Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Virgin Media set to axe 120 jobs
Friday 27th March 2009, 3:56PM GMT.
More than 120 jobs face the axe after Virgin Media announced plans to cut a sales department in the Black Country – and send some of the work to the Philippines.
The media giant is planning to close the telesales department at the company’s base at The Waterfront, Brierley Hill. A total of 126 telesales jobs are at risk under the plans.
Virgin Media says the department could close by the end of July as part of “restructuring proposals announced last November”.
If the closure decision is finalised, calls would be handled by sales teams in the Philippine capital Manilla together with an office in Manchester.
A 90-day consultation period about the closure plan involving all staff affected is now under way and bosses say opportunities for Dudley staff to transfer to other sites will be examined.
Staff have been informed about the job losses.
One worker said: “Grown men were crying with their heads in their hands when they were told. We had no inkling this was going to happen.”
Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett said: “Although this is a difficult message for our staff, we felt it only right to share our plans with them as soon as this proposal had been confirmed.
“The proposal fits in with our strategy and long-term plans to create a better, more customer-focused organisation. Our priority now is to support our staff as best we can during this period.”
The firm’s West Midlands spokesman Rebecca Burke reckons if the department did close some of the Dudley calls could be handled by staff in Manchester.
But the firm also has an office in Manilla where some of the work could go.
She added: “Hopefully there will be some opportunities for Dudley staff who are willing to relocate.”
Virgin Media recently announced a loss of £50m after it slashed the balance sheet value of its home shopping business.
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Oh thats just great. I love cable but its hard enough to get technical help when you call them in this country. Now we have to suffer the great language divide that is caused by these stupid, idiot foreign call centres that can only just about understand hello and goodbye!!!!!
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This is terrible news for the workers, especially at this time when we are all feeling the pinch of the credit crunch / recession
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Greedy Richard Branson.
Dont fly Virgin !
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“plans to create a better, more customer-focused organisation.” oh really, nothing to do with increasing company profits and to hell with the customers then ?. Lets hope the Filipinos speak better English than the Indian ones that companies are so fond of using these days, who a lot of the time are unintelligible!
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If I had a contract with Virgin Media I would be cancelling it right now. Moving jobs overseas has become unsupportable as far as I am concerned. What can they mean by a more customer-focused organisation, what have they got now I wonder, it’s just a way of getting the job done cheaper but still expecting British people to pay for the service
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I suppose we will see Virgin Media loose a lot of custom, once the move happens. Its very difficult to get the person on the other end of the phone to actually grasp what it is you want, when they do not understand regional accents etc. They are more likely to move to a company who has the call centre in the UK.
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thats it source all the work out to foreigners who cant speak english , well done virgin
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WELL DONE BRANSON, A GREAT WAY TO LOSE MORE CUSTOMERS! HAVING HAD MANY DEALINGS WITH THESE FORIEGN CALL CENTRES OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS, I HAVE YET TO FIND ONE THAT SOLVED MY PROBLEM, BAD UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, TIME DELAY AFTER SPEAKING BEFORE THEY ANSWER , I FOUND I WAS CONSTANTLY SAYING HELLO, ARE YOU STILL THERE?, ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PROBLEMS YOU ARE FACED WITH. I`VE ACTUALLY CANCELLED MY CONTRACT WITH VIRGIN NOW
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Mind you…if you shout and swear at a foreign call centre they can’t prosecute you. :)
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Yet the Virgin group are said to be close to sponsoring the brawn GP formula one team. Nice to know they have money for such follies yet can’t keep 120 people in a job.
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Its diabolicle, I actually ended up in serious trouble because my bank’s call centre is in india. I rang up for advice, the gentleman on the end of the phone who happened to be based in india could not understand what I was trying to get across. It ended up him giving me advice that was totally wrong which resulted in me having problems with my direct debits and got me into a lot of problems. So why bother, yes it may be cheaper, but you never get the service you want.
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We have broadband,phone and FOUR digital boxes and believe me, every one of them will be cancelled from this money grabbing firm who gives not a toss about their staff in this country who need the work more than ever. I am appalled and will never support a firm with these tactics with any of my money, so goodbye Virgin, you have lost yet another customer.
