back to article UK2 brings support back to Blighty, culls execs

Hosting provider UK2 has shut its overseas call centres in favour of a UK support team and this week culled executives as part of a major reorganisation. About 40 jobs went in India and about 35 in Ukraine when the firm made the switch. Managing director Ditlev Bredahl said: "We actually think that the overall changes we've …

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  1. Paul Murphy

    Something is wrong - a disturbance in the force

    Can it be that a UK company is actually deciding that having people that can speak it's customers language, share their timezone and talk to them in person is desirable?

    Must be 1st of April or something.

    Or maybe someone has done what they feel is necessary and then told the accountants to shut up, rather than listening to the accountants first.

    I really hope this works out for the company, it's about time that this exporting of our jobs is halted, it just doesn't make any long-term sense.

    ttfn

  2. Shakje

    Are UK2 any good at hosting?

    Assuming it's the same people who did the awful CS servers...

  3. Daniel Voyce
    Thumb Up

    This company seriously impresses me!

    At the moment they cant seem to do any wrong, they have introduced VPS.NET a cloud computing service, Ditlev isnt afraid to get stuck in with his client base and talk to the average joe's and now supporting the UK economy / saving themselves from Irate customers having to deal with retards overseas.

    Overall I think they have completely the correct ethos as a company, I would love to hear some employee reviews of working there as I would seriously consider applying to work there! (And no - i dont work there - this is a genuine congratulation!)

    Congratulations Ditlev and all at UK2!!

  4. Kerberos
    Thumb Up

    Good!

    I've been looking for a new hosting provider, I'll take a look since it seems their head is in the right place.

    The last thing you want when your website has just died is to speak to a powerless minimum-wage lacky with a call script.

  5. Andy

    UK2 have support?!

    First I heard about it.

  6. Aaron
    Thumb Up

    There is a god

    Thank god another company has seen the light, bring the uk jobs back, increase the service level's and customer satisfaction and save just as much money by sacking the mornon's who originally pushed for the outsourcing in the first place (as they sure aren't helping your company image at all).

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    no impact full stop

    "On Tuesday UK2 also canned its Operations Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Marketing Director. Bredahl said the purge would have no impact on customers."

    this has to be the best bit.... It would have been even more accurate if he had cut the sentence short of the last two words....

  8. Ihre Papiere Bitte!!
    Coat

    "No impact on customers"

    "On Tuesday UK2 also canned its Operations Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Marketing Director. Bredahl said the purge would have no impact on customers."

    Sure it will. it'll reduce the efficacy of the incense-scented synergised blue-sky envelope-pushing paradigms! And THEN what will we do? We're doomed, I tells ya - DOOMED!

    Ah? The one with the Strategy Boutique logo? Many Thanks...

  9. Lionel Baden

    ohh i know who i will be recommending !!!

    good on em

    wd for sacking the useless execs as well tbh !

    they were the freeloaders expecting to get paid to sit on their asses while all the idiots in the second world followed scripts for 20 pence per hour

  10. G Murphy

    @ Paul Murphy

    Actually, in the long term, in a gloablized world, it makes perfect sense to use cheaper workers no matter where they are in the world.

    The problem is that it makes no sense in the short term: customers want support staff that can communicate fluently and identify with them and a significant proportion of foreign support staff aren't up to scratch yet [although the indian call staff at BT apologise more sincerely than most UK call staff ever have, still nothing ever seems to get sorted so what's the difference?]

  11. The Jase

    Now all they need to do

    Is drop their prices to a reasonable level

  12. TeeCee Gold badge

    Force disturbance #2

    Even more gobsmacking is that the cost-cutting layoffs (de rigeur in the current economic climate) were amongst the *management*.

    I use UK2 and I've always found them bloody marvellous. Having seen this, I'm considering nominating them for sainthood.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Mr Paul

    OK Mr Paul, thanking kindly for your call. My name is Sanj....er, Jason. Fish and chips east enders ok. So I can confirm you want MORE overseas call centre and I bill your credid card 3 times OK with extra premium gold service at £59.99 per day.

    Thank you Mr Murphex, that is all noted.

    My name is David.

    Your reference number is yellow.

  14. Mountford D
    Thumb Up

    UK2 deserves an award

    Excellent decision.

    As a one time victim of a job export, a constant sufferer of off-shore call centres and user of sub-standard systems hacked in India whose programmers clearly demonstrate they really have no clue to UK ethics, culture or language, I guess my view is a bit clouded but UK2 can't do worse and deserves an award for bringing jobs back into the country at a time when they are most needed.

  15. kain preacher

    @Paul Murphy

    Some was seriously pissed off to can the Operations Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Marketing Director. Perhaps those were the three that conceived them it was better to out source over seas ?

  16. Em
    Happy

    Wow

    I remember a few years ago UK2 were the lowest of the low when it came to hosting. It seems they've tidied up their image quite nicely since then.

    After reading some reviews I recently took a punt by using their 'cloud' (I hate the term!) service at vps.net and I have to say their support seems top-notch.

    I only hope they manage to keep it as with big companies like this they can switch direction on customer service at the blink of an eye.

    Well done UK2.

  17. simon

    and now

    ...can they get rid of the charge for "catchall" email forwarding on domains - surely money for old rope?

  18. EdwardP
    Flame

    Wow.

