Virgin Media/NTL

DonnaDoop · 16 January 2008 at 4:45PM

Can anyone point me inthe direction of a broadband provider which doesnt require a BT line please? We were moved to Virgin when they took over from Telewest in 2006, and ever since, what started out as a £13 bill from Telewest has turned into between £23 - £28 a month depending on how Virgin feel. They have the cheek to charge me £5 a month for a paper bill which I have never once received - then £10 charge for the reminder - which strangely always manages to get through my letter box when I least expect it. I've spent ££s on the phone trying to get it sorted, and now Ive had enough and need an alternative.....any suggestions?

ps reason I need one with no BT line is that tey want £160 to put a phone line in.

hardyone · 16 January 2008 at 5:43PM

Personally I wouldn't go with Virgin. A relative who has it finds it goes very slowly at busy times, and can't even get on sometimes. If you have an NTL subscription already maybe it's right for you, but if you have a BT line I'd go with one of the phone-line based ISPs.

Diamond78 · 16 January 2008 at 11:22PM

Virgin do not know what they are doing.I received a bill again 2day stating £48 plus £10 late charge.Like what the hell.Seriously guys I feel I am loosing the plot with them when I was told I different-I have taken all names down of ppl I have spoken to so when you speak to them ask there name and note it down with the date and time.On the site there is a section where yo can email them.As well as eamiling your complaint send a letter to the address ive provided above someowhere in my pervious post and have a copy for yourself.

I had to ring them up again today due to the landline they provided me.I keep getting calls for someone else who had the number b4 me.I was told they will change the number free of charge as this was an error, how many more errors by VM.I had my 3rd box put in yday and so far no probs but seriously i have had enough.I want out of vm, I cant afford a bt line as they are asking for over £100 quid but I would rather go without.I saw an advery today cant remember if it was carphone warehouse stating you can have broadband for £10 a month and you dont need a landline. SO if i can get rid of virgin then i will do that, my only problem will be tv.I live in a basement flat and have no signal whatso ever, even with freeview.Sky want to charge me over £50 which may not be alot but to me it is and im not going to be here for long-when i say long i will be here for atleast 4 months min .I paid VM a deposit of £25 so if i could get that back then maybe i could think of sky but my landlord wont let me so im stuffed.I emailed bbc watchdog also about virgin,on facebook there is a group or several should i say about unhappy customers-they have also emailed watchdog.Maybe if you email watchdog we might have some luck.

DonnaDoop · 17 January 2008 at 9:05AM

Wow Diamond! sounds like they are giving you a hard time too! I checked my bill online yesterday, and even though I paid them about a week ago my account says there's £53 outstanding ?! I just dont get it. I also looked at their prices on line and basically, for the broadband only service that I have, they only charge £4.99. I sent them an e-mail about my charges and threatened to move elsewhere, but like you, I dont have £100+ that BT want, so if you get any info on the carphone warehouse please post it or PM me. I may be in town today so will try to look into it too!

I was wondering if your building has a TV ariel on the roof that you could link into for freeview, or have a word with your neighbours upstairs who may let you link into theirs?

Diamond78 · 18 January 2008 at 1:30AM

Hi donnadoop, i did check it and actually saw it in the shop window of three, i was on the bis so didnt actually get to see the details.What package are you on with virgin?I dont even know how to check my bill online, I dont want to coz I bet they have not corrected there errors.Well my 3rd set top box is working fine now-so far.As for the landline that was changed yesterday and they said it would be free of charge after being on hold for ages and being put through to someone else.I recieved 2 more bills yesterday and dont know what the hell it was about and the weird thing is, it is dated 18/12/07 and the other is 1/1/08.My other bill was dated 18/12/07 which only arrived last week so why are the bills arriving so late.I feel so stressed lol honestly If i know i can cancel with them i would.My building doesnt have an ariel and I wouldnt know how to go about it as my landlord isnt the nicest landlord-his a moany and grumpy old man.I am below a office and above me is the office and on top of the office is some flats,how they view tv i dont know.There is noone that can fix one up for me either as I dont know anyone.

I dont know how to post a link on here sorry hun but i just checked three website and its on there-its pay monthly and its basically like a usb thingy and theres different packages starting from £10 a month.
http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/?id=1201
tried that and see if it works
good luck and let me know x

BexTech · 18 January 2008 at 4:17AM

Virgin Media aren't a Virgin company.

They are NTL:Telewest and just pay Richard Branson a annual fee to use the name, and Richard happens to be a 10.5% shareholder after selling Virgin Mobile to NTL:Telewest.

It's the same company / people running the service, just it has a Virgin name.

They do offer an excellent support newsgroup - UK staff there 08:00 - 22:00 every day.

Newsgroups were around before www, if you haven't used newsgroups before they are like forums.

http://www.virginmedia.com/newsgroups has details on how to set up newsgroups.

