A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Right then people;)

I've been holding back from posting on here, until i had gathered enough 'on the job' info!
If you want to know why alot of the customer complaints arise from installation issues, i'm here to help you find the correct answers....

I lasted 4 months working with these ( kelly ) type people, and i'll tell you something... I've never worked for such cowboy's in all my life!
Don't Blame Virgin for Dodgy Installations, its all to do with the workload that these kelly Supervisors/Managers put onto the Engineers.
I have worked 12hrs a day on average, and still owe them over £800 for tools 'they' said we would get for free in the initial Interview/Training.

Anyone have any similiar facts? I'm currently providing virgin media and press with some Pics and problems i have seen whilist out on the job, and because i know a few people:) this won't go away i'm affraid!

any kelly/Virgin execs on here?

More to be posted...

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Oooo... I like a whistle-blower.

However, are you sure you aren't going to leave yourself open to any form of retribution?
If so, is it worth it?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I wouldn't call anyone a 'Whistleblower'...

I am able to tell the 'truth' which is 'factual' without any problems, and if people do have a problem with this, then i don't really care! I would quite happily hide under my forum name without anyone finding out who i am:)

Dude who has been offered a job with kellys....

Don't bother mate....

1- they tell you you get payed every 2 weeks, in actual fact you get your first pay after 1 month, which means you have to find all your costs on travel for this period! ( and i went into the office on the second week to make sure i was getting payed, which i was 'again' told i would.... guess what? never got anything for a month )

2- After you initial training period, you DO get payed every 2 weeks through a 'composite'payroll company, they take loads of your earnings as their cut... i.e training rate is 50 per day..... for 2 weeks you should get £500? but i ( and all the people i started with ) got around £360!!! not good!

3-Tools you are given after passing your test are around £350, they take 25 quid out of your wages every 2 weeks, took around a Month after being onj-site before the first charge was taken off..

4- The hours are too long, we were all averaging about 10-12 hrs a day for 50!! waste of time!! simple ass:)

5- They say its a really good industry to work in, they are wrong! its the worst industry i've ever experienced.

6- Pay for the days you work is always wrong, i have around 17 days pay missing for my period with them, you have little chance of getting it sorted with the muppets that run it! Photocopy everything if you do start!!!! not as if it will help much...but if you take them to court ( which i will be doing soon ) it will!
7- The people who seem to do well in the installation area, tend to do a job as quick as they can, which is why most customers i have dealt with, are unhappy with the service! On loads of occasions i went to a SRO job ( which is priced at £6 ) that took over an hour, if not 2hrs..... cos the previous engineers...knew this and fooked it off! as i was on a training rate and only a few jobs a day to start with... i could stay and complete the job properly!

8- 7 jobs per day in the area i was working, was too much... unless you like doing 12 hrs for a crappy pay? upto you i guess!

I'm getting tired of this now to be honest, it's making me feel streesed.....

so i'm finishing here, but have another 100 or so problems with it all!

I worked in the South london area, and i'm sure some of the area's are ok... but then only the top engineers will be in those areas....unlikely you will be at first! until you start impressing the used car salesman type management structure.....by cutting corners to complete the jobs before 8-9pm!!

proper weird industry mate......

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Just make sure you stay the right side of the libel laws...

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Which is what I was intimating...just watch your ar...well you get the idea;)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

cheers;)

I'm willing to do time if that what it takes, besides..... i have some of the best legal team on my side with this one!

I won't tell you what else i'm going to do either.....;)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Yeah but bear in mind Cable Forum could get implicated, and I'm not willing for that to happen.

Well I'll tell you what I'm going to do - edit your posts to remove the uneccessary spaces :)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

yeah of course..... i will be stting up my own php board very shorty....but only to project over what i've seen, so don't worry, i won't use this forum as a platform for my new project;)

feel free to edit my post, or get rid of this thread if you want?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

are all engineers kelly communication or do virgin employ there own (i have a reason for asking) i've got a phone interview with them tomorrow but i applied threw vm careers link :(

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

No need to do that, you've got as much right to post on here but we have to protect our website too! Say whatever you want just as long as you stay the right side of decency and the law!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I was working within the London area, i know for a fact that brighton has a company called Cobra, that do that area...and a few people i have spoken too, have said that cobra are a really good company to work for!

