VM's Indian callcentre

Originally Posted by Kursk

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ps looks like things are getting worse!

Here is another one for the list and although Kymmy suggested using the groups to report a fault that any first line agent could have escalated, this is not the answer. I read the groups and they are becoming more popular and we can see why, the groups are manned by 2nd line agents but only one at a time. One morning to afternoon & then one afternoon to evening.
With the influx of help requests what do you think will happen when the 2nd line agent can not cope with the amount of requests?
Outsourcing offshore maybe?

I can fully understand the want and need to use the groups to avoid being given the run around by poor performing first line agents, however, VirginMedia need to be alerted/reminded of the dire support being given by their agents.
I'd urge you to call and have your complaint logged or do it in writing.

[AdamD]

I personally dislike calling offshore call centres, to, as I've always had problems understanding strong Indian accents
But, with that said, I sometimes find it hard to understand strong scottish, welsh and irish accents to, heh

[Ignitionnet]

I've nothing personal against call centres wherever they may be located, I have something against centres that waste my time by being inefficient and generally a waste of space when I deal with them.

I put it down to VM outsourcing and VM's outsourcing company being too cheap to train the staff properly, so they can be incompetent and have no issues apparently making things up if they don't know the solution to get you off the phone, again likely due to the outsourcer's policies.

Of course you can bet that the outsourcing company have all sorts of wonderful stats and facts and figures that paint a rose-tinted picture of how wonderful their centre is, and above all it's really cheap for Virgin Media, who let's face it are not massively bothered about quality but being as cheap, mass market and pile it high flog it cheap as possible. Certainly no objections to saving a few quid a the expense of customer service.

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by AdamD

I personally dislike calling offshore call centres, to, as I've always had problems understanding strong Indian accents
But, with that said, I sometimes find it hard to understand strong scottish, welsh and irish accents to, heh

not only the accents, but also the duplex delay in replying, and also the reading from a prepared script which bears no relation to you specific problem. (Before anyone complains - this is for ALL COMPANIES who use off-shore call centres for support.

[cook1984]

They are just being cheap, that's all there is to it.

In Japan, you get a 100x or more faster connection, true unlimited usage and a Japanese person in a Japanese call centre. They do still have scripts, but at least (in my experience) they are human beings and will listen to you, unlike the Indian lot who just plough on with their script no matter what. Oh, and it costs a lot less too.

It is possible to have efficient UK call centres with people who can cope when it isn't just another "reboot modem" and don't automatically try blame everything on the customer's router/pc/toaster when nothing in their little list of time-wasting exercises works.

[Ignitionnet]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-273300.html

I wonder, hehe

---------- Post added at 14:07 ---------- Previous post was at 13:59 ----------

Originally Posted by cook1984

They are just being cheap, that's all there is to it.

In Japan, you get a 100x or more faster connection, true unlimited usage and a Japanese person in a Japanese call centre.

Japan the story is quite different with how those networks came into being, and it's worth remembering that both few people see any performance outside of Japan, and that even inside Japan they struggle to hit 100Mbit.

It's also incredibly competitive there, with FTTH competing with extremely fast DSL and extremely high performance cable, while here it's average competing with mediocre competing with rubbish.

That is the case in Japan, but on the other hand a part of this is due to their customers and in turn the UK as a whole being cheap about how much we pay for our providings. Far too many people want to pay next to nothing then will go complain like crazy when it doesn't work as they'd like it to.

I'm not condoning it or anything but too many people are far too quick to shout about how they pay 'x' amount for a service and expect it to be perfect while they'd pay next to nothing for a commodity then shrug their shoulders when it breaks as it was cheap.

Hopefully as people use broadband more they'll get it into their heads that they are going to actually have to pay more, not less, for the next generation stuff (and I don't class VM's present 50Mbit product as next-gen, it's a rushed product that imho doesn't get next-gen until it's 5Mbit up).

Likewise though hopefully BT and VM will be slapped into actually competing instead of BT doing nothing and VM doing the bare minimum. Then we will see services improve in all ways, the services themselves, customer service, etc.

You can bet if BT pulled support back to the UK and made a lot of noise about it VM would soon do likewise!

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

too many people are far too quick to shout about how they pay 'x' amount for a service and expect it to be perfect

you can say that again, i was having a nosey round speedtest.net last night as I was getting excited about my 50mbit being installed and i was comparing VMs speeds against other isps in my area and the closest speed wise was Edgenet which I have never heard of. I had a look on their website and they do leased lines (which we often talk about because we all want our full 20mbit) and I couldn't believe it when I read a 20mbit uncontended line was £1099 a MONTH.

