50M Superhub is nowhere near as bad as people say! - Page 16

Nopanic · 03-05-2011, 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

We do what we can to resolve the issue and if required it goes to 2nd line and we leave notes on the account, we do not investigate why an issue occurs because we are not paid to do so it is down to other departments otherwise my call with regards a single fault could last hours.

If you want more indepth analysis then you would have to pay a lot more for your broadband and you will find all other ISP's expect the same kind of support to be provided by their first line agents.

Once we have dealt with your issue we are required to take the next call within 90 seconds, our time costs money and our employer does not pay us to run indepth diagnosis as the employ people to do that on a lot more money than we get paid.

---------- Post added at 19:51 ---------- Previous post was at 19:50 ----------

Which we do within the confines of our job but we just raise the issue up or leave notes on the account, remember first line agents do not raise IT issues because they do not have those permissions.

I'm on your side, agree with you 100%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

There is also a key word your missing, and really it is a sad state of affairs that a vast amount of people that I have spoken to like yourself lack any initiative..

Rubbish, he is actually one of the more proactive 1st liners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

I would have also have thought it would be in your companies interest to make aware of any potential problems that you come across which in the long term could result in saving the company money, keeping customers with virgin Media.

As he said, they post it to an internet site and send out briefs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

You are also paid to resolve issues when you can, the old reboot the pc or check it in a few hours i'm afraid just doesnt cut it anymore in today's society where i'm sure a vast amount of your customers are more technically educated than those supporting virgin media services.

Rebooting the modem and the PC resolves 90% of calls actually. Most of the customers are not technically minded, we do have some very technical customers however and I would hope the agents tailor their responses to match the customer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

Ownership is key in any business, this prevents customers being passed from pillar to post. I would very much like to see the CRM cycle that Virgin Media practice as im sure from what your telling me it is very different to what the company think there employees are doing.

Not at all, 1st line are not able to take ownership, 2nd line are there for that very reason.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

Virgin Media are not some mickey mouse company but the attitude of some of the staff stinks and no wonder it leads to repeated calls of the same issue.

If you are unhappy with a member of staff make a complaint, coming on here and arguing does nothing as we don't know who you spoke to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

I'm not asking anyone to stay on call for hours, especially when the simple tasks of checking everything is all done. I'm asking that the agents like yourself do their jobs right and use some common sense. I'm sure i'm not alone in thinking this.

Most of our agents do their job right, that's why VM has such a high score with Ofcom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

And at the end of the day i'm sure like you and others would have more job satisfaction knowing that you took on board a customers fault, either resolved it, raised the issue and followed up with the customer to ensure they know what is going on and how the company intend on helping..

Makes no difference what they want to do, they have rules and they have processes, as do everyone else. They need to give the best they can within their support scope and if they can not fix it, make sure it goes to the right people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

After all we are the customers and without us m8, your just a government technical drawer (dole)...

And without us you'd be talking to yourself in a room

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

Does anyone think this is an unreasonable expectation, our is this not in a customers remit to expect a resolution...

You're mixing up what you want here ..

VM are required to give you a resolution, but 1st line are not always the ones able to do this. I don't think you're taking on board what is being said here. Agents like Masque don't fob off customers, but they can't be expected to know everything and fix everything, thats why we have other departments. If you have an issue (personally) then call up and make it known. VM want customer feedback.

darkm · 03-05-2011, 19:41

Not mixing up anything. I'm asking first line agents to do their jobs right and to know their products and services they support.

It is clear from agents I have spoken too and im sure others can verify that they havent a clue about the basics. How a pc works? How a modem works? what firmware is? How upload and download speed works? How a network works?

Simple things i'm sure you agree but if you cant understand the simple basics then how can you begin to troubleshoot any issue?

Rebooting a pc more often than not resolves a lot of issues but when agent quite clearly fill you with every lie under the sun and I have heard alot of rubbish then what recoures of action do us customers have?

The complaints department are almost as useless as they have no understanding of faults. They are there from a customer services aspect. Believe me I have raised a complaint and spoke to them and still you get no where. Even had a nice lady send me the traffic management policy by email as to why I wasnt getting my upload speed.

The only thing she didnt understand was how a modem configuration file worked and if it was true about me being traffic managed my upload speed wouldn't be 1.6 meg upload but 1 meg. Not to mention the fact of changing the MTU value.

Again it comes down to common sense something that some people are obviously lacking.

And for talk sake and take it at its face value as I have been told that there is nothing more that the faults department can do a refuse to take the call?
What sort of customer experience is that?

I'm not looking to argue with anyone but many people do agree and I have made my points to the complaints team about the lack of ownership, lack of training/knowledge to staff known.

The fact still remains and you are forgetting that there are issues with the superhub that no one can deny, stated by Virgin Media. Everyone has their own issues some resolved by firmware updates some not. But they are valid issues and need to be taken on board, raised and followed up by Virgin Media.

