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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Vomiting on Virgin
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
You say that complaints is mostly not a department that deals with people?
Not quite what I said.
Unless things have changed since I worked there, it is an office that deals with customers' complaints in letter, e-mail, and telephone form, so in that sense, it is dealing with people. It tries to clarify their complaints, work out what went wrong and how it affected the customer, liaise with other relevant departments if the complaint is about an ongoing problem to try tom solve it, or if it is a past problem that is the cause of the complaint they feed back to the departments where the problems occurred what went wrong, and when all that has been resolved and clear picture has been got of everything, go back to the customer and try to make peace and see what can be done on that front. But it isn't a call-centre where people are sitting around all day answering phone calls and dealing with immediate queries, and for the job they do, it seems quite unnecessary for them to be there until the dead of night. It just isn't what they're for.
I think much of the discord stems from a disparity between how regulatory bodies understand how complaints are to be dealt with and what they require of companies, on the one hand, and on the other, how some customers think of complaints.
As far as regulatory bodies are concerned, any expression of dissatisfaction is a complaint and ought to be dealt with properly and to a customer's satisfaction. This can range from upset about a price increase of 2p to a string of missed technician appointments, only for one to eventually turn up, ask to use the lavatory and miss the bowl, then do a botch job of installing the services which don't work, damaging the customer's brickwork in the process. As far as many companies are concerned, many such things can be dealt with in the first instance by the customer phoning up the relevant department. So, if your broadband stops working and there are no technician appointments until next day and this disrupts your work and you express upset at this, and then if the advisor you're talking to in the faults department apologises and offers you some money back and you're happy, the regulators would be satisfied that your complaint has been dealt with. Case closed with no involvement of any complaints department. Having worked in a few call centres for different companies, I think the majority of complaints are dealt with in that sort of way, or if they can't be because the customer requires something beyond what the advisor is authorised to do, the advisor's manager gets involved, and this can often resolve the complaint.
Many companies will have a complaints department (sometimes dressed up as a "managing director's office") to deal to with complaints about big mess-ups on the company's part or for which there will be no company satisfaction within the usual policies of the company within which the advisors and their managers have to operate. Often the customers won't even report it to the complaints department themselves but it will be referred to complaints by the advisor or manager to whom they spoke in the call centre.
The problem, I think, is that the existence of something called a "complaints department" in many companies makes some customers think that this is simply another customer service call-centre, like the "faults department" or the "house moves department", but one which deals with all and any complaints, and that rather than express their dissatisfaction with the department they're talking to, they should be transferred to/given the number for the complaints department for everything that would be classed as a complaint. That just isn't how it works most of the time, and their being on the phone answering calls all day would actually slow down the process of actually dealing with complaints.
As for complaints not being dealt with to satisfaction, without meaning to be dismissive of anybody, it is a simple fact that people who are already upset or frustrated about something are prone to exaggerate and are perhaps less likely to approach things with a reasonable head. Working in the faults department at what became Virgin Media, I dealt day by day with people who were phoning because something had gone wrong. Before the conversation had even started, they were not happy people. Even though we had a screen in the call centre telling us how many staff were manning phones and how many calls were in the queue, it wasn't uncommon for angry people to complain about having to wait for ten minutes to get through to someone, even if we staff knew that it was a quiet time when we had a few seconds' break between calls. Here on this very thread, we have had people exasperated with their poor experience of Virgin Media's customer service claiming that early line closures for some departments are typical even though they are the exception, that an extortionate fee has been threatened even though a current member of staff has chimed in to say that the company doesn't do that, and a claim that the website has no customer service phone number even though followingthe right links with a clear head reveals the customer service phone number.
While it is true that many companies have rubbish customer service, and while things will always go wrong in big companies to one degree or another, it is also true that frustrated people are not always the most reasonable people, but this doesn't mean that their complaints have not been dealt with properly. As a customer of many companies who has worked in customer service departments of a number of companies, I can see both sides to this, and I know enough to take some things with a pinch of salt.
