Why I hate VM's Indian tech support

[Russ]

Back on topic...

[pearl]

funny because both times i've had issues with vm and I've called I've spoken to someone in the uk who has been well informed, they have listened to what i've said and neither asked me to reset my router or check my connections or anything like that and the problems have been sorted quickly. I think if you ring between 9 and 5 on a weekday you are more likely to get the uk people but obviously not everyone can do that.

It has been infintely better than the customer service I got from sky, where i would have problems and outages more regularly, the routers were awful and completely unreliable (I had 4 replacements in the space of a year) ring up and have to speak to several people ALL of whom would refuse to do anything until I had reset my router and changed the dhcp settings and then about the 5th person would tell me "oh there's a fault in your area." That was my experience of sky broadband and was one of the reasons I switched.

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by craigj2k12

To order you would have Thats was my first call

Oh yeah I forgot about that

---------- Post added at 17:49 ---------- Previous post was at 17:43 ----------

Originally Posted by pearl

funny because both times i've had issues with vm and I've called I've spoken to someone in the uk who has been well informed, they have listened to what i've said and neither asked me to reset my router or check my connections or anything like that and the problems have been sorted quickly. I think if you ring between 9 and 5 on a weekday you are more likely to get the uk people but obviously not everyone can do that.

It has been infintely better than the customer service I got from sky, where i would have problems and outages more regularly, the routers were awful and completely unreliable (I had 4 replacements in the space of a year) ring up and have to speak to several people ALL of whom would refuse to do anything until I had reset my router and changed the dhcp settings and then about the 5th person would tell me "oh there's a fault in your area." That was my experience of sky broadband and was one of the reasons I switched.

Hmmm......I have emboldened and underlined the only relevent part of your post. It is the offshored support being discussed. UK based support is usually satisfactory although it has been recently devalued by the closure of Albert Dock.

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

It was one of the reasons (among a list of many others ) why I left.

Just had my old superhub collected. Asked the Guy if he was busy, just to make some conversation, he said he was rushed off his feet and had to have his area split as he couldn't keep up.

I can't say I am surprised.

VM are so bad they make Ntl look good.

What utter garbage, they are rushed off their feet with new connections, look at their results

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Top banana

What utter garbage, they are rushed off their feet with new connections, look at their results

The Guys who collect unwanted STB's and Hubs also install new connections?

I don't think so.

The only garbage here is yours.

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

The Guys who collect unwanted STB's and Hubs also install new connections?

I don't think so.

The only garbage here is yours.

Net cable customer additions of 39,500 in the quarter, up from 6,300
 Churn down from 1.7% to 1.4% in the quarter
 Cable ARPU up 1.8% to £48.73 in the quarter
 On-going improvement of customer base mix in the quarter
 TiVo customers increased 205,900 to 1.14m; now 30% of TV base
 52,200 increase in the paying TV base3
 Superfast broadband customers (30Mb and above) increased 452,900 to 1.8m, now 42% of broadband base

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Net cable customer additions of 39,500 in the quarter, up from 6,300
 Churn down from 1.7% to 1.4% in the quarter
 Cable ARPU up 1.8% to £48.73 in the quarter
 On-going improvement of customer base mix in the quarter
 TiVo customers increased 205,900 to 1.14m; now 30% of TV base
 52,200 increase in the paying TV base3
 Superfast broadband customers (30Mb and above) increased 452,900 to 1.8m, now 42% of broadband base

I don't give a FF.

I am not a shareholder or a fanbois or a VM employee.

I merely reported something heard in conversation.

No need for you bust a blood vessel over it.

Of course if you have an agenda then lets hear all about it. Be quick though because you are teetering on the brink of joining Carl Waring et al in the black hole of my Ignore fan bois list.

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

I don't give a FF.

I am not a shareholder or a fanbois or a VM employee.

I merely reported something heard in conversation.

No need for you bust a blood vessel over it.

Of course if you have an agenda then lets hear all about it. Be quick though because you are teetering on the brink of joining Carl Waring et al in the black hole of my Ignore fan bois list.

Erm like the agenda you clearly have telling everyone on a cable forum how great Sky are? BTW I dont't give a FF if you block me - thanks

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Erm like the agenda you clearly have telling everyone on a cable forum how great Sky are? BTW I dont't give a FF if you block me - thanks

Bye..........

[Derek]

ENOUGH. Any more bickering or sniping and infractions will start being handed out.

[Russ]

Cheers Derek.

Anyway the plot (and my disdain for VM's Indian callcentre) thickens.