If xNTL use: news.cable.ntlworld.com

If xBY use: text.news.virginmedia.com

As the news server in your news reader.

virginmedia.support.broadband.cable

Is the group for support.

VM for phone calls are a rip off, cable has been dearer than even BT for over 5 years and the prices are rising again.

DenBo_4 · 18 January 2008 at 12:53PM

I heard an advert on local radio that if you get a contract with 3 (didn't say how long the contract was) you can pay £10 a month to get wireless broadband on your pc. You insert your dongle (:p ) into the pc and hey presto, instant broadband. I presume the dongle is attached to your phone. Personally I don't like 3, but if you need broadband with no BT or Virgin connection then it's an option.

Dan2008 · 29 January 2008 at 11:58AM

Hi i was browsing this forum and i see im not the only one with problems with VirginMedia. I would like to say since richard "the greedy !!!!!!!" branson bought a share of NTL, their services are a disgrace, im paying for upto 20mb and it cant even bring up a webpage properly, times out every day about 50 times a day, im going to complain about their services because its a joke, i pay for upto 20mb and im getting 6-7mb max to me thats just taking the !!!!, never known such a greedy !!!!!!! as branson, no wonder virgin are so big seeing how many people hes ripping out of money, a pound a minute to fone up if their modem screws up

shocking.

boysie · 30 January 2008 at 5:15PM

Ive just got off the phone with LEE from Virgin media- and was disappointed with his response!!! Heres the story...

...moved into student house at uni and set up the broadband and tv with ntl back in aug 06- was going for a package which was £23 p/m i think but the nice lady on the phone said that for £27 p/m I could get 8mb speed which would be better for a house where we would all be using the net at the same time. I thought it was a great deal and so agreed and it was all set up the week later.

8 months in and after looking at my bank statement I noticed I was being charged £41.50!!! £25 for the broadband and £16.50 for the tv! After trying to get hold of someone (the customer service advisors were useless, pretended to go get a supervisor i asked for, said they wern't there and said theyd call me back the next day!! NEVER happened!) I decided to write a letter. 2 months later and I get an automated letter back saying they are lookng into my complaint and will be in touch in 10 days...NEVER happened!! eventually spoke to LEE who 'as a goodwill gesture' credited my account for the next few months and refused to refund the money they had taken from my account without permission. Now, £41.50 is being taken out again each month and have been since October- and guess what Lee said- he won't give me that money back as I should have called him back in October?!?! This is utter b%$3£&*s!!!!

I successfully got my bank charges back last year after threatening the small claims court. Does anyone know if this is a viable route to take with Virgin??! I just don't see how it can be legal for them to take money outa my account without my agreement and then flat out refuse to give it back??!!

Diamond78 · 3 February 2008 at 7:26PM

My problems still havent been solved with VM.They are utter rubbish. I dont care who owns it and who doesnt, it has the name VIRGINMEDIA. I have been told that the name is rented-huh I dont understand it.

I had a rather rude woman ring me up after i sent a 8 page letter complaint. She was actually unprofessional for someone who works in complaints. I have worked in customer service when I was a travel agent, we dealth with complaints and never in my life would i be rude to a customer. She gave no apology for the muck ups, could not explain why I was given another customers no, couldnt explain why I was given faulty set top boxes and had a cheek to try and belittle me. She told me as a goodwill gesture £90 had been credited to my phone bill acount as the 3 for £30 is actually to different bills.Broadband at £18 and tv and fone £12. What a load of rubbish. The broadband is so slow that it makes me want cry sometimes. Many times, there has been no broadband, Im told from the 0906 number that my modem is faulty then hey presto i dont need an enginner coz they sent a signal thru, other occasions, im sorry madam there is engineering works going on in the area, same with tv, u loose the channels, ring up oh i will send a signal thru so you can view the channels again.Im like !!!!!!.

Im so fed up with it, I really want to cancel now. I was told an enginner would come but again had a no show, then was told someone had been and left a carde.No1 had been as I waas in as my son was poorly and never went no where.

They keep mucking up on my billing aswell. Again and again.I was due to have a months free due to the inconvinience as I was told by VM. Then they charge me £10 for late payment.Again !!!!!!, they have my direct debit details, I have not stopped no payments so how can I be charged for paying late. That £10 is oart of the £90 goodwill payment credited to my account.£30 is the installation charge credited back, £30 for the months free and cant reme,ber at the mo wot the other bit was for but none of that is a good will gesture, it what they should of done anyway as they were wrong to do the charges in the forst place for all there own mistakes. makes me laugh but so angry.

I asked for everything this woman said to me in writting, she said no problem haha no suprise havent got a thing.

They are quick to take payments out of your account but they will never pay you back-only credit it to your account.

I too want to take my complaint further, i have wriiten, emailed ect but no luck. I emailed watchdog too after seing a forum on facebook called I Despise VirginMedia, there are 342 members currently all have problems so its qute shocking that they are so bad yet there are also happy customers. We are just unlucky.

What is our next step then??

Virgin Media/NTL

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