Support....Airbnb support is a thing of the past!

[Robin4]

In the past week I have had two incredibly frustrating encounters with Airbnb support and I now feel, no matter what the problem, support are simply not worth contacting!

1/......I had a guest stay here, the reservation ending 12 days ago. They loved their stay, we got on like a house on fire and their desire was to leave a great review. They tried to submit their review and were hit with the Error 404 Ice-cream girl. I told them it was possibly a glitch in the system, wait 24 hours and try again.....same result.

At that point I contacted support and explained the situation. The support person, while being very pleasant said he could see an issue with the guests account and told me to get the guest to contact support!

Now previously that support person would have reached out to the guest and fixed the problem, not so now, the problem was thrown back on me to hassle over with the guest. The net result is, I have lost a great review all because support could not be bothered doing their job!

2/......This evening a guest who had stayed here previously sent me a message saying they would like to stay from 4th Feb to the 28th Feb, a nice reservation.

Fortunately those dates were available so I promptly sent them a 'special offer.' Next thing I get this message back.....

That's right, they want to pay, and they are directed to a South African hosts site that I have nothing to do with and did not know existed!

I get onto support and get exactly the same response as I got the other day. It took some time for support to even find the message stream  but after considerable phone hold she told me I would have to get the guest to contact support to sort this out.

I said, "Can you please  reach out to and speak to the guest and sort this out, if I get them to ring support they are not going to get you personally and they will have to go through the whole scenario again. Also I am concerned I can't block those 24 days from other bookings" She said....."I am not allowed to contact hosts guests"......I am serious, that is for real. At that point I asked to speak to a supervisor, or someone who actually had the authority to talk with both host and guest, or could I at least have a ticket reference to give to the guest that will get whoever they get onto the current state of support for this issue. She told me there was not a supervisor available and she could not tell me when would be available.....and no, she could not give me a ticket number!

The guest is now trying to sort this out, it's 1.00 am here and messages are going back and forth every few minutes. Support have asked me to send a new special offer which on their end showed the full price and I have now had to send another special offer. I am tired and I just want to give up and go to bed!

This whole Airbnb support thing is just plain comical, it does not exist any more. I will not attempt to deal with them any further, it's pointless, it has been outsourced to some crowd who have absolutely no idea how to do anything other than answer the phone. Training appears to be totally non existent and these reps fly by the seat of their pants. It has gone from being one of the worlds best company support options to being one of the worst.

To say I am disgusted is a mild understatement. We hear all these feel good statements from the top that keep on telling us how important we are, but the reality is we are completely on our own, we have no support whatsoever!

Am I angry.......Brian Joe and Nate, you bloody bet I am!

Cheers........Rob

[Emilia42]

@Robin4 I have made it my life's mission to stay as far away from Airbnb support as possible. In my 3.5 years as a host, I have contacted them a few times but have never gotten an answer that I believe was correct or received any concrete help. Luckily, I have been able to figure out many issues on my own through trial and error and by continuously reading this forum. Unfortunately, many times I simply have to tell the guest "Sorry, it not working."

[Lynette57]

@Robin4  @Emilia42 in Orono,ME,

I too tried yrs ago to solve an issue with AB&B , way too much stress, with no resolution, and loss of income for that enquiry, 

So now I deal with all issues myself direct with guest and if necessary I do request payment by credit card for additional costs and have never had a problem that couldn't be solved.

I'm aware that this is supposedly against AB&B rules but sometimes very necessary for sanity

I refuse to get AB&B  third party  involvement with non english speaking people that had no idea where we  host or live , or rules that apply to our specific region.

As far as reviews go, I do not give reviews unless I need others to know of a bad guest. And I dont expect any. If I get a review Im happy but I dont press my guests to do so.

Have a great christmas my friends and dont let stress become the norm in your life.

[Fred13]

If I had to contact Airbnb support, I wouldn't even know where/who to call, even after 6 years.

If one of my guests encountered the situation you just described @Robin4, I know the immediate question that would arise - "Is there another way to book your place?". Actually...

[Mary419]

Maybe the link to the other host is another “glitch” it hasn’t been long since the last big exposed one (see attached)

 

They’re spending money having these agents analyze photos of smudges on base boards, or dead spiders... they’re making decisions to take back entire payouts based on such things so they have utmost power in many important categories. Yet the agent cannot help you fix site problems to secure a booking or help you ensure your calendar reflects correctly. And you can’t help yourself either. How can they feel good about this type of support. 

The combative nature of these new workers is shocking and makes me wonder what their instructions were when they were hired.

One extra frustrating thing is you seem to get stuck with one agent and totally beholden to their work schedule as in nobody else is working to resolve your issue or can take it over when they’re not in their cubicle. When they’re off you hear nothing for days.  

[Suzanne302]

@Mary419  You said it PERFECTLY! 

