How to contact a US support channel

[Sara-And-Rob0]

I am having a very difficult time reaching an American support channel from Europe.  The third party support centers in south Asia are absolutely useless bots that have been given strict orders to not actually support anyone.  I get pre-formed answers to all requests usually ending with 'We're sorry this wasn't the result you were looking for.'

I've heard there are better results in finding solutions, especially with review removals, with US support agents.

I have already tried +1-844-234-2500 and just get routed to India or other points in Asia every single time.  The oddest part is that if you ask them to tell you if they are in the US, because there are people from India in the US so I don't assume they are not, they claim they cannot say yes or no based on policy, but I cannot find that in the TOS anywhere.  

Each day, my frustrations grow with Airbnb's support, which used to be so great, and now always leaves me frustrated and often feeling like my business partner doesn't give a flying heck about anything I need.

Feeling defeated.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sara-And-Rob0 You won't find the location of support in any external policy but they will have internal policies to abide by.

I think rather than concentrate on race/country you should concentrate on the issue you have. It is highly likely that they are giving you the official Airbnb position and it has nothing to do with their race or where they are based.

What issue are you having?

[Sara-And-Rob0 · Accepted solution]

I am clearly not concerned with race, there is only one race, the human race.  

The issue is geographic location.  A third party call centre located in Asia and South Asia, where I am mainly routed, has non-Airbnb employees working there.  In order to control the system, they are given limited abilities to make any changes. 

However, in the US, all support agents work directly for Airbnb and can do more.  Since everything was outsourced for European hosts, all requests for review removal have been refused, specifically.  I cannot succeed, even when there are gross breaches of the TOS by guests.  Of course this is nothing new but the extreme refusal state in place since outsourcing began is unacceptable.  The rule is, remove no reviews, period.

Regarding policies, as we have a contract with Airbnb, we require transparency otherwise, there are no rules to bind us fairly.

[Helen427]

@Sara-And-Rob0 @Chitra21 @Rebecca @Lj28 @Joan2709 

The issues that impact on us all, and that includes Standing on Giants contracted Moderators of ABB Community Center, is that Business Processing Outsources are required to be versant with and comply with our Laws in our Countries which there knowledge of is sadly lacking for whatever reason.

The results of this is those working in those places are leaving themselves open to prosecutions for failing to adhere to various laws, including but not limited to Cheating by Personation, criminal breach of trust, etc by using a computer resource of Information Technology Act amongst other sections of Penal Codes relating to the country Customer Service agents are based in.

May we suggest when in communication with any Customer Service Agent that you first and foremost request their Business License operator details which they should provide - similar to that as to what is required of ABB Hosts who operate a Business.

If they are unable to provide that information use "Feedback" option to report it to ABB.

The other option includes making a formal notification to SEC to get them to follow up and investigate as part of there role.

The SEC successfully jailed some involved in BPO Dishonesty Crimes several years ago.

There have been countless cases of Business Process Outsourcing people held to account dating back to at least 1990's when they escalated.

Have a read under News online in Archives.

There's also a few articles tucked away in the BBC website from era 2005 in general terms.

It is also noted that in Italy that Open AI has recently been heavily fined for failures relating to the use of AI.

It's a known fact that for the last 40 years children have been taught in schools and universities to Copy/ Paste information which has likely contributed to a wider failure in Society of understanding how to read and apply Legislation.

It pays to keep an eye on International news relating to BPO / cybercrime which is not limited to any particular country but a growing International issue for us all thanks to "Seventies Snake Oil Computer Salesmen and systemic failures" as they are merely a program and all require a Human Agent to operate.

[Jakob196]

Yeah, I'm finding myself in the same situation. Absolutely horrible place. Complained about it and I get routed to some offshore support center that has done absolutely nothing except coming up with excuses. I paid $2400 for a month at a place that was advertised as luxurious (looked nice in the pics as well). But the experience is the total opposite. Airbnb support is trying to excuse themselves from dealing with the complaint because I'm traveling at the moment and it's my girlfriend who is in the apartment (she is a co-traveler). I will post my experience everywhere if they don't get their ****** together.