[ 14. May 2012, 22:16: Message edited by: Michael Astley ]
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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RooK
1 of 6
# 1852
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Posted
GAH! Bloody-minded curiosity and blatant stupidity caused me to fail to heed your warning.
It's like a manual for how to fail at design. Thank fuck I didn't actually read anything there.
Posts: 15274 | From: Portland, Oregon, USA, Earth | Registered: Nov 2001
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
I have no intention of every going anywhere near the source of that page again! The colour scheme and the fonts are those that were used by Cable and Wireless at the time. Its not meant to look pretty. (And in their defence, as well as mine, this is from 1999 still, just about, the days of static corporate websites, and before anyone but the real geeks had heard of blog software.
I reluctantly link it here merely to show that the leopard has not changed his spots, even though he has rebranded himself as Virgin.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Pre-cambrian
Shipmate
# 2055
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Astley:
quote:
Originally posted by Pre-cambrian:
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Astley:
I've just visited Virgin's website and found a customer service telephone number within the space of two minutes. Granted, it isn't prominently placed, and the path to the number takes you past online help pages first, but it's definitely there.
OK, Smartarse, where is it?
What was unclear in my previous post?
I asked you where on the Virginmedia website such a telephone number is, e.g. what's the heading on that webpage. That's a pretty clear question, and it is equally clear that your earlier post had not offered such information. I have trawled that website at length on a number of occasions, which is why I am asking a straightforward question.
Are you sure you have no connection to Virginmedia, given the lengths you are going to to defend them?
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"We cannot leave the appointment of Bishops to the Holy Ghost, because no one is confident that the Holy Ghost would understand what makes a good Church of England bishop."
Posts: 2314 | From: Croydon | Registered: Dec 2001
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Yerevan
Shipmate
# 10383
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Posted
I too assumed this was about BVM abuse ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
I know where Richard Branson lives (because its near me - control your excitement people!) if you want to come vomit on him personally
Posts: 3758 | From: In the middle | Registered: Sep 2005
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pre-cambrian:
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Astley:
quote:
Originally posted by Pre-cambrian:
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Astley:
I've just visited Virgin's website and found a customer service telephone number within the space of two minutes. Granted, it isn't prominently placed, and the path to the number takes you past online help pages first, but it's definitely there.
OK, Smartarse, where is it?
What was unclear in my previous post?
I asked you where on the Virginmedia website such a telephone number is, e.g. what's the heading on that webpage. That's a pretty clear question, and it is equally clear that your earlier post had not offered such information.
Did you actually read that first post of mine that you quoted? I don't know how much clearer I could have been in explaining where the number is. I didn't post the number because it differs according to the options you choose and the services you have but I tried to help. Anyway, here it is again.
quote:
Are you sure you have no connection to Virginmedia, given the lengths you are going to to defend them?
I am quite sure. I'm not defending them as such. I just know what it's like being a customer service person on the phone trying to deal with genuine enquiries and I know how people who have rightly been annoyed and aggravated by poor service and botched jobs can actually put an unreasonable gloss on otherwise reasonable things.
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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The Silent Acolyte
Shipmate
# 1158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RooK:
It's like a manual for how to fail at design.
Not really. Except for the quoted letter, there is really only one font family, consistently used. The backgound and foreground colors are all consistent. Nothing flashes or is animated. Deep red is not placed against a deep blue background.
It's all very moderate and well-done for its time.
Posts: 7462 | From: The New World | Registered: Aug 2001
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BroJames
Shipmate
# 9636
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Posted
I have followed the instructions to get to a contact phone number - it takes a lot of clicks, and in at least two pages the link is right at the bottom of the page to make you read the other stuff first, and you8'll probably need to scroll down.
It does look as though the number may vary according to what kind of issue you have, and it is clearly designed to make you try and use the website to resolve your issue. If you just pop on to the website to find a complaints phone number it is not very helpful as it looks as though it doesn't have what you need.
If they want to make you go through this process (like the "choose from the following options" stuff you sometimes get on a telephone service line) then it might be helpful if they thought about the person who is just looking for a phone number, and told them that going through the process will eventually lead to a phone number (and that the number may vary according to how you respond to the questions), and that some of the links are right at the bottom of pages that will require scrolling on many screens.
