VM's Indian callcentre

[moaningmags]

What do the last 2 posts have to do with VM's Indian Technical Support?

[graf_von_anonym]

Virgin Media are training the technicians who will support India's domestic broadband revolution, of course! It's because they like to give.

Originally Posted by moaningmags

What do the last 2 posts have to do with VM's Indian Technical Support?

A very good question...So how about thinking about the topic in particular.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by graf_von_anonym

Virgin Media are training the technicians who will support India's domestic broadband revolution, of course! It's because they like to give.

They trained the trainers about 18 months ago and it appears some have forgotten it already.

[cook1984]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

You guys get a fraction of line speed as soon as you leave the Islands, that'd cause mass complaints here.

Nope.

75Mb+ to Astraweb servers in the US or P2P users in Korea.

To bring the discussion back on topic, Japanese users demand quality as well as a headline number, so Indian call centres would never be acceptable. The bottom line is that unless VM invest massively in training and English lessons, and then allow calls to be quickly escalated and not forcing people to go through the script every time I just can't see how the call centres can provide anything but a poor and frustrating "service".

HP are using South African call centres at the moment and I find them a lot easier to understand, and also a lot better educated and intelligent in general. They always ask you some basic questions but if you say you have already done what they are suggesting, they accept it and move on. It's just a shame that it usually takes them about three pick-up/return cycles to fix a laptop. We had one come back with a cracked copy of Vista installed once too!

[General Maximus]

time to add salt to the wound. I signed up for 50mbit last week and took a bundle deal where you get 50mbit + L TV + M Phone for £45 a month and I got a letter through today saying that the package was £65. I rang 150 and got an Indian dude and not matter how many times I tried to explain things to him he kept reading the cost breakdown to me as if he was justifying the £65 cost and I told him the items on the breakdown were correct but the cost was wrong and all he kept saying was "yes I understand what you are saying sir" and I just felt like saying "no you f*cking dont otherwise you would fix the problem. In the end I told him I didnt care what he did but to fix it so that I get charged £45, at that point he said he couldnt change anything himself and he would transfer me through to customer services and I got to speak to an english guy who fixed the problems in 2 mins (literally).

I just want to say thanks to the Indian dude who wasted 15 mins of my life today, it ****es me off sooooo much. If i have any problems when my 50mbit gets installed I cant even be arsed with ringing someone, I'll just go through the newsgroups.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by cook1984

The bottom line is that unless VM invest massively in training and English lessons, and then allow calls to be quickly escalated and not forcing people to go through the script every time I just can't see how the call centres can provide anything but a poor and frustrating "service".

And who will end up funding that investment? I like my broadband fast and cheap and I don't want to pay for a gold-standard, UK-based, oxford-English-speaking, super-skilled, supertech on tap for the odd time I might ring them.

Anyone else fancy a hefty increase in subscriptions? I doubt it.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Kursk

And who will end up funding that investment? I like my broadband fast and cheap and I don't want to pay for a gold-standard, UK-based, oxford-English-speaking, super-skilled, supertech on tap for the odd time I might ring them.

Anyone else fancy a hefty increase in subscriptions? I doubt it.

I'm fine with paying more for better service, I really this is evidently a scary concept but I guess I'm just strange like that in that I don't want piled high, sold cheap, supported poorly and maintained worse

I like my broadband fast, robust, reliable, backed by good support when needed and ideally maintained so that it isn't. Cost is quite a bit further down the line. I used to subscribe to Zen a while ago, fantastic service. A VM Premier service would be marvellous.

[Retrovertigo]

Well, as someone who doesn't have the luxury someone like Kursk has of having smooth running broadband, I'd happily spend the extra cash and have decent call centres when they were needed.

It's not just the language barrier, it's the personal touch. When you speak to someone in this country it is easier to get a sympathetic ear and also someone who understands when you veer from the "script" and need extra help.

There are good reasons why companies like NatWest advertise the fact they have U.k call centres. If all call centres were treated equally then they wouldn't feel the need to boast about it.

