I take everything back, Virgin Media are RUBBISH!
June 24th, 2007 | Posted in Broadband, Rants, Techy Talk | 22 Comments
Update#3 - 25/7/2007 - It just gets worse. Despite claiming to have added free services to my account, I now have in my hands a bill detailing this months charges… you guessed it, I have been charged for everything. They have since credited back the money and I now have to go back to the Retentions department to ask them to sort the discount out… again! When this company was NTL, I called them a handful of times in 5 years, as Virgin Media I am calling them on average 4 times a month. I told you… baboons.
Update#2 - Looks like all is well again, (hopefully). I managed to speak to someone in their retentions department and they have sorted out my account leaving me with what I was promised. In response to queries regarding the actual broadband service, I have found it be on the whole, reliable and quick. Never really had any real problems, the only issues were with their internal billing system.
Update#1 - They have now given me back my phone number. Not even an apology for the cock-up. To make matters worse, the offer of a broadband upgrade from 4mb to 10 (then 20) hasn’t happened. I have been charged for the 20mb line, and the free 24/7 calls to 01 and 02 numbers also hasn’t happened. Basically, the entire upgrade to keep you as a customer offer never happened. grrr…
In a previous post I talked about how much better NTL had become as a result of their buyout by Virgin. Their customer support was near instant and their service worked smoothly… till recently. This story has to be the stuff urban myths are made of.
It started on Saturday, 24th June. At around 3pm I needed to make an outgoing call. I noticed that there was no dial tone. Naturally, I checked wiring and handsets to make sure all was well. Everything seemed OK. I was in a hurry so left to carry out an errand. Upon returning my wife passed on a message. Apparently, a friend had been trying to call and the phone was being answered by a complete stranger.
An angry call to Virgin Media telephone support later at a cost of god-knows per minute from my mobile (which incidentally took me 9 attempts) led me to the conclusion that they are the most incompetent bunch of baboons you are ever likely use. It turned out that, out of the blue, they cancelled my telephone service and had allocated my telephone number to another household. There was no request for a cancellation on my account, yet they decided, to the amazement of the manager I spoke to, to cancel my account.
Not only is the number the contact number for my web development business, it is also the main number for my other business. I managed to speak to the person who currently has my phone number, she told me that this was the second time it had happened to her. The reason they have my number is because their previous number was also as a result of a phantom request for a line cancellation where the number was the main contact number for another company. As with the previous company, she had received many calls regarding work. In her own words, “you have had calls all day”. So much so that they have taken the phone off the hook.
So, as of 1pm the next day, I am still without a telephone line. Apparently, I have to wait till Monday to reverse the change as that is when the dumb-ass telephone department opens.
Oh, did I mention that I won’t be reimbursed for the loss of earnings, time and the cost of calling their support line from my mobile phone? Idiots I tell you, IDIOTS!
here’s a push up on Reddit - I feel your pain!
I’ve literally spent hours on the phone (on hold and otherwise) for Virgin Media.
btw - great site…
Cheers. :)
I hoped that the Virgin buyout would have been the dawn of a new era for NTL. Oh well… new brand, same old shite!
Some things never change. During my time in the UK I had many interactions with very unsatisfied NTL customers, and that’s why I avoided them like the plague.
Funny how they’re able to turn you off at the switch of a button, yet switching you back on takes ages! It’s crap that they’re not compensating you for the damage, but again that’s not surprising.
Are you thinking of changing your provider? After such a stuff up and lack of compensation I’d recommend looking for a better service. As a Freelancer I’m sure that things like this hurt more than it would for just a standard home set up.
Sounds odd to me, did you try reporting it in their newsgroups?
@OJ - I just spoke to someone at VM, apparently i can only have the number back IF the current owner is willing to release it to me. Procedure apparently, so my reaction was to ask “Where was this procedure when you cancelled my line?” to which the response was an apology then silence.