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Virgin are doing this because they need to save money, Virgin are about to sponsor the Brawn Formula One team. Instead of wasting money on F1 why don’t Virgin use this money to keep jobs in the UK? Virgin have also just sent emails out to customers saying that prices are to increase from May. More money in their coffers, but by moving jobs abroad they are saving even more money. Just pure greed!!!!!
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time to cancel my account
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they wont be wasting money on F1, theyll be using it to sponsor a great team!
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I dont see what the proble is..we live in a free world, if Sir Richard Branson believes the company will strenghten through moving then good for him, we should encourage entreprenuers
Anyway as the Prime Minister says here are 500.000 jobs ot there so stop crying and get to the job centre.
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Well, thats my account they’ve lost- phone, internet and full tv package… Have any of you ever tried to report or rectify a fault with these guys? I’m too old to learn another language !!!!
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It makes me sick to think of yet more UK jobs being shipped abroad to prop up their economies! When will the brain dead bosses of these greedy organisations realise the more UK jobs we ship off shore the more it undermines OUR economy?! I bank with Lloyds TSB and they for a while moved their call centre to India. It was like banging your head against a wall when you called them. Fortunately enough of us complained and thankfully they moved it back here! I threatened to move to another bank. If enough people protest you do seem eventually to be listened too.
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so the wanted “to share our plans with them as soon as this proposal had been confirmed”. these plans have been known for months but they kept the staff in the dark till the last momment. despite what they say they treat the staff like a disposable commodity but what they are losing is experienced staff that do try to help customers in other ways than just trying to sell them stuff and experience is something that is gained , no trained
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Torquay Man I really hope you are joking. My brother has worked there for years and has a wife and 2 kids to support. The story is different to what has been reported in the paper. He walked into work and was told he WAS losing his job in 90 days. This ‘consultation period’ and ‘possible job losses’ is crap! The jobs are definately gone. And as for the Prime Minister and his 500,000 jobs…the blokes clueless and a friend of mine who works at job centre plus says the figures are completely made up. See if your so thoughtless in your comments if your job suddenly disappears
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i work for them and beleive me they treat all staff badly and have no concern whatsoever about the staff.just another poor decision by the virgin hierarchy as usual
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Well i think thats a ridiculous statement torquay man, out sourcing jobs is a crime and un patriotic!
I happen to be one of the affected and its one of the worst feelings to be told that you job has moved to a coutry where they probably work for shoe laces!
Richard, you have let us down, and let yourself down, your no different than bt and sky
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16) Have you ever tried speaking to a foreign call centre? judging by your comments you couldn’t have, surely?
As for you applauding 120 English jobs going abroad to make Mr Branson more profit, when I would imagine most of his vast fortune was originally made in the U.K., shame on you.
The 500,000 jobs the P.M. speaks of are not real jobs, in that a married man (or woman for that matter) could raise a family, or buy a home on, without having to rely on top up benefits, in other words YOU and other tax payers are subsidising companies to pay low wages, how is that a good thing?
Plus the P.M. says there are 500,000 jobs, this is the same P.M. who’s Government keeps telling us we are on the verge of deflation, where as anyone who shops for groceries regularly will tell you over the past 12 months lots of items have doubled in price (and still rise week on week) while I cant think of any that have fallen, and you believe him!
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until the government realises we need to bring back manufactoring to this country and scrap most of these cheap and nasty imports then what chance do we have to stop greedy smug butt wipe like these tosspots movig british jobs overseas when there are no jobs available in this country then people will not be able to afford their services serves them right if they go bump
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More jobs lost to overseas, this may improve Virgins strength, at maj=king money,but where does this leave British workers? Yes at the job Centre, Who quite frankly cant cope with amount of un employed workers. Oh yes sorry I forgot the words that come from Gordon Browns mouth are gospel, the majority of people in this country are brain washed! Good luck to all Telesales.
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I think its a crying shame.Yes, they will be losing many customers and i’ll be one added to the list also. Yes, 1st of May ,they’ll be charging their customers £1.25 a month for senting out their bill in the post. Never heard of such in my life, its just pure greed.
