Support Agents not following Policy

[Sevastian1]

Hello!

recently I have encountered a very shocking experience here on airbnb!

a few support agents that I contacted regarding 2 offensive injust reciews left by 2 hateful clients that did it on purpose to damage my business and reputation.

one client even insulted me in the review and reviewed amenities that the listing does not even offer such as wifi internet connection.

I tried to ask the agents to remove them, pointed out where and what review policy they violate exactly but in return got a woman laughing at me over the phone from airbnb and saying she won’t do anything. When I asked the manager to call me, she closed the case...

I am shocked if I am honest, never would I thought in a thousand years such people would be hired by such a reputable company like Airbnb..

[Brian2036]

@Sevastian1 

You did not talk to an Airbnb employee. It is unlikely that you will ever get to talk to an employee.

The customer service people work for another company on a commission basis. If they close out a complaint they get a tiny little reward. So they close everything as quickly as possible.

Sometimes they get paid enough to buy food for their families that day.

Almost all big corporations do this. Off-shore customer service is hugely profitable, but not to the unfortunates who answer the telephones.

[Brian2036 · Accepted solution]

@Sevastian1 

The CS contractor Airbnb uses in the USA is 24/7Intouch.

If you want some laughs Google their reviews.  Incidentally their overall rating would get a host banned from the platform.

[Brian2036]

@Sevastian1

Here’s a fun one:

Management is very poor, a company who doesn't care about employees.

Case Manager (Former Employee) - Home-office - September 8, 2021

Very little training
Poor management
Very low pay
Stressful, pressure
Not reccomended
Management cover for each other
HR refuses to speak to anyone

Pros

None

Cons

All of what you may think of.

[ResortShare0]

Recently, Airbnb cancelled a 6 night reservation due to an "unclean unit". The agent, Anique from Airbnb, did not allow us time to reach out to the guest and further assist him with his concerns. This all happened within a 10 - 20 minute mark. 

-Documentation was also not provided for further review, nor were we allowed the chance to rectify the issue at hand. When I asked for pictures of my listing so I can report this over to the resort, the agent denied forwarding it over to us and stated --

"As per our policy, the guest has the right to cancel the reservation without giving you to chance to rectify the issues they have experienced and as such, the guest chose to do so. Therefore, in this instance Airbnb had the right to override your cancellation policy as sufficient documentation was provided.

Unfortunately, I am unable to share the documentation the guest has provided on my end without their permission"

-Secondly, Airbnb always gives a host 30 mins - 1 hour to rectify any issues; move the guest to a different unit, etc. However, this agent did not allow us to do anything but lose out on $600.00.

-When I asked to speak with another agent, the other agent proceeded to say "It is Airbnbs policy" and closed the ticket.

This is a timeshare resort and our owner has a point-based ownership. We had to use their points in order to book the guest the unit. We have to follow the timeshare's cancellation policy and it is too late to cancel the unit so their points go to waste. Even if a guest doesn't stay in the unit we have to pay the owner for the points that were spent.

So much for being a Superhost, and then they expect us to be flexible when guests need to cancel? 

This experience has truly shifted the way I handle every guest issue, every cancellation request, hosting.. overall. 

[Sevastian1]

I am a superhost too and it seems it makes no difference to the quality of the support you receive based on the superhost status and my personal experience.
Just had a look around online about the general status of aribnb and was shocked: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.airbnb.com

If Airbnb continues to hire these incompetent support agents, the company will have a very questionable future...

[Sevastian1]

Wow thank you for the insight @Brian2036 
I did not know this.
This now makes sense why it feels like the agents sometimes are actually trolling me instead of following policy and trying to help me...
You state facts to them and they blatantly ignore them. Just today I had an incident where a guest left a review and was saying that I am a hotel, further disclosing the exact location of the listing... Which is clearly against policy. I addressed this problem to Airbnb support and some agent name Mariam commenced to simply troll me, there's is no other way I could put it to describe her interaction with me. Saying things like "we also live in a very imperfect world, and we cannot please everyone."
**
And "Additionally, since there is no violation in our content policy, the review cannot be removed in accordance with the policy and this will be considered our final decision in accordance with our guidelines and policy."

Even though I clearly pointed out where and what review points are violated by the guest in the review. Especially the location disclosure.
I will attach photos of the interaction so you can have a look and anyone else that is interested.
This support interaction is simply absurd to say the least.

**[Private conversation removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

[Sevastian1]

It's such an annoying fact that I literally have to write out a whole book every time the support agent decides to do something like this, where I have to waste my time to prove and state the obvious over and over again and with no results..