I may look for alternatives, at least see if what i am getting is value for money.
@Hermes - Any particular groups? I know of nthell.
How about using Skype?
Pay for the phone line number option, and never be out of touch again. Could at least divert to your mobile, to avoid the missed calls.
Even when sunning yourself on holiday you could still be working hard…
I am toying with the idea of skype or skype like services.
I could at long last make use of my call centre headphones that I purchased from Ebuyer for 1.99. :D
Virgin media is the worst service i have ever used.My phone is off,to which i have to wait 5 days for someone to come out.Being on the kidney transfer list didnt make any difference to the baffoon on the phone at VM,my tv works when it wants and sometimes never at all.I could go on but i’ll probably lose it and say something i should’nt.
Dont even consider this company,you would be better off with 2 cans and string and a kalidascope.
Hi Karen
I keep hearing the same thing, time and time again. It’s amazing how a company with the infrastructure they have keep getting things so drastically wrong.
Classic case of money spent on promotion and marketing than on the product itself.
Hi Fiaz,
I again spoke to someone at VM this afternoon,tv problem again.We had been trying to get the tv on all morning (the usual sfuff,unplugging etc etc) but to no avail.When we spoke to VM and was giving the faults he was tapping away on a keyboard,then hey presto,on it came.He then stated that as the tv was ok at that point he wouldnt be able to report the fault.There was no record of our other calls about the tv and i said to him “so what you are saying is that i have to ring again when the fault re-occurs”,yes he said.What a pile of absolute piffle.I then said i wanted to cancel this pile of garbage to which he replied “i cant spend anymore time with you”.Well that did it,i told him to end our contract and they wont get a penny and slammed the phone down.Breach of contract comes into mind so they can try all they want for the money as we aint had no service and they say 30 day money back guarantee,not even had it that long.Freeview is miles better anyway and you can get sky sports news.
Just another useless corperate money grabbing company.
Off to borrow a film off my mate now,its cheaper and works.
So i’m not alone in my bubble of frustration and rage about vm. I’m moving on Monday but VM do not service the road i am moving too, so as a consequence, which is apparrently my fault for having the audacity to move house, I am being charged for the remaining time on my 12 month contract. ( 5 months worth which is a little under £200!!!!!) Already having suffered 7 months of periodic tv shutdown, a phone that rings at all hours of the day and night with nothing but a high pitched squeek when picked up, which makes my arse really gritty at 3am. and a monotone ‘ROBOT’ to talk to at customer services, i am buggered if they are going to get any more money from me. R.B. got filthy rich on the B.S. he spins us. You ever tried to get one of his trains on time?
Iam so peeed off with VM! I had the broadband 2mb installed at my old address when it was ntl, everything seemed to be ok, I moved during my second month of contract and decided to take up the tv size XL on the same day as the name change to VM. Ordering went ok, due for installation a week later, nobody showed up. rang them again on that 0845 number arranged another installation, again no one showed up. My mum then told me they went to my old address to install everything, so I rang them again and they finally came out the next day to install everything. The engineer showed me the broadband working and gave me the new VM broadband disk and told me not to use the old ntl one I already had installed, He also said my TV service would become activated within 24 hours. The next day no TV, so rang them up and they promised it would be on in another 24 hours, next day still no TV. This went on for about a week until finally they must of got so P’d off with me phoning up they actually came out to give me a new virgin branded set top box. This one actually worked and came on within 24 hours. Anyway all was well for about a month then my bill arrived charging me for 2 set top boxes when i only have 1 as they took the old one away, the biggest broadband size and i only had 2mb which was only supposed to be £10 and 100’s of on demand movies. Im so annoyed with them fo everything they have done im refusing to pay the bill. Ive got in touch with the Citizens Advice Bereau who are now trying to battle with them to sort this mess out for me. My advice: NEVER TOUCH VIRGIN MEDIA!!!
Virgin rubbish.
last week we upgrade our broadband from 4mb to 20 mb.