I have never moaned about my speed because I always get 20mbit 99% of the time but hopefully the rest of us will moan a but less now

[Tech_Boy]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

you can say that again, i was having a nosey round speedtest.net last night as I was getting excited about my 50mbit being installed and i was comparing VMs speeds against other isps in my area and the closest speed wise was Edgenet which I have never heard of. I had a look on their website and they do leased lines (which we often talk about because we all want our full 20mbit) and I couldn't believe it when I read a 20mbit uncontended line was £1099 a MONTH.

I have never moaned about my speed because I always get 20mbit 99% of the time but hopefully the rest of us will moan a but less now

Unfortunately some people will never be happy, I can think of several members who only seem to be happy when they are complaining

[Kursk]

Yep, it is far more important to me to have a service that works and tbh my VM cable service does just that. Just enjoy the service guys and thank your lucky stars you live in a cabled area and give the people in tech a break when you have to call them once in a blue moon. Everyone likes a good ol' moan but really, if things were as bad as some say, they'd move on.

Some want it cheaper and faster and they want to be Paris Hilton's British best friend all in one deal. (actually, come to think of it....)

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Kursk

Yep, it is far more important to me to have a service that works and tbh my VM cable service does just that. Just enjoy the service guys and thank your lucky stars you live in a cabled area and give the people in tech a break when you have to call them once in a blue moon. Everyone likes a good ol' moan but really, if things were as bad as some say, they'd move on.

Some want it cheaper and faster and they want to be Paris Hilton's British best friend all in one deal. (actually, come to think of it....)

Stop watching that movie set in the city of Paris, I think it was the city.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Moldova

Stop watching that movie set in the city of Paris, I think it was the city.

She can try to fix my 'problem' 9 times if she likes and I won't care about her accent or lack of technical skill

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by Kursk

and give the people in tech a break

I said I was happy and never moaned about my speed, tech support is another matter and something i will moan about. It doesnt matter it if only goes down once a year, I would mind if it went down once a week if i could ring tech support and they fixed it but there is nothing more annoying than ringing tech support and them not being able to resolve your problem. I have had my cable modem for 8 years now and yes I do only give them a ring once a year, but that i 8 phone calls I have made and I am being honest when I say not once have they even acknowledged a fault let alone fixed it, and once of them was an outage that affected half the country for a couple of hours.

Speed and reliability great, tech support crap

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I said I was happy and never moaned about my speed, tech support is another matter and something i will moan about. It doesnt matter it if only goes down once a year, I would mind if it went down once a week if i could ring tech support and they fixed it but there is nothing more annoying than ringing tech support and them not being able to resolve your problem. I have had my cable modem for 8 years now and yes I do only give them a ring once a year, but that i 8 phone calls I have made and I am being honest when I say not once have they even acknowledged a fault let alone fixed it, and once of them was an outage that affected half the country for a couple of hours.

Speed and reliability great, tech support crap

Ok General. But on balance and taking everything into account, 8 calls in 8 years is not so bad. Bet you've rung UK-based energy suppliers a whole lot more!

[cook1984]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

It's also incredibly competitive there, with FTTH competing with extremely fast DSL and extremely high performance cable, while here it's average competing with mediocre competing with rubbish.

It sounds like BT are planning to have fibre to the cabinet for 40% of the country by 2012 (BBC News). That will bring ADSL up to 50Mb for some lucky people. The problem is that by 2012 they will be over 10 years behind Japan, and the gap will only be widening.

The excuse that there is more competition there does not make the situation any more acceptable. As we have now discovered we are already a largely service based economy, and we if allow oursleves to fall too far behind in the development of broadband we are going to suffer.

That is the case in Japan, but on the other hand a part of this is due to their customers and in turn the UK as a whole being cheap about how much we pay for our providings. Far too many people want to pay next to nothing then will go complain like crazy when it doesn't work as they'd like it to.

Actually, you can get 100/100 fibre here for about 20 quid a month. A basic "up to 50meg" ADSL line is about fiftenn pounds a month. That's pretty much the minimum speed available. All truely unlimited, BTW.

[Ignitionnet]

Yeah appreciate that it's largely unlimited but there is congestion on the networks of the kind that UK people wouldn't like, as soon as someone in the UK on 20 quid a month 100/100 drops below 90Mbit they'd probably be on the blower to their supplier.

Can you also imagine the UK tolerating the kind of speeds Japan sees outside of Japan? You guys get a fraction of line speed as soon as you leave the Islands, that'd cause mass complaints here.

You guys just have a different model, very high access speeds with contention at core and transit levels, here we expect 100% performance 100% of the time for nothing and whinge and moan as soon as it tails off.

As far as BT go, as per my comment on Thinkbroadband:

Is it just me that finds it amusing and somewhat tragic that Ofcom / BT are calling 40Mbit 'super-fast' while other countries are merrily laying down regulatory frameworks and deploying 100Mbit+ and in some cases 1000Mbit?

Or as in the case of quite a few places, already deployed!