Hiya Simon and Jo...
I've just blogged about some intensely shoddy service I received from Virgin Mobile in South Africa. Someone commenting on the blog post found your details on the UK site. So I thought it would be appropriate for you to know what's being done to your brand here in South Africa.
It mystifies me that the people I've been dealing with have been unable, unwilling, or unmotivated to escalate my trouble up to a level of competence, where it could have been dealt with.
This started out with my girlfriend switching to Virgin thanks to me. We both went in-store to purchase new Nokia N95 handsets. She was able to get one there and then. I was told I had to do the deal with Virgin Mobile Telesales, since I was already a customer. The rule, as it was explained to me, was that I could only buy a phone instore if I were willing to take a new contract, with a new phone number.
Strike one against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Then I went through the exciting process of ordering a phone via telesales. Creason assured me the phone was on its way. A week later, and I was told that Creason didn't submit the order.
Strike two against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Mark Jackson, apparently the head of customer complaints. I asked for my phone to be delivered yesterday afternoon by close of play. He promised to get back to me with confirmation of that. And didn't.
Strike three against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
The final straw came with this morning's incompetence with one of the call centre supervisors -- Jacob Lesufi. He steadfastly refused to contact Mark Jackson at my request. And has effectively lost Virgin my business.
The interesting thing about all of this is not the loss of my business. I'm sure I'm a VERY small cog in a very big wheel. My business is surely trivial in the scheme of things. What's interesting is that I have shared my experience on Twitter and Facebook and my blog. And it appears as though Virgin Mobile in South Africa is now finding itself in the centre of a feeding frenzy.
The trouble with characters like Jacob Lesufi and Mark Jackson is that they really have no idea how potentially damaging an interaction can be. In today's networked, connected, instant-chat world, the sphere of influence of one individual is a lot more widespread than one might imagine.
I'm hoping that contacting you will do two things:
1. Prevent Virgin Mobile South Africa from losing my business (though that's VERY doubtful; my mind is pretty much made up -- the treatment I've received is shoddy, to say the very least, and actually infuriating).
2. Give you some insight into what's happening with the Virgin brand here in South Africa. I'm sure you'll want to take steps to prevent this kind of debacle from happening again.
It's telling to me that your names, email addresses and mobile numbers are freely available on your website. Whereas the South African website simply offers a fax number, a generic email address, and the call centre number. Not a good sign.
Thanks for reading this. And I wish you a happy weekend.
(By the way... if this situation is to be resolved, it really has to be done today (Saturday), or tomorrow. I'm not available on Monday, as we're shooting a promo for a weekly continent-wide business television show that I'm co-anchoring as of October 4. The show is called Kaleidoscope, and it's on CNBC AFRICA.)
Blue skies
love
Roy
PS: I haven't even received an automated confirmation email from 'notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za. Shoddy? Yeah. I reckon.
PPS: Enclosed is a screen shot of some of the responses I've received on Twitter.
--
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email: royblumenthal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
I've just blogged about some intensely shoddy service I received from Virgin Mobile in South Africa. Someone commenting on the blog post found your details on the UK site. So I thought it would be appropriate for you to know what's being done to your brand here in South Africa.
It mystifies me that the people I've been dealing with have been unable, unwilling, or unmotivated to escalate my trouble up to a level of competence, where it could have been dealt with.
This started out with my girlfriend switching to Virgin thanks to me. We both went in-store to purchase new Nokia N95 handsets. She was able to get one there and then. I was told I had to do the deal with Virgin Mobile Telesales, since I was already a customer. The rule, as it was explained to me, was that I could only buy a phone instore if I were willing to take a new contract, with a new phone number.
Strike one against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Then I went through the exciting process of ordering a phone via telesales. Creason assured me the phone was on its way. A week later, and I was told that Creason didn't submit the order.
Strike two against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Mark Jackson, apparently the head of customer complaints. I asked for my phone to be delivered yesterday afternoon by close of play. He promised to get back to me with confirmation of that. And didn't.
