[cook1984]

The best thing to do is put on your best "Rab C. Nesbit" accent to confuse them, until eventually when they can't even get your account number keep repeating "Can ye put somebody who speaks English pal?".

VM have a similar problem to a lot of large utility companies. They have millions of customers, and the vast majority are clueless and barely know how to operate their PCs. That means they get a lot of really basic issues every day, which can be solved by simple things like rebooting or running a virus scan. They can't afford to employ enough knowledgeable staff to answer all these calls, so they employ Indians whose cluelessness is only matched by that of the customers.

In theory, if they can't help you, you should be put though to someone in the UK who actually knows something, but the problem is they are pressured to escalate as few calls as possible. They are also trained to ignore you and insist on going through the same pointless routine every time you call, no matter how many times you tell them that the last bloke said the same thing and it didn't work etc. etc.

So, on the one hand I wish VM would do better, but on the other I can see their dilemma. If it's any consolation, VM are not the worst, that accolade goes to PC World. Just today a customer brought their PC in to ask if we could fix it because it would not boot. All it needed was a virus scan and Windows repair. She had just come from PC World where The Tech Guys told her the machine was dead and she should buy a new laptop.