The website is well-designed to lead you through the trail of what the company wants you to do, but poorly designed in relation to this particular (IMO very foreseeable) need that customers might come with.
Posts: 3374 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2005
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
...it is clearly designed to make you try and use the website to resolve your issue. If you just pop on to the website to find a complaints phone number it is not very helpful as it looks as though it doesn't have what you need.
Well yes, but that's the fucking point! They want you to use the website instead of phoning.
quote:
If they want to make you go through this process (like the "choose from the following options" stuff you sometimes get on a telephone service line) then it might be helpful if they thought about the person who is just looking for a phone number, and told them that going through the process will eventually lead to a phone number
Bit if they did that then people wouldn't try to send (or even resolve) their complaint using the website.
quote:
The website is well-designed to lead you through the trail of what the company wants you to do, but poorly designed in relation to this particular (IMO very foreseeable) need that customers might come with.
That's probably because it's not a need they particularly want to meet. They want you to use the website and/or email them rather than wasting time on a phone call.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Bean Sidhe
Shipmate
# 11823
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Posted
When our landline died, Virgin checked it out and said the street cable was damaged. When could they fix it? Not for a month.
A month!! They were adamant, no way could it be done sooner. Once, a phone was an essential service, faults sorted out pronto. Now we all have mobiles, I suppose they think there's no urgency.
They were good as their word - a month later, the landline came back to life. By then, we had a competitor's line we'd ordered the day we had the row with Virgin. Wiring still in place from yonks ago, they only had to switch it on.
We still have the Virgin line, use it for incoming calls only. Absurdly, it's cheaper to have their broadband + phone than broadband alone. And Virgin broadband is good, way faster than any alternative.
It seems to me that almost any service you use these days has at least something really crap about it. Why is that? Is it not in their interest to fix the weak link? So much for competition.
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How do you know when a politician is lying?
His lips are moving.
Danny DeVito
Posts: 4363 | From: where the taxis won't go | Registered: Sep 2006
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bean Sidhe:
It seems to me that almost any service you use these days has at least something really crap about it. Why is that? Is it not in their interest to fix the weak link? So much for competition.
They compete on price. If you phone them twice and talk to a human being each time you have used up the whole year's profit they hope to get out of you. So it pays them to run a crap service and refuse to talk to you.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The engineer from Virgin came promptly this morning and in 20 minutes had upgraded out TV to include HD content and extra channels, and doubled our broadband speed. All at their behest and for less per month than we were paying previously.
No, I have no idea what's going on either.
[ 23. May 2012, 15:19: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
This is the first time I've been able to read the thread I started. No, I haven't got a connection at home yet. That is still a fortnight away, which will mean I will have been without landline and internet for almost 7 weeks (assuming everything goes smoothly). I can access the Ship at work, during breaks, but the firewall regularly blocks Hell thread, and even several in Purgatory, so there's all sorts of stuff I can't read. Now I'm spending a long weekend with mum and can use her computer.
In addition to my earlier rant I am annoyed at how difficult it is to ring Virgin. I have internet banking, but can speak to someone and shuffle my money around really easily. With Virgin I have to enter a 12 digit account number and a long password 3 or 4 times (one mistake and you've lost it all) before finally getting through to the recorded music as I wait in line. All of which makes ringing them really expensive, especially as it has to be done on my mobile. The whole thing is deeply painful.
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Ethne Alba
Shipmate
# 5804
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Posted
Virgin's music is appalling...Mr Alba was forced to complain in the most forceful manner last week
We stayed at home for a booked apt, that apparently never was. Total waste of time phoning as the password didn't work. Mercifully they phoned me " Hello Mrs Alba? we're phoning to confirm an apt next week" When asked about last week's apt they had no knowledge, no record and would not be with us.
Of All the weeks in the year to leave us with the internet on before midday and after 10.30pm....this was a BAD choice.
