Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I personally believe so, it would add more value to the package and give more meaning to the VIP rather than just a discounted rate. I mean how much better would it be if you knew that up til midnight weekdays you could be assured of UK call centre rather than have to deal with the script junkies over in India?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

No, because ALL customers should be garunteed a UK call center.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2011/08/22.png

This should be enforced.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Well it all comes down to cost in the end...I suspect you would end up paying extra on the package for such a service.:erm:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

The people who this would affect the most are the UK based call centre agents as many would find it almost impossible to get home due to the local buses and trains that stop running after Midnight, try and consider them as well as not everyone can afford a car or taxi fares at that time of night.

Some buses even stop running at around 11pm especially if they live further afield.

And of course I voted NO.:mad:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

If I have problems with the overseas call centres I just call retentions and state before I say anything else that the reason I am calling is I cannot understand the overseas staff, so far every time they have understood and helped without query.

If VM start promoting having UK centres in any way shape or form, those who would not get the UK staff would feel like they are second rate customers and go elsewhere.

So your idea is good in theory but the execution is near impossible.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Masque, I'm not sure that's a valid argument lol ..

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Oh yes it is once the union get involved as no one can guarantee the agents safety when they are unable to get home due to unreasonable hours worked.

I do not think that any company would want to be involved in a court case if something untoward happened to someone due to them not being able to catch a bus home.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

just provide a subsidised taxi service with a local taxi firm. Put 4 people in one taxi, virgin pays £5. Get a fixed price before pickup and the staff split the rest of the cost.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

hang on ..

You get paid to do a job, the hours of which are between 8am to midnight .. or at least where ..

The Union ? can anyone guarantee my safety as I drive to work ? sorry mate, completely disagree with you there ..

People not wanting to work certain hours is in no way an excuse for not providing support to customers .. (ignoring the on off shore situation for now)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

No need as the centres close at 10pm at present and they can get the bus home and not everyone lives in the same area, plus in Liverpool we can have staff living quite far out or on the Wirral.

---------- Post added at 22:01 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------

You drive and I drive, but peoples safety should also be of paramount importance and the hours are until 10pm which gives people the chance to get a bus or a train home.

The Liverpool call centre is at the Albert Dock and not the easiest place to get home from once public transport has stopped for the night.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Getting staff home from work after a late finish is a problem every company has to face. VM are not alone, so all they have to do is ask what those other companies do. I expect the answer would be they pay for it, either in wages, shift allowances or late-night transport costs.
I voted 'yes' but I agree with Milambar, this should be for all customers. And why not 24x7 UK-based call centres?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Because they cost money and keeping them open to the suggested time is ludacris.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Ludicrous huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWiG8k_ihU

Ignoring the above a couple of posts in this thread are quite perturbing.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Close nightclubs, pubs, hospitals, staff can't get home, no buses! Lol

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Everything costs money. Including unhappy customers.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I think 24/7 uk support is a little ott, maybe uk 7 till 7. India after that, can't have Indians working during the night, no buses

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

The unsociable hours argument is invalid. People work nightshifts all the time, maybe the answer is to have a 12-7am shift. Of course they would be paid a higher wage or put on a continental shift ( 6 days on 3 days off or similar ) This is one of the reasons why all the bloody foreigners get our jobs, the british public are not prepared to work anything other than 9-5.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Why do you need to call virgin at 3am?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Well, for example, my better half is in the US at the moment and will be for some 8 months on a works contract (she wants to emigrate there permanently too :( ). 3am here is only 10pm there. I'm often up at 3am talking to her over skype.

If my internet goes down at 3am, I want it back, sharpish.

Sad to say, the whole world doesn't adhere to UK time.

My point being, people have valid reasons for being awake, and using the internet at that time.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Ability of staff to get to and from work is irrelevant. Either the wages are of sufficeint levels that staff are willing to do it, or there will be noone there to anser the calls. But then if wages have to go up then the customer costs would rise and would we accept that. I doubt it.

But why should one type of customer be entitled to better service than another. The VIP customer may pay more, than a simple 20meg BB only customer, but then they use more and cost VM more by using that bit more. OK hopefully overall profit margins are better, because of the better turnover.

