Virgin Medai / NTL / Telewest your gonna LOVE THIS
04 June 2007, 11:14 PM
#1
Virgin Medai / NTL / Telewest your gonna LOVE THIS
Broadband support line launches 1 JulyWhat's going on?
We're all about making our customers happy and doing the right thing by them. And to do this we currently offer a whole range of services they can tap into when the 'Ctrl, Alt, Delete' theory fails! And it's one of these services we want to tell you about today.
Telling it to you straight
On 1 July we're going to begin charging 25p per minute for a call made to our teams in the broadband Technical Support Centres. The change to this service will not affect any of the other ways our customers have of either getting in touch with us, or helping themselves, like:
Online support - a great way to learn and solves issues in your own time
Updated outage line - our customers know when there's a local issue and when we'll be able to fix it
150/151 option for all phone and TV users - customers can still get through to Customer Care or our fault teams for free when they have questions about our telephony and TV service
PC help - ever wanted to know to conect all your gadgets to your computer? This is the team to call
Why?
We're still offering a great 'at the end of the phone service' (unlike some of our competitors!), but being the largest home broadband provider in the country means that we get tens of thousands of calls from our customers every month looking for help.
50% or more of all our incoming broadband technical support calls are related to customer education and other issues not related to our service, sustaining these call volumes really isn't practical for us as a business as it places a huge amount of pressure on our support teams.
By introducing a small charge for contacting our Technical Support teams we believe it'll encourage more customers to use our online support tools, as opposed to ringing us straight away. This means we'll be able to help customers who really need it and help make sure that they can contact us and get the help they need first time, every time.
We're also continuing to align all of our policies across Virgin Media and this change will bring us in-line with the charges currently used in our Beyond Cable support centres.
Steve Stewart, managing director of customer care at Virgin Media, said: "We are changing the phone number for our broadband technical support service from 1 July, with calls costing 25p per minute.
"Over half the calls we receive are general enquiries about using the internet or another company's software, rather than the broadband service we supply. As the country's largest home broadband provider, we remain committed to offering technical support over the phone, but can't sustain such a service using the existing local rate number.
"We provide a free status line that customers can use to check for known issues, free email support and extensive information on our website, meaning a phone call is just one of several options for customers who are seeking advice."
We're all about making our customers happy and doing the right thing by them. And to do this we currently offer a whole range of services they can tap into when the 'Ctrl, Alt, Delete' theory fails! And it's one of these services we want to tell you about today.
Telling it to you straight
On 1 July we're going to begin charging 25p per minute for a call made to our teams in the broadband Technical Support Centres. The change to this service will not affect any of the other ways our customers have of either getting in touch with us, or helping themselves, like:
Online support - a great way to learn and solves issues in your own time
Updated outage line - our customers know when there's a local issue and when we'll be able to fix it
150/151 option for all phone and TV users - customers can still get through to Customer Care or our fault teams for free when they have questions about our telephony and TV service
PC help - ever wanted to know to conect all your gadgets to your computer? This is the team to call
Why?
We're still offering a great 'at the end of the phone service' (unlike some of our competitors!), but being the largest home broadband provider in the country means that we get tens of thousands of calls from our customers every month looking for help.
50% or more of all our incoming broadband technical support calls are related to customer education and other issues not related to our service, sustaining these call volumes really isn't practical for us as a business as it places a huge amount of pressure on our support teams.
By introducing a small charge for contacting our Technical Support teams we believe it'll encourage more customers to use our online support tools, as opposed to ringing us straight away. This means we'll be able to help customers who really need it and help make sure that they can contact us and get the help they need first time, every time.
We're also continuing to align all of our policies across Virgin Media and this change will bring us in-line with the charges currently used in our Beyond Cable support centres.
Steve Stewart, managing director of customer care at Virgin Media, said: "We are changing the phone number for our broadband technical support service from 1 July, with calls costing 25p per minute.
"Over half the calls we receive are general enquiries about using the internet or another company's software, rather than the broadband service we supply. As the country's largest home broadband provider, we remain committed to offering technical support over the phone, but can't sustain such a service using the existing local rate number.
"We provide a free status line that customers can use to check for known issues, free email support and extensive information on our website, meaning a phone call is just one of several options for customers who are seeking advice."
04 June 2007, 11:25 PM
#2
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Imagine the frustration [like I had with BT Broadband] when they had me on 'hold' for days, and then got me to change almost every component in my PC before admitting a month later that they hadnt 'flicked the switch' for 'broadband on' at the exchange.
Nice spin, but 'customer support' is a highly technical field that is at the core of this part of their business and shouldnt be confused with 'customer education' - esp when said customer knows better, but is still made to jump through hoops and dissasemble his house/PC!!
Wide berth methinks - like any 0870 type company...
D
Nice spin, but 'customer support' is a highly technical field that is at the core of this part of their business and shouldnt be confused with 'customer education' - esp when said customer knows better, but is still made to jump through hoops and dissasemble his house/PC!!