Just avoid kelly's mate:)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

ok cheers for that i will find out tomorrow and if it is kelly's i won't bother and will stay where i am :tu:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

The contractors install that is are Kellys ,Map ,and avonline cobra haved moved on .Saabmania which job did you go for with VM:)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

i went for a job called 'Service Technicians' if you go to the bottom of the virgin media home page there is a link called careers, in that there is a drop down box with links to jobs with virgin media. hope that makes sense:D i'm hoping it is working with virgin media and not farmed out to someone else :rolleyes:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Thats working for VM starting salary is £17000 :td:Good Luck

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

£17000 Why the thumbs down, i've been working and slogging my guts out for a company that doesn't care as an IT Support Tech 50-60 hrs per week
for £12500 per year now thats worthy of a thumbs down:td::td::bigcry:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Most of us think £17000 is a poor starting wage when a Qa starts on £21000

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I think the service tech jobs are alright mate, and good luck!!



The only job in my opinion which would give you some satisfaction, as you get to find a solution...and leave a happy customers premises;)


happy days

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Good luck :)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Cheers guys,
i've got most things crossed, the only thing is i havn't got much experiance in cable services, i used to fit the BSB Square dishes a few years back i was only 18 then!!! showing my age now:D lol

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Hi Stealth, l will support you all the way on this, l was offered a job with Telewest who operated under this company, and l was given an hour to do 20 CALLS on collection of boxes, of subscribers cancelling there boxes and things that l saw in that time really stunned me and l am a person who speaks his mind, and what the customers don't know what happens behind the scene is bad for the customer, these engineers are working under extreme pressure and this is what causes the problems, when l asked about contract of employment, as they offered me a full time job, was that they can just get rid of you without any problems, you have guts to take on the company, and good luck to you. - l like people who take on the big boys who think they can run rings round people like the - CUSTOMER.:)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Hi people,

Wondering if anyone could help me out.

Basically I have a telephone interview with virgin media tomorrow for a technical engineer place based in south London. After reading through this thread im unsure whether or not to participate. Is it possible for anyone to give me some tips on what i might be asked etc and also what the job is like, from reading some of the posts it doesn't seem all that.

Thanks guys and girls.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Do what they do,ring them up and tell them you ll be there sometime between 12.00pm and 6.00pm and then dont turn up at all.:D:D:D:D

doh,just noticed you said TELEPHONE interview.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Unless, of course, you actually wanted helpful comments. :dozey:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

kellys sound EXACTLY the same as avonline.

as for the service techs job working directly to VM,then good luck,that should be about the best of it.
The telecommunications industry IS a good place TO work,its the CONTRACT industry that is PANTS!!!!!!
PANTS.PANTS,PANTS,PANTS,PANTS,PANTS,PANTS(you get the message).

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

there are a couple of guys in my area who work for kellys[ buissines instals] and there has never been an ocasion to complain about there standard of work its allways spot on, but they do tell some horror stories about kellys, charging them for phone calls to the company on a company phone ,charging for wear on van tyres, charges for tools they dont have ,deductions from wages for no apparent reason, tax fiddles, making them pay for safety eqpt that kellys should supply, not paying for all jobs completed [even after vm has signed off on the jobs and are 100%happy with the quality]the list is endless and if these alegations are true ,not a good employer by any standards

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

i would assume it's because you work 8am-7pm 6 days a week + overtime (which is a must, you cannot back out), for the amount of work they force you to do, the pay is well, crap.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I have worked for kellys for 9 yrs as a installer and construction pre-proofer 3months ago i received a phone call informing me i have six days then i will no longer be required. i was then employed by another firm for a crap day rate who subbed the work off kellys themselves guess the managers needed new cars(fact).I would have to say if you hear anything good about kellys its a lie and vice versa.im off for therapy now after 9 yrs of brainwashing then im off to cobra to see if they are any better:confused:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

