Customer Service is EMBARASSING

[hedgie]

The customer service is a total joke.

Sorry Rant ON<

I have been a supported of Virgin for years but the current levels of service are beyond belief.

Two Lumia 720 phones failed, OK you get a phone sent out by the insurance folk but when it fails within two days you start to get hacked off. Thats three phones failed.

I have tried to call customer service, I have no idea where the team are based but I get bored very quickly of being lied to.

One agent apologized and told me I would be transferred to the insurance team then cut me off.

Phoned back a second agent said they had a "specialising department" to deal with insurance queries but due to the "systems upgrading nightime period" there was nothing they could do. I asked if she could write my details down and call me back when things were operational again.

I was told they are not allowed to use a pen or paper. The command of English I experienced was very poor with a surley negative attitude.

It's an absolute joke, if this is the best the night time call center can do then it should be shut down. I would rather be told there is no out of service than be lied to and mislead.

I had a few TiVO Issues a couple of years ago and the service I got was first rate. This set the benchmark for VM customer service, way better than my experience with Cable & Wireless,Nynex and NTL incarnations of the business.

The mobile division is joke by comparison.

RAnt Off >

[Russ]

They're based in the Philippines and are truly abysmal with their fake American accents. If you say something they don't understand they simply ignore it - I questioned a supervisor there why they do that and he said it was a 'cultural difference'. I was complaining about another agent who promised to change my billing date but failed to do so and I wanted to take it further but the supervisor repeatedly tried to avoid my complaint by proudly telling me he'd managed to deal with the billing date himself. When I kept going back to the subject of the other guy failing to do so he said I was being a "difficult customer".

[hedgie]

Update; Spoken to the Insurance team in the UK today. Gets worse.

Because I have two failed phones in under a week they wont process the third until they get one back. I offered to take the handsets to my local VM store where their condition could be verified and VM could send them back. I am not trying to rip anyone off by claiming they have posted when in reality they are on fleabay, just thinking of an obvious solution.

I was told that this was not possible, stores can't send phones back because they are a different company. This really isn't good enough, so far I have dealt with an offshore call centre and third party insuracne firm when I want to deal with Virgin Media. The high street stores present an integrated one brand apporach so why can't the business deliver what it presents at the point of sale.

VM really need to look at how other stores such as Halfords, Argos B&Q and the like integrate their stores on on line/telesales operations. The VM store network is an asset that simply isnt being used. If they had been able to say I'm really sorry please take both failed phones to you rlocal store and they will send them back to us and arrange an account credit I would have been quite happy.

My partner took her phone back to a Vodaphone store, they took care of the return process and gave her a loan phone. OK It was a dead basic phone but at least it was sorted out there and then.

Based on this experience I can't recommend Virgin Mobile to anyone. Its a shame as I get a good TV and Broadband service, but for me the brand is now tarnished with a negative experience that has a simple customer focussed solution but no one is prepared to make it happen.

Grumpy of Warrington

[Russ]

Taking a guess here but did they have a "computer says no" approach?

[Ken W]

I contacted Virgin Mobile for a replacement SIM, the agent organised it and told me it would be the same mobile and it would be with me within 2 days, on the second day it arrived as promised and you can't get better than that.

I thing it depends on the agent whether you get a good or poor service.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by hedgie

The high street stores present an integrated one brand apporach so why can't the business deliver what it presents at the point of sale.

VM really need to look at how other stores such as Halfords, Argos B&Q and the like integrate their stores on on line/telesales operations. The VM store network is an asset that simply isnt being used.

Truth be told this is nothing to do with VM. Insurance is rarely ever handled directly by the company that sold your device, the same applies to Halfords, Argos, and B&Q - they will all tell you to go to the insurance company instead. This is just a side effect of the insurance industry being the insurance industry.

Even when we had decent phone companies with decent service who actually branded the insurance product under their own name (e.g. Orange Care, back on Orange circa-2002) all claims were still dealt with by a separate company.

Phone insurance is just another cross-sold third party product that's nothing to do with your original purchase, no different to if you picked up a pet insurance deal at a Sainsbury's checkout. You wouldn't expect to take your injured pet to a supermarket checkout to make a claim there would you?