Virgin Media/NTL

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  • Hello Comrades,

    I felt compelled to comment, I too share the same experiences as many of you! Without going through the whole long drawn out story! It started approximately 10 months ago!

    Having been an NTL Braodband customer for a number of years I decided to give them a 2nd chance on the TV and Phone now they were Virgin Media. I cancelled Sky+ and bought the VIP package at £80 per month. Upon delivery the picture quality was awful and the Broadband speed was less than a tenth of the advertised 20Mb.

    10 months later I have had several Engineers visit my home, the boxes and modems have been swapped and the problems still persist. Everytime I call Virgin I have to start at the beginning! For the last month I have been calling the retentions department who have assured me they would resolve the problem, but after several "No Show" appointments or Broadband Engineers turning up without a clue the problems persist.

    I then received a letter from the Director of Customer Retentions saying she was pleased I had decided to "stay with Virgin", as you can imagine I promptly replied explaining that her letter was a little premature and went on to explain my problems - she is yet to respond.

    However, I am a little unsure as to whether Sir Richard is really aware and responsible for Virgin Media! As my research has led me to believe that it was NTL who merged with Telewest and then bought out Virgin Mobile and in doing so they secured an agreement to use the "Virgin" brand name. see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/apr/05/digitalmedia.citynews

    Richard Branson ended up with 10.7% shares in the new Virgin Media and a 0.25% return on revenue, however I don't believe his involvement is any more than this even though he has a seat on the board! In other words it is still the horrible NTL trading under the disguise of Virgin!

    If I had known this I would have remained with SKY! :mad:
  • I thought I was the only one who had been conned by virgin media. however it seems like it has happened to A LOT of people.

    I saw http://VirginMediaComplaints.co.uk

    and there are just as many unhappy people telling their stories.
  • Oh dear, where do I start! Since October I have had to call Virgin Media at least ten times with regards to their television, broadband and telephone services because and have had engineers called out three times in two and half months, with services being down for up to three days at a time.

    When the television service first went down we needed to have our set top box replaced, which was fine because it hadn't been replaced for a while. But, today there was, apparently, an ‘area fault’ and was instructed to wait two hours for the issue to be resolved. Well the error probably did get resolved at the expense of my set top box and I have to wait 2 days for an engineer to come and replace it less than two months after having it changed! I called Virgin Media to find out why my television wasn't working and stated that I had had my box replaced a short while ago the guy on the phone says, "Yes ma’am, I understand your problem and apologies for the inconvenience but once the engineer replaces the box everything will be resolved." Yeah right, until I need to have the box replaced again in two months. I’m not going to pay them a £24 service charge to replace a box I paid them to install less than two months ago!

    The broadband service isn’t much to be desired. In November we had no internet for four days and as a result an engineer was called out because our modem didn’t have an output signal and so the engineers decided it needed replacing. One of the engineers was telling me that his broadband service had been getting pretty bad after he installed a new modem and that every time he turned his computer on he had to reset his modem. Over the past couple of months my network signal has rarely gone above good and every time I want to navigate away from a page or submit something I have to refresh because I always get a message telling me I have no internet connection. For example, this is the second time I am submitting this post because I had refresh the page when I submitted the last post! I have to keep reminding myself I have broadband and not dial up because Virgin broadband is so reminiscent of my old dial up internet. It’s ridiculous how slow my broadband has gotten over the past couple of months!

    It’s pointless calling up the Virgin fault line because you end up talking to people who have no idea what they’re talking about and they have no authority to do anything about your problem except book a appointment for an engineer to come out and see you. I always get a generic response, usually one of the following:

    1. Turn your set top off at the mains and leave for 20 seconds then turn it back on- I have to do this every day anyway because I can’t view programme information unless I turn the box off from the mains, it always comes up with the message ‘No programme information’.
    2. There is fault in your area the problem will be resolved within the next…- usually 2- 6 hours.
    3. You need to book an appointment for an engineer to come and replace your set top box- so far two times in two months.

    We're thinking of moving over to sky. Apparently, they have a more reliable service which doesn't entail wasting time and energy on phone calls and waiting half a day for engineers to turn up and change a box which takes them less than 5 minutes to do.
  • Diamond78
    Diamond78 Posts: 1,443
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hi Guys,
    I have had nothing but grief and hell from VirginMedia.What a disgraceful and S@@@ company this is.Well I have a address for complaints if anyone needs it, but by the looks of it no one on here has had any luck.

    This is the address for complaints
    Virgin Media
    Customer Concern
    POBox 333
    Siemans Way
    Matrix Court
    Swansea
    SA7 9BB

    I have never been so stressed in my life.I have had problems from day one starting from installation.I thought it was a good deal to sign up to when i was searching online as Id just moved to a new flat.I had no BT line so really had no choice but to go with Virgin as BT wanted over a £100 for installation.Anyone it stated the 3 for £30 and that if you sign up online you save £30 which would of saved me from the installion charge of £30. It didnt work online and asked me to call there no so I did.I explained was trying to do it online and I was told the £30 discount would be applied and not to worry.
    The day of my installatioon day arrived.One guy turned up,said he couldnt do it but didnt explain why.he said he would inform his manager and someone more qualified would be round to do it.Thought ok,tho I wasnt to hapy as it was a morning app but lunchtime had passed so I rang from my orange contract mobile.I dont even want to get into what the call centre you get put through to is like. Why do they go through to India???I dont really have a problem with it but when its a matter like this and they cant help you they are just ripping you off.In the end after several more phone calls a manager turned up after 6pm stating that the job could not be done as the cable had to run from the pavement in the street-Errr that has nothing to do with me.Basically he said its a 2 man job. So he booked it for 2 days later and promised it would be done.He said it would be a 2 man job and he would come aswell to make sure it all gets done.It was a morning job as I explained my son had his school xmas party in the afternoon,saturday morning engineer arrived said he couldnt do the job coz the 2 men didnt arrive to do the job outside.The manager arrived about 12 and we waited hours before the 2 men arrived to do the job.The completion was not done and completed till 9pm that evening.As a result my son missed the xmas party as I had no one to take him.I could not go online as I was not given my password to get connected online so had to ring the not free number which is a 090 number.Even then I could not be given the password and was told i would not be charged for the cal.I actually made over 10 calls that evening to various different numbers to get online with a bunch of rude staff both from india and the uk and in the end it the manager that was here who got me the password.

