VM's Indian callcentre

[graf_von_anonym]

Judging by the avatars, I'd say some of us are Scottish too.

As for the Indian call centres, I'll just say what I always say, which is that it's because no matter what ISPs or insurance companies or roadside assistance firms do in terms of providing services, the reason most folk give for switching is price and when folk call to cancel [whether or not they've gone through any other support or complaint process] they can, more often than not, be retained by reducing the... price. So when companies keep seeing that people want things to cost less, and often care about it more than anything else, and this is something that they can measure, they'll do everything they can to keep costs down so their profits don't get too squeezed. This means outsourcing, cutbacks, off-shoring, delayed maintenance, service adjustments.

My point is this: don't vote with your wallets. That just ensures it's the only language they understand. Don't make this about nationality. That way lies petty jingoism, almost guaranteed offence. Ask for help you can use, and if you don't get it, ask again. Write letters. Change the venue, change the debate. There's a definition of insanity that involves doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

[Russ]

You raise legit points but what makes it difficult is I only call tech support when something goes wrong and in my experience that doesn't happen very often. I'm otherwise very pleased with the service. The download speeds are very close to the advertised rate, the pings are fine and the price doesn't compare to VM's competitors. We could make a stand against VM having Indian tech support but that would mean paying more for slower speeds.

I would be very reluctant to chose that course of action.

[southwell]

Originally Posted by KingDaveRa

You've got to keep your techies motivated; Sophos's techies seem to be given time to play with things, as they've often mumbled things about seeing similar issues 'on the test network' or 'when I installed it', which suggests they get hands-on with the stuff they support.

Sophos have a completely separate network on their third floor for testing and such, it really is a very nice building. I have never spoken to anyone who isn't pleasant and motivated to do their best there. Saying that, they have a first line support which just put you through to the right support team, which sort out my issues 90% of the time, i very rarely have to go to their top support team.

[sherer]

Russ I don't think your problem is to do with "Indian" call centres but more with the fact that you got through to a call centre who A) weren't able to help you and B) couldn't communicate with you clearly.

I've dealt with East European call centres and Indian ones before. If they employ competent people who know what they are doing and can speak clearly then it isn't a problem at all, with one company I only knew it was a foreign call centre because of the number I had to call. The guy I spoke to knew what he was talking about, could speak clear English and during a few reboots we were able to just have a general chat.

It seems the VM Indian call centre and a lot of the other ones are staffed by people who just aren't experienced at working in a call centre, have no background IT training and so just work from a script which leads to a bad experience all round, add in the fact the line is very bad so it makes it hard to understand and a very thick accent that isn't easy to understand either and this is where the problems start to come in

[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.

[graf_von_anonym]

PCWorld are legendary for the quality of their advice. The only stories I know that beat them are the ones about Best Buy in the States.

Again, it's about cost and motivation. The easiest way to motivate staff is to treat them well and pay them decently. Sadly, those both cost money. So you'll get unmotivated, even desperate staff, and, well, it all goes downhill from there. While VM have call centres with a variety of outsource partners in deprived areas like Wales, Liverpool, and Bonne Ecosse, at least their staff tend not to be semiliterate goons on JobSeekers crammed into polo-shirts and stuck behind a temporary wall in a commercial estate off the ring-road.

Could we please remember to be as polite as we can about the staff who work in call centres and visit this forum..also let us try to avoid making sweeping statements about people living in certain areas.

Not everyone living in places likes Wales or Liverpool would regard themselves as being deprived.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Could we please remember to be as polite as we can about the staff who work in call centres and visit this forum..also let us try to avoid making sweeping statements about people living in certain areas.

Not everyone living in places like Wales or Liverpool would regard themselves as being deprived.

Well said (except this thread's been full of sweeping statements since the OP). Right, so far the Scots, Welsh, Indians and Liverpudlians have been insulted; who's next?

[dizzi]

When we moved house recently we had a delay in getting the internet enabled (were stuck in that sandbox where it'll only send you to the account setup process among other issues). Rang tech support and got through to India who proceeded to go through their entire script before coming to the conclusion that "your TCP IPs are wrong please reinstall Windows" (everytime I've got through to India it's concluded with them blaming Microsoft and telling me to reformat my PC). At this point I gave up, agreed and hung up realizing I was going to get naff all sense from this clown. Rang back and got through the most beautiful sound to hear on the end of the phone - a UK based call centre and a very nice Welsh guy listened to what was actually wrong and sorted the issue within about 2 minutes... after laughing when he heard my relief that thank God it wasn't another Indian agent.

