I've recently tried out doing some domains through the company OneandOne (1&1) . Big mistake...

Obviously there are always two sides to a story, and I'm sure they have a lot of happy customers, but disclaimers aside, I've been shocked by the poor quality of service from this hosting and domain registration company. I had read good things about them, but unfortunately I think they are a casualty of their own success. Why is it that all successful companies suddenly start outsourcing their customer support? Outsourced tech support just doesn't work - argh! It drives me mad :evil:

Half the time they don't even know their "own" products, although this makes perfect sense when you consider their HQ is near London and their customer support is somewhere in Asia.

If Sheffield Forum ever becomes so big that I need hundreds of lowly paid moderators (they are free at the mo!) then please remind me *not* to outsource... :lol:

I tried to upgrade my Sky package when The Blades were riding high last season, got through to Sky's call centre in Bombay.

The quality of the line was terrible, obviously compressing the call to about 4k, or maybe IP. Whilst the operator was very pleasant it took twice as long as normal because I could hardly hear them.

I really don't know why firms outsource customer support. Surely it's the most important job in the company - simply without any customers there will be no company.

I don't really agree with British jobs being exported overseas either, so I try to avoid companies which use this tactic to reduce their costs.

Had a call last week from someone who could only speak very poor english, I think he was Indian. He was doing research for an online company, dunno who.
I couldn't understand a word he was saying and he couldn't understand me.
I could sense that he was filling in his own answers on the questionaire, whats the point?

It was quite an interesting conversation (not) and a complete waste of my time.

Very stange.

This is exactly what HSBC are doing. They are outsourcing some of thier work to India and China. Cheap labour and all that.

Originally posted by XADRIAN
This is exactly what HSBC are doing. They are outsourcing some of thier work to India and China. Cheap labour and all that.

How long, I wonder, before some 'genius' decides the 999 service would be a lot cheaper if transferred there?

Thank the UK minimum wage disincentive to companies for this.

I used to work for Jacobs Manufacturing, the owners opened a factory in China and all our production was transferred to the Chinese plant when they finally got up and running and the Sheffield factory was closed, the workers there are paid about a tenner a week so minimum wage or not we cannot compete !

Originally posted by XADRIAN
This is exactly what HSBC are doing. They are outsourcing some of thier work to India and China. Cheap labour and all that.
So are Norwich Union Direct. How pathetic!

Originally posted by t020
Thank the UK minimum wage disincentive to companies for this.

t020 why is it so wrong for people to be paid a decent wage and lets be fair the minimum wage can heardly be called generous.

Labour costs are one of the costs of being in business. Perhaps if you can't afford to pay your workers a decent living wage then you can't afford to be in business. Or maybe the larger companies just want larger and larger profits and one of the ways they get this is to drive down wages.

It always amazes me how it's one rule for some and another rule for the rest ie we need to pay the top brass hugely inflated salaries with share options in order to keep them but at the same time we need to drive down wages at the bottom end.

It comes down to what people are willing to work for though. During the summer I worked on the bar at a hotel where I live. I really hated the work and the hours were apalling, I sometimes didn't finish work until gone 4am. I was paid £4.25 an hour. Why did I put up with it? Well because it was convienient (I could walk there and back in 10 minutes), and I needed the money.

It's good business sense to move offices to a location where they can get cheap labour, that's why it's done. As for the morals of it, I don't really see why it should be an issue. If the people aren't willing to work for the wage they recieve then they should complain about it. The fact that they aren't complaining seems to indicate that they believe they are being paid fairly.

Originally posted by Andy
I really don't know why firms outsource customer support. Surely it's the most important job in the company - simply without any customers there will be no company.

Most companies have you over a barrel. If you switch, you just end up with another company just as bad.

Originally posted by Mo
t020 why is it so wrong for people to be paid a decent wage and lets be fair the minimum wage can heardly be called generous.




Businesses are entitled to minimise their costs, but with a minimum wage, they can only lower this to a certain extent, even though they might be able to find people in this country that would want to work for below the minimum wage. As a result, they will outsource as much as they can to other countries, which in turn increases unemployment here amongst this type of worker. Surely a low paid job is better than no job at all? Businesses will always pay as little as they can get away with, and their will always be people willing to accept it. Government should not interfere with this.

An old thread I see .... but rather than start a new one, my post seems to belong here.

I'd like to nominate Symantec's "support" for Norton Internet Security as THE WORST CUSTOMER "SUPPORT" EVER. I know what you mean Geoff about 1&1 Internet. I use them. They are frustrating, their Control Panel is hardly intuitive and there's the delays of getting an email back to any query, however,

Here's my case for Symantec:

I've been told my subscription to Norton Internet Security will be automatically renewed in 9 days at the current rate. But what is that rate?

I've been on their website and ended up going round in circles to find this information and EVENTUALLY found a number I could call, only to be told by a pre-recorded message that help wasn't available on that number. I dialled the alternative number given and ended up in an interminable list of options. I'm a very patient person, but it was IMPOSSIBLE to get to speak to anyone. Even the tone of the voice on the pre-recorded message at times sounded despairing and frustrated - there's SO MANY OPTIONS ... and if you select an option before all the options are listed, the message starts agin with "please listen to all the options before making a selection". Sometimes in these situations you can press 0 to bypass the menu of options. Not with Symantec. I just wanted to know one thing - how much will my renewal be? I've still no idea.

I went to the feedback form to sound off but didn't get very far at all - maximum characters exceeded! Comical!

