Virgin Digital Help vs the GadgetHelpline.com

Posted by
December 16, 2009

virgin-digital-gadgethelpline

Ok, Yes we know that we are just shamelessly self promoting here but, in the recent tech news of Virgin starting up a new Virgin Digital Service similar to our GadgetHelpline service, we thought we would weigh in with our opinions….

Virgin Digital Help is too Expensive too Impersonal

Virgin has launched a digital help service for gadgets but it is expensive and in its basic form impersonal whereas we at the Gadget Helpline are a UK based impartial service with no corporate tie in. We won’t recommend Virgin Media to you unless it’s the best available service for your situation.

On Virgin Digital Help for £2.99 per month you get access to effectively a raft of digital handbooks. You could call the www.Gadgethelpline.com for a £2.99 per month fixed price and get all the bells and whistles on offer at Virgin and talk to a live operator. Gadget Helpline also offer a 30 day free trial to the service so that’s 30 days of free help on the full service. If you don’t like it then fine, its FREE!

Virgin Digital Help’s tech team are based in the Philippines

The free live service is based on a team of people giving advice in the Philippines, and Virgin Digital Help say that they shall only employ 10 people in the UK. Foreign call centres in the technology space have proven to be ineffective to the UK based consumer and there is a general re-focus on UK based technical call centres for the Consumer Electronics industry in the UK.

Now we at the GadgetHelpine pride ourselves in being a UK based company who employ people who love gadgets and offer a completely impartial advice.

Virgin Digital doesn’t cover AV and TV support.

Its a bit of a side note for Virgin Digital Help but we at the GadgetHelpline offer support on all household entertainment goods. In fact we love calls on TVs as we love TV, and who doesn’t like talking about something they love!

We cover MP3 players, flat screen TVs, DVD players, games consoles, satellite receivers, digital cameras, video cameras, mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, computer printers and scanners, satellite navigation devices, fax machines, answering machines, home audio systems and PCs… phew! I’m out of breath just writing that.

Virgin digitals phone support is £6.99 a month, while home visits start from £90.

So that’s £6.99 just to speak to a real person instead of just using a computer service and its also a minimum contract of 3 months for the phone support. Whats more you get allocated a annual allowance of minutes that start at 20 minutes a month. Now we at the GadgetHelpline offer full one on one support with an agent and free callbacks for serious issues with no timescales and no annual allowance. We also offer free Tips, News and features on our blog.gadgethelpline.com website as well as interactive manuals and self help guides.

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  • http://tiscali Ralph Phillips

    Plagiarism is the best form of flattery, especially from one so renowned for knowing his onions

  • Pingback: Digital Helpline War: Virgin Digital Help Vs Gadget Helpline | UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping

  • http://Google.com Philip Pines

    Virgin just started and it is very early to judge. I have been calling numerous support lines and get help from the Philippines, all I can say is that the Support personnel down there are Excellent….

  • http://www.yahoo.com sm@sh

    Philip Pines is right…it’s very early to judge since this company just started…just a comment on gadgethelpline, you don’t even have your terms and conditions in your website…show it…so that all the people can know about how you run your business…thanks God there’s Virgin Digital Help!

  • Luzvi Minda

    yes… its too early to judge… lets just wait and see…

  • Aiza

    ive just called virgin digital help and i find it great.. they also took over my computer.. it was just amazing!!!

  • Batman

    ISSUE : Virgin Digital Help call center based in the Philippines

    UK has a very diversed culture and one Britt may have several Asian friends (Indians, Chinese, and yes – Filipinos).
    Ask one if they had any difficulties in communicating with them as long as English is used.
    Call centers in the Philippines play a major role in providing excellent global service.
    Most Filipinos speak English well and they are the ones hired by call centers.
    But what is very inate in Filipinos is that they are naturally warm and caring, thus you will expect excellent customer service that you may not find elsewhere.

  • Batman

    ISSUE : Timely launching of Virgin Digital Help

    Peolpe have asked why Virgin, which is an established company, just launched it’s Digital Help service when others had been doing it for quite some time now.
    Virgin is known for being the Customers’ Champ.
    Virgin Digital Help was formed believing that UK consumers are being underserved when it comes to finding help with their digital kits.
    It is therefore very timely for them to launch this endeavor to provide UK consumers with a better alternative in finding help in a very human way.
    It is too early to judge but consumers will give its trust because they believe that Virgin will be their champion and savior from their digital stress.

  • Batman

    ISSUE : Competitors have lower pricing than Virgin Digital Help

    Excellent customer service does not come cheap.
    It is the value for your money that counts the most and how you are treated.

  • Riz

    Hi Batman, I’m an indian myself so I know exactly what you mean but technical issues are difficult to communicate and variations of technology around the world may cause some difficulty in getting to the bottom of the problem. I have often spoken to indian call centres, although they are warm and helpful, they do struggle to understand the problem and often failed to serve my needs leaving me frustrated.

    Your right in saying its early to judge too but we should be talking about it so we can improve the way we’re served, right?

  • Jean Grey

    I trust Virgin. I think we should give them a chance to show what they can do to help not too savvy customers (like me). After all, you guys are all in one roof — To help customers fix their gadgets/pc with great customer service. :)

  • Judas

    hmm… isn’t it fun to have a competition between two service providers? well.. lets see who’s the best.. but seems like i dont hear anything from virgin yet.. the post seems to be bias if the other party is not responding.. OR MAYBE just trying to have some extra advertisement assistance from a top leading company.. too bad :(

  • KobeBr

    @ riz – you are an Indian.. we know that.. but when it comes to technology, Filipinos are more technical savvy than anybody else… have you tried calling for a technical support in the Philippines? When it comes to technical issues, try calling Virgin Digital Help.. and let’s see..even your mobile phone, we can do a remote session that can never be done by any support line..

  • blacksmith

    Why dont we try Virgin Digital Help first same as what we did to the gadgethelpline, I think those guys deserve a shot and Im sure that they are good as well. And I dont see anything wrong if the people from Virgin support are from the philippines.

  • Jonathan

    The Gadgethelpline’s T&C’s are availible on the Home screen at the footer of the page.

  • Richard B.

    Your company keeps on comparing prices, but have you ever consider that most customers (specially me) really doesnt care about how much a service is going to cost us. Maybe your company should start focusing on service rather than prices, I’ve been a ‘Virgin’ customer for years now and i must say they are the best when it comes to “Customer Service”. Your company on the other hand is not :(

  • Clare

    I saw the internal marketing slides for VDH before its’ launch and their primary market is the “affluent” who can pay top dollar for a service rather than the little people who cant. I always considered and respected Virgin for being a company that tried to look after the “normal” people and provided first class service but have lost some respect for them now knowing they aren’t really interested in anyone who has limited financial means

  • Ben10

    @ Clare

    The word “affluent” was used for the purpose of feasibility studies to target a group of consumers that may surely patronize VDH to contribute to its success. But the service is not limited to this group of people only. VDH is for people having digital stress and doesn’t know where to turn to. VDH has a competitive pricing scheme but customer satisfaction is highly expected – and that is what Virgin is all about. It’s people and service that come first. Profit is second only just to keep everything going.

  • Eagle One

    @ Clare

    When you said that you saw the slides on their pre-launch, it seems you HAD BEEN part of the Virgin team. And yes, the term “affluent” was used as the target of VDH on the pre-launch.

    Ben10 had a good explanation on why the term was used.

    I am a part of the team and I am proud where I belong. It’s so sad that someone like you who used to be part of us is feeling otherwise. And I assume you are no longer a part of this group.

    I’m just wondering why. Sour graping, perhaps??? ;D

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