Free Tech Support Is Back

[lordy]

out of interest I would love to know the stats. ie did VM make more money or less with Premium Rate Help Desk. Did it affect new subscription and or renewal rates?

I doubt that VM did this out of the kindness of their hearts or even on the back of the Phorm issue. Somewhere along it was a financial decision even if staff now have to be resigned to filtering out a high percentage of irrelevant calls.

They was making ariund £3 million from the number and saving £10 million in running cost of the department

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Wonder if I should set one up for 50p per minute lol

that's a thought that's crossed my mind a few times to lol

[lordy]

Giving up 13Mil ? Wow. Must have been hitting them in the pocket somewhere else OR they were getting more grief than I could imagine from a fair percentage of customers. (not just us minority of noisy ones on the forums)

[lostandconfused]

I think its more because BT have just removed their premium rate number and Virgin Media are just keeping up with the Jones'

[utt]

Originally Posted by darthlinux

They was making ariund £3 million from the number and saving £10 million in running cost of the department

Don't think so....

[tomo]

I for one have been impressed with the quality of the tech support since the move to 0871, the calls are answered quickly, and the staff are knowledgeable. I think opening the floodgates by offering "free" support again is a retrograde step in terms of service quality. The 10p/min charge on the 0871 number is enough to make people think twice and do all the common-sense checks before they call up.

If they do go ahead with the free number, I would support the idea of a 2nd "premium" number, maybe billed at 10p/min or 25p/min, where calls are put at the top of the queue, and possibly directed senior or more knowledgable staff. I would much rather pay some money and get a good prompt service, rather than spend 30mins in a queue and not get a effective service or an answer to my problem at the end of it.

It's probably a no-brainer for them to offer a two-tier service with a modern call centre application.

I do sometimes wonder about the number of tech support phone number changes there have been over the years in the transition from dial up to broadband and from ntl to virgin. I think this will be the 9th change in about as many years. Nice to have some more inconsistency!

Just my 2p. I wonder if anyone from Virgin Management reads this stuff??!!

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by tomo

If they do go ahead with the free number, I would support the idea of a 2nd "premium" number, maybe billed at 10p/min or 25p/min, where calls are put at the top of the queue, and possibly directed senior or more knowledgable staff. I would much rather pay some money and get a good prompt service, rather than spend 30mins in a queue and not get a effective service or an answer to my problem at the end of it.

Methinks you've got the germ of an excellent idea there, tomo.

How about a free call to the offshore support (that you've found excellent) and 10p/minute to a (guaranteed) UK support centre who won't put you through the "turn it off and on again" routine but will expect you to have done the basic tests* yourself?

Or, of course, people could use the Tech Support newsgroup instead...


* These are the basic tests TS are likely to request to assist any investigation (lifted from Annie's excellent Broadband FAQ):

* Your netstat -a (see Q05 )
* Your total download speed from 4 simultaneous file downloads (as outlined in Q02)
* Ping to www.bbc.co.uk (see Q06)
* Two trace routes to www.bbc.co.uk (see Q06)
* Your modem logs and signal levels (see Q07)
* And a good description of your exact issue
* Your alias - The part of your email address before the @ symbol, this is so support can identify your account details on their system. ie. if your email is fredbloggs@blueyonder.co.uk or fredbloggs@ntlworld.com then fredbloggs is what is required

Originally Posted by utt

Don't think so....

Do work for the company no I do and was told this in a conference call

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by darthlinux

Do work for the company no I do and was told this in a conference call

Yeah, but what's £13 million between friends, eh?

Originally Posted by tomo

I for one have been impressed with the quality of the tech support since the move to 0871, the calls are answered quickly, and the staff are knowledgeable. I think opening the floodgates by offering "free" support again is a retrograde step in terms of service quality. The 10p/min charge on the 0871 number is enough to make people think twice and do all the common-sense checks before they call up...

Broadband support is an 0906 number @ 25p/min, not 0871 @ 10p/min.

.

[tomo]

Originally Posted by XFS03

Broadband support is an 0906 number @ 25p/min, not 0871 @ 10p/min.

.

That just goes to proove my point that the constant change of phone numbers is confusing!

[Trent]

Hi all,

Dont know if this has already been reported but VM are finally reversing their decision to make us pay for technical support... just in time for the "alleged price hike"

See here : http://newsletter.virginmedia.com/re...id%3D600013757

anyone feel like a rendition of Grand old duke of york?

I got an email from Virgin about this today.

[Graham M]

Yeah me too, I made a thread about it and it got closed and not merged Oh well I tried lol!