Indian call centre "retentions"

[redlozzer]

I have just had the most stunning conversation with the weekend Indian call centre "retentions" team and I am lost for words. I'm a very laid back person but even I got annoyed which takes a lot hence this post.

I phoned due to the upcoming price increase and was passed through to the "retentions" team and they basically tried to manipulate me into accepting a really bad deal. It's five months before I am out of contract and was told that they could wave that increase for the remainder of my contract. I would then be in a new 18 contract but they refused at least three times to tell me what my new contract price would be and repeated that my the price has been waived on the current contract.

I asked to cancel my contract and was told that I would incur a cost for doing so but I knew that wasn't the case and a blatant lie. After a pause this was acknowledged and the cancellation was put through and I said thanks.

Alas, the person I was chatting to didn't turn the connection off. If only I could speak Hindi.

Virgin Media, you will have recorded all of this. Any comments?

[Andrew-G]

After a pause this was acknowledged and the cancellation was put through and I said thanks.

And soon you'll get calls from UK based retentions staff, offering deals (if you hold out) at near enough new customer pricing.  At least you'll be able to understand them, and as a rule they don't lie through their teeth.  Whether that's sufficient to lure you back only you can say.

It wasn't enough to persuade me, and there's three days left of my 30 days notice.  As you'd expect, despite having 30 days notice, the clowns at VM are planning to bill me for the entire month starting the day after my connection is terminated, and that's at a rate that includes a telephone line that was removed from the package weeks ago. I can feel a complaint coming on.

[Anonymous]

Put in a SAR and request the full recording plus transcript https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar-faq

[japitts]

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@Andrew-G wrote:

As you'd expect, despite having 30 days notice, the clowns at VM are planning to bill me for the entire month starting the day after my connection is terminated,

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Of course they are - billing continues until you are disconnected, that's well documented on here and is published policy.

If any bills are produced after you've been disconnected, then it's fair cop for a complaint. If you have current billing issues regarding the landline then again, fair comment.

[Andrew-G]

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@japitts wrote:

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@Andrew-G wrote:

As you'd expect, despite having 30 days notice, the clowns at VM are planning to bill me for the entire month starting the day after my connection is terminated,

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Of course they are - billing continues until you are disconnected, that's well documented on here and is published policy.

If any bills are produced after you've been disconnected, then it's fair cop for a complaint. If you have current billing issues regarding the landline then again, fair comment.

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With the greatest of respect, it may be Virgin Media's "published policy", but it's still remarkably incompetent or remarkably dishonest.  They've had thirty days to sort their tish, but that's apparently not enough time to prevent a completely gratuitous bill-run.  I've worked for similar scaled customer service businesses, I know full well how direct debiting arrangements work, and VM's implementation is pretty unique.  And I might also mention, not even a confirmation of cancellation, not a "sorry you're leaving" email, nothing to confirm that they've had and actioned a cancellation, nothing in the contract section of MVM.  I know they have actioned it because I've had the plastic bag, but is all this what you call good customer service?  And incidentally don't miss the coda to that thread.

I can't think of any company I deal with that are this poor at basic CRM administration.  My various insurers, my water company, my council, they all have better administration and a better customer experience than VM.  In fact, even my energy supplier have better customer experience than VM.  

An interesting thought experiment is to ask why you are apparently defending Virgin Media here?

[Matthew_ML]

Hey redlozzer, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear about your recent experience with us over the phone.

We always balance our prices with the need to continue investing in our network, products and services.
Like many businesses, we’re experiencing rising costs due to inflation. We are not immune to rising costs, primarily due to wider economic changes from rising inflation. 

We’re seeing growing demand for data – with usage growing by more than 10% each year. Last year, we invested more than £2bn in our networks, which contributed to average broadband speeds increasing more than 40%, while helping to make sure our customers stayed connected and were able to keep using our services more and more.

If you did make any changes to your contract this would be agreed with you and you would also get confirmation within the hour on your contract and price, did you get any of this? Thanks 

[hash70]

I refuse to deal with Indian call centers,I jst hang up,why virgin and other companies use these country's is beyond me

[Anonymous]

It's because the agents are paid around £5k a year max.

Meanwhile CEO Lutz is on a total package of around £7.8 million. 

[Matthew_ML]

Hey hash70, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry you feel this way.

Is there anything I can do at all to help you out with anything? Thanks

[Kingvangaal]

Hi redlozzer

Same happened to me last Friday 10/03 called to cancel my VM contract and they insisted I sign up for a better deal.

It was an extremely frustrating call and several times I asked to be put through to a uk call centre which was refused.I explained the issues that I was having and even if they offered me a free service I wanted out!
I called several times in the day and the average time of getting through to the correct dpt was about 15 minutes.Eventually got through to someone in the UK explained what was and has been happening and finally got to get my contract cancelled and signed up with a new provider.

like you I’m a laid back person but the VMCC WAS giving me anger issues -I’ve never experienced this with any other company -tell a lie once with Vodafone-again it was an oversea CC but that was once in 25 years!