When we had an extra box installed, the engineer who called, but he was telling me that, he gets paid about £10.00 per call, no matter,how long he was there, and he told me, they sometimes have to work from 8-11pm to make any money, but this is the big problem, when you get subbed work, and this is how the contractor makes the money, he sells the work to someone else, l used to do 'price work' and knows how it works, the salesman get the job, he then sells it to the company, the company, then gets a contractor, ie Kelly's, they then get another contractor to carry out the work, if they cannot do it, they then sell it to someone else, when you next have an instal, you might get a 'VM' van or a white one, this is the contractor, and the back of the van, it will say ' working on behalf of Kellys'

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

For 9 yrs i thought things might eventually change to give the subbies more employment rights.This was masked by a poor attempt at conning everyone into believing they were on the cards with these composite payroll firms with promises of holiday pay and sick pay which amounted to a small fraction of their wage and guess what?the ni contributions they paid did n`t entitle them to any benefits.The whole industry needs to go back in house with fair distribution of work for 8 hrs with the event of special installs catered for by a floating crew.This should go all the way back to construction where in my experience there appeared to be more money available for the subbies untill kellys could`nt cope with the workload on a incorrectly maybe even amateurishly priced contract,they subbed it out again leaving the actual workforce on a reduced day rate i.e.i used to earn 180-210 a day for 10 construction jobs which was hard work and would take 10 hrs now they pay 120 a day for 14 jobs in a bigger area i would have to drive 160 miles a day to cover those 14 jobs.Nodding off at the wheel several times was enough for me to get out although i think i was pushed out in the end sorry about ranting but i could go on for days if i were a whistleblower you would hear me in Austraila.

---------- Post added at 21:02 ---------- Previous post was at 20:37 ----------

another point is kellys are locked in a 5yr contact with 3 1/2 years left to go.This happened when the contract went turnkey kellys had to work to an agreed budget based on a price agreed with TELEWEST/NTL Lets not be fooled RB only has 8% its a brand name. He latches onto failing companies who would benefit from a name change(everyone trusts the bearded one).its still the same upper management as it was when telewest/ntl merged.example of price agreed; standard remote priced by kellys £1 actual price;£5 how can they make money its only a matter of time and kellys will pull out when the fine is affordable by ripping their own guys off.Ido think having RB on board was good for morale but that is flagging daily.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

would you ever contemplate using Kelly again (after you've had time to think)?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

i assume you mean work for them again,things would need to change,the money was good,but a majority of their staff myself included were regarded as casual labour even after 9yrs.i would have gone on the cards and probably still would its only the contractor side thats crap.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

All you ask is a fair days work for a fair days pay . After 9 years of hard work if you still havent got , contract , terms and conditions whats the point ? You might earn good money but for how many hours or days a week ?
Its so unfair that decent hard working blokes get treated like this by suits . Just my p o v :mad:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

also they dont provide latex gloves to protect staff from leprosis (weils disease)

also they dont have enough stock in the stores and resort to scrounging stock from techs and sending out faulty box's

not giving tech pit pens to tag cables and result in tech failing audit
same with TV GUIDES AND PHONE GUIDES

they get rid of people for not enough reason and so "FORCE" members of staff to leave. they are also banned from certain areas because of being cowboys

---------- Post added at 13:55 ---------- Previous post was at 13:54 ----------

also have not go id badge.. how shoddy

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

More commonly known as Leptospirosis :) </pedant>

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

you spent 2 minutes of your time to correct that, you need a hobby. the answer i was given when i asked why, they said they dont protect against needles. but the rigging gloves gave better protection.??
burn kellys burn

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

hi guys,
this may sound dumb like but im gonna ask anyway, the telephone interview ?
how the el can you have an interview over the telephone,
with regards to terms of contract. i think there is a law that says you must have a contract after a certain period of being with the company, however if you get paid through a composite company then that be diffrent.
was some time ago that i went through a composite company so it might have changed, but when i went through it i was in theary employed by the composite company and went through there terms and conditions, bear in mind though that im going back 8 years er.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

For composite company read possible tax dodge.

A number of composite companies have been set up for this reason and HMRC pay them special attention.