The great India call centre experiment didn't work. I worked for a while at an energy company that had realized this and pulled their operations back to the UK - and the number of messed up accounts we had to fix that had been dealt with by the Indian operation, who appeared to have just antagonized customers who had rung up with really straightforward queries and ended up with collossal escalated calls - was ridiculous.

If I get Virgin India tech support - I just hang up and redial now, it's not worth the waste of my time, the agent's time and my blood pressure to try to get some sense from it because they always always always just tell me to reinstall windows or something completely ridiculous.

[Pbryanw]

I think sherer summed up my feelings. I don't mind Indian Call-centers as long as they are competent and I feel I can understand them. From my own experience, the Dell Indian call centre staff I've spoken to have been pretty good, with good English skills.

Virgin Indian call centre staff, on the other hand, I've got frustrated with in the past because their English hasn't been very good, which is understandable (as it's not their native language), but could be rectified by better training or better selection of staff.

Thankfully I've now sidestepped the problem by using the Newsgroup instead of the phone for support. I think it's telling that Virgin doesn't use Indian call centre staff to sell you your packages, preferring English call staff for this activity.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kursk

Well said (except this thread's been full of sweeping statements since the OP). Right, so far the Scots, Welsh, Indians and Liverpudlians have been insulted; who's next?

The thing is there's no way to be politcally correct about this - the fact is I've had awful support when I've spoken to the frontline staff in India. ( different people offered 9 different solutions to my connection problem and none of them worked. 1 UK worker finds the problem within 10 minutes with the same tools India use.

"Quaint" indeed.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Russ B

The thing is there's no way to be politcally correct about this - the fact is I've had awful support when I've spoken to the frontline staff in India. ( different people offered 9 different solutions to my connection problem and none of them worked. 1 UK worker finds the problem within 10 minutes with the same tools India use.

"Quaint" indeed.

We do not follow a script and actually use said tools to diagnose the issue.

The are good agents in the off shore call centres but they are overshadowed by the poor reputation that the others give them, which causes customers to hang up when they answer the phone.

The thing is hanging up does not work it just makes their call stats look good from quick short calls.

[cook1984]

Originally Posted by Pbryanw

I think sherer summed up my feelings. I don't mind Indian Call-centers as long as they are competent and I feel I can understand them. From my own experience, the Dell Indian call centre staff I've spoken to have been pretty good, with good English skills.

I have had a lot of experience with Dell India, and to be fair they are quite good for consumer stuff. Their corporate stuff is a joke though - £100+VAT per hour for some idiot reading a script to try and fix your business critical Exchange server.

I think what really annoys people is that the person on the other end is just reading from a script, and cannot deviate from it no matter what you tell them. It's easy to get into a situation where the script can't fix whatever problem you have, meaning the call centre can't fix the problem you have but equally can't pass you on to anyone with more education and knowledge than the ability to read.

Actually, I take that back. Sometimes when you call Microsoft India, they can't even read the numbers on screen out properly.

[testcard]

A thought from those that are hard of hearing.

Back Story

Your TV/Internet is not working, you are starting as an unhappy customer.

The Phone Menu

A lot of information, sometimes confusing,even if you hear clearly.
Redial. Listen again.
Become annoyed with your failings and everbody elses.
Redail and press a number.

The Wait
Say hello to the person saying 'Thank you for waiting', for 23 minutes.

You have become increasingly uncomfortable as you are unclear of who is talking to you or it's just a recording.

The Answer

Someone called 'Patrick' answers. He has a light voice and to you a muffled diction. It difficult to understand the questions. The man is polite but has no empathy for your situation.

The Close

Patrick thanks you for choosing Virginmedia and goes. You have a not clue whats going on.

The Wait

Nothing happens, you are cross and upset with yourself and the entire world.
Phone your son, after a week and let him sort it.

Not everybody is lean, fit and twenty two.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Russ B

The thing is there's no way to be politcally correct about this - the fact is I've had awful support when I've spoken to the frontline staff in India. ( different people offered 9 different solutions to my connection problem and none of them worked. 1 UK worker finds the problem within 10 minutes with the same tools India use.

"Quaint" indeed.

Oh come on Mr Russ () don't be so grumpy. I hope all the young people in India who work hard for much less than people are paid in the UK don't think we're all a bunch of miserable old men and women. The British and Indian people have always got on well together often because their patience counterbalances the way we are sometimes intrusively rude.

Don't let a pc get in the way of being pc