But hey, they appeared this week, sorted the problem in an hour and left us with sparklingly brilliant internet.
But.....SUCH shoddy customer service...didn't even apologise.
![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
[ 01. June 2012, 22:07: Message edited by: Ethne Alba ]
Posts: 3126 | Registered: Apr 2004
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rhflan
Shipmate
# 17092
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Posted
The wifey and I are planning on relocating to the UK this fall so that I can continue my studies. All these horror stories are making me wonder how long we'll go without internet access at our new home. Please tell me that these horror stories aren't the norm...waiting SEVEN WEEKS for internet and home telephone seems totally crazy to me.
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www.twitter.com/rhflan
Posts: 135 | Registered: May 2012
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
I haven't had to wait at all, even through several house moves. We haven't changed provider, though, which I suspect might cause problems.
In terms of setting it up in the first place, I am sure that there is a big difference between providers. We are with BT (which simplifies things because they provide the line and the service) and have never had any problems - ever. We've thought about changing for financial reasons, but whenever we've worked out the final costs, with the extras we currently have, nobody else has been cheaper anyway.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by rhflan:
Please tell me that these horror stories aren't the norm
Of course they're not. If they were, they wouldn't be rant-worthy.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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The Rogue
Shipmate
# 2275
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
The engineer from Virgin came promptly this morning and in 20 minutes had upgraded out TV to include HD content and extra channels, and doubled our broadband speed. All at their behest and for less per month than we were paying previously.
No, I have no idea what's going on either.
We had this recently. Virgin rang me out of the blue (on my non-Virgin mobile: I suppose I must have given them the number) and offered me faster broadband and a better TV box for less money per month. They came when they said they would, set up the new equipment quickly and efficiently, gave us a demo and left with everything working perfectly. And it still is. I did look to see how the price compared with anything else they offer and it looked OK.
I do not work for Virgin but have been a customer for many years and have never had any complaints except for the occasional brief down time which has often been my router rather than their service anyway.
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If everyone starts thinking outside the box does outside the box come back inside?
Posts: 2507 | From: Toton | Registered: Feb 2002
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Robert Armin posted on a now closed thread:
quote:
It is now almost 7 weeks since I moved, almost 9 since I let Virgin know I was moving. On the one occasion during that time that they rang me I explained that an engineer would have to come round after 4.00, due to my work, and they agreed to this. So I was not impressed when I got a call at 8.10 this morning, as I arrived in school, to say the engineer was waiting outside my flat. Luckily the folk here were supportive, so I was able to go back and let him in.
He had to fit a new phone socket, so a lot of furniture had to be moved. In the process my old dining table split in half, and all the stuff on it fell everywhere. I now have two halves of a table cluttering up a small flat, and piles filling every surface so there is nowhere to sit down or eat. In addition, I have a landline but no broadband or TV. The engineer apologised for that, but he only does telephones. Could someone please send Branson round, so that I can apply a red hot poker to the appropriate part of his anatomy?
(And I would have posted this on the existing Virgin thread, but I'm at school and the firewall blocks it. Depending on what people have said most of Hell and some of Purgatory is off limits to me - until I get my own broadband connection......)
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
The engineer from Virgin came promptly this morning and in 20 minutes had upgraded out TV to include HD content and extra channels, and doubled our broadband speed. All at their behest and for less per month than we were paying previously.
No, I have no idea what's going on either.
We had this recently. Virgin rang me out of the blue (on my non-Virgin mobile: I suppose I must have given them the number) and offered me faster broadband and a better TV box for less money per month. They came when they said they would, set up the new equipment quickly and efficiently, gave us a demo and left with everything working perfectly. And it still is.
Worrying, isn't it?
The downsides I've noticed so far are occasional breaks in TV service when it seems to think the HD cable has come unplugged; the loss of the 'change channel at start' - it now insists on recording so that you can watch the programme anytime (No, I want to watch it as it is broadcast), and also I am not sure about the red button functionality.
