And yesterday's other 'delight' in customer issues....
After much fobbing off and mis-information, Virgin Media, my ISP finally admitted that my lack of connection when I awoke yesterday was a fault at their end. This admission alone had not been an easy thing to achieve and in fact I only discovered it when having visited my local computer shop in an effort to buy the part I was told I needed the proprietor said that he had had over twenty customers during the morning all with the same problem and all with Virgin as their ISP!
Of course, Virgin's half-witted helpline staff didn't bother to inform me of the problem at any point in the proceedings and despite having promised on five occasions to call me back, not one call back did I receive. The last time I spoke to them a guy who appeared to have less technical knowledge than even I do told me it was my modem at fault and by the afternoon the helpline had 'conveniently' switched to a recorded message telling me that the fault would be rectified by 15.00 hours. In fact it wasn't up and running until gone 18.00 hrs but that I can accept, we all know that fixing this stuff is a pain, what I can't accept is Virgin's inability to take responsibility for the problem at the front end and to just be honest with the customer. It's not that hard is it to just adhere to a few basic principles of customer service??
Whilst I was wasting my money on their expensive phone lines I decided to also tackle the long standing 'phone line' issue we have. When Virgin originally installed our cable facility 18 months ago, it was to include TV, broadband and a phone line but they had problems installing the phone. They promised to return and complete the job....but despite numerous calls and much beating of one's head against a brick wall they never did. Yup....for 18 months we have been paying line rental for a phone line that doesn't work!!!! My patience already worn thin finally snapped and I made my feelings on the subject of the whole debacle of an operation abundantly clear....the result, in theory at least someone will be here Tuesday to at last connect our land line and the process has been set in motion to recoup the line rental over the time it hasn't been operational. However, if their thus far apparent 'form' and speed of service continue, by the time we actually receive a refund it will probably be worth pennies at current inflation rates!
No wonder Mr Branson is so well off! He (and those like him) have us by the proverbial balls, we can't migrate our custom elsewhere because they make it so damn difficult to do so and even if we have the fortitude to fight that fight it seems that none of the big providers are much better. In a corporate world where the benchmark is so low and where we have no real choices there is little to motivate these companies to behave with any real integrity!
Friday, 15 August 2008
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5 Comments:
What with this and the dental problems you're having, I'm glad you DON'T have any extra pills lying around the house ! What a shitty time you're having for sure.
I'm with VM too and have to say since I came back to the UK in March, I've only had to ring them a few times to get my services back up and running and found a marked upturn in service. They even made me a 'good long term customer' and knocked £21 off my bill !!
But haven't they made ALL their help desks and customer service desks free to ring now ? Maybe thats only if you have a land line which you also don't seem to have.
My heart goes out to you as I couldn't imagine life with the net.
Opps......WITHOUT the net.
My bad.
SIlverback: The dental thing is long standing. When I lived in Scotland I just never could find a dentist who would take new patients, it was even worse there than in England. In London I eventually found one but having moved again I am back to square one....no dentists taking new patients here either, or at least the only one myself and my doc could find has this 'odd' policy of acceptance.
As for Virgin, no, I don't have a landline because in 18 months they haven't managed to send anyone back to fix it, derspite all my efforts... and their 'free' help lines aren't anything like free from a mobile...and of course that's all I have! In fact, the 'free or cheap' prefixes are more expensive from a mobile than an ordianary call...and never included in the mobile operators 'included minutes' deals.
my mother's (yes the 85 year old) ISP is Virgin and she is having problems that it won't stay on line when the pc goes into sleep mode. Something to do with not enough broadband space for her location in teh NE of Scotland. But aggravating. She also has Tiscali for her laptop which seem much better!
belleek
I don't have any trouble with Virgin, because we dont' use them. However, T-Mobile have royally POed me this year. I bought a tri-band phone especially so I could use it abroad and never have been able to. Each time they promise faithfully that it will work, and I go to the US or Canada and no service. They say to ring them if that happens, but I can't ring them because even their '150' helpline doesn't work!!
The people on the customer service line are always very apologetic and do their best to help, but by the time I talk to them it's too late. They tell me they really need to talk to me while I'm abroad so they can see that the problem is.
Can anyone see anything wrong with this picture?
AARGGHH!!
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