Although we're on the 30mb service I couldn't get more than 11mb. So I called tech support (India) and she went through the usual "please to reboot your modem, please to check all cables are connected" etc

She then said there was an issue in my area which is estimated to be completed on 6th January and this is what is giving me such low speeds. I said I wasn't happy that the service will be sub-standard for another 6 weeks and she immediately offered me a £30 credit. Hmm, seen that before. Her explanation didn't ring quite true either, as when it was a 10mb pipe I could get a constant 9mb stream even at peak times. I told her this but in true Indian callcentre fashion she simply repeated her words robot-style that the local issue is what was giving poor speeds.

Anyway I asked to be put through to Billing so they could confirm the credit had been applied and I was put through to someone in Manilla who could not understand what it was I was asking for so he put me through to tech support in the UK for some reason and got through to some excellent guy in Swansea who confirmed that the local issue here would have nothing whatsoever to do with my slow speeds. He confirmed that the Indian woman had given me incorrect information.

After running a few tests, the answer was straightforward - the modem and router I was using couldn't handle 30mb speeds. The most this modem could handle was 20mb. He told me to connect the computer directly to the modem and when I did a test download, boom! A strong 20mb stream.

So instead he sent out a Superhub which he reckons will give me as close to 30 as possible. As this should sort out the problem I thought the £30 credit would no longer be necessary however I've decided to not do anything about that and keep it to make up for being fobbed off by that woman earlier and the hassle I had the other day that started this thread off.

[General Maximus]

there must be a screen they can look at to see the modems VM have dished out over the years and what speed they are good for. If the ming mongs in India can't even get that right then we have no hope. Like I said yesterday; poor troubleshooting skills. If I knew you didnt have a shub or vmng300 and was using an older modem the first thing I would do is look to see what speed it is good for. Then you try a direct connection to the modem to rule the router out as the problem.

Poor training. It is a shame that they don't take any pride in their work and seem to be quite content in lieing their asses off to everyone. You wonder why anyone even bothers rining them.

[Skie]

It makes me wonder if this is just part of the Virgin "experience". I sent a letter to claim compensation for train tickets to Virgin rail, after myself and my team were delayed by over 3 hours. According to Virgins passenger charter they will fully refund the affected portion of the journey for a delay of 2 hours or more. This should have been £600+ worth of tickets.

Yesterday I got a letter back with a £50 rail voucher. The letter was amazing in its contempt for their own customers: "As a company we are always looking to learn from customer feedback regarding the style and speed of our responses. Therefore we are currently trailing new ways to respond to our customers. As part of this initiative we will not be answering the specifics of your letter in this reply, in order to ensure that we are able to respond swiftly to you. While we have not fully addressed your complaint on this occasion, I can assure you that we will do all we can to ensure that whatever happens in the coming months, we will strive [to] maintain the high standards that you and we have come to expect."

It's the equivalent of a fob off by India. I'm £500 down. Though apparently you get the exact same response (including vouchers) for just moaning about the 1st class lounge not having enough coffee so 10 of them might cover it

[Mick Fisher]

There was a time when the Virgin Brand meant something good.

However nowadays, in spite of having already made so much money he couldn't spend it all even if he wanted to, Branson is still so greedy that he will lease out the Brand to any tin pot Company that can afford to line his ass pocket.

To be honest the Brand is now so devalued that it is probably good practice to give anything "Virgin" a wide berth.

[roughbeast]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I think i am going to look into Sky....

Ah! You dreamer you. I hope there isn't a full moon!

---------- Post added at 20:05 ---------- Previous post was at 19:40 ----------

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

There was a time when the Virgin Brand meant something good.

However nowadays, in spite of having already made so much money he couldn't spend it all even if he wanted to, Branson is still so greedy that he will lease out the Brand to any tin pot Company that can afford to line his ass pocket.

To be honest the Brand is now so devalued that it is probably good practice to give anything "Virgin" a wide berth.

That would include Virgin Active who have successfully upset our gym membership to the point that 10% of them left last month. Main reasons for escape include: imposing V-bloody everything on our beloved spin, urban rebound and body pump classes; failure to consult with us about anything, including when the Coventry school half-term was; sacking trainers who allowed their classes to fall below the V-sodding membership quota, imposing a V-menu on our excellent chef, failure to respond to complaints via the V-bloody complaints system and installing the worst gym manager since Brittas Empire.

That would not include, presumably, The Virgin Mary.

But, definitely including Richard Branson, whose empire is now 'verging' on the ridiculous.

Oh! I forgot Virgin Wines, who just sent me a corker of a mystery box of mixed wines for £89. (For corker read corked.) I just attempted to drink a promising glass of wine from the Languedoc region. I always judge the quality of wine by a simple measure. If I drink a whole bottle and still want more it is a good one. On this occasion I had trouble finishing the glass.