But this post does not really address the issue. I've had occasion to call VM a number of times. It;s quite random if I get a UK or overseas call centre. To be honest I find the scottish accent just as hard to understand as the Indian ones. Indeed often I have no issue with the overseas. What really cheeses me off is the two minute process of working through the various call systems (I've dialled 151 because I have a fault, so I don't need the options to change services etc), and that so many agents, UK and overseas don't want to listen to your diagnosis, they just want to work through their script.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

One important point though would you all be willing to pay a lot more for your services in order to have a UK only call centre base as that is what it would take as higher wages would have to be paid.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Well so be it, I think it should be law if you operate in this country your call centre should be in this country, this would do wonders for our growing number of unemployment

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Back office in the dock works till midnight.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

:clap:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Virgin make very little money on sky sports and movies (especially with the HD version and the tivo charge absorbed) so surely a customer on triple xl is more profitable than a vip customer. So therefore should VIP customers always get offshore as virgin are making less money from them ;)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Plusnet are one of the cheapest ADSL ISPs and they have a UK only call center.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

O2 has 24-hour UK support and charges less than VM... I for one would happily pay extra to know I can speak to someone who knows what they're doing when my connection breaks.

That said there are examples of offshore support being done well, and examples of it being done terribly. Surprisingly enough, as much as I dread having to explain my problems to someone who I can barely understand, some companies have their offshore support trained and managed so well I have complete confidence in them being able to resolve my query each and every time.

Funny enough, VM isn't one of them. In fact, even their UK agents have been next to useless on more than one occasion.

It's not about where your staff are located - suggesting foreign call centre staff are somehow less intelligent is just racism. It's all about management, training, and procedures. Three facets that VM's offshore centres fail epically on. It's not because offshore people are inherently stupid - VM just prevent them from doing anything useful. If anything, blame VM, not the offshore folk. They're just doing what they're paid to do.

---------- Post added at 09:29 ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 ----------

Or more relevantly, the NOC folk and datacentre staff who are on-call 24/7. I guess the union would ban their jobs if they had a say...

Oh wait...

---------- Post added at 09:33 ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 ----------

Ignorance at it's best.

You want to be paid more money than other people doing an equivalent job, yet you're unwilling to work extra hours or be flexible. And scream "UNIONS HALP" soon as someone suggests working till midnight. Jeez.

What the hell do you think makes you entitled to more pay than foreigners? Your accent?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Most of the complaints I see about VM offshore support do actually mention a difficulty understanding the rep and in being understood so racist or not (and imo it isn't) it's a very important factor in just how much use the support is. If you can't communicate with the rep you may just as well have a tape playing "most Superhubs work perfectly"...

I can't comment myself as I've never spoken to anyone from VM offshore support as I chose to use the forum for an upstream voltage problem, then forum and CEO office for my Superhub woes, and "I'm thinking of leaving" to cancel the phone.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Why not just get better trained staff offshore and the need for UK out of hours staff goes away. Compaints seem to be around technical ability and language, so just recruit people with very good English and train them well.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Oddly enough I have long thought that of you clueless as usual.:rolleyes:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Once the business bandwidth catch up to the consumer ones, those wanting a UK call centre with an SLA will be able to pay for it.

If you're that reliant on your internet connection you should insure it by either getting a second ADSL line or having a PAYG internet dongle laying around. It's not that cheap and far better than getting a business line.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Oddly enough once again you fail at making any logical arguement, avoid answering the question, and resort to personal insults.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

The is no need for any UK agents to work until midnight especially just for a select few customers on VIP as that is what offshore is for to extend our cover for the 24/7 365 days a year that we have at present.

So how can I be ignorant and then suddenly insulting that does not make sense.:rolleyes:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

That's kinda my point really. Just because you don't see a need, doesn't mean nobody else does. After all, peak time runs till midnight, and in my area appears to not tail off till 2am. Not all customers follow the same waking hours as yourself.

And again, other ISPs manage it, so the fact that you want more pay/safety/holidays doesn't cut it. You don't neccessarily even have to travel, if they can make it work from outside the country they can make it possible to work from home. None of these problems are remotely relevant.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

If I've got this right... UK based call centres shut down at 10pm UK time, so the staff can get the bus home. 10pm BST is 2:30am IST. So, it's ok for VM employees in India to have to work at unsocial hours, so the UK based employees can go home :confused:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

We have cover and that is enough and people should not have to struggle to get home and pay large chunks out of their wages for the privilege of providing UK cover.

If people are happy to pay higher bills to fund an increase in wages to fund this then that would be the way to go, but we know that will not happen as no one will pay it.

You should all try and be a bit noble and consider the workforce for once who would struggle to get home just so you could speak to one of them up to Midnight, or you could offer to run them home for free.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

---------- Post added at 21:45 ---------- Previous post was at 21:37 ----------

That is their contract and that is nothing to do with the UK, the agents will be getting paid as per local laws and customs.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Strangely enough, VM are not the only organisation providing 24x7 support. UK-based call centres are now a selling point in adverts. All the other suppliers seem to manage, and manage to attract enough staff. VM, welcome to 21st century customer service.