And as for contracts, they cannot make you sign away your rights in a job contract. It might be a complicated and long document but you get your basic rights regardless of what it might say.
Legally they cannot make you sign away your right to not work more than 48 hours a week as a condition for getting the job in the first place although many companies (and I've had first hand experience of this) will tell you that you have to sign it otherwise they cannot employ you.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I see it has been quite some time since some1 posted anything on this thread, i am only posting this to confirm on what is STILL going on at Kelly Communication. The Engineers are still getting the same money the hours are still way to long and the amount of crap all of the employees have to go through makes this job very undesirable. Kellys now have all their engineers on self employed status, wich meens no holiday pay, no sick pay. Someone in kellys told me virgin pay them £150 per engineer per job, you do the math if a average day consisted of 4-7 jobs @ 100+ engineers working North london only.

I would wish anyone who dares the best of luck if they are about to join this company, oh yes and the training pay is actually £40 a day for 3-6 weeks and good luck with getting paid in full. It seems that the composite companys that you are forced to use that do your tax and N.I are having a great time....just a example for 2 weeks worth of hard work i only managed to earn a measly £600<---thats not actually the amount i got paid. After the composite companys had their fun with my wages i only CLEARED £405 and that is for 2 weeks worth of hard word. Not to mention that Kellys will subtract something called retention every payrun of about £25 untill it hits £500, that is to say that they dont hit you with some sort of miscellanious charge. It has happened in the past that they actually tried to deduct money from my wages after a customer apparently told them i moved a cd rack infront of a radiator heater and it MELTED all of his cd's, they tried to deduct £500 pounds from my wages untill i asked who the guy was and when it happened they were quick to back down and say SORRY we got it all wrong.

Best of luck

I handed in my resignation last week..... i can honostly say the time i spend at this company I learned a lot and one of those lessons were NEVER work for these self obsessed money hungry *******s.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Hmmm. This all makes very interesting reading!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Thats a bit mad! So the moral of the story is, Avoid Kellys!

Im happy with Avonline thank you :)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Well, I've been travelling the UK auditing Kelly sites on behalf of VM, and all I can say is.......well I'll give you a clue - American chaps who ride horses a lot and dabble in the odd bit of gunslinging!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Yeeeeeehawwwwww!!! ;)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

to be fair have you done a audit on any of the rest? imo even with there faults they still better than the rest by a very very long way.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

That would expalin the MOT FAilure style van kelly came in and the two workmen that did want to work on our road lifted a manhole and went stating no cable there when all the negihbours have it.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I worked for the thieving Irish Kelly Group for 3 months see year, and only did so as this damn recession means there is very little else work. I would advise everyone to avoid like the plague here are just a few of my bad points working for them...

1) Interview stage, you're told that the pay is in the region of £25,000pa - It isn't!

2) Training - 3 weeks in a classroom over 80 miles from my house on £40 per day paying 30% Tax and £30 per pay day charge to their composite company and you won't see a penny for at least 4 weeks. They will not help with any travelling costs, quite a contrast to VM as a friend of mine is a sales rep and during his training they paid his train fare and put him up in a hotel...

3) Pay - it is none existent, once you're out of the classroom you're told you will be signed off from VM in about 2 weeks and then you are off training money and onto real money. 2 months later I finally get signed off and the delay couldn't have been performance related as during those 2 months I was forced to complete jobs on my own but on training pay. So if you do join these cowboys ensure you can afford to live on about £150 a week for a couple of months and remember that it is a 6-day-week you'll be working. This is far below the minimum wage and should be illegal but I think they get away with it as you're self-employed. Despite having my own Ltd setup and my own accountent I wasn't allowed to do this, I had to use their own Umbrella company which meant losing £30 every 2 weeks to pay them. And no you can't change the pay pattern to monthly to save money. And as stated before, you dread every pay day as there are always mistakes, yet they never seem to over pay you.

4) Tools - You have to pay for them, yes YOU! Costing around £300-£400. Wouldn't be a problem working for Sky as you could do some private work to pay for them, but you can't really do the same with Virgin.

5) Hours - As mentioned before, it is always a six-day-week and 90% of the time the hours are 7:30am - 8:00pm

6) The job - The trainers do a good job to teach you the correct ways of doing your job, but once you get out into the field you'll see that NO ONE does it properly, everyone takes shortcuts at the expense of the customer as failures happen so often due to rushing. But, there is little choice as when your having to complete 9+ jobs a day on your own you have to rush.

