I am a Virgin customer, broadband and phone, and wanted to ask about adding TV. I had to make several calls over nearly an hour and each time, despite requesting not to be put to an India call centre, I was put to a India call centre.
I also discovered that if you press the right options indicating you are a NEW customer you get through to a UK rep.
Each time I called as an existing customer it was an India call centre.
Virgin say they care about our data protection and security, but there is no comeback for us customers, if something goes wrong in India. None. We cannot take any action if something goes wrong there. And there are reports of data protection issues there.
My issues with using the India call centre are data protection and communication. In my first call, for instance, I was automatically put through to the India call centre and they started by calling me by the wrong name. Immediately.
Customers should be given the option to deal with a UK rep, as of right. It doesn't mean everything is going to be hunky dory, of course. But for me there is less concern about data protection issues and communications are infinitely better.
But that option is not provided, as my experience has shown.
In my last call, I chose options to ensure it appeared I was a new customer, and then when they realised I wasn't a new customer, were set to transfer. I explained I did not want an Indian call centre, and explained my concerns about security and indeed communications (from past experience). There appeared to be understanding of what I was talking about from the UK rep, then I was transferred to the India call centre.
Three times I got the India call centre, and each time the rep would not transfer me back to the UK, and kept asking me why I wanted to be transferred.
On the last occasion, when I was sure the UK rep had transferred me to a UK rep, as I had requested, I discovered after a matter of minutes it was the India call centre again. Not before I had been asked to reset my password.
I was furious, because I do not want a password reset on my account carried out abroad.
I have since written to the chief exec's office and not surprisingly (from past experience) there was no swift call back and now they are calling me at times that I am either not here or in bed (I do shift work).
Customer care is not something many firms really care about. India will be cheap for Virgin. So I don't kid myself when Virgin say they care about our security. They don't. They care about cutting costs far more.
In the end it is Virgin that lose, because all they do is p.. people like me off.
I have intimated to the chief exec's office about the situation and how I am presently reviewing my options about whether I even want their broadband service any more.
I have suggested emailing me the answers I require.
I do not expect any success.
Virgin really do need to get their act in order. It is a disgraceful situation.
i know this is an old tread and the person above is going to get abuse for bringing it back to life, but i agree with what has been said.
recently i got a new mobile and after looking on the web found that i could swap my old sim for a micro for FREE but was India going to give it for free NOT A CHANCE!
on each call i made i said the same thing "got virgin PAYG my new phone takes micro sim, i`ve seen on the virgin site i can get a FREE sim swap, can you arrange that"
first call... sure i can arange that for you BUT the sim will cost £5 and £2.99 next day or free delivery if you can wait ,after 10 min of web site says V my computer says.. i hung up
2nd call yes you can have a free sim, but the P&P will cost £2.99 you can`t have a free sim and free P&P so hung up
went onto the virgin site posted a question got the reply yes you CAN have a fee swap just call...
so call #3 yes you can have a free sim AND next day, but you will need a new number
#4 Scottish woman speaks HORAY then it rings again back to india, then told i couldnt have a free sim as i didn`t buy my phone from them!!
on the 5th call i got trough to the uk, and got my new sim for free, so why did india want my credit card details so much??
Good at cramming as many ppl as possible into one room as possible that seem more bothered about what the weather is like outside my window then my fault with the internet.
I always picture phone jacker when thinking of indian call centres.
"good afternoon im calling from wurgen media internet service providings"
I am a Virgin customer, broadband and phone, and wanted to ask about adding TV. I had to make several calls over nearly an hour and each time, despite requesting not to be put to an India call centre, I was put to a India call centre.
I also discovered that if you press the right options indicating you are a NEW customer you get through to a UK rep.
Each time I called as an existing customer it was an India call centre.
Virgin say they care about our data protection and security, but there is no comeback for us customers, if something goes wrong in India. None. We cannot take any action if something goes wrong there. And there are reports of data protection issues there.
My issues with using the India call centre are data protection and communication. In my first call, for instance, I was automatically put through to the India call centre and they started by calling me by the wrong name. Immediately.
