be heading towards the tail end of the pandemic (and just as Airbnb are loudly trumpeting their miraculous "rebound" story) - to recruit and train a small army of inexperienced newbies, while thousands of tenured staff who might have had some idea what they were doing, were given the boot at the very pinnacle of the crisis, when demand for customer support would surely have been at the highest ever levels in the history of the company? Could the thousands of layoffs possibly have been for the sole purpose of making those all-important, life-or-death (literally) Q2 and Q3 2020 balance sheets appear much more healthy and robust for the IPO submissions, and to boost investor confidence? It's rather challenging to come up with any other logical explanation. 

Airbnb Quietly Fired Hundreds of US Contract Workers - I'm One Of Them 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/airbnb-quietly-fired-hundreds-of-contract-workers-i...

"It Was The Most Tone-Deaf, Bizarre Q&A Format I've Ever Seen" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.protocol.com/amp/airbnb-contingent-worker-layoffs-coronavirus-26457...

 

 

[Inna22]

@Super47 thank you for the interesting read

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Inna22 @Super47 

CS provision aside, and with all those redundancies, the question needs to be asked - What has Airbnb done with all that money it had taken in pre-payments for bookings, not paid out to hosts, not repaid to guests and not paid on CS salaries or contracts? Where has it all gone?

Was Brian stuffing it under his mattress?

[Lenore22]

@Fred13  as a newbie host, can you break this down for me?  So she is staying 6 days: 8/22, 8/24, 8/27, 8/30, 9/1, 9/2.  If the host books the 6 days counting back from 9/2, the reservation looks like: 8/28-9/2 and maybe the host can just block off 8/22, 8/24, 8/27 themselves.  But then 8/28-29, 8/31 are blocked off to guests. How do you handle that?

[Fred13]

Good question @Lenore22. I first take into consideration that this is indeed a rare happening, how many people request to stay over a 10-day span but only end up staying 6 days?  If I accept such a reservation, I am accepting I will loose 4 days in between; but of course, no reservation has to be. 

[Tina183]

Yes CS is terrible right now.  I have to cancel/change 2 reservations due to an amenity issue (Septic problem I am trying to resolve).  I was put in the "urgent" queue 24 hours ago I had to contact the guests including the one who I had to cancel but I can't actually cancel it as it was less than 24 hours before check in day and I need CS to do it.  Phone calls just go to dispatch from both my guests and myself and they say your issue is in the queue and they can't help.  Yikes.   

[Niklas24]

I have now been waiting for over five days that I would get a reply from CS. Fortunately, my case is non-urgent, but it feels eerie to think that if I get an urgent need for support, I might not getting any help. I hope that AirBnB fixes this issue asap because now it is disgraceful.

[Archana15]

I have had a ticket open now since 7th April 2021. 
sadly the allocated supervisor has not contacted me since 18th April!  I have called daily for the last 3 days every day I get told that either the supervisor or his manager will call me back..... unfortunately no has so far! 
All I want to do is change our bank account details (not the method if payment), however the account seems to be locked as I keep getting error messages. This rings me to the other ticket I had prior to this where I was getting a security code triggered on my phone every few hours over several weeks. They never resolved the issue but told me that I had to close the case so they could forward a report my account to their IT team to get resolution! 
I am actually getting concerned now as I feel that they know more about this issue but are trying to cover up! 

[Sarah977]

@Archana15  Calling actually seems to be the worst way of dealing with CS and they are well known for never calling back. Try contacting  them through messaging or on their Twitter account.

[Inna22]

@Archana15 we were all getting those codes, it was a known issue. I would have to say don't worry about that one. Super upsetting to everyone at the time- we did not know if our accounts were hijacked and of course CS did not know anything and no announcements were made to anyone. It stopped know and we know it was an Airbnb glitch so we have to run with that answer. As for your other issue... try clearing cookies and history and restart your computer. Sounds simple but it has solved most glitches for me

[Archana15]

Thank you! Sadly I have tried logging from different computers and it’s not that easy. Also if it were that easy why hasn’t this so called supervisor or all the people that I have spoken to so far suggested this? 

[Inna22]

@Archana15 sadly no. Most of the time they do not even know basic functions of their own site

[Sarah977]

@Archana15  Airbnb CS often fail to offer simple solutions that can work. I don't know how many times I've read posts on this forum from hosts getting nowhere with CS, frustrated about something that is taking weeks to be resolved, then they post here, and other hosts give them a solution that works.

Then they say "Thank you! That worked. Now why couldn't the CS rep have told me that the first time I called?"

Generally speaking, you'll get much better advice from other hosts than CS.