All, in all - avoid, work for Sky if you can handle the heights, pay, perks and job satisfaction is so much better.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I think you are telling us, what we already know, l know some friends around my way, who had these cowboys do some work, and it was that poor l complained on behalf one of them, and the engineers refused to come out - typical example, she has bushes aroung her garden, they placed the wire in the hole in the road, and placed the cable ON TOP of the bushes, down by the gate, put FLOWER pots on top of the cable to hold it down, and drilled a hole in her FRONT door to connect to the house.

I took the cable out of the door and placed it through the wall to reconnect, there engineers are terrible, probabely as they so low pay, it doesn't surprise me.

I would go over to Sky mate, they treat the staff better than VM.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

;)hi, i'm new to this forum and after reading this thread i feel the need to share a few things:
i CURRENTLY working with kellys and intend to stay with them.
yes the hours can be long.......
and yes the hours are sometimes short!!
since starting with the company, after completing my ttaining, i have been paid EVERY 2 weeks. every other friday with out fail.
yes i have to pay 'bestpay' for my accounting.
EVERYONE who is self employed should have an accountant anyway!!!
(this fee is tax deductable......fool!!!!).
if you keep a record of every job, includung details of that job, you can tally it up when you receive your invoice EVERY fortnight.....
we're SELF EMPLOYED.....keep a track of your own work....fool!!!!
if you dont......how can you expect anyone else to do it for you!!!!
there are days when the work is hard.....but there IS a difference between rushing and leaning to work quickly......fool!!!!
oh yeah.....on the libal thing...... we're not ALL cowboys......fool!!!!!
if you have been working with people who have been cutting corners/taking risks and YOU haven't reported that back then YOU are just as responsable for bringing us ALL down.....just cos some people have upset you, please dont bring us all down.
i work in the nottingham area. i have loved the job since day 1. its a rare thing when you can work some where and actually get paid for the work you do, and not get a fixed wage and get ripped off by a director skimming the profits for his/her own pockets.
really though....unless you have worked from every depot, and with every engineer-then you CANT speak for us all........
fool!!!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Think you'll find this thread is about 3yrs old so...

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Does calling someone a fool!!! make you feel better :)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

No but using the number 3 instead of an E in his user name probably makes him feel superior to us lowly commoners ;) Mind you it looks like he may a problem with his shift key....

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Well I remember Kelly Communications being used by Cable London as far back as 1997, they must be doing something good for Telewest/Virgin to be using them for so long???

However, maybe it is a local thing, I mean from my experience,they haven't been to bad when it has been a Kelly Communications engineer, maybe they have changed,it has been a while since we had an engineer out.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

You would hope. However, in my experience, contracts like these tend to go out to whoever puts in the lowest bid, regardless of whether they are reliable or not.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Its nice to hear someone is embracing working at kellys. I can tell you that they are better paid than VM service techs. Some of these Kellys lads are earning big bucks because they have learnt to do the job very quickly and to a good standard.

From my own personal experience I can tell you that some kellys techs are absolute cowboys and have the IQ of a peanut, however I know a couple of them who do awesome at the job and are a credit to both Kellys and VM.

Unfortunately working for Kellys is both hard and pressurising so only the hardest survive. If you can thrive in kellys you can thrive anywhere! I wish more of them had your attitude.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

I've had Kellys engineers at work as well as Virgin ones. It's usually the Virgin one's that couldn't give a &*^% about what they're doing. Last two that came had just been to the pub and they stank of alcohol. They wer also incredibly scruffy looking.

In contrast the Kellys guys always seem knowledgable, quick, tidy and always know who to contact if something goes wrong r isn't as expected, where as the Virgin guys normally just come at you with something like "this needs more work than is on the job sheet, we're off, you'll have to put the job in again".