I have been told my issue is being investigated by Cisco currently? How true that is I dont know but we live in hope that somebody in Virgin are doing something about the hub as currently stands it is a bad as people say regardless if your hub is working fine.

Nopanic · 03-05-2011, 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

Not mixing up anything. I'm asking first line agents to do their jobs right and to know their products and services they support.

It is clear from agents I have spoken too and im sure others can verify that they havent a clue about the basics. How a pc works? How a modem works? what firmware is? How upload and download speed works? How a network works?

Simple things i'm sure you agree but if you cant understand the simple basics then how can you begin to troubleshoot any issue?

Rebooting a pc more often than not resolves a lot of issues but when agent quite clearly fill you with every lie under the sun and I have heard alot of rubbish then what recoures of action do us customers have?

The complaints department are almost as useless as they have no understanding of faults. They are there from a customer services aspect. Believe me I have raised a complaint and spoke to them and still you get no where. Even had a nice lady send me the traffic management policy by email as to why I wasnt getting my upload speed.

The only thing she didnt understand was how a modem configuration file worked and if it was true about me being traffic managed my upload speed wouldn't be 1.6 meg upload but 1 meg. Not to mention the fact of changing the MTU value.

Again it comes down to common sense something that some people are obviously lacking.

And for talk sake and take it at its face value as I have been told that there is nothing more that the faults department can do a refuse to take the call?
What sort of customer experience is that?

I'm not looking to argue with anyone but many people do agree and I have made my points to the complaints team about the lack of ownership, lack of training/knowledge to staff known.

The fact still remains and you are forgetting that there are issues with the superhub that no one can deny, stated by Virgin Media. Everyone has their own issues some resolved by firmware updates some not. But they are valid issues and need to be taken on board, raised and followed up by Virgin Media.

I have been told my issue is being investigated by Cisco currently? How true that is I dont know but we live in hope that somebody in Virgin are doing something about the hub as currently stands it is a bad as people say regardless if your hub is working fine.

Has anyone given you a reference number?

Chrysalis · 03-05-2011, 19:51

masque reply is interesting.

VM tech support is time constrained, this isnt unusual as most broadband companies operate like this now days. However VM are now supplying their own kit to customers. Companies like netgear, thompson, dlink, cisco etc as a result have to dedicate lots of time to support issues as the nature of hardware bugs is that it takes a little bit more than just to reboot the device. I have said a few times that VM are in over their head with the superhub and the replies concerning tech support somewhat prove that. I can understand the merit of dishing out a router/modem all in one device but they should have just signed a contract for a 3rd party device and sent that out instead of having one custom designed with crippled unique firmware. Because the tech support policy conflicts with what they providing.

darkm · 03-05-2011, 19:51

No reference number I made a post in the community forum site graham reponded and checked again all the basic's and then looked into a bit further and has said cisco are looking at this. I would assume there is some sort of internal reference at least but im unware of it.

Dont get me wrong up until my issue I have been happy with virgin, never had a reason to call, download speed has been bang on the money. Then upgrade from 20 meg to 30 meg and thought great, saving some money, I can get rid of a router and have one piece of kit but so far download speed is great but upload speed is halved.

It is just a s frustrating for me as im sure it is for some of your guys to have repeated calls and im sure when issues are raised by you's it gets more annoying when you see these calls come back.

However hopefully something can be done..

Ignitionnet · 03-05-2011, 19:51

There seems to be a bit of a need for expectations management.

The guys answering the phone are not DOCSIS gurus, they are trained to manage the most common issues not to know about firmware, MTU changes, etc.

90%+ of issues are with customer's PC or configuration at some point, so this is where the training is focussed.

Expectation management is important, these guys may or may not be aware of issues and you would hope that they are, the issue that is unacceptable by any stretch is where problems aren't being escalated in a timely fashion but agents are more worried about their call handling stats.

If you want MCSEs / CCIPs answering calls probably best to go to an ISP that charges a tad more.

That said VM should ensure that their staff are aware of hot issues and the staff should all familiarise themselves with hot issues so that they can escalate calls promptly and appropriately.

Chrysalis · 03-05-2011, 19:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

There seems to be a bit of a need for expectations management.

The guys answering the phone are not DOCSIS gurus, they are trained to manage the most common issues not to know about firmware, MTU changes, etc.

90%+ of issues are with customer's PC or configuration at some point, so this is where the training is focussed.

Expectation management is important, these guys may or may not be aware of issues and you would hope that they are, the issue that is unacceptable by any stretch is where problems aren't being escalated in a timely fashion but agents are more worried about their call handling stats.

If you want MCSEs / CCIPs answering calls probably best to go to an ISP that charges a tad more.

That said VM should ensure that their staff are aware of hot issues and the staff should all familiarise themselves with hot issues so that they can escalate calls promptly and appropriately.

