VM Community board replies now a week in arrears

kwikbreaks · 17-10-2011, 12:55

As title. Today (17th) the VM techs are responding to posts with a last update made on 10th.

There was me thinking the eventual fix to the Superhub would cut the volume of posts and lead to a more reasonable response time. Looks like they just cut resource instead. Right now it's even slower than my 50Mbps connection.

Chrysalis · 18-10-2011, 02:20

I get the impression they deliberatly make it slow so people are encouraged to use the call centres instead. Its not as if they having to deal with 100s of queries a day, they do a few dozen at the most.

Although I wasnt waiting a week for support given to me lately by PM (regarding superhub firmware).

Welshchris · 18-10-2011, 04:27

They dont even bother at times replying to some posts.

jb66 · 18-10-2011, 04:36

Maybe they should make an unmoderated moaning forum so actual faults can be found easily

Peter_ · 18-10-2011, 06:46

It does say this at the top of the first page of the Community forum.

Quote:

Welcome to our Help & Support forum. This is where you can get help from our forum community, share your experiences and your own answers.
This forum is for community based support. If you’ve got a problem with one of our services and need to talk to us directly or it's an urgent problem, please contact us.

The threads are answered oldest first but if you or anyone else posts in that thread it is automatically pushed to the back of the queue.

If you look for a forum team member and check out the dates they are working on at that time it will give an indication of what wait to expect.

**Chris** · 18-10-2011, 07:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

The threads are answered oldest first but if you or anyone else posts in that thread it is automatically pushed to the back of the queue.

What an idiotic way to run a forum.

kwikbreaks · 18-10-2011, 08:14

It makes sense as it's basically a support forum so if they worked top down somebody continually bumping their thread would get first bite.

The reason I find the 7 day delay strange is because a few weeks back they were working on stuff 3 or 4 days old and now that has stretched out to a week yet there must be less posts on the 30Mbps and up boards now the Superhub is more or less sorted.

I prefer to get my own issues handled by somebody who has a clue rather than front end support who frequently don't so I use the forum rather than the phone. I don't have a VM phone as it's not competitive on pricing so while I'm on 50Mbps I could use the 0800 number but as I'm likely to be downgrading to 10 Mbps as that's all I can get anyway most of the time these days it would be an 0845 call or more likely several until I chanced on a support tech who a) was any use and b) gave a ****.

jb66 · 18-10-2011, 08:34

But only 1meg upstream is poor

kwikbreaks · 18-10-2011, 08:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb66

But only 1meg upstream is poor

Que?

jb66 · 18-10-2011, 08:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

Que?

I'm likely to be downgrading to 10 Mbps as that's all I can get anyway most of the time these

Peter_ · 18-10-2011, 08:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

What an idiotic way to run a forum.

They are the rules as laid down by Virgin Media, it is primarily a self help forum but if you do not get an answer from the other members and it is something that 2nd line need to investigate then after a few days which depending on how busy they are or the team get to read the post, but if you bump the thread it by default goes back down the list as the team do not have time to search for issues.

Also anything that requires you to clear DPA such as an account issue, password reset or many of the other type of issues that cannot be dealt with on the forum you will be advised to call the appropriate department.

Many people seem to think that the are not many posts for the forum team to answer but if you login in and mark all as read at midnight and then login the following midnight the is a quite a lot of new threads and questions and answers posted in that timescale and that is pretty much an average day so the team will be quite a few days behind.

Also if you see a thread with a similar issue do not think to post in that thread as it puts the original OP back down the queue always start your own thread.

As a self help forum with the back up of the forum team for more in-depth issues how else could it be ran.

**Chris** · 18-10-2011, 08:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

It makes sense as it's basically a support forum so if they worked top down somebody continually bumping their thread would get first bite.
.

It makes no sense whatsoever. If they want to operate a queue system they should be dealing with the threads by OP date, not the length of time they've been dead.

Peter_ · 18-10-2011, 08:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

It makes no sense whatsoever. If they want to operate a queue system they should be dealing with the threads by OP date, not the length of time they've been dead.

They could answer all fresh queries but what happens to the person who posted a few days back, the only way to work it is by date and in reverse order otherwise it would not be fair.

**Chris** · 18-10-2011, 09:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

They are the rules as laid down by Virgin Media

And they are idiotic rules. Honestly, it was clear to see back in the NTHellworld.com days, and the company's first, aborted attempt to start a Community forum, that the business culture just didn't understand how forums work, but here we are almost a decade later and they clearly still don't have a clue.

Quote:

As a self help forum with the back up of the forum team for more in-depth issues how else could it be ran.

It should be run by dealing with problems by original posting date, not the length of time the thread has gone quiet.

Has it not occurred to anybody that as this stupid rule becomes more widely known, it will only be a matter of time before some wag decides the best way to get his problem to the top of the pile is to post in other people's threads purely to shove them to the back of the queue?

Dealing with problems in the way you have described really gets to the fundamental problem at the heart of Virgin Media's business culture - actually reaching out and helping customers is the act of last resort, where it should be the first.

---------- Post added at 10:04 ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

They could answer all fresh queries but what happens to the person who posted a few days back, the only way to work it is by date and in reverse order otherwise it would not be fair.

I said nothing about fresh queries, I said 'by OP date'. Dealing with the threads posted first is an obvious, fair way to handle issues. Dealing with the threads that have been dead the longest is not.

BenMcr · 18-10-2011, 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I said nothing about fresh queries, I said 'by OP date'. Dealing with the threads posted first is an obvious, fair way to handle issues. Dealing with the threads that have been dead the longest is not.

Except the idea of the forum is that it's supposed to be community support first and that the forum team pick up those threads that haven't had a response or reply.

If you get the agents to check every thread irrespective of whether it's been answered or not to see if there has been a resolution then the response times will get longer as the forum team would basically have to read everything anyone posts to check whether things are resolved or not

The forum is not and was never set up to be a first line support channel. That is the phone/Contact Us and the new automated diagnostics available via the phone and website