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Must be the rare exception to the rule as all the Virgin engineers that come to my flat in Scotland are pretty spot on and decent people.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

The bottom line is VM want the job done at the lowest possible price to them, so ofcourse there are going to be some cowboy and botched up work done along the line somewhere.
I would'nt pay a heart surgeon to fine tune my ferari ;)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Over the years, I've never had any problems with Virgin media engineers. They've always been good at their job, tidy with their work and helpful.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Think you'll find the service Tech's don't stop for there dinner so i think a trip to the pub would be way out of the question unless the person who visited has an alcohol problem. I'm assuming you reported them straight away as stinking of booze would have mean't they must have been way over the limit? Or did you just watch the loaded weapon being driven away?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

Only going on what they told me at the time, and yes they were reported to the Public Sector Provide team straight away.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I've followed this thread for a while now and I find it really upsetting....... that nobody had requested a mod to change the spelling of thruths. ;)

If there's a passing mod can you change it to the correct spelling of troofs...or maybe check your dikshunary.:D

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers ( Kelly Communication ones! )
 

was just high-lighting some (obvious) points that seem to have been overlooked!!!!!
i will, however acknowledge that we do have some cowboys on board.
but the real q is:



what can be done about them?
they're annoying and lets face it-they bring us all down!

---------- Post added at 00:33 ---------- Previous post was at 00:29 ----------

'twas just for fun......3 for an E i mean......
shame you missed the 5 for an S though eh sparky???

;););););););););););), didn't use the shift key in this one either lol!!!

---------- Post added at 00:37 ---------- Previous post was at 00:33 ----------

lol, i was in hospickle the day they lernt the dickshonry at skool. i can talk gooda than i tipe tho;)


well observed matey, can't believe i missed that one!!!

Kellys
 

Minimum wage is something like £5.80 an hour. So an 8 hour day gives you a day rate of about £45.

With Kellys you start at 7am so if you get to 5pm, as you almost always do, you are down to £4.50 an hour - well below minimum. And that's not considering when the last job keeps you there until 7 or 8pm, which happens all the time.

If you do 9 to 5 that's a 40 hour week. If you do up to 8 hours on Saturday that's your 48 hour week.

Kellys force you to work the 6th day and this will always push you over the 48 hours - and you will still be on the £45 day rate.

You get a van early and the tools, which you have to pay them for, but you don't get a PDA right away so, instead of doing the hits straight away at an install you have to ring VM and hang about on the phone - and half the time you get one of the idiots who refuses to send the hit and tells you to call your TM. So a simple migrate turns into a 3 hour job.

You are forced into this scheme where they have outsourced their admin and they charge you a fee for sorting out your pay, and you HAVE to have this every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

It takes ages to sort out your UTR to get you to the lower rate and their admin, who you are paying out of your own pocket remember, will take a couple of pay runs to get it sorted. At £40%, with admin fees, half your money, which is not that good as we said, is gone already - and look at what you had to do to get it!

The "SELF EMPLOYED" thing is something they force you into for their benefit, it isn't something most people, if any, would opt for, especally if you don't really know how it works. They tell you that you are self employed then assign you to a TM who is your "boss" and starts making demands of you.


Bottom line - avoid Kellys. You can make as much or more money on min wage in any P/T job from waiting tables to shelf stacking while you leave your days free to apply and go to interviews for a real job.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I have been withVirgin Media/ntl for over 12 years now and have always found them and their engineers really good.
I think that often we only hear the bad side, of any company, people don't very often give public praise where it's due.

Church Mouse

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

VM are a great company, a great brand and a great product. Cabling is a great industry to be in. No doubt.

The problem, as previously stated, is with subcontracting and, in this instance, doing it through Kellys in particular.

It would be interesting to hear from any former Kelly employees who have moved to Comex, or somewhere similar, and what positive differences they have to share with us.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Kellys rob there workers of money and time via there self imployed scheme. They should be taken to court

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Have Kellys been given the chop? I had reason to have an engineer out today, although it was for a box swap, he was so professional, courteous, friendly polite (even left his shoes at the door, even though this wasn't requested/required of him)

After a bit of chat he told me he usually works in the Essex area, but as my area (Guildford) are short on engineers, they (VM) are offering overtime to guys outside the area, offering to put them up in hotels for the night.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Guildford is covered by Avonline, Ive worked up in Guildford plenty of times. :)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

This guy was VM employee, are contractors limited to the amount of staff they can have?