---------- Post added at 21:51 ---------- Previous post was at 21:47 ----------

Oh, that's all right, then.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

So again, you don't want the trouble of getting home late, but it's OK for other people, being paid less, and working even more unsociable hours to do it?

You want us to consider how hard it would be for you to get home (when several people have already stated this is a completely nonsensical argument) but show no consideration for offshore people needing to get home (or to work at 2:30am?!).

You say it'll push people won't pay the extra cost, yet we've pointed out some of the cheapest ISPs in the UK have 24/7 UK support. In other words, the additional cost is negligable.

You also say offshore cover "is enough". If it's enough then why do UK call centres exist?

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:55 ----------

Yeah, just shows his ignorance. As long as he gets home safe at night, it doesn't matter if the poor folks in India are getting killed or injured trying to get to work at 2:30am so he can sleep. "Show consideration". Hypocrite much?

We've basically stripped down every single one of his arguments against having 24/7 UK support. I'll leave it at that (also just got a letter through the door today saying Inifinity is available in my area. Soon as it's available with 24/7 competant support I'll be off to that)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

EVERYONE should be able to contact a UK center 'till midnight, you already pay for a service, be nice if they actually delivered it.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

So you find it acceptable for people to have to walk home out of a city after Midnight, I doubt you would think that way if it was you that had to do the walking and maybe get home hours after your shift finished.

Any talk of taxi's is stupid as it would not prove cost effective due to wages being paid as I doubt people would really want to have to be greatly out of pocket just to provide a service.

Now if the wages went up to cover that cost maybe it could happen but we all know that is unlikely as it may impact on the price you pay.

Now maybe we should have a more realistic vote on how many of you would still want to go to work until Midnight if the was no way to get home unless you paid a lot of money for the privilege but without the option of an increase in pay to cover the cost.

Now remember we are not talking about highly paid individuals or even the self employed but people on relatively low wages were if you factor in the cost of taxi fares for a up to Midnight shift it no longer appears a viable option causing them to look elsewhere for work, or can you not wrap your head around that concept.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

What would be rather nice for TS would be a UK only call centre 8:00am to 8:00pm and offshore for the offpeak hours and CS billing query type work.

All the "How do I set up my WiFi?" type stuff should be offloaded to the paid-for service.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I already do. Quite frequently. When my shifts finish at 10 I often stay later simply because I enjoy my job so much and I have no problems with going home after midnight.

But then again you're repeating yourself. Somehow you think it's OK to complain about how hard it is for UK agents to get home, while stating that offshore agents living in far less safe environments having to get to work at 2:30am is perfectly OK.

Your only arguement seems to be that the safety of UK agents is more important than the safety of foreign agents. That's just pure racism.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Well no, i'd drive? lol. But yeah i understand what you were saying, though that's not what my point is about. Doesn't make it alright for just VIP's to get that service, it should be available to all if available to one.

As far as the safety concern of UK agents making their way home at midnight, i totally agree, though there's nightshift jobs in lots of different fields. Would i be cool for say my girlfriend to take that job? hell no! lol.

The only thing i don't agree with is it being made into a premium service for VIP only, that's just dumb.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Not any time soon then.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I bet you are well paid for it though, get real.

That is your best shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are so pathetic my sides are splitting with the laughter.

http://operatorchan.org/vg/arch/src/...sterically.gif

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Actually, he has a valid point. I guess what you're doing the employment equivalent of NIMBY (not in my backyard). You don't want to have to work beyond 10pm because you deem it unsafe, but you're quite OK with the fact that others, in far worse areas, and in reciept of less money, are forced to.

Although it'd be debatable which is the more dangerous place. India or Liverpool ;)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

The working to 10pm or Midnight does not affect me in any way, but it affects many other people who cannot get a bus home and as they are not reading this thread I will give them a voice.

Comparisons with offshore is pointless as they work a completely different contract and no one here knows what hours they do anyway.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Shift times aren't based around the last bus home and how much someone gets paid is a nonsense argument, plenty of manufacturing companies work 24hrs on 3 shifts where people are going home at midnight/1am. I doubt very much that people on a production line earn more than a call centre worker.

Masque, what if there was a strike and no buses at 10pm? Going by your logic it would be acceptable for those workers not to come into work as they can't get home?

Yes there is an argument when changing the pre-existing shifts, but in these cases the company can put in workarounds - car shares, moving to earlier shifts etc.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Does anyone remember that this thread is about availability to a specific set of customers not everyone which is a more valid point.

Why should people who pay for VIP be guaranteed a UK call centre up to Midnight, what about all the customers who just have broadband and pay for 50Mb or 100Mb this thread does not include them and up to now everyone has castigated me for talking about people getting home.