In an age of automated outsourced support you have to learn to deal with this kind of awful "service", but this is award winning, classic, desperately awful service that deserves to quoted over and over again in how NOT to deal with customers.

Can they be beaten?

Thank you for reading this post from BasilRathbon PLC. Your viewing is important to us and we do want to post something that will be of interest to you. You are currently at position 52 in the queue - please hold!

To be honest I can't think of a single reason why you would want to pay for Norton security when there are many free programs that do an equally good if not better job! Vote with your feet and your pocket.
:)

To be honest I can't think of a single reason why you would want to pay for Norton security when there are many free programs that do an equally good if not better job! Vote with your feet and your pocket.
:)

It's the only way to deal with them ... subscription cancelled!

Now, in the next 9 days I have to find and install that alternative. What do you use?

AVG Free or Avast
Adaware or spybot
Asquared or A2 (same thing)
Zone alarm
System Mechanic free trial to clean stuff up

Never had any problems and they don't hog all the resorces.
:)

Worst call centre based "support" (and I use the term loosely)?! Orange Home Broadband! FGS it takes most of the 29p a minute call to ascertain account details much less actually do anything about why I rang them in the chuffin' first place! :rant:

I can just about cope with Sky, their call centre's Scottish, they just talk FAR too fast.

symantec were on the BBC last night - for their call centre 'stealing' people's credit card details and selling them on

no wonder their phone is 'off the hook'

Here's the news report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7953401.stm

This is exactly what HSBC are doing. They are outsourcing some of thier work to India and China. Cheap labour and all that.

Not trying to defend HSBC here but they have a call centre in Malta too and pay €13k + per year, and they're recruiting:
https://www.hsbc.com.mt/1/PA_1_2_S5/content/en/pdf/humanresources/hsbc_callcentre_0707.pdf

Before you think about appyling though bear in mind the cost of living in Malta, although taxes are low, almost everything is imported into this tiny island and costs vastly more than in the UK supermarkets and shops

Why is it that all successful companies suddenly start outsourcing their customer support? Outsourced tech support just doesn't work - argh! It drives me mad :evil:

What about unsuccessful companies who computerise customer threats?

Get this ...

About 6 months ago I made enquiries about switching to Tiscali to save a few pounds. I was assured that there would be a maximum of 2 hours disruption to my phone and internet access on the day of the switchover. It all looked promising when I received a router before the day of the switchover, but 2 days after switchover I still had no internet access and their outsourced customer support simply could not help or let me know when I would have internet access. As somebody who does business from home this was a major issue and as they had failed to live up to their promises and had failed to provide the service or support I expect, I switched back to BT.

They've since demanded money from me which I refuse to pay. I've emailed written and phoned, but simply don't get any kind of reply to my complaints and requests for them to sling their hook, leave me alone and stop trying to collect money for 2 days of THE MOST AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER.

This morning I received a completely automated call where I was asked to pay £221 by credit card or face being referred to a debt recovery agency. "Press 1 to pay now, or 2 to speak to an adviser". I pressed 2 and held for over 10 minutes and eventually was offered the option of requesting a call back.

Whoever calls had better be able to pass me on to someone in a senior position who can reassure me that these threats will cease immediately and had better be able give an appropriate apology otherwise despite the time and aggravation involved I will pursue these b******s for compensation.

Tiscali - Worse that the worst you've ever experienced. Avoid them like the plague.

What about unsuccessful companies who computerise customer threats?

Get this ...

About 6 months ago I made enquiries about switching to Tiscali to save a few pounds. I was assured that there would be a maximum of 2 hours disruption to my phone and internet access on the day of the switchover. It all looked promising when I received a router before the day of the switchover, but 2 days after switchover I still had no internet access and their outsourced customer support simply could not help or let me know when I would have internet access. As somebody who does business from home this was a major issue and as they had failed to live up to their promises and had failed to provide the service or support I expect, I switched back to BT.

They've since demanded money from me which I refuse to pay. I've emailed written and phoned, but simply don't get any kind of reply to my complaints and requests for them to sling their hook, leave me alone and stop trying to collect money for 2 days of THE MOST AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER.

This morning I received a completely automated call where I was asked to pay £221 by credit card or face being referred to a debt recovery agency. "Press 1 to pay now, or 2 to speak to an adviser". I pressed 2 and held for over 10 minutes and eventually was offered the option of requesting a call back.

Whoever calls had better be able to pass me on to someone in a senior position who can reassure me that these threats will cease immediately and had better be able give an appropriate apology otherwise despite the time and aggravation involved I will pursue these b******s for compensation.

Tiscali - Worse that the worst you've ever experienced. Avoid them like the plague.

They were on Watchdog this week as hundreds of people have complained about them. Get in touch with Watchdog and you may find suddenly you don't owe Tiscali a penny!

Thanks Powerage, I will contact Watchdog. I've had that return call, but nobody there is empowered to deal with my complaints. I was given another number to call and after the usual multiple options and entering my phone number and date of birth on my phone keypad, the operator asks those very same questions. What's the point of entering information on a keypad and then being asked for that same information verbally?

Anyway that's a minor issue. There is no supervisor who can resolve my complaint over the phone. I asked if there was anyone who cares about the reputation of Tiscali who can resolve this matter now? No there isn't.

Is this call being recorded? Yes it is.

Can I suggest that you bring this conversation to the attention of somebody who cares about the reputation of Tiscali? ... calls are recorded for training purposes only ... marvelous eh?

OK - I'll be getting in touch with Watchdog, Citizen's Advice.

From my experience with Tiscali, I'd say that sometimes saving a few quid just isn't worth it!