Seeing as my job is coming to an end in a couple of months, I've gone and applied for a position with VM, would prefer company rather than contractor.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Personally, I think you have made a good choice ;-).

As far as im aware there is nothing stopping the contractor from having as many staff as they want, but its the contractor that has to pay the wages ;-)

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I hope so, I feel it's time for a change anyway and better to be out and about than stuck in one place for 8 hours.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I'd like to work in house myself but when I applied my application got "lost" after my current employer got wind of what I wanted to do.... but thats another story.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Hmmm. I've just had a missed call from VM. They have 'withdrawn' my application do to being outside the catchment area!

That's a bit silly, almost as bad as applying for a school if you have kids!

Does anyone know any contacts within the 'catchment area'?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

If you had a box swap due to a fault it would have been an in house tech, contractors do installs? :erm:

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Fingy,

Contractors do the lot.

Ive done plenty of service and installs. Mainly installs though.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Primarilly the Contractors will install, In house Service will do the faults, on occaisions installers will be asked to do faults due to a high peak in faults also recently in house Service have been required to install to cut the cost of contractors.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Thruth? You can't handle the thruth!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Another Access Field Technician job I applied for, this time in Reading and AGAIN I've received a voicemail saying thanks, but no thanks...You're outside the catchment area?

Just what IS the catchment area? Reading is something like 10 miles away!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Is there not something like a 6 month limit on applying for jobs if you have had an interview and been rejected? There may also have been a lot of applicants?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

That's just it, I've not even had an interview, both times have just been "You're outside of the catchment area" they then went on to say try again when another position comes up in YOUR area?

Reading is like 10 miles away from me, not much of a commute, so why outside the area? I beleive Guilford, which is in my catchment area? is again 10 miles away!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

brighton is a good area to work as they put you too one area and traffic is ok im normaly home after 8 9 jobs about 3 to 5 pm and there done good some people just cant hack the pace and arent used to working like men this isnt macdonalds man up only issue is that pay could be better was second best tech in the country few weeks back most people i find are lazy and complain these techs give the company a bad name and some customers are nightmares thats life sales team could do a better job and not lie might help the techs when they get to the front door !

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Funny reading sum of your comments about Kellys :)

I used to work for these pikeytheivinghoes,,,,,,pfff .......

Usually got my route done by 5-9pm, then its... oh can you just go and do me a telco job from your TM, which is actually a "get it live +3 extensions", cheers! - They tuck you right up!!

bom code change request forms where filed in the bin i'm sure....

If your'e ill and haven't phoned in by 6.30am its £50 awol charge.............

If u got a ticket/camera fine and don't know/didn't sort it out yourself, your £60 fine would become £95 out of your wages after their £35 "admin fee"...

man I had some sht days too... 4 nbi's, 2 sro's I get done, no more work they got after I drive all round tooting n sht, avoiding all the traffic wardens,,,, i get £12, woooo! then composite co.., I get like £5..!! fk me!! I could have stayed indoors and played poker online and made 5x that at least! and not sweating my blx off in traffic.

I fked them off a while back, was jokes..(too much to rant on about, I swear I could write a book).


I now work for Comex for a few months now, being paid a decent amount.

Good route, near or in my postcode usually.

If you take on "extras" you apparantly get paid more, I'm yet to see this on my wage slip.

Tools all paid for, u lose em u pay, if they legitimately break they replace,,,,bosch 24v cordless drill supplied, no 110v transformers to lug about anymore..

Is a lot better organised than Kellys and you are treated alot better. There is even free coffee in my yard!

If you are struggling on a job and its getting late, still a job left aswell, your'e TM can usually shift the last one to someone else. Big difference to Kellys when your expected to work till 9-11pm after being in the yard for 7am...

I'm now generally home between 5-7pm, so it's not too bad, had a few late ones(one day - a 4box triple!! + a 5box triple!!! + 4 other jobs!!). Its usually 3-4 triples n a few singles though.

..........

Kellys - NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comex - YES (seems ok so far).

VM Direct - YES (If you can jump trough all the hoops(telco interview etc)).

