Ironically, I've never had anything but good experiences with Virgin Media as well. Presumably I'm not allowed to say that here

And ooh that House of Horrors thread was mine LMAO

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jhsanders (23/01/2008)

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Ironically, I've never had anything but good experiences with Virgin Media as well. Presumably I'm not allowed to say that here

Disclaimer: Any advice I provide is only applicable in my reality and may need altering to fit yours

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FreakShow! (23/01/2008)

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jhsanders (23/01/2008)

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Ironically, I've never had anything but good experiences with Virgin Media as well. Presumably I'm not allowed to say that here

Yes, but I remember you also told them that you were a journalist for a very highly regarded magazine. Once you say that, it's gold paving all the way to the solution of your problems and treated like royalty. Us mere mortals don't got that trick

maybe we should try it? claim we are researching an article on service levels of IT/Telecomms companies... If they pursue it, tell them we are freelance writing on spec... wouldn't exactly be a lie, as you could certainly write an article and send it in to the ED on spec... probably wouldn't get printed, unless it was REALLY good, but hey

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The one thing I can recommend with BT is try to escalate it to a manager. Not always possible, as the manager will have between 6 and 20 people, all doing the same! get the right department and just insist on speaking to one. You may find if it is the first call about the issue you won't be able to, as BT introduced some new software that logs all calls and the reason for them (although staff are meant to put the details in themselves).

The biggest problem with BT is the way the staff are treated. Things are getting worse and have been doing so for sometime. when your job is sitting taking calls all day, and you have not only your manager watching and listening to what you do, how long you take doing it, and just exactly how you are measuring up to quite often arbitrary "benchmarks" and targets, but also people sat remotely monitoring you and emailing/calling your manager if you spend too long on a call for example, it becomes stupidly pressured and stressful. This is why the turnover of staff in call centres is ridiculously high. Unfortunately for the customer ringing in, there may be a huge queue before the phone is answered, but you may get through to someone who has simply had enough of abuse from all angles, be ot verbal form customers or the nastier, more insidious form BT utilises...

Personally, I was agency staff for over 2 years, and things are even worse for them. You do exactly the same job, in some cases much better than people on BT contracts, and get much lower pay, much fewer benefits (by which I mean pension, sick pay, staff discounts etc), and get harrassed by the agency a lot more.

I could never recommend BT as an employer to someone, even though the money is very good for call centre work. They really do treat their staff as numbers, and do NOT care about their welfare at all. Any measures in place to support staff really does seem to be for the appearance of the thing, and to comply with regulation, and not because they genuinely want to help.

I realise I sound a little like a bitter ex-employee, but please, ask anyone who has worked for them, in fact ask as many people as you can, including people who still work there, and i gaurantee you the bulk of responses will be the same as mine.

[/rant]

I seriously don't think things will ever improve until the staff are treated better, without the moronic people (management) who seem to think the only way to get better results is to harrass the staff more. I cannot speak for other Telecomms companies, but I do know a chap from Talk Talk had a problem with one of his customers converting from BT to them, and as I had dealt with the customer several times throughout their time with BT, she had a direct number for me. The talk talk chap called me, and between us we got it sorted, even though we both got a bollocking from our managers for "dealing with the enemy". I did it as I liked that customer, and she had had an absolute nightmare of a time with BT, and the Talk Talk guy was pretty cool once we got talking, and also my manager at the time was a fool. I admit I would have been less helpful for a rude person, as it is very difficult if not impossible to empathise with someone calling you all the names under the sun, however justified they may feel.

Perhaps the moral of this is that there is another dimension to this debate, which is often, if not always overlooked by those writing about it - the treatment of the staff. Please, no matter how angry or stressed you feel, the person on the other end of the phone almost certainly is as well. Try and remain polite, and explain clearly what is up (and if you have had to stand in a phone box for an hour and a half, as you will probably find they will take a mobile number to call you back on) and if you are having no joy ask for a manager, and keep insisting.

I hope that helps a little...

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