Actually, that's it crashing again - I think I may be on to them to restore the old box: less bells and whistles, but a least it worked all the time.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
OK, I'll officially join the tack-spitting. The TV has gone down completely, and I'm in the 20th minute of an 'up to 15 minute' wait to report the problem.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ender's Shadow
Shipmate
# 2272
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Posted
My email to them today:
quote:
The record of Virgin media with me over the past 8 months has been poor, but the events of the past week has cast serious doubt on my continuing my subscription
1) I was phoned by your sales team on my mobile. I asked her to call me back on my landline. She said she would - but didn't.
2) 24 hours later I was phoned by another member of your sales team ON THE MOBILE. This time the line was so poor that we couldn't communicate. For a media firm, that's just funny
3) Having irritated me with that, I phoned your complaints line. After the first muppet didn't understand English, I got a 'manager'. He took the details of my complaint - but then informed me that HE couldn't respond to my complaint by email - I would have to chomp it all out again. (I'm not going to be contactable by phone for a period).
4) Trying to write this this morning, I had to resort to Internet Explorer, because Firefox 13 would not accept my pushing the button to access this form. Presumably your coding monkeys didn't bother to test this form under Firefox.
5) The form itself shows my password in clear text, not asterixed out
6) And finally brethren, to the beef: sometime last November I made a complaint about the fact that the £50 I was expecting as a result of signing up [...] to your service hadn't appeared on my bill. I was informed by your muppet that he would sort it, and I thought no more about it. However during the course of the conversation with your 'manager', I determined that the call had been closed in November with no further action. AS YOUR STAFF HAD MADE A VERBAL COMMITMENT TO MAKE THE PAYMENT YOU ARE BOUND TO PAY IT. Note the alternative: ALL verbal agreements entered into by your customers can be discarded at will.
I look forward to your swift payment of a sum somewhat more that £50
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
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Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Please don't refer to me as 'Ender' - the whole point of Ender's Shadow is that he isn't Ender.
Posts: 5018 | From: Manchester, England | Registered: Feb 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on - Sam Goldwyn.
The engineer has been and put everything back the way it used to be before the upgrade. The actual fault was probably a defective cable. But beyond that, in their eagerness to shift the TiVo box, they've actually reduced the service, in that there is no agreement as yet with the broadcasters over live streaming of digital channels on that platform. Did they think that, dazzled by the shiny new graphics, we'd fail to notice that when the commentator says 'Coverage of this exciting bit of Wimbleton/the Open/ Olympics continues on the red button' that it didn't?
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Mr Tambourine Man
Shipmate
# 15361
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Posted
Funnily enough after spotting this thread earlier today I then had reason to phone VirginMedia later in the day. Here's the thrilling saga:
They were charging for evening and weekend calls, despite me paying for the privilege of having free ones. Apparently it was because some of the calls went on for over an hour (not my own I hasten to add!) There was nothing on their website or my bill explaining this lovely caveat so I was all set to have a rant. However the guy from the call centre agreed without fuss or complaint to refund the money.
Victory!
![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif) for all those who have been treated worse.
Posts: 87 | Registered: Dec 2009
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Ender's Shadow
Shipmate
# 2272
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Tambourine Man:
Funnily enough after spotting this thread earlier today I then had reason to phone VirginMedia later in the day. Here's the thrilling saga:
They were charging for evening and weekend calls, despite me paying for the privilege of having free ones. Apparently it was because some of the calls went on for over an hour (not my own I hasten to add!) There was nothing on their website or my bill explaining this lovely caveat so I was all set to have a rant. However the guy from the call centre agreed without fuss or complaint to refund the money.
Victory!
for all those who have been treated worse.
Believe it when you get the money, NOT before.
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Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Please don't refer to me as 'Ender' - the whole point of Ender's Shadow is that he isn't Ender.
Posts: 5018 | From: Manchester, England | Registered: Feb 2002
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ender's Shadow:
My email to them today:
The record of Virgin media with me over the past 8 months has been poor, but the events of the past week has cast serious doubt on my continuing my subscription
(sorry tale of Ender's Shadows' attempts to get Virgin to priovide something resembling a service as contracted).
