Mystery shop #1: customer service and technical support

Tue 17 Mar 2009 1 Comment

Below are the results of our Customer Service and Technical Support Information Mystery Shop of the six leading fixed-line broadband providers, the press release and conclusions from which can be found here:  Broadband Mystery Shopper: BT and Sky promise best consumer support

All queries followed the same basic premise and were carried out on a weekday morning during standard UK office hours. Our Mystery Shopper used each ISP's main website as their starting point, looking to find the following details:

  • the cost of both customer service calls and tech support calls
  • what hours the lines were open
  • where call centres were based, as we have found understanding and call clarity to be growing consumer concerns

In addition, ISPs were in part judged on website ease of use and usefulness and the quality of call/messenger chat, in terms of information given, tone and added value. The information below is as we found it on official websites or as given by ISP call centre staff: if there are any inaccuracies, please let us know - and be sure to let the relevant webmasters and call centre staff know too!

 

BT

 

Time to find information: 11 minutes
Customer services: 24/7, free, UK and India
Tech support: 24/7, free, UK and India (plus optional Home IT Group at £9.99) 
Website: As I scrolled down the broadband page, an online chat window popped up for an instant messaging chat with a BT staffer. However, when I started firing off questions, I was told it was for sales only and given an 0800 number to call instead.
Phone: A friendly Scottish lady informed me that both customer and tech support were free and 24/7. Plus, an extra £9.99 would pay for its 'home IT group' which could remotely access your machine when required, also 24/7, to really get personal with your computer problems. Call centres were based in both the UK and India.
Conclusions: Good 24/7 support for free, with an add-on for those who want it. Indian call centres may put some people off though.
Total: 8/10
 

Virgin Media

Time to find information: 8 minutes
Customer services: 8am-8pm M-F (9-5 Sat), free, global
Tech support: 24/7, free, global
Website: A small but useful button on the broadband page (next to the 'basket') opens up an 'ask before you buy' pop up for an instant messaging chat. I was told calls to both tech support and customer services were free, with tech support open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm Saturday. I queried this; what if my line goes down at 5.01 on Saturday? This led to a quick back track - tech support was now 24/7, and those hours were customer services. When I asked where the call centres were based, I was told "all over the world". 
Phone: N/A
Conclusion: Poor answers, but if what I was told was true, free 24/7 tech support and free customer service calls is pretty good, but 'around the world' is ominous.
Total: 6/10
 

Talk Talk

Time to find information: 8 minutes
Customer services: 8am-8pm Mon-Fri (see site for detailed weekend and Bank Holiday times), free from Talk Talk lines (otherwise charged), UK and South Africa
Tech support: 8am-10pm (9am-6pm Bank holidays), free from Talk Talk lines (otherwise charged), UK and South Africa
Website: Sales is on a 0800 number, plastered in the top corner of each page on the website. Also the 'About us' leads to a 'contact us' page with all the relevant numbers (0870 prefix) and opening times: tech support 8am to 10pm (9 until 6 on Bank Holidays) and customer support 8am to 8pm (but less at weekends and Bank Holidays).
Phone: A jovial Aussie sounding guy told me calls to the 0870 numbers are free from Talk Talk lines or about 6p (2p in the evenings) from BT landlines. After popping off to check, he said while sales were based in the UK, tech and customer support were based in both the UK and South Africa, and it was random where your call might end up.
Conclusion: Charged calls, no 24/7 support, mixed support call destinations...
Total: 4/10 

Sky

Time to find information: 8 minutes
Customer services: 24/7, free from Sky lines (otherwise charged), UK
Tech support: 24/7, free from Sky lines (otherwise charged), UK
Website: Once past the newsy front end the website is easy to navigate into the 'products' menu; sadly though, there's bad news waiting: apparently even sales calls cost 5p per minute from a BT line (to an 08442 number). 
Phone: That said, a very Scottish sounding Kay said all support calls from a Sky number were free, or charged at local rates from other phones. Both customer support and tech support are 24/7 and UK based. She tried to seal the deal too, but didn't labour the point when I declined.
Conclusion: A shame calls were charged from non-Sky lines, but a well-handled query and good support.
Total: 8/10
 

Tiscali

Time to find information: 10 minutes
Customer services: 8am-9pm, charged, global
Tech support: 24/7, charged, India
Website: One of its broadband selling points was clearly advertised as "24/7 dedicated support", but there was no click through for more details. However phone numbers were easy to find and clearly labelled on cost - each was 10p per minute from a BT line, or 5p from a Tiscali line, with tech support open 24/7 and customer care from 8am to 9pm.
Phone: Friendly, funny English chap, who didn't know where call centres were ("probably Manila"), but went off to find out. Turns out tech support was based in India (but, he claimed, most providers' tech support is abroad), billing in Milan and order chasing in Ireland.
Conclusion: Good site and call, but quite pricey and only Indian tech.
Total: 5/10

Orange

Time to find information: 7 minutes
Customer services: 8am-10pm, charged, unspecified
Tech support: 24/7, charged, unspecified
Website: Easy to navigate to broadband section. Clear icon top right with an 0800 number to call for sales enquiries. Checked out the help/support page, but found nothing obviously useful.
Phone: I was told by a rushed, brusque Scottish lady that the call centre was open 7am to 11pm. She obviously meant something else though - probably her department - as when I asked whether that was customer or tech support, she replied tech support was 24/7, customer support 8am to 10pm. Calls were 5p per minute from a BT landline. Apparently if I wanted to know where the call centres were based, I would have to call them!
Conclusion: Good site redirection, but poor phone manner and average services.
Total: 4/10

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Comments

  • neutral

    by Fred Marconi at 10:36 on 19 Mar 2009Report abuse

    BT (Yahoo) Broadband has been pretty reliable over 6 years but when I looked recently at upgrading to the current 8Mb all I got, from 2 emails of questions to BT's pre-sales 'help', was gibberish from Indian call centre operators obviously trying to assemble a reply from pre-packaged scripts.

    My questions were like: can you assess my past use to tell me what new package to choose?"

    Reply: "Dear Mr...., I understand you are enquiring about broadband" - duh - followed by links to web pages I had already perused before asking my questions. No diredct reply to any specific query.

    Support can be poor, too. When the service went down, I had to try 4 different Indian operators over 4 days before a gent down there accurately diagnosed and remotely fixed my 'static on the line' problem in under 5 minutes. I had earlier been told my another operator I could not have any support because I was using a Netgear modem/router instead of a BT Home Hub - when I signed up, the Home Hub didn't exist!

    Good luck with your choice.

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