Originally Posted by Skie (Post 35501199)

It makes me wonder if this is just part of the Virgin "experience". I sent a letter to claim compensation for train tickets to Virgin rail, after myself and my team were delayed by over 3 hours. According to Virgins passenger charter they will fully refund the affected portion of the journey for a delay of 2 hours or more. This should have been £600+ worth of tickets.

Yesterday I got a letter back with a £50 rail voucher. The letter was amazing in its contempt for their own customers: "As a company we are always looking to learn from customer feedback regarding the style and speed of our responses. Therefore we are currently trailing new ways to respond to our customers. As part of this initiative we will not be answering the specifics of your letter in this reply, in order to ensure that we are able to respond swiftly to you. While we have not fully addressed your complaint on this occasion, I can assure you that we will do all we can to ensure that whatever happens in the coming months, we will strive [to] maintain the high standards that you and we have come to expect."

It's the equivalent of a fob off by India. I'm £500 down. Though apparently you get the exact same response (including vouchers) for just moaning about the 1st class lounge not having enough coffee so 10 of them might cover it :)

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher (Post 35501214)

There was a time when the Virgin Brand meant something good.

However nowadays, in spite of having already made so much money he couldn't spend it all even if he wanted to, Branson is still so greedy that he will lease out the Brand to any tin pot Company that can afford to line his ass pocket.

To be honest the Brand is now so devalued that it is probably good practice to give anything "Virgin" a wide berth.

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher (Post 35501214)

There was a time when the Virgin Brand meant something good.

However nowadays, in spite of having already made so much money he couldn't spend it all even if he wanted to, Branson is still so greedy that he will lease out the Brand to any tin pot Company that can afford to line his ass pocket.

To be honest the Brand is now so devalued that it is probably good practice to give anything "Virgin" a wide berth.

Originally Posted by Coffeeguy (Post 35501263)

Why do VM still outsource to these foreign call centres where our calls are answered by headless chickens? They are merely no more than a TAS. Surely they must be causing more grief and costing VM in terms of unnecessary replacement 'Super'hubs & engineer visits?

Are you VM boffins listening? Do you care?

Originally Posted by Top banana (Post 35501267)

Headless chickens or a human being who happens to live in India and is trying to provide for his / her family and also happens to have a degree. Oh what did you not realise that? To get a job in an Indian call centre you have to have that level of education!!

Originally Posted by Top banana (Post 35501267)

Headless chickens or a human being who happens to live in India and is trying to provide for his / her family and also happens to have a degree. Oh what did you not realise that? To get a job in an Indian call centre you have to have that level of education!!

Originally Posted by Russ (Post 35501270)

That myth has long since been debunked. It was useful when Indian outsourcing companies were trying to sell their service to the UK but most people moved on 10 years ago from falling for it.

Originally Posted by Russ (Post 35501270)

That myth has long since been debunked. It was useful when Indian outsourcing companies were trying to sell their service to the UK but most people moved on 10 years ago from falling for it.

Originally Posted by Top banana (Post 35501273)

Missing the point Russ, they are not headless chickens, they are human beings trying their best. How can a so called civilised race be so demeaning to a fellow human?

Originally Posted by Top banana (Post 35501273)

Missing the point Russ, they are not headless chickens, they are human beings trying their best. How can a so called civilised race be so demeaning to a fellow human?

Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 35501274)

Not a myth - I have set up outsourced call-centres in Pune and Mumbai, and the minimum qual was a degree, and over a third had post-grad quals...

Originally Posted by ferretuk (Post 35501278)

It so happens that the call centre is situated in an area that can provide a cheap workforce that culturally like to be seen to be helpful...

Originally Posted by ferretuk (Post 35501278)

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/reso...y-profile.html

See the section "Just can't say no"

Originally Posted by Russ (Post 35501280)

I'm sure it may be correct for some callcentre work. But not all, as was stated.

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Which in itself is not a bad thing - however they usually try so hard to be nice that it becomes a distraction and can detract from the purpose of the call. It's the "yes we have no banana" thing.

---------- Post added at 23:40 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ----------



That makes my blood boil. If it is indeed correct then they need to be firmly taught that being so evasive with the truth in our culture (ie the culture they ought to be serving) is indeed going to be seen as dishonest and untrustworthy.

I don't see why we should be expected to change the way we perceive the call when we are the customers. It is they who need to change if VM wants us to accept their service. I love how VM once said they were "spending millions of pounds training" their Indian callcentre staff about our customs and ways. Well clearly that lump of cash was not an ideal investment.