Customers should be given the option to deal with a UK rep, as of right. It doesn't mean everything is going to be hunky dory, of course. But for me there is less concern about data protection issues and communications are infinitely better.
But that option is not provided, as my experience has shown.
In my last call, I chose options to ensure it appeared I was a new customer, and then when they realised I wasn't a new customer, were set to transfer. I explained I did not want an Indian call centre, and explained my concerns about security and indeed communications (from past experience). There appeared to be understanding of what I was talking about from the UK rep, then I was transferred to the India call centre.
Three times I got the India call centre, and each time the rep would not transfer me back to the UK, and kept asking me why I wanted to be transferred.
On the last occasion, when I was sure the UK rep had transferred me to a UK rep, as I had requested, I discovered after a matter of minutes it was the India call centre again. Not before I had been asked to reset my password.
I was furious, because I do not want a password reset on my account carried out abroad.
I have since written to the chief exec's office and not surprisingly (from past experience) there was no swift call back and now they are calling me at times that I am either not here or in bed (I do shift work).
Customer care is not something many firms really care about. India will be cheap for Virgin. So I don't kid myself when Virgin say they care about our security. They don't. They care about cutting costs far more.
In the end it is Virgin that lose, because all they do is p.. people like me off.
I have intimated to the chief exec's office about the situation and how I am presently reviewing my options about whether I even want their broadband service any more.
I have suggested emailing me the answers I require.
I do not expect any success.
Virgin really do need to get their act in order. It is a disgraceful situation.
When i've had to contact CEO office i simply put in my email to them the best times to call me and they called at the time i requested.
I do agree with you about the overseas call centres they are terrible although tbf i have had one very good experience with the Indian call centre but most are terrible with communication problems and they don't listen. They also talk over you i found.
Apart from them working from a script (which I am sure ALL call centres do), I dont really have any problem.
Once of twice out of frustration I have hung up and redialled, but in the main, I am understood and they obviously understand me - I so speak slowly though to them!
I have always found the Virgin "Overseas Staff" very friendly, courteous and profficient at what they do. But I also have a hard time understanding what they are saying and have to ask for them to repeat.
Now compound that with local and regional accents: scouser, geordie, cockney, Welsh, Scottish, Irish!?
It IS frustrating when we ring up, but probably just as stressful for the India staff!
Nothing to do with VM; but just telling it as I have found it.
Have to say that my overall experience of VM's service is better than Orange and Bangalore Telecom (BT). Most of the Indian agents have tried to help, and most of the time got it sorted OK. I do understand what they are saying better than a Glaswegian call centre. For me, the best service I have had from VM was their call centre in Wales.
You probably never dealt with the call centers in Edinburgh or Sheffield, Edinburgh was a top performing centre and thrown to the wolves.
Liverpool fault centre was basically sh*t upon from a great height on more than one occasion. The off-shore centres are diabolical, they haven't improved.
Virgin outsoured pretty much everything and slowly ripped the arse out of what everyone had worked so hard to fix. Lets be honest, they didn't have the best reputation more so NTL.
Yet Telewest was torn too shreds and the poorer NTL side retained and the rest outsourced.
I had to deal with the Indian Call Centre this week. The person that I spoke to was very polite but the script she was using did not account for a mac book air not having an ethernet port. I was told that I wasn't looking in the right place and that I should put a cable into my super hub and connect it to my computer. After 45 minutes of running checks on the router on the line she gave up and abruptly I was put through to Edinburgh (I assume because he had a scots accent). No notes had been made on the account, and after 5 minutes, an engineer was booked.
I would understand if I were calling Virgin Media in the late evening but this was 4pm on a Tuesday. I don't know why it took so long to do the basic checks to determine a fault with their equipment. The Indian call centre whilst on paper looks good but is awful. The previous dealing with them last year was just as bad, which resulted in a serious data protection breach.
Comments
I also discovered that if you press the right options indicating you are a NEW customer you get through to a UK rep.
Each time I called as an existing customer it was an India call centre.
Virgin say they care about our data protection and security, but there is no comeback for us customers, if something goes wrong in India. None. We cannot take any action if something goes wrong there. And there are reports of data protection issues there.