Strike three against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
The final straw came with this morning's incompetence with one of the call centre supervisors -- Jacob Lesufi. He steadfastly refused to contact Mark Jackson at my request. And has effectively lost Virgin my business.
The interesting thing about all of this is not the loss of my business. I'm sure I'm a VERY small cog in a very big wheel. My business is surely trivial in the scheme of things. What's interesting is that I have shared my experience on Twitter and Facebook and my blog. And it appears as though Virgin Mobile in South Africa is now finding itself in the centre of a feeding frenzy.
The trouble with characters like Jacob Lesufi and Mark Jackson is that they really have no idea how potentially damaging an interaction can be. In today's networked, connected, instant-chat world, the sphere of influence of one individual is a lot more widespread than one might imagine.
I'm hoping that contacting you will do two things:
1. Prevent Virgin Mobile South Africa from losing my business (though that's VERY doubtful; my mind is pretty much made up -- the treatment I've received is shoddy, to say the very least, and actually infuriating).
2. Give you some insight into what's happening with the Virgin brand here in South Africa. I'm sure you'll want to take steps to prevent this kind of debacle from happening again.
It's telling to me that your names, email addresses and mobile numbers are freely available on your website. Whereas the South African website simply offers a fax number, a generic email address, and the call centre number. Not a good sign.
Thanks for reading this. And I wish you a happy weekend.
(By the way... if this situation is to be resolved, it really has to be done today (Saturday), or tomorrow. I'm not available on Monday, as we're shooting a promo for a weekly continent-wide business television show that I'm co-anchoring as of October 4. The show is called Kaleidoscope, and it's on CNBC AFRICA.)
Blue skies
love
Roy
PS: I haven't even received an automated confirmation email from 'notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za. Shoddy? Yeah. I reckon.
PPS: Enclosed is a screen shot of some of the responses I've received on Twitter.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roy Blumenthal <royblumenthal@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Subject: Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business
To: notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za
From: Roy Blumenthal <royblumenthal@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Subject: Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business
To: notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za
Hiya Folks...
Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business.
Three people are primarily responsible for this mess:
The blog post names and shames your people. And outlines the chronology.
I've had THE most shocking lack of customer service from you guys. It mystifies me. Completely.
I will be ending my relationship with Virgin as soon as I've sorted out a deal with another provider.
Blue skies
love
Roy
--
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email:
royblumenthal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business.
Three people are primarily responsible for this mess:
- Mark Jackson for not keeping his promises.
- Jacob Lesufi for refusing to call Mark.
- Creason for not placing my original order.
The blog post names and shames your people. And outlines the chronology.
I've had THE most shocking lack of customer service from you guys. It mystifies me. Completely.
I will be ending my relationship with Virgin as soon as I've sorted out a deal with another provider.
Blue skies
love
Roy
--
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email:
royblumenthal@gmail.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
--
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email: royblumenthal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
So glad to hear that Virgin Mobile is STILL the best in the country!
ReplyDeleteEveryone makes mistakes - it's how much you learn from them that makes the difference.
And Roy, I'm glad that you've apologized somewhat. While I sincerely appreciate & understand what happened - I would've done something similar - I think it's great that you've given us the full facts behind the story.
Essentially: Virgin Mobile messed up, Roy got upset, VM messed up again & Roy got more upset. And this whole vicious circle would've continued until someone actually stood-up & said "Hold on. Let's just solve the problem."
Thanks for the update, thanks Roy for the story & thanks Virgin Mobile for giving us the Truth about how much the other mobile operators are screwing us over!
Yo Marcel...
ReplyDeleteThanks for your summary of the situation. You completely nailed it! Brilliant precis!
If you haven't yet seen it, I've written a full apology with some explanations of the learnings Virgin has taken from this.
It's at http://schmucknews.blogspot.com/2008/09/apology-to-edmund-reddy-and-thank-you.html.
Blue skies
love
Roy