A few thruths about Virgin media engineers (Kelly Communication ones!)

[sollp]

Originally Posted by Jon T

I've had Kellys engineers at work as well as Virgin ones. It's usually the Virgin one's that couldn't give a &*^% about what they're doing. Last two that came had just been to the pub and they stank of alcohol. They wer also incredibly scruffy looking.

In contrast the Kellys guys always seem knowledgable, quick, tidy and always know who to contact if something goes wrong r isn't as expected, where as the Virgin guys normally just come at you with something like "this needs more work than is on the job sheet, we're off, you'll have to put the job in again".

Think you'll find the service Tech's don't stop for there dinner so i think a trip to the pub would be way out of the question unless the person who visited has an alcohol problem. I'm assuming you reported them straight away as stinking of booze would have mean't they must have been way over the limit? Or did you just watch the loaded weapon being driven away?

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by sollp

Think you'll find the service Tech's don't stop for there dinner so i think a trip to the pub would be way out of the question unless the person who visited has an alcohol problem. I'm assuming you reported them straight away as stinking of booze would have mean't they must have been way over the limit? Or did you just watch the loaded weapon being driven away?

Only going on what they told me at the time, and yes they were reported to the Public Sector Provide team straight away.

[LondonRoad]

I've followed this thread for a while now and I find it really upsetting....... that nobody had requested a mod to change the spelling of thruths.

If there's a passing mod can you change it to the correct spelling of troofs...or maybe check your dikshunary.

[5T3V3]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Does calling someone a fool!!! make you feel better

was just high-lighting some (obvious) points that seem to have been overlooked!!!!!
i will, however acknowledge that we do have some cowboys on board.
but the real q is:



what can be done about them?
they're annoying and lets face it-they bring us all down!

---------- Post added at 00:33 ---------- Previous post was at 00:29 ----------

Originally Posted by Paul

No but using the number 3 instead of an E in his user name probably makes him feel superior to us lowly commoners Mind you it looks like he may a problem with his shift key....

'twas just for fun......3 for an E i mean......
shame you missed the 5 for an S though eh sparky???

, didn't use the shift key in this one either lol!!!

---------- Post added at 00:37 ---------- Previous post was at 00:33 ----------

Originally Posted by LondonRoad

I've followed this thread for a while now and I find it really upsetting....... that nobody had requested a mod to change the spelling of thruths.

If there's a passing mod can you change it to the correct spelling of troofs...or maybe check your dikshunary.

lol, i was in hospickle the day they lernt the dickshonry at skool. i can talk gooda than i tipe tho


well observed matey, can't believe i missed that one!!!

[scene99]

Minimum wage is something like £5.80 an hour. So an 8 hour day gives you a day rate of about £45.

With Kellys you start at 7am so if you get to 5pm, as you almost always do, you are down to £4.50 an hour - well below minimum. And that's not considering when the last job keeps you there until 7 or 8pm, which happens all the time.

If you do 9 to 5 that's a 40 hour week. If you do up to 8 hours on Saturday that's your 48 hour week.

Kellys force you to work the 6th day and this will always push you over the 48 hours - and you will still be on the £45 day rate.

You get a van early and the tools, which you have to pay them for, but you don't get a PDA right away so, instead of doing the hits straight away at an install you have to ring VM and hang about on the phone - and half the time you get one of the idiots who refuses to send the hit and tells you to call your TM. So a simple migrate turns into a 3 hour job.

You are forced into this scheme where they have outsourced their admin and they charge you a fee for sorting out your pay, and you HAVE to have this every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

It takes ages to sort out your UTR to get you to the lower rate and their admin, who you are paying out of your own pocket remember, will take a couple of pay runs to get it sorted. At £40%, with admin fees, half your money, which is not that good as we said, is gone already - and look at what you had to do to get it!

The "SELF EMPLOYED" thing is something they force you into for their benefit, it isn't something most people, if any, would opt for, especally if you don't really know how it works. They tell you that you are self employed then assign you to a TM who is your "boss" and starts making demands of you.


Bottom line - avoid Kellys. You can make as much or more money on min wage in any P/T job from waiting tables to shelf stacking while you leave your days free to apply and go to interviews for a real job.

[Church Mouse]

I have been withVirgin Media/ntl for over 12 years now and have always found them and their engineers really good.
I think that often we only hear the bad side, of any company, people don't very often give public praise where it's due.

Church Mouse

[scene99]

VM are a great company, a great brand and a great product. Cabling is a great industry to be in. No doubt.

The problem, as previously stated, is with subcontracting and, in this instance, doing it through Kellys in particular.

It would be interesting to hear from any former Kelly employees who have moved to Comex, or somewhere similar, and what positive differences they have to share with us.

[kellys suck]

Kellys rob there workers of money and time via there self imployed scheme. They should be taken to court

[Brockster]

Have Kellys been given the chop? I had reason to have an engineer out today, although it was for a box swap, he was so professional, courteous, friendly polite (even left his shoes at the door, even though this wasn't requested/required of him)

After a bit of chat he told me he usually works in the Essex area, but as my area (Guildford) are short on engineers, they (VM) are offering overtime to guys outside the area, offering to put them up in hotels for the night.

[JayJay]

Guildford is covered by Avonline, Ive worked up in Guildford plenty of times.

[Brockster]

Originally Posted by JayJay

Guildford is covered by Avonline, Ive worked up in Guildford plenty of times.

This guy was VM employee, are contractors limited to the amount of staff they can have?

Seeing as my job is coming to an end in a couple of months, I've gone and applied for a position with VM, would prefer company rather than contractor.

[JayJay]

Personally, I think you have made a good choice ;-).

As far as im aware there is nothing stopping the contractor from having as many staff as they want, but its the contractor that has to pay the wages ;-)

[Brockster]

Originally Posted by JayJay

Personally, I think you have made a good choice ;-).

As far as im aware there is nothing stopping the contractor from having as many staff as they want, but its the contractor that has to pay the wages ;-)

I hope so, I feel it's time for a change anyway and better to be out and about than stuck in one place for 8 hours.

[JayJay]

I'd like to work in house myself but when I applied my application got "lost" after my current employer got wind of what I wanted to do.... but thats another story.

[Brockster]

Hmmm. I've just had a missed call from VM. They have 'withdrawn' my application do to being outside the catchment area!

That's a bit silly, almost as bad as applying for a school if you have kids!

Does anyone know any contacts within the 'catchment area'?