DVLA tosses Virgin Media £6.7m in 3-year phone deal The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has signed a £6.7m, three-year deal with Virgin Media Business to provide its business phone lines, supported by a hosted call management system. It will be hosted on the company's fibre optic network and route all of the agency's incoming calls to its non-geographic numbers …
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"With 44 million drivers and 34 million vehicle keepers in Great Britain, it's vitally important that when our customers want to contact us to discuss the services we provide them, they are able to do so in the most reliable and cost efficient way possible"
But the menu system will still be bamboozling, and you'll still wait 45 minutes to speak to someone right?
Uh-huh. I’m guessing you’ve never modified a vehicle to an extent that changes are notifiable to the DVLA, such as changed the engine? Then actual human beings make decisions and send you letters, asking for proof that the work was completed, such as an invoice from the garage that did the work. Which is tricky when you did the work yourself.
As it transpires, I’ve found that on the phone the operatives have proved very helpful. It’s the idiots who draft the rules that the operatives must slavishly follow that are the real useless dullards, with the rules serving no purpose other than to provide more work for the DVLA. May these mandarin’s undergarments be infested with the fleas of a thousand camels.
That said, I agree with you, for the vast majority of the DVLAs ‘customers’ (I hate that word, as customer implies you have a choice about giving them your business) – they will never need to phone them, but those of us who like to fettle our vehicles the story is very different.
Also, perhaps the DVLA would oblige its customers by refraining from selling their data to anyone it deems fit (I.e. proffers a cheque book).
/rant
Um, what with VM getting rid of call centres, massively downsizing it's CTIO division, axing half of it's risk, insurance, finance and procurement teams (to name but a few), putting huge resources into home products, relocating and centralising staff etc. does anyone think that they'll have the right level of commitment to be able to improve on the current DVLA service? I don't. I know from insiders (I was one) just how much staff are struggling to cope with work loads as it is.
I'm sure someone from VM will be happy to put me wrong though.
I am not happy with the idea of any private (for profit) company having any access to my personal data apart from what I choose to give them when I voluntarily deal with them directly.
I do not have any option but to deal with the DVLA. It appears they can get anyone in to do stuff. VM is OK as companies go, but what happens when next time the DVLA give the contract to something controlled by Rupert Murdoch for example?
This is a slippery slope
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