What excatly are the charges if you dont cancel an engineer

weedheid · 07-05-2008, 16:42

OK, so had engineer booked 12-4 today, 3pm broadband starts working again, I phone CS and cancel, he comes out anyway, girlfriends says it's ok, he doesn't come in and leaves. 10 mins later it goes down. 1 call to India later engineer rebooked for 12-4 tomorrow. Surely it would be easier to just let the engineer in and check stuff anyway, rather than the whole threatening "if you don't call us and our engineer comes out and finds it working we'll bill you." attitude that VM seem to have adopted.

You almost feel like a criminal phoning in when the broadband send / receive lights are flashing and wont connect. So what exactly is this "charge" they threaten me with every time I phone.

piggy · 07-05-2008, 16:55

the charge for missed/wasted calls is £10

NTLVictim · 07-05-2008, 17:29

How about if THEY don't turn up?

piggy · 07-05-2008, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

How about if THEY don't turn up?

i dont know about that do you?

whydoIneedatech · 07-05-2008, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by piggy

i dont know about that do you?

Its £10 if you are not in £25 if no fault found and a call to Customer Relations/Retentions if the Tech does not turn up.

moaningmags · 08-05-2008, 11:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

How about if THEY don't turn up?

It works both ways, a tech no show is a £10 credit to your account.

This is how is was under Telewest and I've not been told to stop.

aseriouscat · 08-05-2008, 14:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by moaningmags

It works both ways, a tech no show is a £10 credit to your account.

This is how is was under Telewest and I've not been told to stop.

thats just them being nice, they dont need to do that.

whydoIneedatech · 08-05-2008, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by aseriouscat

thats just them being nice, they dont need to do that.

Mags is quite right about the £10 as it is classed as a courtesy credit and we do need to do it.

**David F** · 08-05-2008, 17:45

If tech support finds a problem with the line and send a tech out then they can swing off a short line if they wish to charge me if a tech comes out and nothing is found to be wrong.

whydoIneedatech · 08-05-2008, 17:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

If tech support finds a problem with the line and send a tech out then they can swing off a short line if they wish to charge me if a tech comes out and nothing is found to be wrong.

You will find it is only very rare cases that get charged like people who will not accept that the is no problem with their service and insist that they get a Tech, so a Tech would be booked with the rider that if the Tech finds no fault then they will be charged £25 for the Wasted Tech visit.

This does actually happen but is rare.

djmagnifique · 08-05-2008, 20:36

I had a tech visit a few weeks ago due to me not being able to connect to the net at all, done all the usual tests with the support people and they couldn't find a fault either so a tech was booked, turned out the network card had died. I don't have a laptop or spare network card to test this so when the engineer turned up he done the usual line checks then connected his laptop to my modem and everything worked.

There was no fault found and I was never charged for the visit.

whydoIneedatech · 08-05-2008, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmagnifique

I had a tech visit a few weeks ago due to me not being able to connect to the net at all, done all the usual tests with the support people and they couldn't find a fault either so a tech was booked, turned out the network card had died. I don't have a laptop or spare network card to test this so when the engineer turned up he done the usual line checks then connected his laptop to my modem and everything worked.

There was no fault found and I was never charged for the visit.

In cases like yours it is up to the discretion of the engineer, if for instance you were very abrasive or swore then he could have reported no fault found and you could have been charged.

Nilrem · 09-05-2008, 02:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by whydoIneedatech

In cases like yours it is up to the discretion of the engineer, if for instance you were very abrasive or swore then he could have reported no fault found and you could have been charged.

One of the reasons it's generally a good idea to be polite with any companies tech support/customer service reps - being polite doesn't cost anything and can work in your favour (although at the moment i'm finding my patience with one online retailer sorely testing this).

sniper007 · 09-05-2008, 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmagnifique

I had a tech visit a few weeks ago due to me not being able to connect to the net at all, done all the usual tests with the support people and they couldn't find a fault either so a tech was booked, turned out the network card had died. I don't have a laptop or spare network card to test this so when the engineer turned up he done the usual line checks then connected his laptop to my modem and everything worked.

There was no fault found and I was never charged for the visit.

For me, thats a prime example of when someone SHOULD be charged. Clearly a problem with your equipment outside of Virgin Media's control and a wasted visit from the tech. I'm not having a go at you, I'm just saying I would expect to be charged for that.