VM to shut 4 call centres

Taf · 03-05-2018, 14:26

The telecommunications firm plans to reduce its number of UK customer service bases from eight to four, centralising operations in Manchester.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-s...wales-43987314

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It'll be a big blow for employment in Swansea.

A total of 772 jobs will go in Llansamlet, 552 staff positions and 220 sub contractors.

Virgin Media's chief executive Tom Mockridge said the company planned to "completely exit" the site in 2019.

djfunkdup · 03-05-2018, 15:46

Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...3#post35945713

General Maximus · 03-05-2018, 16:58

For article from Sky News, excerpts below:

Quote:

The telecoms company, which currently operates from more than 100 locations, said its eight customer service centres would be reduced to four.
The biggest loss would be a major call centre in Swansea, where 800 people currently work, though most roles would transfer, the company said.
The plans would see sites in Wythenshawe, Sheffield, Birmingham and Stockton become the focus for its future customer operations.
"As part of this programme we intend to create four regional customer operations hubs while also increasing the flexibility of our customer services resources."We have also proposed the closure of a small number of our offices over the next two years, including our call centre in Swansea and our current site in Nottingham."

Mr K · 03-05-2018, 17:02

Barstewards. Terrible news for those affected and bad news for customer service.

denphone · 03-05-2018, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr K

Barstewards. Terrible news for those affected and bad news for customer service.

Indeed sad news for those affected Mr K.

.

RichardCoulter · 03-05-2018, 17:30

So we'll have even less chance of getting through to a UK call centre.

gus0898uk · 03-05-2018, 18:40

Exactly.

Commiserations to any VM staff losing their jobs.

I hate speaking to staff whose first language is not English (Welsh and Scottish is OK)

Kushan · 03-05-2018, 18:46

I have a couple of friends this direct affects, sad times

punkrock101 · 03-05-2018, 19:03

They should be doing what BT are doing right now and bringing the call centres back to the UK not closing them.. the quality of the outsourced call centre are terrible you can’t hear any one as it’s so noisy in the background and I find they struggle with my Irish accent causing frustrations for both of us.

OLD BOY · 03-05-2018, 19:11

I agree. There are so many complaints about Indian call centres, you would have thought they would be the first to go.

denphone · 03-05-2018, 19:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I agree. There are so many complaints about Indian call centres, you would have thought they would be the first to go.

They are there because its cheaper for Virgin..

03-05-2018, 19:25

Higher bills and lower service sounds like typical virgin media to me we have had problems with our internet dropping out the superhub error page is very long the first engineer they sent said the signal was weak so he screwed an adaptor onto the main cable. Didn't work so another engineer came out and said the signal was now too strong and unscrewed the adaptor again problem not solved and customer service when i got through to them said that as two engineers had been sent and each reported the issue resolved we would have to give it six months.

RichardCoulter · 03-05-2018, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

They are there because its cheaper for Virgin..

But is it? I think that Virgin should look at the bigger picture ie how many customers this practice of outsourcing abroad costs in terms of customers who leave or don't sign up in the first place? How many pointless engineer call outs do they organise? etc.

There is also the human cost of people in the UK losing their jobs and the financial cost of losing income tax, employee NI contribution and employer NI contribution receipts.

If these staff cannot get work they will spend less in their local economy and may need to claim benefits. If they do manage to find alternative employment, these job losses still contribute to unemployment as these jobs are taken out of the pool available for the unemployed.

Malone is still happy to take British subscriptions though, it's pure greed.

OLD BOY · 03-05-2018, 19:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

They are there because its cheaper for Virgin..

I know. Cheap as chips.

The problem is, the customers don't like them, and this will inevitably lead to a proportion of them jumping ship.

Given that VM is allowed to use the Virgin name only if they maintain good levels of customer service, I am surprised that they continue to use overseas call centres.

RichardCoulter · 03-05-2018, 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by punkrock101

They should be doing what BT are doing right now and bringing the call centres back to the UK not closing them.. the quality of the outsourced call centre are terrible you can’t hear any one as it’s so noisy in the background and I find they struggle with my Irish accent causing frustrations for both of us.

Asda have recently done the same.

---------- Post added at 19:41 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I know. Cheap as chips.

The problem is, the customers don't like them, and this will inevitably lead to a proportion of them jumping ship.

Given that VM is allowed to use the Virgin name only if they maintain good levels of customer service, I am surprised that they continue to use overseas call centres.

Exactly, I don't understand it either.

Some of the ridiculous answers they give to questions are worthy of a satirical comedy series. A few examples:

After being put through to the wrong department by another department, I was repeatedly told that the department that I had just been speaking to closed hours ago!

I asked about purchasing mobile minutes for my landline and was immediately put through to Virgin Mobile!

I asked for my account number and was told that they "could certainly help with that" and was then asked for my account number!

Has anyone else come across similar nonsense? This news makes me feel sad for the employees who will lose their jobs and for VM customers alike. I could see it coming though, they saw if they could get away with it, found that they could and are now extending the practice. They are now even sending out deadlock letters, I received one from them and a manager at a UK call centre agreed that it looked like a child had written it.

Eventually I predict that all frontline VM jobs will be outsourced abroad.