More cuts at Virgin Media.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Just out of curousity anyone in virign know if they are planning on opena new uk call centre in airdie? just i have heard from itnernal sources that a company there has won contract to do broadband stuff for either virign or sky but the details have not been offically released as the contracts are still finalise

[moaningmags]

The one in Airdrie has been doing tech support for the last 4 years

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by moaningmags

The one in Airdrie has been doing tech support for the last 4 years

i know but they have wona new contract and all my source can tell me is it with a major isp for broadband support, and i am thinking from information i have other peaces it might be more virign tech support.

[Sephiroth]

Whether it's a Scottish accent (especially near Glasgow!) or an Indian accent the support service will be no better than the troubleshooting scripts that will be followed.

If VM go back to their trouble tickets and compile scripts from the problems/resolutions logged there maybe service would improve.

Also at peak times the ability to look at the utilisation stats for an area combined with an honest response is a must. We've already heard that this stuff is available - whether the Indians can access this I know not.

[moaningmags]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Whether it's a Scottish accent (especially near Glasgow!) or an Indian accent the support service will be no better than the troubleshooting scripts that will be followed.

If VM go back to their trouble tickets and compile scripts from the problems/resolutions logged there maybe service would improve.

Also at peak times the ability to look at the utilisation stats for an area combined with an honest response is a must. We've already heard that this stuff is available - whether the Indians can access this I know not.

I'm a Scottish accent (especially near Glasgow) and I've never ever used a script, my troubleshooting is based on what the customer is telling me.

If the customer comes on the line and tells me he has packet loss and high ping times, asking what lights do you have on your modem is a stupid question.

And yes we have tools that show utilisation, power levels, snr etc.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by moaningmags

I'm a Scottish accent (especially near Glasgow) and I've never ever used a script, my troubleshooting is based on what the customer is telling me.

If the customer comes on the line and tells me he has packet loss and high ping times, asking what lights do you have on your modem is a stupid question.

And yes we have tools that show utilisation, power levels, snr etc.

The thing is this: basically the customer will tell you it doesn't work as expected. You'll go through a series of questions, the answers to which you set against your knowledge. If you judge that an engineer needs to go out to site, then that's what you arrange.

Plus/minus - I think that's what happens at first port of call.

From there, it's a crap-shoot IMO from reading the goings on reported in the forums. I might be wrong, but the CS agents should have the OSS tools necessary to drill through to a customer's modem, stopping off on the way right to the street cab. Those OSS tools should therefore be able to pinpoint a problem so that the engineer can focus on it rather than swapping the modem and running a speed test. (From what's reported here, that doesn't always seem to be the case).

Additionally, from the symptoms decribed by the customer, a range of potential causes can be brought up from the knowledge base (that many professional support organisations deploy) so that the OSS probing can be purposeful and effective.

Suspecting that VM are not at this level of maturity (despite what it's quality director Peter Evans says he's trying to achieve), I merely make the point as to how it should be done. My professional experience applies.

[Ignitionnet]

There are extensive OSS tools which give a great deal of information though the onus remains on the agent to use them. As far as being able to drill down to street cabinet level VM cannot monitor unmanaged and unmanageable devices. The network is monitored at CMTS card level and CMTS port, it is not monitored past nodal level so a single amp failing is unlikely to generate an automatic outage.

VM's OSS is actually extremely advanced believe it or not.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Whether it's a Scottish accent (especially near Glasgow!) or an Indian accent the support service will be no better than the troubleshooting scripts that will be followed.

If VM go back to their trouble tickets and compile scripts from the problems/resolutions logged there maybe service would improve.

Also at peak times the ability to look at the utilisation stats for an area combined with an honest response is a must. We've already heard that this stuff is available - whether the Indians can access this I know not.

There only looking for experiance people with knowledge in broband and computers so hopefully it should be better if youg et thorugh to them, althougha script is to be used you are to use your gut instice and knowledge

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Andrewcrawford23

There only looking for experiance people with knowledge in broband and computers so hopefully it should be better if youg et thorugh to them, althougha script is to be used you are to use your gut instice and knowledge

What I want VM to do is to be ststematic about compiling problem categories, resolutions, codify this and roll out a knowledge base to their agents and preferably also to customers via the web.