Not a big issue when could use your own router tho, now cannot its become a relevant issue. If VM are not willing/able to train staff and adjust process to allow longer calls to cater for bug reports they should at the very least add a online form of some sort for fault reporting that goes direct to a team dedicated to the superhub itself. I said this same thing weeks back and was told by someone (cant remember who) that its not needed because basic tech support can handle it, but now we have masque and nopanic saying tech support cannot handle it.

Also that 90% figure is it reliable?

example.

My ubr has a burst of high utilisation, I ring up to complain.

india tech support tell me to reboot everything. Whilst rebooting the utilisation goes down on the UBR, after reboot everything seems better, fault logged as pc fault.

darkm · 03-05-2011, 19:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

There seems to be a bit of a need for expectations management.

The guys answering the phone are not DOCSIS gurus, they are trained to manage the most common issues not to know about firmware, MTU changes, etc.

90%+ of issues are with customer's PC or configuration at some point, so this is where the training is focussed.

Expectation management is important, these guys may or may not be aware of issues and you would hope that they are, the issue that is unacceptable by any stretch is where problems aren't being escalated in a timely fashion but agents are more worried about their call handling stats.

If you want MCSEs / CCIPs answering calls probably best to go to an ISP that charges a tad more.

That said VM should ensure that their staff are aware of hot issues and the staff should all familiarise themselves with hot issues so that they can escalate calls promptly and appropriately.

Im sure the guy's in the fault team should know the setting's in the hub and their correct settings. That is the product they are supporting. Im sure they have a script of things to check and each of the settings on the hub should be there. When everything is checked and fault still persists then i'm sure they seek some support with their second line team.

Peter_ · 03-05-2011, 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Not a big issue when could use your own router tho, now cannot its become a relevant issue. If VM are not willing/able to train staff and adjust process to allow longer calls to cater for bug reports they should at the very least add a online form of some sort for fault reporting that goes direct to a team dedicated to the superhub itself. I said this same thing weeks back and was told by someone (cant remember who) that its not needed because basic tech support can handle it, but now we have masque and nopanic saying tech support cannot handle it.

We do not get the time to investigate issues and nor do we have the relevant tools to go much further, if we find an issue we call 2nd line and it is up to them what happens next as that is as far as we can take your issue.

Chrysalis · 03-05-2011, 20:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

We do not get the time to investigate issues and nor do we have the relevant tools to go much further, if we find an issue we call 2nd line and it is up to them what happens next as that is as far as we can take your issue.

I know and I am not putting any blame on to you or your direct colleagues, you can only do what you have been trained to do and with the tools you have, my issue is with the management of VM who decide these policies.

hjf288 · 03-05-2011, 21:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

Well seeming as they work on either Cisco uBR's or Motorola BSR's without any issues and they are the 2 manufacturer's that we use the is no issue, so a good bit of misinformation.

So why cant they hit full upload on Cisco UBRs? And why did a engineer and support acknowledge its a known issue?

Peter_ · 03-05-2011, 21:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by hjf288

So why cant they hit full upload on Cisco UBRs? And why did a engineer and support acknowledge its a known issue?

You have read that I am on 30Mb and connected to a Cisco 10000 and get my full upload as per below.

Nopanic · 03-05-2011, 21:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkm

No reference number I made a post in the community forum site graham reponded and checked again all the basic's and then looked into a bit further and has said cisco are looking at this. I would assume there is some sort of internal reference at least but im unware of it.

Dont get me wrong up until my issue I have been happy with virgin, never had a reason to call, download speed has been bang on the money. Then upgrade from 20 meg to 30 meg and thought great, saving some money, I can get rid of a router and have one piece of kit but so far download speed is great but upload speed is halved.

It is just a s frustrating for me as im sure it is for some of your guys to have repeated calls and im sure when issues are raised by you's it gets more annoying when you see these calls come back.

However hopefully something can be done..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

There seems to be a bit of a need for expectations management.

The guys answering the phone are not DOCSIS gurus, they are trained to manage the most common issues not to know about firmware, MTU changes, etc.

90%+ of issues are with customer's PC or configuration at some point, so this is where the training is focussed.

Expectation management is important, these guys may or may not be aware of issues and you would hope that they are, the issue that is unacceptable by any stretch is where problems aren't being escalated in a timely fashion but agents are more worried about their call handling stats.

If you want MCSEs / CCIPs answering calls probably best to go to an ISP that charges a tad more.

That said VM should ensure that their staff are aware of hot issues and the staff should all familiarise themselves with hot issues so that they can escalate calls promptly and appropriately.

Sure I said that already

darkm · 03-05-2011, 22:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

You have read that I am on 30Mb and connected to a Cisco 10000 and get my full upload as per below.

Wouldnt it be nice to find out what the issue is?

mtu change

Ignitionnet · 03-05-2011, 22:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nopanic

Sure I said that already

Remember you're VM staff therefore your opinions are suspect at best and at worst fanboyism, always.

I'm former ntl staff and it was long enough ago that I'm fully rehabilitated