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Old 22-10-2017, 21:06   #64
RichardCoulter
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Re: Are VM frontline staff now discouraged from escalating customer issues?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 007stuart View Post
Richard,

Let's try this again.

Were you offered what was due under the Terms and Conditions?

The location of the call handler?

Why did you not approach Retentions to resolve the issue?

Now moving on to what you did say,

Terms & conditions rarely relate to the real world and if I find that any company is no longer meeting my needs or expectations, then I will sometimes remind them that other alternatives are available to me.

Why not just leave and find a better provider and avoid the stress? Or were you, as we say in Scotland, "chancing your arm"?

The call handler was repeating an incident that I had experienced by one of her colleagues in the recent past. This was especially disappointing as I'd been reassured that this incorrect behaviour would not happen again. In these circumstances, I felt it prudent to avail her of this information so that she could make an informed decision as to whether she was going to carry out my request or not. Fortunately, she changed her mind and took the correct action, so no formal complaint was actually made about her.


Thanks for clarifying the situation.

I quoted Mick's news item to demonstrate that what Mick had noted six months ago had shown no signs of improvement.


In your view perhaps, I have yet to experience any such issues.

Oh one additional question, why not contact the CEO team straight away when in your view an unacceptable offer was made initially?

Regards
From what she said, the answer was yes. However, as i'm currently housebound, the internet and TV are my main forms of entertainment and contact with the outside world. She abruptly said that VM don't give anything over and above a refund equal to the cost of the service lost, which I found unacceptable. When I asked for the matter to be escelated, she initially tried to discourage me and then outright refused.

I do believe that extra is due for any inconvenience or problems that outages cause eg if my electricity went down for a day, I wouldn't be happy to receive only an amount equal to one days standing charge with the promise that I wouldn't be charged for the usual consumption that I hadn't used for that day, that wouldn't be the point!

NTL would offer a less insulting amount and I'm sure that this helped with customer care and retention.

After I insisted that she do as I asked, I was put through to a department calling themselves 'retentions & complaints', maybe they've merged??

At this time, I am happy with VM and what they are offering me and currently have no plans to leave.

I'm glad that you've had no issues yourself, but clearly customer service has deteriorated and has not improved since Micks article was published. The price rise that others will be being subjected to may be the last straw for many.

As inflation creeps up again and wages stagnate, disposable income is falling, this is at a time when pay TV customers have never had as much choice to choose from. Some OTT services are incredibe value. VM really need to up their game if they wish to attract customers and retain their current subscriber base.

Unless it's something really serious, I believe in going through the correct channels to pursue complaints rather than straight to the top and/or pulling any strings.

Last edited by RichardCoulter; 22-10-2017 at 21:16.
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