Help centres

[Dangermouse]

Having had to make a few calls to a helpline regarding my broadband I am not happy at this moment, why do we get put on hold for ten or twenty mins only to be put through to an agency who know nothing, in another country and the operators can only speak very basic english.
I am not bothered about it being in another country after all they have to work too, what does bother me is I pay for a service and the people supposed to help cant due to a language barrier.
Virgin are great but the after service is rubbish, for weeks they keep saying an engineer is on hos way to fix my modem but its NOT my modem its my service keeps slowing to 4mb or less and not my paid for 20mb service.

I know the service will slow at peak times but not to 64kb for a couple of days then up to 512kb for a couple more..........we have never had 20mb broadband yet we pay for it so what can we say to Virgin ?

 

[foggy4ever]

Strange, I started with Telewest many years ago and of course its now Virgin. I havent had many problems with broadband or cable service but when I have(modem went kaput) I spoke to a service centre(in this country) and had an engineer out within 5 days. Went to the V+ box last year and had a few problems but they were sorted out quickly. It might help that the main office for their engineers is in my town.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Having had to make a few calls to a helpline regarding my broadband I am not happy at this moment, why do we get put on hold for ten or twenty mins only to be put through to an agency who know nothing, in another country and the operators can only speak very basic english.

Because you're paying for the call and it's cheaper to employ someone in India and even better if they know sod-all about the product, because then what should have been a 5 minute call becomes a 30-minute one - and the company get a cut of the call cost

 

[Auzelia]

Virgin helpline calls are free.
But I must admit im a terrible person who hangs up when I get put through to someone who I dont understand , much less who doesnt understand me.

Its not fair on either party.

Though I do know that call centres give their work to other countries, as I used to work in a call centre for a german company speaking german all day long to clients who called us.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Though I do know that call centres give their work to other countries, as I used to work in a call centre for a german company speaking german all day long to clients who called us.

Did you have to pretend to be called Helga or Ingrid or something equally German, the way the Indian call centre workers are all introduce themselves as Sebastian or Pauline?

 

[Auzelia]

lol no..

in germany you answer the phone with your last name so I had to do..

Guten (morgen/tag/abend), Sie sprechen mit Frau ......... von .......... Wie kann ich helfen?

 

[newyorkaddict]

4mb or less and not my paid for 20mb service.
I know the service will slow at peak times but not to 64kb for a couple of days then up to 512kb for a couple more..........we have never had 20mb broadband yet we pay for it so what can we say to Virgin ?

Don't forget, they word the adverts and contracts very carefully by saying you will get "UPTO 20mb", this means it can range from 56k right upto 20mb.

 

[AndrewA123]

when living at my parents we had an issue where by our broadband speed dropped to terrible levels (can't remember what now) and frequently used to drop its connection, this was with telewest. We called their services dept numerous times and they'd try various methods and it would be better for a day or two. Then we'd be back to the same again.

Eventually they sent out an engineer. he checked the signal at the exchange and reported back that our service had been dropped "to accomodate new customers in our street" as a result we were not getting sufficient signal strength. He then reported that the issue was that we had 2 set top boxes and a modem (all supplied by and payments made monthly to them), we should only have a max of 2 items due to the lower strength signal, or we could keep all 3 and go into the loft and plug the coax for either the second box or the modem in depending upon which we wanted to use at that time.

Needless to say, they were told to take the equipment away with them and we went to Sky.

 

[whitewash]

But I must admit im a terrible person who hangs up when I get put through to someone who I dont understand , much less who doesnt understand me.

Its not fair on either party.

you shouldn't feel bad about it, if you cant understand the person on the phone they cant help you so what's the point in speaking to them, i have asked to speak to someone else a few times, if they refuse then i call back later.

i have my banking with HSBC who i feel are terrible for call centres. i phoned up to talk about a charge i had relieved on my bill once(and couldn't fathom out why i had been charged it). i got through to someone with poor English who after me explaining the problem told me that i 'needed to organise my finances' ffs there's a reason im on the phone to HSBC and its not to ask about toothpaste, she was so rude on the phone it was untrue.... i was so aghast at her attitude i asked to speak to her shift manager, she refused so i took her name, the time of the call and phoned back later and reported her, the person i spoke to couldn't believe what she had said and reported her. i hope to **** that she got sacked as no one should have to listen to her rants on the phone!

 

[Simmotino]

Slightly OT, but along similar lines of call centres, I had someone claiming to be from BT call me today to speak to me about the billing (they've not set up the direct debit they were supposed to) but, as I would not give him my address details that he already had on his screen, he wouldn't discuss the bill with me!

Errrr, you called me?!