Next time you comment on the efficiencies and other merits of the market economy vis-a-vis the socialist paradise of the public sector, remember that sharp practices like you describe are often the means by which they turn a profit. They can't afford good customer service! If government agencies like the one I work for give sub-standard service, ministers are asked questions, they ask us why we aren't fulfilling these customer service standards, and it gets written up officially as well as in the popular press.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Ender's Shadow
Shipmate
# 2272
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by Ender's Shadow:
My email to them today:
The record of Virgin media with me over the past 8 months has been poor, but the events of the past week has cast serious doubt on my continuing my subscription
(sorry tale of Ender's Shadows' attempts to get Virgin to priovide something resembling a service as contracted).
Next time you comment on the efficiencies and other merits of the market economy vis-a-vis the socialist paradise of the public sector, remember that sharp practices like you describe are often the means by which they turn a profit. They can't afford good customer service! If government agencies like the one I work for give sub-standard service, ministers are asked questions, they ask us why we aren't fulfilling these customer service standards, and it gets written up officially as well as in the popular press.
Rubbish; when it's working well, the pressure of public perception will force firms to be careful of their reputation. May I draw your attention to 'The gas man cometh' which is the experience of a monopoly utility; as a matter of record, when, in 1975, my parents moved house, we had to wait SIX WEEKS for a phone line. These days it will be done a lot quicker - because BT know that you have an alternative. No - of course capitalism is not the answer to everything; the prospect of private mail firms cherry picking door to door deliveries, leaving Royal Mail with the expensive rump, is crass economics. But in general where there IS competition, it is likely to result in people having the ability to choose an alternative. Do you seriously believe that the internet would have taken off in a command economy?
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Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Please don't refer to me as 'Ender' - the whole point of Ender's Shadow is that he isn't Ender.
Posts: 5018 | From: Manchester, England | Registered: Feb 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ender's Shadow:
the pressure of public perception will force firms to be careful of their reputation.
Hmm. I don't see Union Carbide or BP out of business. I vowed never to buy from Mesh again after they screwed up on my PC before last - but, alas, they are still trading. There is a vendor of PC security software which is reviled the length and breadth of the internet, but still they prosper...
quote:
May I draw your attention to 'The gas man cometh' which is the experience of a monopoly utility
Tcha. It's a funny song about how one repair leads to another. I could duplicate it in the last year (first it was a plumber to replace the sink, then a joiner to replace the worktop, then a tiler to replace the tiles above the worktop, then a plasterer* to repair the wall, then a painter* to paint the new plaster).
*at these points I thought Bugger this and did it myself.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Lynn MagdalenCollege
Shipmate
# 10651
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Posted
Here in the USA, I have a Virgin Mobile phone - a "pay as you go" phone because I really dislike cell phones and use mine as little as possible (good for traveling!) - but, as it's almost impossible to find a standard "pay phone", a cell phone is essential. Mine lives in my car, off. My outgoing message warns folks, "Unless I told you to call me on this number, don't expect me to hear your message any time soon!" and provides the appropriate number at which to reach me.
Costs me $5 per month because I give them my credit card and they automatically "top-up" the account every three months, saving me $5 on every quarterly transaction; I've got more pre-paid minutes than I'm ever likely to use.
The problem is, about half the time I get a "Your phone needs you!" urgent email that tells me they're about to turn off my phone. At that point, I log into my account on the computer. It's fine, the payment has been sucked out of my credit card account, it's all good. But three times (out of half a dozen or so), they actually have turned off my phone. This requires spending a chunk of time on the cell phone trying to get the right hand to talk to the left hand. The fact that they've turned it off in the past makes me nervous about whether they'll turn it off now, again.
FWIW, I'd much rather deal with all these issues via email - but sometimes that doesn't get to the heart of the problem (to be fair, sometimes the person on the phone doesn't get to the heart of the problem either).
Adequate and affordable service, but for this one weird hiccup, which has only started in the last 3-4 years. Bizarre.
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Erin & Friend; Been there, done that; Ruth musical
Posts: 6263 | From: California | Registered: Nov 2005
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