Posted: 28th Jul, 2006 By: MarkJ
The Carphone Warehouse has pledged to reduce the waiting time for new connections to its 'up to' 8Mbps broadband and voice (TalkTalk) bundle. To date some 476,000 people have signed up, yet only 400,000 of those can access voice, while just 247,000 are able to get broadband:
"There is no doubt that, on the customer service side, we initially underestimated demand," Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone told the Evening Standard.
"We have expanded that [SUPPORT STAFF] considerably since June, and now have 1,600 people answering calls and emails. That will grow to 2,100 by early September as people complete their training."
Dunstone added that he is "fairly confident" that the company is catching up with demand. "By the end of August, there should be few or no queues at our call centres, and in the autumn we will be telling new customers that we can sign them and connect them within three weeks," he said.
Carphone is continuing to receive 15,000 to 20,000 new applications for its "free" broadband service each week, which will make for a lot of unhappy people when they hit delays.