[Merged] Leaving VM for Sky? OK just leave...

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by info4u

<snip>

to the forum. Good post. One minor point. The BBC channels (1, 2 3, 4 & radio 1-5, 6xtra & BBC 7) are owned by the BBC, and funded by the licence. As such, no commercial concern is allowed to own them. The UKTV channels are partially owned by Flextech and BBC Worldwide (a commercial company that is legally seperate from the BBC, but owns it's commercial interests).

The BBC channels are not (and can not be) owned by BBC Worldwide.

[tvout]

Originally Posted by info4u

Which centre does she work for? (I worked for the Midlands centre in Dudley)

Same, the one by the Waterfront :o) I must admit, I have been very tempted to go for a job there as it's only about 2 miles up the road from me! It would be about a 5k pay cut for me though but the bonuses etc. might help...not to mention getting top level Telewest package for £10 a month (I pay over £60 a month at the moment)...
I did call and get a special offer once because I really felt my broadband seemed slow compared to friends with ADSL... I did even run checks with Blueyonder support who did tell me that it was slower than it should be!

On another plus side for Telewest, where my gf's family have sky tv and broadband, if they have issues they have to call an 0870 number for help and get stuck on hold for ages...nice little revenue trick...10p min or similar...

Compared to calling 150 or 151 for free, even the 0845 one...
(I personally really hate 0870 numbers and go with the 'say no to 0870' website and always go for normal landline numbers)

---------- Post added at 23:31 ---------- Previous post was at 23:24 ----------

Sorry, not sure if this has been covered elsewhere on the forum but what channels might sky and virgin media end up with if they really had a major fall out? If Sky took all their channels off and Virgin did the same, where would their loyalties lie with their other contracts etc.

I'm guessing Sky would have:
Sky One
Sky Two
Sky Three
Sky Travel

Virginmedia would have:
Bravo
Living TV
HBO

They would both have:
UKTV channels
ITV
Channel 4 & 5
BBC Channels
The advertising/shopping channels

What would happen with the Sky premium channels? Do you think Telewest might always have them and meet the demands of costs from Sky as customers pay premium rates anyway and tend to accept price rises with premium channels more than the general packages I would have thought...

[Downloads]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

that's a nice bit of spin but NTL paid to buy Virgin Mobile rather than Virgin Mobile injecting money into the company.

But it's not spin is it. NTL might not have made any money, but Virgin Mobile was always very profitable. Haven't seen the figures for a while but they made something like 600mil last financial year. Thats 600mil more to spend on services than they had prior to to taking them over.

I believe thats what he's saying.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Bill C

Gets a massive from me.

And me!

Im sick of people just threatening to leave and EXPECTING to get their services for next to nothing.

Im sick of subsidising these people when I pay full price for 10Meg BB and Family Pack.

[NTLVictim]

Don't forget BT coming up on the rails...all in all, the more viable competitors there are, all the better for the end user. I can see Broadband prices dropping.

---------- Post added at 09:16 ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 ----------

"Im sick of subsidising these people when I pay full price for 10Meg BB and Family Pack"

So convert to Sky or negotiate?

[johncarlin]

I feel that virgin media should pull from using the sky network channels and this would be a big finacial blow for murdoch as we pay a very high revenue to broadcast the channels. I am sure that Branson would benefit eith putting a bid in for football rights and that of a set of movie channels

[Nikesh]

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

"Im sick of subsidising these people when I pay full price for 10Meg BB and Family Pack"

So convert to Sky or negotiate?

Ermm... I think he was trying to say he's happy with paying full price for the services as long as other people do too. He doesn't want to negotiate, he's happy that Virgin Media have started to let customers go if they're not happy paying the full price.

Originally Posted by johncarlin

I feel that virgin media should pull from using the sky network channels and this would be a big finacial blow for murdoch as we pay a very high revenue to broadcast the channels. I am sure that Branson would benefit eith putting a bid in for football rights and that of a set of movie channels

to the forum! I totally agree with you, I would love to see Murdoch's face when Virgin Media tell them they don't want Sky channels anymore...

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Bill C

Gets a massive from me.

And Sky presumably!

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I personally would rather they spent money on improving services (in the hope that people will stay) rather than bribing people (in the hope they stay)

Common sense, every word. Which is why it will never happen!

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by tvout

Apparently...(this is what someone at work has told me whose gf works for Telewest) they have been handed little booklets now which instructs them on how to respond when people call threatening to leave Virginmedia for Sky.

Whereas before the retention bods would try and get you to stay, now they've been told to just say 'ok, go then' as Virgin is so confident that it will get so many of Sky's customers through it's benefits of being part of a big company (trains/flights/music etc.) it's not bothered about people leaving???

Anyone know any more or if this is true now?

This story is absolute rubbish. Can you imagine any company advocating the use of the phrase, "OK, go then", to a paying customer that's unhappy with their services? It's a brilliantly stupid fabrication by 'someone at work'.

I work for VM in Customer Retention and I can confirm this is not the case. Neither is it the case that customers will have money thrown at them to stay.

[etccarmageddon]

and I just spoke to retentions this morning and they told me of one offer which is £8 off the top tier for 12 months. the attitude has never been 'ok, go'.

[lostandconfused]

i dont think their attutude is ok, go then. but they do have set offers that they can offer. if they are not good enough for the customer then they will have to go elsewhere.

although, TBH ive seen the packages they offer, even the bundled ones that are advertised on the website, and i think they are good value for money

[info4u]

Originally Posted by Blackie

This story is absolute rubbish. Can you imagine any company advocating the use of the phrase, "OK, go then", to a paying customer that's unhappy with their services? It's a brilliantly stupid fabrication by 'someone at work'.

I work for VM in Customer Retention and I can confirm this is not the case. Neither is it the case that customers will have money thrown at them to stay.

Not necesarely;

They can log a complaint to capture the customers dissatisfaction (Complaint) and then work on it to improve the services based on the volumes of simular complaints but they can still say ok then sorry we cant help bye bye.

This way they would be working on something and listning to the customer, but it is a "As Is" basis, Take it or leave it

[etccarmageddon]

Originally Posted by Downloads

But it's not spin is it. NTL might not have made any money, but Virgin Mobile was always very profitable. Haven't seen the figures for a while but they made something like 600mil last financial year. Thats 600mil more to spend on services than they had prior to to taking them over.

I believe thats what he's saying.

Virgin mobile profits were about £50million per year.

---------- Post added at 15:40 ---------- Previous post was at 15:39 ----------

Originally Posted by info4u

Not necesarely;

They can log a complaint to capture the customers dissatisfaction (Complaint) and then work on it to improve the services based on the volumes of simular complaints but they can still say ok then sorry we cant help bye bye.

This way they would be working on something and listning to the customer, but it is a "As Is" basis, Take it or leave it

that's not the way a business operates. it's very expensive to find new customers so a lot cheaper to retain an existing customer by offering them a discount. sky do it. so do mobile phone companies.

[info4u]

Yeah its good place, nice friendly people there, however I left to work for an insurance firm now

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

i dont think their attutude is ok, go then. but they do have set offers that they can offer. if they are not good enough for the customer then they will have to go elsewhere.

although, TBH ive seen the packages they offer, even the bundled ones that are advertised on the website, and i think they are good value for money

That's the idea - if we can be competitive in our pricing then there's absolutely no need to throw credits at people to stay with us. There will be occasions where a credit is justified, loss of service for example, but in the main we will hope to compete on an even footing with our competitors without applying further credit to customer accounts and hoping that will retain their custom.