Horrific customer service.
by Gary on May 16, 2022
1 out of 5 stars
Earn 10% cash back on all purchases for the first 3 months (up to $2,000 in total purchases). Plus, no annual fee in the first year, including on supplementary cards. A welcome offer value of $350.
I had no problem booking with Avion RBC rewards Visa but when there is a problem the customer service cannot resolve it… I had to be put on hold for almost 2 hours trying to find a solution. After holding for almost 2 hours nothing was resolved. I spoke to Karinee prior to my call to the customer service and she said that because PAL changed their route that my connecting domestic flight can be changed. When I called back I got another customer service gentleman who was not able to resolve the issue despite asking for a solution from his supervisor… What kind of supervisor does RBC reward travel have? As a supervisor, you should be able to find a solution especially when it is the airline that changed their flights. I had a sleepless night worrying about my flight. Today April 8 after waiting for an hour for someone to answer the call, I spoke to Mario from Toronto… was I ever so happy to find someone knowledgeable and helpful… you should make an example of his knowledge and he should train that supervisor… He made me feel relieved and will finalize my trip, especially since PAL downgraded me to the economy with my flight to Manila Toronto… Thank you, Mario!
The biggest perk of the RBC Avion card is the travel 'perks'. However, if you need to interact with their team, you will be bitterly disappointed. Their online travel booking system is pre-historic and you are forced to call their "toll-free" number, which isn't toll-free if you are actually travelling. After spending hours on the phone with the high probability you will be disconnected, you will then get to talk to an agent who can't do anything other than what is on their screen. If the computer says no, then you will be stuck with having to change your plans to suit the RBC travel booking system. You have been warned!
Earn 10% cash back on all purchases for the first 3 months (up to $2,000 in total purchases). Plus, no annual fee in the first year, including on supplementary cards. A welcome offer value of $350. What else will you get:
RBC Travel has sucked the very life out of me. Book thousands of dollars of Flights to Hawaii. I was told I would receive a confirmation in my email within four hours. Could then pick my seats. We paid for Premium seats and their availability is limited. No email. Nothing all day. The following morning I get on the phone with an agent. (They are working from home by the way) Put on hold in the "Supervisor Queue". Remember, they are at home and there is no Supervisor there. So I have now been on hold for 2 hours. In the meantime, I have just noticed my Visa Card credited with the amount debited yesterday for the flights. What the hell is going on. I have made hotel reservations, car rentals and inter Island flight reservations. But it seems RBC hasn't even booked my Flights to get there yet. I am beyond acrimonious. RBC has been my bank for over 40 years. We are nothing to them. Insignificant annoyances. I'm done with them.
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I switched to the RBC card because it had more flexibility in airlines and "no blackout dates" than my previous one.
However, as others pointed out, the RBC Rewards website is impossible to use to update travel. The chatbots are useless and once you try to do something with them, you get locked out. The "customer service" is non-existent. I never spent less than an hour on the phone with someone trying to make changes or get resolutions. They also seem to outsource a lot of the work offshore. I had agents whom I could not understand and they were basically useless in terms of help.
The final straw to dropping them was when I had a change a flight that had been changed twice before due to COVID. The original ticket cost me points and money, then I had to pay again to switch dates and again one last time. The last time was super weird and the agent had to calculate everything by hand. After everything was done, I had to pay an extra $43. I did, but somehow the charge (on my RBC card!) was denied by the bank. The ticket with Air Canada was in limbo. No one could change or fix it - but I didn't "actually" have a ticket. I easily spent 7 hours on the phone with various people at RBC, RBC Rewards and American Express travel (who seem to be operating the travel component behind the scenes). I even physically went to the airport to try and resolve the issue (which, according to the Air Canada website, I had to do) - but still, nothing worked. I was promised callbacks from RBC Rewards managers - but they literally never called back! It was insane! Worst. Customer. Service. Ever.