Getting Ink

Moving from Virgin (back) to BT

In March of this year, I blogged about the problems I had moving from BT to Virgin. After I blogged about my frustrations, a very nice man from Virgin Media got in touch and did some magic that created my new account, and my broadband was soon up and working. I had three routers, for some reason, but I didn't dwell on it.

The only downside of the intervention was that somehow Mr Nice had created a whole new account for me, and I was paying a direct debit onto the first account I'd created. For some reason, Virgin couldn't get its head around this. So somewhere around June, my phone was cut off because Virgin hadn't collected a payment for three months. I called, paid the bill in full, provided the bank details again. 

Cut to November. A letter arrives from Virgin, saying they're sorry I'm cancelling my service. What?? I log in to my account and discover - again - no payment has been taken for three months. I pay the outstanding balance online and called Virgin on the 10th.

"Well, the thing is you're showing as a former customer, so I can't activate your account."

"Er, okay, well, just tell me what I need to do to get my broadband back."

"Well, it's very complicated."

"Right. So do I need to pay more? Set up a new account?"

"Well, I can't tell you. I'm not sure how long it might take if you did. It's not my department." 

"So, would it be quicker for me to just set up a new BT account and leave this one closed?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe."

I said thanks, put the phone down, went to BT.com and ordered a new broadband account in five minutes flat. I was given an email address and password there and then, with an activation date of the 16th - six days later.  

I'm pretty happy. BT's broadband, in my experience at least, is faster and far more reliable than Virgin, and I'm now paying £20 a month or so for a service that used to cost me more than £120 last time I was with BT. And I get free WiFi in Caffe Nero and Starbucks again, which is no bad thing.

The real stinger in the tail, though, was a letter I got from Virgin the day after my last conversation with them. They wanted me to pay the £11 for broadband and phone service in November - which would usually fall due on November 30th. "If you do not make this payment IMMEDIATELY we will instruct a debt collection agency, who may take legal action against you..."

Blimey, guys, way to make a parting gesture.

Just wrong on every level.

Sometimes you get a voicemail message that's SO amazing - in a bad way - that you have to listen to it three times.

Then you have to put it on speakerphone and ring a friend so they can listen to it too. Then you listen to it again, just to make sure you heard it properly. Wow.

With certain identifying details removed, here's the message a PR exec left on my mobile today:

"Hi Sally, it's --- from ----. I'm just calling about an article you wrote for --- magazine where you quoted ----. It was in the context of talking about a ----- that they had purchased from ----. Now I noticed that the vendor name -----, which is based in -----, is missing. I can see where it should be inserted, but it isn't there.

I'm a bit - well, I'm very unhappy actually because the whole point of us responding to the Response Source request was to promote ----- and they're not even mentioned in the article. And it's not going to be enough for you to just insert -----'s name into the article online, because it's over a month old now, so they wouldn't even get the leverage or the views.

As I said, we're pretty unhappy about it. So I was thinking we could do something else with --- magazine so that ----- can get some coverage. What I'll do is drop you an email and perhaps you could call me as soon as possible..." 

Seriously? I mean, seriously?

For those who aren't sure why this is a hugely inappropriate email to send to a journalist, here are some handy tips:

Providing a customer quote is a great way to increase the odds of your client getting coverage, but if you want a guarantee? Buy an ad.

Sometimes copy gets cut by people other than the writer and for many different reasons. Maybe they need to free up space on the page. Maybe a competitor to your client just bought a big ad next to this feature. Maybe the editor just didn't like the sentence where your client got named. Maybe the customer didn't say anything interesting about you. Blaming the writer won't get you anywhere apart from on their 'don't bother talking to that one next time' list. 

If you don't like something, I suggest calling the editor and asking them to compensate you with another feature that DOES include your client's name. Also, please tape the call and post it online. Cause I'd really love to hear how that works out for you. Or you could just say, "Disappointed we didn't rate a mention there, is there anything else you're working on we could help with? Or perhaps you'd be interested in an exclusive interview with another customer?"

Unbelievable.

Did the journalist die out in 2009?

Most journalists have that experience of telling someone at a party that they're a journalist, only to be met with the hilarious riposte: "ooh, better be careful what we say, eh?" Ho flippin' ho.

Except I'm not sure how many journalists I actually know these days - at least in the sense I understood journalism back when I started out.

One of my former editors has given up B2B journalism in favour of publishing sponsored supplements for CIOs. Another former editor from Emap now commissions me for a website about the use of technology in the NHS - the website is sponsored by a vendor. Another former commissioning ed from a national now commissions me for articles in the national press - but they're supplements paid for by major IT vendors.

I write for a couple of magazines published by professional associations, one magazine published by a University, another published by a government department - but at the moment, I only have one regular client that involves actual, independent journalism (insofar as any business journalism is ever independent of course). 

The remainder of my work is split pretty evenly between writing white papers, websites, blogs and other commercial content and taking on PR clients - at the moment I do PR for a women's development social enterprise, for a pre-school activity provider and an acupuncture clinic. Through my PR work, I started a parenting blog and that's translated into a couple of writing gigs and some fiming work  - on websites owned by a travel company and a major consumer brand. I've also expanded my training to include blogs and social media as well as mainstream media.

Honestly, these days when someone asks me at a party what I do for a living I'm more inclined to say that I'm a "writer" than a journalist - it somehow feels more honest. Is it just me? Are there any bona fide freelance journalists still out there?