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I hope that I get you next time I have to have an engineer out slasher:) at the moment the bad have out-weighed the good unfortunately.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

So "who" actually carrys out installations for Virgin ??
Is it usually contractors ie Kelly or is it Virgin Media engineers ?
Who digs the roads, drills the buildings n gets the feed from the kerb into your house ?
I have heard all that work is done by contractors n Virgin Media engineers only attend to break/fix and upgrades etc.
All other 1st time installations are done by contractors on pay per job not salary paid Virgin employees.

Can anyone clear this up ??

Finally how can you tell who the contractor and the VM workers are.......by uniform van ??

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Thats pretty much it.

As for telling the apart, well it makes no difference. There are good and bad on both sides.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Cheers Jonnymeg,
So VM techs (engineers) rarely/never digroads, drill external walls etc ?

Do VM employed techs only drive VM signage vans, or contractors drive them aswell?
So is it only engineers directly employed by VM that wear the uniform etc?

Why do some VM techs drive big transit type vans and others drve smaller vans ?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

In my area, S.E. London,,official virgin vans have 2 amber lights on top, sub contracors only one, Kellys vans are signed, Comex = no signs, plain white connect / trannies.

Big vans usually = 2man team(new install jobs/bury cable etc). Smaller ones are one man crews(previously installed jobs).

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Interesting posts.

Am thinking of signing up for BB XXL. Have necessary "box" outside house connected to cabinet (had VMTV for 12 months). Experience of first engineers pretty awful. They made a mess of cable trench from cover and would not carry out installation site where I wished. Cancelled whole thing.

Decided to start again a couple of weeks later. Second visit of different engineers completely different. Most helpful - they filled in trench and sited cable where I wished. They knew about previous "pair".

If I decide to install BB will contractor or VM carry out installation?

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

TBH its not much crack being in house either.

16+ jobs a day , anything up to 2hrs a day unpaid overtime , no lunch or breaks. Ok so you get days off during the week but on your days off ive been asked to wash my van , take it for repairs , visit stores.

Then your manager at your monthly review tells you your productivity is poor , your repeat fault rate is high , you book to many rewires/repulls/HDUs , swap too many boxes and proceeds to take any points you somehow managed to make off you.

Apologies for the rant but i finally quit and now i feel better :D

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

You guys get my sympathy and respect.

I could not work in such micro-management environment. I see everyday how every minute of you day is analysed, measured, rated and criticised.

I don't know how the company could eek out any more from you. but rest assured they'll think of something.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

They wont be eeking anything more out of me happily. Worst company ive ever worked for managed by a bunch of bullys.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

After working for BT, Sky and Kelly/Virgin they all seem to employ a great deal of bullying antics. BT were once the most relaxed company to work for but my ex-colleagues now tell me stories of trackers, points systems and bonus schemes that they copied from sky. BT used to re-train you but now they hound you if you fail.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I believe BT now have an fairly aggressive discipline procedure now from what ive heard through the union etc. I couldnt possibly comment on sky but it wouldnt suprise me.

I understand that its a competitive market and VM have to do all they can to maximise profit but a bit of customer care and some form of staff morale would be nice.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

50:50 - whoever turns up has to do it how YOU want it done though.

Probably will be a subby. Easy job if all your equipment is wireless, they will just spilt off your tv feed - if thats an ideal point for you to have the modem situated.

No digging trenches etc. If you want it in another room, they drill a hole or two/run the wire to your tv point/or front box, watevers easiest/and your happy with the wiring routing.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Thanks for info. BB just installed.

Wireless not working and have to sort out Email installation - who is provider (ntl, virgin etc) and Outlook 2003. Windows Live appeared to instal automatically.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

Best thing i did was stop working for Kelly's some 10yrs ago now. worst cable installing firm of them all. and i pretty much worked for them all over 15yrs.
now i have a real life and own my own company, i now enjoy life and dont have as much stress.

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

I currently work for these spiteful nasty little people and I have to tell you that they are truly the worst company i have ever worked for.
I recently heard a rumour that they may lose the virgin contract......I do hope so!

Re: A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)
 

hi i used to work for kellys in notts and huddesfield and i must say its the worst company i have worked for,as soon as they losted contract in huddesfield to map i moved to work in leeds with map then moved to cumbria now i carnt work for them as iam out of area and have a full clean driving license.