Wide berth methinks - like any 0870 type company...
D
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05 June 2007, 04:13 AM
#9
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I think you'll find (as banks have) that the law will require them to
Any company that charges for this type of service is required to pay any equivalent charges levied upon them
Last edited by CrisPDuk; 05 June 2007 at 12:58 PM. Reason: Spollung
05 June 2007, 07:13 AM
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Perhaps it’s because I'm tired and grumpy but I read your post #7 and think, 'tosser'. Oh bummer, I transposed 'there' for 'their' as I bashed out a post at 00:30 hours! 
Secondly, where at any point in my post do I have a go at you or Virgin Media’s coal face staff? I think you’ll find I’ve posted on the subject several times and been nothing but tolerant and supportive of Virgin despite the fact they have swooned in and screwed everyone around. I'll no doubt get my first infraction for this post but as I see it your post is nothing but provocative and unnecessary.
Secondly, where at any point in my post do I have a go at you or Virgin Media’s coal face staff? I think you’ll find I’ve posted on the subject several times and been nothing but tolerant and supportive of Virgin despite the fact they have swooned in and screwed everyone around. I'll no doubt get my first infraction for this post but as I see it your post is nothing but provocative and unnecessary.
05 June 2007, 08:36 AM
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It's a shame because telewest were very helpful when we were with them. Think we were paying around £50 for tv(movies inc), phone and broadband. Ok, now sky is offering a similar service for £35, but that will be just a basic tv package, phone line rental and the slowest broadband speed. Virgin is taking that company, sticking it down the toilet and stirring it around with the loo brush. No sky1......whats the point then? 
No sky1......whats the point then?
05 June 2007, 11:44 AM
#12
Perhaps it’s because I'm tired and grumpy but I read your post #7 and think, 'tosser'. Oh bummer, I transposed 'there' for 'their' as I bashed out a post at 00:30 hours! Secondly, where at any point in my post do I have a go at you or Virgin Media’s coal face staff? I think you’ll find I’ve posted on the subject several times and been nothing but tolerant and supportive of Virgin despite the fact they have swooned in and screwed everyone around. I'll no doubt get my first infraction for this post but as I see it your post is nothing but provocative and unnecessary.
Secondly, where at any point in my post do I have a go at you or Virgin Media’s coal face staff? I think you’ll find I’ve posted on the subject several times and been nothing but tolerant and supportive of Virgin despite the fact they have swooned in and screwed everyone around. I'll no doubt get my first infraction for this post but as I see it your post is nothing but provocative and unnecessary.I tend to just respond as I would face to face and the other forums I visit are very low in members compared to this one so people are used to me. I mean no offence and I wasn't trying to be a *****.
As for swooning in... I worked for telewest.. its the same people all the way up the company.
edit: cool face added to try to express the meaning of my post
05 June 2007, 01:06 PM
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08 June 2007, 10:06 AM
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Branson's group only owns 10.5% approx stake within Virgin Media Group. His influence is limited even though his group is the latest stake holder.
Recently there have been rumours flying around that Virgin Media might be brought out by a US consortium due to their suffering of the SKY fiasco.
On the technical support front. If invest is required to improve an under resourced service then unfortunately the easiest way to raise funds is by hitting the customers. I hope management have got there calculations & strategy spot on because 25p is a big blow to already potentially despondent customers.
For anyone asks, I’m not in favour of the 25p hike. They should of approached this differently.
Recently there have been rumours flying around that Virgin Media might be brought out by a US consortium due to their suffering of the SKY fiasco.
On the technical support front. If invest is required to improve an under resourced service then unfortunately the easiest way to raise funds is by hitting the customers. I hope management have got there calculations & strategy spot on because 25p is a big blow to already potentially despondent customers.
For anyone asks, I’m not in favour of the 25p hike. They should of approached this differently.
08 June 2007, 08:33 PM
#20
Branson's group only owns 10.5% approx stake within Virgin Media Group. His influence is limited even though his group is the latest stake holder.
Recently there have been rumours flying around that Virgin Media might be brought out by a US consortium due to their suffering of the SKY fiasco.
On the technical support front. If invest is required to improve an under resourced service then unfortunately the easiest way to raise funds is by hitting the customers. I hope management have got there calculations & strategy spot on because 25p is a big blow to already potentially despondent customers.
For anyone asks, I’m not in favour of the 25p hike. They should of approached this differently.
Recently there have been rumours flying around that Virgin Media might be brought out by a US consortium due to their suffering of the SKY fiasco.
On the technical support front. If invest is required to improve an under resourced service then unfortunately the easiest way to raise funds is by hitting the customers. I hope management have got there calculations & strategy spot on because 25p is a big blow to already potentially despondent customers.
For anyone asks, I’m not in favour of the 25p hike. They should of approached this differently.
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