    I've been with 123-Reg for years and I'm very happy with their service, which is what makes this so difficult; I am now seriously considering moving to UK2.

    If this was a publicity stunt, it fucking worked.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I would not......

    give any private details to anyone in Romania, Ukraine or India. I cringe when I am asked for credit cards details by anyone other than a UK company. I do not trust these foreign call centres one jot and sure as hell would not ever give them any useful information, full stop. Fast Hosts ? I would get immediately as far away from them as possible.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New business plan

    1. Save a lot of money when the 40 jobs went in India and around 35 in Ukraine.

    2. Save exactly the same amount of money with the loss of the Operations Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Marketing Director.

    3. Plough all money saved back into the business to get a support department full of UK natives, and therefore higher support quality & customer satisfaction.

    4. Profit!?

  21. Andy
    Thumb Up

    UK2 are not perfect

    It certainly used to be the case that they charged a wacking great fee to transfer a domain away...

  22. Piggy and Tazzy
    Thumb Up

    Well done UK2

    I echo what Daniel Voyce said.

    As a customer of UK2 through it's VPS.Net arm, I think this is an excellent move by them. Ditlev, I've noticed, regularly shows his presence on the customer forums - and can take criticism on the chin and respond humbly. Something I always appreciate.

    As for the rest of the support over there, it's nothing short of excellent in my experience.

    Well done UK2!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    UK2 employ 200 people?!

    You'd never know it if you've every tried to get hold of them!

    What hosting company (of any size) needs 200 people? Crazy!

  24. Apocalypse Later

    spam

    I use them, but their mail servers are regarded with suspicion by other ISPs. I'm always having my mail returned as blocked for spamming. They seem to be down a lot too. Complaints get a response, but it often doesn't seem to address the issue complained of. Will losing a couple of hundred workers help this situation?

    I've taken to complaining to the blocking ISPs as a customer of the blocked mail server. Astonishingly, this sometimes does get mail flowing again, for a while. Maybe they can save on staff by getting their customers to do routine tasks like this.

  25. LaeMi Qian

    Makes sense

    Laying off a manager saves the same money as laying of several workers, and while good management is necessary to keep a business running, many seem to be rather over-managed these days.

  26. Piggy and Tazzy
    Thumb Up

    @ac

    "You'd never know it if you've every tried to get hold of them!"

    Well you could equally apply that to ANY company if you happen to have had a bad experience. Quite honestly though, I've neve had any problems either getting in touch with them or had to wait long for a reply - I've been quite astonished to get responses WITHIN 2 MINUTES at times.

    "What hosting company (of any size) needs 200 people? Crazy!"

    Probably the ones that employ the number of staff the deem necessary to run the company properly. There are way too many fly-by-nights with half a dozen staff trying to sell to, support and keep track of stuff even though they have thousands or tens of thousands of customers.

    Quite frankly, I think that's where UK2 and VPS.net are getting it spot on.

  27. Kev K
    Thumb Down

    UK2 = Fail

    I would actually rather use fasthosts or 1&1 to look after my servers

    & I would also rather nail my testicals to a wall than use either of them for anything

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    No impact on customers ?

    No impact on customers ?

    So it must be pure coincidence that this move was announced at exactly the same time as UK2 trashed the email inbox that they manage for me. Which means I'm back to dealing with their support team. Which means I'll hear back from them in a week's time asking questions that I already answered when I reported the problem - if past performance is anything to go by.

    My experience of these guys is that their service is pricier than the competition, and their service levels are worse. Why do I stay with them ? Pure inertia - I have better things to do with my waking hours than migrate my business to another host. Which means that at some point in time they'll inevitably push me an inch too far.

    Managers are humans too, so I don't see the point in gloating over them losing their jobs. UK2 can present it as a positive if they like, but binning important roles within the organisation such as marketing and HR speaks of a business that's in trouble: no marketing today means fewer new customers tomorrow; no HR today means employee issues later in the week. Wielding the knife in these areas suggests to me that they are in the doo-doo big time. Maybe that's the final push that I needed...

  29. figurewizard

    Save the Cents and the Pounds will take care of themselves

    This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that despite the recent mini rally the pound is still more than 30% down on its value against the dollar some 18 months ago - could it?

  30. Simon B
    Heart

    Shakje: Are UK2 any good at hosting? Answer: YES!

    Are UK2 any good at hosting? By Shakje:

    I can confirm they are. I use them for work and have worked incredibly well for about 8 years or more. For that reason over 5 years ago I used them to host websites form myself and a club I am with. Again always reliable and rarely down.

    Email support I used recently and was painless and the issues was sorted quickly. In the past I tried to call but got a rather blunt twat at the other end that I would have loved to just belt.

    UK2 are expensive compared to others, but I don;t mind paying for the reliability, and ease of use of the whole package.

  31. Adam Silver badge

    Ditlev is the problem

    Not his management or support team. He's the one who decided to start charging for all the "free forever" services that came bundled with their hosting and destroyed the company's reputation for cheap but honest hosting.

    That said, customer service has been better than before recently, although it was non-existent before.

  32. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alert

    Recycled PR

    ""We actually think that the overall changes we've gone through will result in a higher service level.""

    Didn't they say this exact thing when they outsourced to Aturbanstan?

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