[Chitra21]

@Joan2709  @Sara-And-Rob0 I am unfortunately in a similar situation again and any time there’s any Airbnb issues the “Ambassadors” only job is to make sure it never gets resolved and toss around the customer until they’re totally exhausted!!

It seems there is a resolved answer for this thread about review and reaching someone, but I wasn’t clear what was the resolution or how it was obtained??

It seems there are thousands of agents with A LOT of time on their hands but only keep saying the same thing from the script!
Quite literally worse than AI/robots! It is such a criminal waste of shareholders money to have that many people who are not accountable and don’t resolve anything!! 

I have an impeccable record as a guest but a horrible host in a terribly unhygienic place wrote a defamatory, passive aggressive retaliatory review with a lot of personal attacks, euphemism and covert tactics that even anyone with basic understanding of English can discern that he’s trying to get under the radar and getting away! This was after checking out based on Airbnb advice! I had a lot of photos of the appalling conditions most of which never got resolved that I had to finally send to Airbnb (although I tried to discuss with him first to get it resolved in vain and later Airbnb tried in vain as well! Finally based on all the evidence they decided to refund for the remaining days, all of which he denies in his review calling it totally lies but Airbnb says that is all OK under their policy and won’t remove it! 

When did lying (in spite of evidence) and personal attacks become OK anywhere? So basically if I ask is lying OK or personal attacks OK even when I have the photos to prove it they won’t respond and keep repeating the same answer! Then they keep transferring me to different agents who ask me to start the process over and close the case, and if I try to reopen saying it’s not resolved they start over!! 

Last time I had a serious issue that they dodged for more than a month, finally a Silicon Valley person got involved after trying to contact the exec team and resolved the case in a couple of days!! It is appalling if that is the only way!! 

Can anyone please advise on this and to be able to contact someone me who I can actually talk/write to and get out of this crazy loop they’re driving me into? I will be in a silent retreat starting late tomorrow and won’t have any communication for a week so I am really trying to have it taken care of before that. Could anyone please help?!

Thanks in advance! 

[Joan2709]

@Chitra21 

Unfortunately, you are experiencing what Hosts have experienced since Airbnd turned over review disputes to mostly AI  around April this year. They also are using AI in their Customer Support process. Neither seems to have much human supervison.

Many Hosts are also unable to get reviews removed left by guests that clearly violate Airbnb written policies. 

Sorry I couldn't provide more suggestions, as unless Airbnb changes how they handle review disputes, this will continue.

[Chitra21]

Hi @Joan2709 thank you for your response! that’s exactly what I was wondering too! In fact the denial came back almost instantaneously it felt quite suspicious that any person could’ve gotten to it by then, although if someone did look at it, it wouldn’t take too long to figure out what he was saying (even passive aggressively and with euphemisms) and the photos contradicting all of it!

The worst part is the dishonesty of the reps! They will make up anything, any lies, eg. First they said their “review team” will look into it, then they said they’re not authorized but soon after that they contradicted their own lies saying, they’ve looked at it twice, thrice etc.!!) then they hold the phone without saying anything, then repeat the same after prompting, and transfer the case to someone else… rinse and repeat! !

Then if you keep calling to reach the rep, other reps will say only the assigned person can “work” on this (after more then half hour of explaining!) and the assigned person will call you as soon as you get off this call and he/she never does! (except to close the case when they come back to their shift in their country/time zone and then I have to reopen)!!

If I ask, just tell me what time / shift he will be available in, they won’t, or lie that he will call soon! Or keep saying “I understand” to everything!

This is the worst “customer support” I’ve ever come across! It seems there are thousands of them wasting customer’s and shareholders money and time all to open and close cases and repeat the same answer! THEY seem even worse than AI which can actually change responses based on the prompt!! An elaborate and super expensive way to dodge ANY RESOLUTION for anything! it’s literally giving me nightmares and causing me so much stress! 

