US vs UK call centres

Why is there such a huge difference between the levels of customer service one receives when calling the US reservations or flying club numbers as opposed to the UK ones?

The UK staff are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The US agents are (or at least have been in my experience) rude, unhelpful, and at times downright incompetent, so much so that I've stopped calling them. Instead, I call pay the long distance charge and call the UK number. Even though I'm a US Flying Club member now, they're still able to help with most everything I need, as was brilliantly illustrated by the call I placed to them today.

The US team should take lessons from their UK counterparts...

KB

[Decker]

That's sad to hear... do you use a calling card like http://www.idt.net? (No commercial interest in them - we just use them ourselves and have been quite happy) That at least will take the sting out of the long distance fee

[mitchja]

I have only had to call VS in the US once and I have to say they were fantastic (mind you it was 2 days after 9/11 and I was ringing to find out how I was going to get home) - I do often wonder why the US number is a toll-free number unlike the UK non-gold FC numbers [?]

There was a press article in November last year that Virgin were going to transfer their call centre to India starting in January 2004. I don't know if this did or is happening. I seem to remember a Steve Ridgeway quote that they planned to move "all of the back office" to India and would use VS as the start for all Virgin Group companies.

I phoned the US number when I was in SFO last month. My call was queued for 15-20 minutes and when I finally got through to ask my query about exit row seats the agent said "you probably have more of an idea than I do."

Which of course I didn't, hence my call.

No experience as yet of calling the UK number.

Virgin have NO plans to move ANY of its call centres to India!!!

Was going to say that BA could have a good ole laugh at the VS 'Britains Flag Carrier' marketing if they did relocate- but then remembered FT discussion on where AskBA is now based...Poppadom anybody???

[Decker]

James

My call FWIW is that the US has a much more 800 based culture than we do AND if you're going to be in a hold queue for 20 minutes it'd better be a free call

[mitchja]

True

I've often wondered what would happen if, as a Silver FC member, I accidently called the UK free 0800 Gold FC number by mistake!!! hehe

I actually had an odd experience with Virgin's call centre (center?) in the US. It was during the big storms maybe 6 months back; the Virgin website said that Virgin were allowing customers to change flights if they were nervous about flying - I wanted to take advantage of this (I wasn't so much nervous as wanting to get home for a footy match, but I digress).

The statement was on the VS INTERnet site, but not the VS INTRAnet site. Apparently, US based call center staff don't have web access and so could only see the the INTRAnet site. It seems the Intranet site looks very similar indeed, and so I was telling the poor lady where to click and she was clicking there - and seeing nothing. Which meant that the person I spoke to thought I was making it up. She asked her boss about this, and he/she was none the wiser about the policy... Eventually, they agreed that if I take a screendump of the VS website and fax it to them, she would take my word for it.

Which I did.

But the VS US faxmachine was on the blink.

Anyway after repeated efforts, I gave up and called the UK who sorted it. I have to say though, that the US lady was very nice and it was more a failure of the VS Internal communications than any error on her part.

Ironically, American Airlines' US support line is far, far, far better than its UK based equivalent - in my experience.

quote:Originally posted by kb3535-
Why is there such a huge difference between the levels of customer service one receives when calling the US reservations or flying club numbers as opposed to the UK ones?

To be honest, I've not noticed any difference between the two. Each time I've rung, I've been treated with supreme efficiency and friendliness. IMHO, top marks to the VS phone-staffers

[RichardMannion]

I always call the UK centre, regardless of where I am. Too used to the Premier Team service

Thanks,
Richard