So does that mean that you are all willing to be well drawn off topic and accept that unless you are paying for a VIP package then you cannot be guaranteed a UK call centre.

Now think about the title of the thread and are you a VIP customer and if not would you think it fair that just because you only want broadband that you are a lower class of customer and be unable to speak to a UK agent.

Now can we see if anyone has noticed this yet or have I truly sidetracked you from the real meaning of this thread.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

1st line UK used to work till midnight .. I used to work 3.30 - 12 every shift .. did so for over a year .. and it was like that for a while after I left ..

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I am aware of what hours used to be worked in the centre as many of the long term agents have mentioned those hour.

But as above it is quite interesting to see how far the thread could go off track because I mentioned peoples inability to get home and off track it went.;)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

You'll noticed I've ignored the off track-ness and continued to attempt to have an adult conversation about the times ..

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

This subject did come up a while back and it was curtailed and the hours reverted to the present ones.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I can wrap my head around the concept. I also know about colleagues providing 24x7 call-centre cover on shifts, in the same building as I work. And that's not in a city, it's way out in the sticks. Is it VM or Liverpool that's different?
Put Indian Standard Time into your favourite search engine -that'll give you some idea. I can't help feeling you're "off-shoring" your concern for your fellow workers.

PS for the record, I think all customers should have access to UK call centres, not just those on VIP deals.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

We are in the Albert Dock.;)

We know the time difference.;)

As above why should we have 2 tiers of call centre one for VIP and one for normal, that in itself would cause uproar on forums more than the thought of anyone working whatever hours.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Agreed. I hadn't seen your post when I added my edited PS

---------- Post added at 21:44 ---------- Previous post was at 21:43 ----------

I hope not literally.:D

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I couldn't understand someone from Yorkshire so they may as well be in India.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

A nice attempt at misdirection but irrelevant to the post about UK-based 24x7 support being ludicrous. Phone VM's technical support you'll get Wales or Liverpool, maybe Scotland, also interesting accents.

If you are expecting neutral Southern accents you'll be disappointed :)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Above the three red funnels.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Shurely RP?

Air Hairlair, aaah've just been on gap yah?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

That your best shot? It's all about the money? I don't get paid overtime for extra hours, in fact I don't get paid at all.

---------- Post added at 09:21 ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 ----------

We already have 2 teirs of call centre, one for 50mb+ and one for everything else.

Where's the uproar?

Again, other companies already do similar things, e.g. 24/7 on the top tariffs, 8-8 on the bottom ones. Or certain "VIP" packages getting UK support either. So much uproar there.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Not really no. It's a hit or miss no matter where you go.
Been through to offshore and had fantastic service and done everything I wanted but at the same time I had an argument with a guy from Liverpool who refused to accept my cable light flashing was the problem and insisted I speak with DHS.
All depends on the person you get, some people try harder others don’t.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

:LOL:

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Resurrecting this topic, the VIP customers (along with all customers) syhould be guaranteed UK support till at least 22:00.

There is no technical reason why the evening shift can't be performed by homeworking agents. However, I would expect VM to pass the cost on to their customers.

At the same time, it must be repeated that VM should do away with their awful offshore call centre.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I am still unclear why peeps on the vip package should get better support because they have more dosh to spend with VM, smacks of "me me me" to me!!!

We should all be entitled to support equally in my humble view! these days many more peeps work differing ours that are not 9-5. Personally for me daytime support is generally meaningless as am normally at work at those time, but better half works until 10pm some nights.

My experience of Indian call centres is that they are pretty polite but constrained by the scripts imposed upon them...VM's fault..not the workers and nor is the abysmal call quality. Have been spoken to really rudely by a 2nd line support in the UK when I dared to suggest that there might be a problem with the Superhub!!

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I think you just answered your question. The more people pay the higher the standard of service they tend to expect. I can't think of many better reasons for expecting better service than others than paying more for it. :)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

But VIP get the biggest discounts, maybe folk not on retension deals should get UK :)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

They do, but how much the overall profit across each tier is, who knows?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Ben probably does :)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

In the modern business world it means very little. Various companies have night shift workers.

Plus if it was a 24 hour operation the most likely shift patterns would be 6-2, 2-10, 10-6. So people would be before the 11pm bus cutoff.

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I think all companies that provide a 24 hour service, should also provide a 24 hour help line, for all their customers.

How do you become a VIP customer anyway?

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I can only get to the web page by Googling Virgin VIP!

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

Blimey, I could save a fortune. I think I'll call them tomorrow. :)

Re: Should VIP customers be guaranteed a UK call centre til midnight?
 

I'm gonna do that shortly.