Monday, November 12, 2007

Dear Richard Branson (again),

You're having a laugh aren't you? It was only 6 weeks ago that I wrote to you about the very poor service I had, and here I am having to write to you, yet again.

The new box your engineer fit 6 weeks ago after the death of my old one, is behaving like my bank manager when I plead for an extention to my over-draft - it does not respond. It stopped talking to Boy and me last week. After we spent many happy hours unplugging cables and fanning the hot box and could not even coax a 'hello' out of it, I rang your jolly customer service line. This time I was prepared for the runaround of your call-centre staff who, to be fair, were much nicer than Rollo. I saved my breath about the 4 hour service slots and was surprised when I was offered a Saturday slot, such a shame I'm now working Saturdays. Never mind. I agreed I'd wait in on Monday (i.e. today) between 8 and 12. And jolly fun I had waiting as well.

I rang your lovely people in Mumbai at 11.50, to ask about the probability of the engineer turning up in the next 10 minutes. Imagine my surprise when I was told he'd been cancelled because the fault in my postcode was fixed. You would be so proud of me Richard. I did not swear, shout or scream. I explained to the very nice man at the other end of the world that I was switching on my television and my box and if there was no service he would immediately transfer me to his manager. Bless him. He did eventually put me through to his manager.

Your manager really thought I would give a flying fuck that he had been having similar calls from customers all day. Guess what? I told him exactly what I thought of Virgin Media and how unhappy I was to be paying for this kind of crap. Given my level of unhappiness, he did agree not to charge me for the days I do not have a tv, and he will pay me £10 for the engineer's no show. But quite frankly, it's little compensation for the crap service I've had since you decided to expand your empire into telecommunications.

It turns out that the engineers may or may not go to a call-out if a customer requests a particular time within a 4 hour slot. The call centre can only flag requests, they can't enforce it. So, one part of your organisation doesn't really communicate well with the other. But I suppose that shouldn't come as any real surprise to me, since you can't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Because I work for a living, the next available time when I will be home is next Monday, and no, I'm not prepared to go to my employers and ask for time off to get my damned telly fixed. Tell me something Richard, given that most people work 9 to 5, and that commutes can take anywhere between 10 minutes and 2 hours, it's not very realistic for you to expect your customers to be home between 8am and 7pm, with 4 hours to spare at either end. As a single parent, whose family lives in Trinidad, it's a bit difficult to ask them to pop round and sit in for me.

Rest assured Richard, the next time I have reason to call your customer service centre it will be to have your dodgy equipment removed, because I have better things to do with my time.

Yours,

Roses

11 comments:

  1. Sounds a really infuriating day, I'd need a drink and a big moan after that.

    I wonder if people had problems like this before mega-corporations existed?

    PS your college blog looks interesting, I wish other people I knew at mine did them too.

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  2. claire ~ I did hit the bottle last night. I was so hacked off.

    I doubt it, there isn't very much that can go wrong with a gas lamp or a candle.

    Umm...thanks. They're really pushing the e-learning agenda at college. I'm quite behind with my college work, which is not a new state for me to be in, there should be quite a bit more on my blog, including my learning agreement. I will get round to it.

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  3. We must have the same luck Roses, ive finally given in trying to reason with Mr Branson and am having it all taken out, with bt and sky being installed tomorrow instead.. they will probably be just as bad, but Mr Branson really does need to look at the service he doesnt provide us
    It was so infuriating keep getting passed from pillow to post without anyone helping so i had a vodka and decided to see how bad the other service providers are..
    Watch this space lol
    xxx

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  4. Arrghh it really is an awful service, I'm constantly switching the bloody thing off and on again just to see what programme is on next. Don't even get me started on the Catch up TV shennanigans! Problem is its far better than the service I was getting from SKY!

    I would dearly love to get rid of what I term 'Council House TV' but I like my Football too much and the Girlfriend likes the Discovery channels.

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  5. B*E*G ~ I'll keep fingers crossed for you. Let me know how you get on with Mr Murdock.

    CSI:uk ~ yes, it's really appalling. The thing is, would you really trust him to transport you through the stratosphere and to return you to Earth safely?

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  6. Anonymous6:28 pm

    oh no what a nightmare...I feel for you!

    We are also having trouble with mr branson and his shoddy intermittent internet service. Trouble is all these providers are the same... Good luck!

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  7. NM ~ slightly worrying that no-one has a good word to say about him. My exH is also having problems with t'internet falling over every 12 mins and I've noticed similar interuptions, but without the complete loss of connection. Grrr.

    Given my recent experiences, he'll be lucky if I spit in his general direction if I ever see him on fire in the street.

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  8. Anonymous4:17 pm

    I too am with 'Mr Smiley' but not for long if Virgin cannot transfer my service to my new abode without me having to call every day like i have done recently to also get an engineer out because of problems with my connection.

    *sighs*

    Do you think Inspector Monkfish would consider starting his own IS company? I'm sure he could do it, he's a clever sort. Of course we would all get straight through to the boss when we had a problem ;o)

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  9. dianne! hello! *hugs*

    What a great idea. We could get mates rates.

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  10. And if you have a day off you DO NOT want to spend it at home scared to go to the loo in case you miss the bell.

    He's had it with me too. Cable broadband up from £12 to £18 overnight.
    Goodbye Dickie

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  11. kaz ~ you just described my Monday morning waiting in.

    From £12 to £18? How the hell can that be justified? It's not like he's giving you more bang for your buck. No Sky One, wobbly broadband, wobbly television, poor customer services...why are we giving him money again?

    ReplyDelete

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