My issues with using the India call centre are data protection and communication. In my first call, for instance, I was automatically put through to the India call centre and they started by calling me by the wrong name. Immediately.
Customers should be given the option to deal with a UK rep, as of right. It doesn't mean everything is going to be hunky dory, of course. But for me there is less concern about data protection issues and communications are infinitely better.
But that option is not provided, as my experience has shown.
In my last call, I chose options to ensure it appeared I was a new customer, and then when they realised I wasn't a new customer, were set to transfer. I explained I did not want an Indian call centre, and explained my concerns about security and indeed communications (from past experience). There appeared to be understanding of what I was talking about from the UK rep, then I was transferred to the India call centre.
Three times I got the India call centre, and each time the rep would not transfer me back to the UK, and kept asking me why I wanted to be transferred.
On the last occasion, when I was sure the UK rep had transferred me to a UK rep, as I had requested, I discovered after a matter of minutes it was the India call centre again. Not before I had been asked to reset my password.
I was furious, because I do not want a password reset on my account carried out abroad.
I have since written to the chief exec's office and not surprisingly (from past experience) there was no swift call back and now they are calling me at times that I am either not here or in bed (I do shift work).
Customer care is not something many firms really care about. India will be cheap for Virgin. So I don't kid myself when Virgin say they care about our security. They don't. They care about cutting costs far more.
In the end it is Virgin that lose, because all they do is p.. people like me off.
I have intimated to the chief exec's office about the situation and how I am presently reviewing my options about whether I even want their broadband service any more.
I have suggested emailing me the answers I require.
I do not expect any success.
Virgin really do need to get their act in order. It is a disgraceful situation.
recently i got a new mobile and after looking on the web found that i could swap my old sim for a micro for FREE but was India going to give it for free NOT A CHANCE!
on each call i made i said the same thing "got virgin PAYG my new phone takes micro sim, i`ve seen on the virgin site i can get a FREE sim swap, can you arrange that"
first call... sure i can arange that for you BUT the sim will cost £5 and £2.99 next day or free delivery if you can wait ,after 10 min of web site says V my computer says.. i hung up
2nd call yes you can have a free sim, but the P&P will cost £2.99 you can`t have a free sim and free P&P so hung up
went onto the virgin site posted a question got the reply yes you CAN have a fee swap just call...
so call #3 yes you can have a free sim AND next day, but you will need a new number
#4 Scottish woman speaks HORAY then it rings again back to india, then told i couldnt have a free sim as i didn`t buy my phone from them!!
on the 5th call i got trough to the uk, and got my new sim for free, so why did india want my credit card details so much??
Good at cramming as many ppl as possible into one room as possible that seem more bothered about what the weather is like outside my window then my fault with the internet.
I always picture phone jacker when thinking of indian call centres.
"good afternoon im calling from wurgen media internet service providings"
When i've had to contact CEO office i simply put in my email to them the best times to call me and they called at the time i requested.
I do agree with you about the overseas call centres they are terrible although tbf i have had one very good experience with the Indian call centre but most are terrible with communication problems and they don't listen. They also talk over you i found.
Once of twice out of frustration I have hung up and redialled, but in the main, I am understood and they obviously understand me - I so speak slowly though to them!
Now compound that with local and regional accents: scouser, geordie, cockney, Welsh, Scottish, Irish!?
It IS frustrating when we ring up, but probably just as stressful for the India staff!
Nothing to do with VM; but just telling it as I have found it.
Liverpool fault centre was basically sh*t upon from a great height on more than one occasion. The off-shore centres are diabolical, they haven't improved.
Virgin outsoured pretty much everything and slowly ripped the arse out of what everyone had worked so hard to fix. Lets be honest, they didn't have the best reputation more so NTL.
Yet Telewest was torn too shreds and the poorer NTL side retained and the rest outsourced.
I would understand if I were calling Virgin Media in the late evening but this was 4pm on a Tuesday. I don't know why it took so long to do the basic checks to determine a fault with their equipment. The Indian call centre whilst on paper looks good but is awful. The previous dealing with them last year was just as bad, which resulted in a serious data protection breach.