BB technical support

[Harry56]

Are VM still ripping off its customers by charging them a premium rate telephone number for calling BB technical support?

Since 1st June this year, and its now 5th July.

For help with your TV or Phone and for Broadband Technical Support:

Call Product Support/Faults on 151 from your Virgin Media Phone. It's absolutely free.

Or call 0845 454 1111 from any other phone line.

Have you been away

[marky]

Or type virgin media into this
http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php
It will give you 0800 freephone numbers

[Harry56]

Wish I had :-)

Thanks for that. It's just that I vowed that if I ever had to call them on their premium rate number then I would leave them and go elsewhere for my BB. But seeing as I haven't had to call them because, in all fairness to VM, their service [here] is very stable and hasn't gone off (so far) I'll review my vow. I'm glad VM came to their senses and hopefully confined the idiot who came up with the "let's rip our customers off when they need technical support" idea to making the coffee.

[colin-bennett]

Originally Posted by Harry56

Wish I had :-)

Thanks for that. It's just that I vowed that if I ever had to call them on their premium rate number then I would leave them and go elsewhere for my BB. But seeing as I haven't had to call them because, in all fairness to VM, their service [here] is very stable and hasn't gone off (so far) I'll review my vow. I'm glad VM came to their senses and hopefully confined the idiot who came up with the "let's rip our customers off when they need technical support" idea to making the coffee.

I do hope they are making coffe,,,,In some one else's business

[r00t]

I really wish I could post the figures of unsupported issues that now come into the centre.

To give you an idea its as it was when VM were NTL/Telewest and free phone. You wait longer for your call to be answered because agents are trying to educate customers that norton, zone alarm, firefox, 3rd party routers are nothing to do with VM.

For one, I'd welcome back the premium rate number.

[Harry56]

At the prices that VM charge compared to other BB providers then they could easily employ more "technical" support people to educate customers.

[r00t]

Why should VM educate people, they have a wealth of knowledge right here. For VM issues, you know simple things like setting up OE to work with VM here.

The simple truth is Harry that Telewest/NTL have set expectations to the customer, " Got a computer? Call us and we'll hold your hand for free"

Now customers with genuine issues wait to have their issue addressed, while TSC agents battle to get rid of the pratt who won't accept that its not a VM issue and wants to speak to a manager.

[piggy]

Originally Posted by r00t

Why should VM educate people, they have a wealth of knowledge right here. For VM issues, you know simple things like setting up OE to work with VM here.

The simple truth is Harry that Telewest/NTL have set expectations to the customer, " Got a computer? Call us and we'll hold your hand for free"

Now customers with genuine issues wait to have their issue addressed, while TSC agents battle to get rid of the pratt who won't accept that its not a VM issue and wants to speak to a manager.

[Stuart C]

Originally Posted by r00t

I really wish I could post the figures of unsupported issues that now come into the centre.

To give you an idea its as it was when VM were NTL/Telewest and free phone. You wait longer for your call to be answered because agents are trying to educate customers that norton, zone alarm, firefox, 3rd party routers are nothing to do with VM.

I've heard that from a few tech support people (both in Virgin Media and outside). The problem is that a lot of people just phone the first phone number they can to get in touch with someone.

For instance, I work in a Uni. Taking phone calls isn't the main part of my job, but about 30% of the calls I take (at a conservative estimate) are for deparments within the Uni that I have no connection with.

A friend works for her local council (in the road safety department). She gets calls for everything from a block toilet in a council house to complaints about council tax..

Also, there are the people who phone up just for a chat (it happens more than you think).

I have to admit, I can see both sides. While I don't believe a customer should pay to report a fault in a service they already pay for, I can also see that unnecessary calls to the helpline wastes company resources, and slows down the service for legitimate queries.

Originally Posted by r00t

Why should VM educate people, they have a wealth of knowledge right here. For VM issues, you know simple things like setting up OE to work with VM here.

The simple truth is Harry that Telewest/NTL have set expectations to the customer, " Got a computer? Call us and we'll hold your hand for free"

Now customers with genuine issues wait to have their issue addressed, while TSC agents battle to get rid of the pratt who won't accept that its not a VM issue and wants to speak to a manager.

The same pratts that r00t is talking about get very upset when we try to give them Belkins support number and ask why can't we deal with it instead, if it was 25p a minute the pratt would not call.

[marky]

People are let loose with a pc and have no idea how things work, I'm getting fed up of fixing pc's that the user has deleted half the o/s because they install multiple av and spyware programmes and dont have a clue how to use them
One put blue tack in all the usb ports because she was told thats where a virus gets in

---------- Post added at 23:14 ---------- Previous post was at 23:12 ----------

Originally Posted by whydoIneedatech

The same pratts that r00t is talking about get very upset when we try to give them Belkins support number and ask why can't we deal with it instead, if it was 25p a minute the pratt would not call.

Not really fair on the legit caller is it

They call in saying that they cannot get online.

Tech: Open up your internet please .................silence!

Tech : Hello can you please open up the internet!

Caller : How do I do that! they say

Tech : Can you see a blue E on your screen?

Caller : No its black, did you want the computer switched on?

Tech : Yes please, can you switch it on please.

Caller : OK I am switching it on now.

Caller : 10 minutes later! they say OK its on.

Tech : Can you go on the internet please!

Caller : How do I do that?

Tech : Remember earlier I said click on the blue E!

Caller : Does it say internet explorer on it?

Tech : yes?

Caller : OK I've clicked it, and it says page cannot be displayed.

Tech : OK can you close that page down please.

Caller : how do I do that?

Tech : Can you see the red X in the top right corner of the screen! hover the mouse pointer over it and left click.

Caller : I am doing that and it says close but it won't

Tech : You need to press the left mouse button.

This goes on for a further 10 minutes during which time the caller somehow manages to switch his computer off instead of closing the page!.

Advised to get some help from a friend or neighbour and callback.

Calls like this are real and people like that have computers and you know they should not, and we have to try and deal with them.

[marky]

The problem is that some people think its like a games console that you just reboot if there is a problem, the likes of pc world dont help with there net ready packages and zero info on what its all about.
I still think tech support should be free and them people should be just put on hold for a month.

Originally Posted by marky

People are let loose with a pc and have no idea how things work, I'm getting fed up of fixing pc's that the user has deleted half the o/s because they install multiple av and spyware programmes and dont have a clue how to use them
One put blue tack in all the usb ports because she was told thats where a virus gets in

---------- Post added at 23:14 ---------- Previous post was at 23:12 ----------


Not really fair on the legit caller is it

If it was Virgins fault the call charges were refunded everytime by me.

---------- Post added at 23:52 ---------- Previous post was at 23:50 ----------

Originally Posted by marky

The problem is that some people think its like a games console that you just reboot if there is a problem, the likes of pc world dont help with there net ready packages and zero info on what its all about.
I still think tech support should be free and them people should be just put on hold for a month.

Good idea because they would not notice and go back to watching eastenders instead of calling us.