My phone call to Virgin

JaybirdUK · 12-09-2010, 06:50 AM

I phoned Virgin on Tuesday to see if I could secure an early delivery of a TiVo and this is a (loose) transcript of the call...

Me : could I have some info on TiVo and possibly place an order?
V.India : You want TV service?
Me : No, Im calling about the new TiVo box
V.India : What TV package did you want?
<several minutes of explaining and spelling TiVo phonetically>

V.India : I'll put you through to someone

Me : Hello, Id like to order a TiVo box
V.UK : sorry its not out yet, the final hardware has not even been decided upon
Me : well its all over your website and press release, its a Cisco box
V.UK : I dont know about that Sir, are you sure its our website?
Me : http://tivo.virginmedia.com sigh.....

Pro Tip: Ensure your staff know as much or more about your product than your customers do!

royfox · 12-09-2010, 07:25 AM

I think it's unfair to expect the staff to know about a product that isn't officially launched yet..

To answer your question.. The launch of TiVo is early 2011, "maybe" Late Jan. Until then, i wouldn't expect anyone in customer services to have any legitimate information to give to potential customers

cwaring · 12-09-2010, 08:27 AM

Well said, Roy. VM CS will only know have full information about products that are actually available.

JaybirdUK · 12-09-2010, 09:02 AM

Hi,

I do somewhat disagree though, with the creation of the microsite Virgin are clearly wanting to encourage interest and should expect customer enquiries.

To say the hardware hasn't been finalised yet virgin have a full 360 view of it is a little silly

Personally I cant wait and will order day one

Nero2 · 12-09-2010, 09:03 AM

Just to give a bit of balance, internally VM have communicating tonnes of material to staff, via the intranet etc. We’re all pretty excited about it.

But as CSAs have to support existing live products it’s fair to say that they probably haven’t had much chance to get up to speed on Tivo yet. If you got through to a CSA that has had the chance to read through the internal comms then you may get something for your effort, don’t take the fact that you got trough to CSA that hasn’t had a chance to get up to speed put you off.

(Whilst I work for VM, my posting is purely in a personal capacity.)

Thanks

JaybirdUK · 12-09-2010, 10:01 AM

Thanks Nero, Im actually a very satisfied VM customer (since the days of United Artists then Telewest etc...) - I'm also an ex-series1 owner and very keen to get a VM TiVo.

The Samsung V+ I have now isnt a bad box at all, its just not a TiVo