This is not 20mb. Every 1.5 or 2 hours speed going down to 5mb.
Called 5 times to virgin service 090…. Number (25p per min)
1 day virgin say your modem faulty we send you new modem.
2 day virgin want to send me engineer.
3 day New modem arrived and still same problem.
Today somebody from virgin service told me, this is virgin policy management and after you download some limit of data speed always going down for 4 hours.
VIRGIN NEVER SAY THIS WHEN WE OPEN NEW SERVICE OR UPGRADE YOUR SERVICE.
VIRGIN RUBBISH.
I have to say they have royally screwed the broadband quality of service by this merger. With telewest I was enjoying really good quality broadband nice speeds no caps or limits but with Virgin its just plane sh>>> to be nice and as soon as my 12months are up i’m definately moving to ADSL since the exchange is about 50 feet from me.
I also looked into moving to adsl, my exchange isn’t as near. 50 feet?!?, surprised you haven’t moved over to adsl already. :)
I will spread this every……………………
Virgin Media is rubbish. If u not with them yet, please don’t join them. Don’t be fooled with their 2 for £20, 3 for £30 rubbish offer, u’ll regret it. They cant do anything right. If you already with them…. I feel for you….. Count the days to the end of ur contract and get out!
virgin media is such a load of rubbis been waiting since thursday for a phone call from them about repair to phone line, promise after promise.still now phone call have nothing to do with them,or you will be sorry.
Virgin meadia are a nightmare- first last year when they took over my ntl modem stopped working and ended up having to pay £75 for a new one causei made the mistake of tellignthem it fell off my desk and stopped working then jsut before Xmas (around 15th dec 2007)last year my broadband stopped working and they said i would have to wait till 7th jan 2008 for an engineer to come look at it. anyways coem jan 7th a engineer comes out - test the cable and says no he cant fix it as needs a guy to come run a new cable from the exchange- anyways he gives me another appointment for the 17th - so i wait and when the new engineer comes he finds that there is a second cable running to the house and he asks me why the other engineer didnt just use that one. anyhows he links my cable upto that oen and presto it works- no runnign of any cables etc etc. so for all the game subscriptions i lost- all the time i took off work to play some online mmo’s and for the other stuff i lost due to loss of broadband services i got a measly month credited on my account- and they said they cant comepenate me anything else though i have lsot well over £100 due to the fact its residential line and not a business line- Virgin media are a bunch of incompetent idiots!!! amnd this is not the only hasles i have had with them since they took over- endless downtime- endless low bandwidth at peak hours and complained numerous times but nothing ever gets done- i reckon i need to move home to get closer to a bt exchange solelly for the purpose of getting better internet services :P
yep, Virgin Media are rubbish — i reckon the only reason they’re still able to compete in the broadband market is because lots of their customers live too far from BT exchanges to be able to get fast access internet over a BT line — can’t believe how much my service has deteriorated since Telewest got taken over by Virgin last year — they are crap!
…”Virgin Media are rubbish” no they’re much worse, they’re MINCE!!! I’ve got 20MG Broadband going at 2.7MG at best, its total CRAP or Mince if you prefer. Promises of “it will get better,” “there’s upgrades in progress” never seem to come to fruition. NTL weren’t this bad in my opinion!
yea, virgin media are useless. it took em 2 months to install our phone, coz the idiots kept going to the wrong address (and then tried to charge us for u not being in?), i could go on and on but i don’t have a few months to spare. but yea, never again.
Agree total crap,they updated there email on the 18 august,my email was fine till they messed with it,now i have had no email for 2 days and they said it will take up to 5 days,i am sick to the back teeth of this company,i have spent a fortune on phone calls,to be told a load of crap!1 am 100% sure they cock up things so they can get hundreds of thousaands for people phoning up,well my friends,i am going to BT,it cannot be worse than this rabble,Virgin Net should be called very sh**!