[Mary419]

 

[Sarah977]

You indicated months ago that customer service would be back to normal in November. We are now past November and not only has it not improved, it seems to be getting worse all the time. Abysmal CS is being reported here on a daily basis from both hosts and guests and Airbnb has lost a number of hosts and guests because of it.

Not only is the service useless, there have been a number of posts regarding CS reps being downright rude.

@Catherine-Powell

[Robin4]

@Mary419  @Fred13  @Sarah977 

My problems were simple ones to solve, A....the guest could not leave a review, B.....the guest could not securely pay for his booking. The support I received from the company who tell us how important we are was..... zero, zilch, zippo, goose egg!

@Emilia42 and Fred, I do try to stay away from support these days, it used to be so good but, that is in the past but, there are some scenarios where contact with them is required. Sure, in this latter case of mine, because the guest had stayed here before we were in personal email contact and I could have simply said to them.."If Airbnb are going to play games just send $x,xxx to these bank details and I will block the calendar", done deal. But I have always been loyal to Airbnb, more fool me as it is turning out, I have never deliberately done the wrong thing by them and I have tried to be a good ambassador for the company.

Trying to secure that February booking last night between 9.41 pm and 1.15 am this morning involved 31 messages between me and the guests, 3 between me an support and sending a total of 4 different special offers! Is there any other business on earth that runs this way and considers that acceptable?

But the next time a problem comes along I will sort it out smoothly and effectively with the guest rather than put myself through the torture of having to deal with support.

And if that shafts Airbnb in the process, so be it....they have brought this situation on themselves! 

Cheers.........Rob

[Bronwyn38]

good on you, @Robin4 - you've done amazingly well trying to do the right thing by them, but if this is what you get in return, it certainly makes good sense for you to deal more directly in person with the potential guest (for example) so they are able to secure those dates with you by some other means! Your ordeal(s) are definitely an eye opener, and I don't blame you for a moment being so frustrated and angry. It may seem old fashioned but they definitely need to earn your respect, not demand it regardless of how much they stuff you around, and this is absolutely NOT decent or acceptable behaviour on the part of ABnB.... I hope all is sorted to your mutual satisfaction, and this won't arise again any time soon!

[Anonymous]

@Robin4 Even back when the customer support operation was relatively functional, I never found that the agents had the training to comprehend or resolve technical issues with the platform. But most of the time, if the problem is just a glitch, it can be resolved by switching from the mobile app to the desktop version, or vice versa - it's very rare for the same bug to exist on both products.

As for the quality of support - well, that's the direction the whole industry is moving in. Customer service is not going to be an in-house operation with specialized employees and a "supervisor" in the room, but rather a mix of awkwardly programmed chatbots and outsourcing to virtual call centers. Almost every interaction I've had with customer support in a web-based company in the last year or two has been like pounding my head on the wall for hours, Airbnb no more or less so than the others. 

[Robin4]

@Anonymous 

Yeah, I am 76 Andrew I am a dinosaur, I keep thinking things will return to the way they were in the past but there are new realities in the world  I need to get my head around. Service ain't what it used to be!

You did bring up a very good point there Andrew regarding site glitches. I was  annoyed that my previous guest could not leave a review so, in desperation I told him to have a go using the phone app if he had it on his phone, and he sent back a message about an hour ago to say....success, the review has gone through using the app!

So thanks for bring that point up Andrew, it would have been somewhat helpful if support had some knowledge of that, I will make a point of keeping that front and centre in my mind next time a glitch arises.

Have a great Christmas Andrew, all the best and lets get this COVID virus on its way as fast as possible in the new year.

Cheers.........Rob

[Fred13]

@Robin4 It used to be 'wrong' to be lazy, incompetent or outright fraudulent in the 'good old days', that many of us older folks here grew up in. It is a different world and a different 'breed' of business people today, and nowadays I find myself always do what is ~fair~. I get a customer via Airbnb, I make sure they get the benefit, but whether the dates jive or guest puts down 4 or 6 guests to balance things correctly and not have to go through 'Airbnb Customer Service' I would do so gladly, if anything to make things happen smoothly for all; no one looses. 

[Liv]

Hey @Robin4,

I'm really sorry to hear about those experiences, but thanks for bringing them to our attention.

I have inquired with the CS team about your cases and I'll let you know once I hear back from them. 

I hope this helps. Please feel free to DM me if you have other concerns and let us know if there are any updates.

Thanks,

Liv

[Sarah977]

It's good of you to offer to do that, but it isn't individual cases that are the issue in this thread that Rob started. The issue is abysmal CS response across the board and that is what needs to be dealt with. It's really hard to understand what these CS reps are even getting paid for, when they have no knowledge of Airbnb policy, give out incorrect information, close cases that haven't been resolved, and oftentimes don't seem able to comprehend the problem.

@Liv