It's the same with TalkTalk, so it isn't only VM. I've called TalkTalk on my uncles behalf any times, and usually when I get put through to India there is a bad line coupled with the difficulty in explaining problems that might not follow the script - yet when I have managed to speak to someone in the U.K I have been sorted out very quickly.

The big difference of course, being that Talktalk is infinitely cheaper (free even) than VM. I have said it before, but VM are one of the most expensive providers out there now for broadband - and for that I expect a premium service. Which both service wise and customer service wise, is anything but.

Heck, because of numerous complaints they don't get the full price off me at the moment anyway. Imagine if they sorted the service, had little need for calling call centres, and then sat back and enjoyed everyone paying full price - and then when you needed them on very rare occasions, spoke to someone in the U.K - bliss!

I'm digressing a little - but I wonder what percentage of customers pay full price for the services? there seem to be an awful lot of people here who have been unhappy for one reason or another and so have been offered deals.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

I'm fine with paying more for better service, I really this is evidently a scary concept but I guess I'm just strange like that in that I don't want piled high, sold cheap, supported poorly and maintained worse

I like my broadband fast, robust, reliable, backed by good support when needed and ideally maintained so that it isn't. Cost is quite a bit further down the line. I used to subscribe to Zen a while ago, fantastic service. A VM Premier service would be marvellous.

Fine. But I think you'll find at the top of most customer's lists is prices being kept down. Feel free to pay more for the support you want, but don't ask me to chip in. Why aren't you with Zen now? I'm happy to speak with an Indian rep.

My VM service is good; it's very good in fact. Is yours really, no, I mean really, that bad Retrovertigo?

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kursk

Fine. But I think you'll find at the top of most customer's lists is prices being kept down.

That's your conjecture. My conjecture is people are happy to pay a little bit more for something if they can be assured it will work better, whether it's a network or the level of support provided.

The impression I'm getting from you is if someone's service performance is good, good to the point that they very rarely need to call for support and the price they pay is pretty competitive then complaining about their awful (or 'quaint') outsourced tech support is pointless/unwarranted. Am I in the right area with that?

[Peter_]

If the selection of suitable candidates and training standards were lowered in the UK we could end up with script readers not to dissimilar from the Offshore Call Centres and that would be a major mistake for any company to make, be thankful that we have at present 3 UK based call centres with suitable training and support and a proper criteria for the selection of suitable staff who already have a understanding of the product.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Russ B

That's your conjecture. My conjecture is people are happy to pay a little bit more for something if they can be assured it will work better, whether it's a network or the level of support provided.

I agree its conjecture. It would be interesting to find out the preference of VM's millions of customers. I'm still pretty sure what the reaction would be if VM's next newsletter said "we've been listening and we're going to charge you more". Stand well back after lighting the blue touchpaper.

Don't forget that the views of forum contributors are usually negative so the vibe here is possibly not representative of the majority.

Originally Posted by Russ B

The impression I'm getting from you is if someone's service performance is good, good to the point that they very rarely need to call for support and the price they pay is pretty competitive then complaining about their awful (or 'quaint') outsourced tech support is pointless/unwarranted. Am I in the right area with that?

ps sorry Russ just spotted your edit. You're slightly off there - I don't accept the premise that their outsourced tech is 'awful'; from my point of view, the service possibly represents excellent value for money.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Kursk

I agree its conjecture. It would be interesting to find out the preference of VM's millions of customers. I'm still pretty sure what the reaction would be if VM's next newsletter said "we've been listening and we're going to charge you more". Stand well back after lighting the blue touchpaper.

Don't forget that the views of forum contributors are usually negative so the vibe here is possibly not representative of the majority.

The majority of customers do not even know such things as computer forums exist or even what a computer is actually capable of, they are more interested in getting on Facebook or MSN or such like.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Moldova

The majority of customers do not even know such things as computer forums exist or even what a computer is actually capable of, they are more interested in getting on Facebook or MSN or such like.

Perhaps. But if that's what they want to do and VM's service allows them to do it when they want, then all's good eh?