[Sara-And-Rob0]

If you scan forward to 7:03 you will see what I am talking about.

https://youtu.be/9tauPokD4Hc?si=YKSKIcoYdCukryR8

[Chitra21]

Hello 

Was this resolved? I am having similar issues, the India team and supervisors are doing illegal things and they keep closing all my support threads without any resolution, it looks like someone is  closing all the support threads to cover up something! and I can’t reach legal team or anyone, they’re not processing my refund and my bank account is closed I sent all the information they asked for in multiple threads and they closed everything!

The bank says they can’t accept a payment to a closed account, Now there’s no way to contact legal (I don’t even know which country’s legal team it falls under) basically I am losing thousands of dollars with no one to reach out to!! 
is there a way to contact anyone in the US? At least the legal team? I want to find the right channel at least to take legal action. 

[Joan2709]

@Chitra21 

The last Host and guests that posted here with the same problem were able to resolve by adding a PayPal account to their payouts and then direct Airbnb to send funds to the paypal account. You might try that. 

[Chitra21]

Hi Joan, 

thanks so much for the response, I am a guest by the way and not host. 

I am in Airbnb hell and nightmare right now, it is literally 3 am where I am and I am sleepless because of the horrendous experience with Airbnb all night and the fact they’re asking me to lose thousands of dollars, although not literally but by saying they can’t do anything else! 

None of them are helping as they keep sending every time to the same closed account harassing me that “no one in Airbnb can help with that” “we can only send it to original form of payment”. I called the bank numerous times and they said it’s illegal for US banks to accept payment to or route from closed accounts. It will just go back to sender and they don’t even see it.

It may be possible in their country but they don’t understand US regulations! They keep asking me to contact the bank and keep doing the same over and over again and keep closing message threads! 

one rep had asked me to enter my new bank debit card (as it didn’t let me enter a new bank account number) but a “supervisor” from the India team said literally “no one can in Airbnb can help” nothing can be done and closed all the message threads. They repeatedly keep saying the same no matter how much I explain giving me no other option. They keep closing the threads. I tried calling different times but they all seem to go to India call center who’s already said they can’t do anything! 

I don’t have a PayPal account but can get one and enter but they won’t route payment anywhere, not even to the debit card someone made me enter, I they keep closing the threads and open a new thread and close those too, and they said whoever said that they can send to other forms of payment were lying, and keep closing that! And I can’t contact the same rep ever again! 

is there a legal team I can contact or even a security affairs team because what they say sounds illegal. I literally haven’t slept all night because of worries about money and likely having to start a lawsuit while traveling and I can’t reach anywhere where I can get legit answers!

how can I reach a call center that can actually do something about it? Which call center was able to do that resolution?

this has been a total nightmare during my travels even the bank rep said the same!

[Joan2709]

@Chitra21 

Is this a refund for a cancelled stay? Is that why they are sending a payment to you?  Normally, guests don't receive funds from Airbnb unless they are canceling a stay or receiving a refund.

I would go ahead and add a PayPal account to your Airbnb payouts. You'll never be able to get it resolved by having them try to send to a closed bank account. Once the PayPal account is setup, contact them again. I would try the chat feature if that is available to you, not calling.

Perhaps one of the moderators can forward this to the correct Team at Airbnb to help this guest:

@Elisa , @Emilie , @Rebecca , @Alex 

[Chitra21]

hi Joan, 

Thanks again! 

i found the other relevant thread and contacted there as well, yes it is for a canceled stay. 

no rep has given me any option. One rep asked me to a new bank account debit card (I do have a new bank account too) and i have entered that but now they keep saying they can’t do anything. And keep sending it to the closed account no matter how many times i explain. 

the worst thing is they’re closing all the relevant ‘support” threads! 

I really need to get in touch with the call center or team who can actually re route it, that’s my main issue right now.

[Joan2709]

@Chitra21 

Did you try the Chat feature? Did you setup a PayPal account?

Other thread

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Support-with-your-bookings/AirBNB-Refund-Failed-Who-to-Contact/m...