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this is why virgin are charging existing customers more, my bill keeps going up in price yet still have the same service, i am cancelling mine also because new customers get better deals and cheaper bills than existing customers, virgin media if your cutting jobs then you have more money so why not cut the high prices for customers who have been with virgin over 12 months.
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“The proposal fits in with our strategy and long-term plans to create a better, more customer-focused organisation”
Does it Mr Berkett! Do you know I hear people like you say this type of thing so many times. I would have a lot more respect for you if you came out with the true and said it will save us a fortune if we move our call centre, we don’t really care that much about customers and besides the ones we loose will be easily off set by the savings!
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Turkey Man – do you have no national pride ? Is greed your mantra ? Do you believe everything politicians say ? Being a Turkey man, what exactly is your interest in job losses in the Midlands ?
People have to realise that companies like greedy Vigin are using the “credit crunch” as an excuse to cut jobs and make more profit. The only way to get back at them is not to give them your money. This stupid goverment needs to do more to stop jobs being shipped abroad.
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now here’s me thinking the word british jobs for british workers was starting to work, but no sack our workers and pay a phillinno 1 pound an hour yet our cable bills keep rising,will the last british worker please turn the light off when we close down,and thats only if swaosky the pole as changed the bulb.
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torquay man today paignton man tomorrow you sir are an idiot
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torquay man… trust you are nice and comfy in youre full time job… i am one of the 120 to be made redundant,
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well Mr Torquay are you ‘BAD MAN BRANSONS’ grandad cus you are obviously very old to have such a pig headed attitude. I happen to be one of the ‘evicted’ staff, anyway enough about you, your comments dont hurt half as much as the dirty deed old Branson has done on his faithful workers.. Our country will soon be a NATION OF SHOP KEEPERS ONLY (and we know who run those) all companies are taking this ‘easy money’ option of providing work to foreigners and robbing their own fellow man/woman of work when are the wasters in downing street going to pass a law against them doing this.
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I think you’ve all missed the last line of the article – “Virgin Media recently announced a loss of £50m”… they aren’t making any money!
The company is made up of the legacy Telewest Broadband, NTL and Virgin Mobile companies. Inevitably when you bring 3 companies together there are departments that are doing the same thing and they can be streamlined. That’s all that Virgin Media are doing.
They already have telesales staff in Manilla – and the reason for using the Phillipines is that their language skills are substantially better. Most employees over there are educated to degree-level and speak English with an American accent.
I have every sympathy for those people losing their jobs, but in truth it’s a BUSINESS decision and trying to get the company into a position where it will be profit-making. So losing a few hundred staff to safeguard the jobs of thousands is a good move… but it’s just never pleasant for those people affected.
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Oooh I should say that the Phillipine’s language skills are better than India… not better than English people – ooops!
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Myself and my wife both work in the department that’s closing, so it’s a double blow to us. We feel totally let down by Virgin after giving a total of 11 years of our lives to the company.
Thanks to everyone who have given their support here, and to respond to the few negative comments, I just hope you’re never in the same position.
And finaly… with part of our redundancy, we plan to get Sky installed :)
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I cannot recall any support from whingers when I was made redundant. It was always NIMBY. How many of these people drive foreign cars, watch foreign TVs, etc etc. This is how the British industry disappeared-no support in the interest of lower prices.
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Virgin Media is a merger between telewest and NTL. NTL were and are notorious for poor customer service standards. Telewest used to be ok but ever since NTL came on the scene, virtually all of the call centres have been outsourced to emerging economies. Im almost certain that NTL stood no chance of competing in the market without this rebranding because they had been found out. Just a shame that they have dragged Telewest with them. This is another example of their cheap customer service standards. Im surprised that Branson would even put his name to this lot.
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News has just been dropped on you?? I think not, this has been in the pipeline for ages and has even been printed in the press before as rumours etc!! It’s company that isn’t the first and wont be the last that will do this! This is life, deal with it!!
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Well I have had one service or another from them for years………this is the last straw………..I’m off to BT and Sky more choice and at least if you have a complaint you cant talk to a BRIT………..Wonder how Branson is financing his new F1 race team with Brawn GP ! brilliant marketing move VIRGIN losers !
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Well said Ernie!!!!!
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