That's the professional way of doing things when you've got trouble tickets and can compile the data in the way I desxcribed.

[m419]

BT and Orange said they were bringing some call centres back, but where are they, that was a year ago, and it was in the papers that a BT customer was verbally abused over the phone by someone from an indian call centre.

Its only a matter of time before 3 (Hutchison 3G) move its call centres over to the UK/Ireland. Its the biggest complaint about 3. The network coverage has improved vastly, but the last thing that will appeal to customers is the actual call centre. For 3 business services, they use a UK call centre during the daytime. For 3 sales and directory enquiries 118333, a UK call centre is in operation for that too.

What I don't understand, wouldn't it still be cost effective to have 3 call centres in Hong Kong where 3-Hutchison Whampoa is based? At least people will be able to understand the accent better and people there have a much better knowledge about 3 and mobiles than in india???? I'm sure 3's retentions is based in Hong Kong.

[Stuart]

How on earth does that relate to Virgin Media?

[Robisme]

I notice they don't send some tech guy to install your broadband now, just post you all the items in a DIY pack

[Horizon]

...indeed, a lot more of that to come...

VM has a new CFO (finance boss) and he's made clear there are lots more job cuts to come.

Although there has been extensive work to merge all the cablecos, there are still subtle differences between the 3 main legacy networks, although it will soon be one proper network fed by only one super headend (with a backup) instead of the current 3.

In fact, there are elements of all the predecessor cable cos within VM in areas such as how stbs work to billing. Because there used to be dozens of cablecos, VM has buildings and staff everywhere. The CFO plans to consolidate this considerably, I gather. Not a good Christmas for some...

[Escapee]

Going back to the 16 jobs....

As well as the large culls there have been small numbers vanishing for some time, I believe the small numbers tend to go unnoticed. (Not for those affected though)

When I decided enough was enough and left the sorry state of a place in 2001, I would not have foreseen that the company could have got themselves into a bigger mess.

The company has now turned themselves into a company supplying a technical product but without the technical employees to support it. Instead of putting the right people in the field to fix the problems, they have people sat on the end of the phone reading scripts and posting out new modems, splitters and cables for the customer to install themselves.

If the customer is lucky to get an 'Engineer' out, they most likely end up with someone who has no more technical skills than an installer. (I have recent experience of this)

What technical staff they do have left, are generally so pi**ed off with the treatment they have received and the regular 'under threat of redundancy' periods that all they care about is seeing the bonus of another months pay in the bank.

I don't blame a poor attitude on any employee of that organisation, it has been created by the organisation itself.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The thing is this: basically the customer will tell you it doesn't work as expected. You'll go through a series of questions, the answers to which you set against your knowledge. If you judge that an engineer needs to go out to site, then that's what you arrange.

Plus/minus - I think that's what happens at first port of call.

From there, it's a crap-shoot IMO from reading the goings on reported in the forums. I might be wrong, but the CS agents should have the OSS tools necessary to drill through to a customer's modem, stopping off on the way right to the street cab. Those OSS tools should therefore be able to pinpoint a problem so that the engineer can focus on it rather than swapping the modem and running a speed test. (From what's reported here, that doesn't always seem to be the case).

We never use scripts as Mags says they do not and would not work.

The online tools that I have at my disposal can contact the modem see what the learned MAC address is and give me the Public IP of that equipment.

I can then take the Learned MAC address and put into coffer.com and be able to tell what the modem is connected to.

We can see what outages the are in the area and we are then able to match the customers equipment against them to verify if it is an area issue or a localised one that requires an engineers visit.

All this can be ascertained by a trained agent using the correct tools in the first few minutes of the call giving the customer a quick and easy resolution to their call.

If we are unable to get the customer back online we can then either advise that it is an area fault or book an engineer visit to fix the fault.