    Other problems was I asked to be ex directory-I kept recieving calls for a woman and these ppl reading out my number saying but this is her no,do i sound like her-NO so its my no now.Aswell as that Im getting calls from call ppl trying to sell me mobiles.I rang an complained and was told i can change my no free of charge but i already gave my no to friends and family and didnt want the hassle again.

    Then my set top box stopped working.Again rang up complained which was no good-told an engineer could not come out for 5 days.I said that wasnt good enough and complained.In the end I contacted the helpful manager that came to install my box as I had his no in case anything went wrong.He came out 2 days later and fitted in another box.I sent a complaint via email and a week later recieved a call after I stated I was going to contact watchdog on BBC.The woman who sounded helpful apologied and said that I would get a months free ect ect.I thought sweet even though I had to pay a £25 deposit which had been taken out my account already.

    Since having the new box, the channels change by itself aswell as the remote not working(batteries work fine) sometimes the screen freezes or states that not autorised the watch the channel.I recieved my 1st bill charging me over £57.This includes installation, calls made to broadband support altho was told would not be charged and all the rest of it when it should be zero.I was told i would get the £30 off for booking the 3 for £30, not showing.The months free that i was told I would get for inconvinience caused was not shown. So I rang up as you do was told i would not pay nothing the first month and teh 2nd months bill I would be in credit of app £12.

    Last week my broadband stopped working.Thought it was due to tecnical probs or weather as I dont know about things like that.I tried the next morning still not working so I rang up the 090 tecnical support no and was told i had been disconnected due to non payment.Rang customer service who said sorry and told me the bill had been sorted ect ect and also told me the discounts I was given had not been applied.

    Dont know if i mentioned that I had a 2nd set top box put in lol-sorry about the long essay but im so angry and fuming.Anyways since we had 2nd set top box, our channels change occasionally by itself.Its really freaky.I have put it down to the box being new and getting use to working ect but its scaring my son and he thinks we have ghosts as its also annoying when we are watching something the chanels just flick to another really fast.Rang virgin this morning to report this as Ive had enough of it and its scaring my son, I was told of 3 slots available but all where times which clash or could clash with me picking up my son or taking him school.I asked if she could put on the system that I be called on my mobile before an engineer arrived and she would not say at 1st.I explained I had no one to be indoors for me nor did i have no one to pick up my son.So she said she would put it on system but could not guarentee i would get a call and if i wasnt in when engineer arrived i would be charged £10.!!!!!!!!!!

    I think Virgin media are scandalious, disgraceful and shameful.They all tell you different things and say they are doing this and doing that and dont end up doing it.I am seriously thinking of cancelling the whole lot as I have had enough.Its caused me nothing but stress which I do not need.I am thinking of emailing BBC Watchdog.If there is anyone else that are still having problems on this thread plz lets do sometthing about virgin as this is unfair and should be known to ppl about how they operate.I know there are many happy customers but there are also many unhappy customers.
  • Why not email Dickie :)richard.branson@fly.virgin.com
  • Diamond78
    Diamond78 Posts: 1,443
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Lol doubt he will do anything about it when his own staff aint doing nothing about it.....I rang up the manager who helped before.He kindly gave me his no in case of any problems and he has told me i will need another set top box.3rd one now.Is it worth the hassle????
  • DenBo_4
    DenBo_4 Posts: 536 Forumite
    To be fair I don't actually think you are going through to India, when I rang them last week I was talking to an Asian guy but I could hear English/Scottish voices in the background. Why not email Richard Branson, I'm sure he would be interested. (I'm a very happy NTL customer, remember Sky is just as imcompetent - but they charge something like 8p a minute, at least Virgin is free!) PS. I have just cancelled Sky to go back to NTL - believe me Sky are incompetent - and they charge a lot to call and complain!
  • I would like to recommend the website www.cableforum.co.uk as a great site for virgin media information - they also have contacts into Virgin to assist with the most troublesome of issues where you're getting no joy from any of the official routes into Virgin Media.

    I have no affiliation with cableforum other than as a user.

    Regards
  • Diamond78
    Diamond78 Posts: 1,443
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Thanks for the comments.Denbo when I asked today the lady told me it was the callcentre in india, not that I have a problem with that.But as I have had so many problems with different things with the company I asked to be put through to a team leader or manager as I was not happy with what she was telling me.I am aware she was ony doing her job,which is why I asked for a manager.When I spoke to him he also stated he was from the call centre in india and that he could not help me on this occasion. So i asked to be out through the customercare in the uk and I was put through where I was given the address to send my complaint to and that an engineer would be out and if i was not in due to picking up my son from school i would not be charged the £10.So how can one customer serv tell you one thing and the other another.

    I have a faulty box again so hoping the 3rd box will be 3rd time lucky. Someone has mentioned CISAS. I havent really looked at it yet but will do.Can anyone recomend anything else??

    I use to be a telewest customer,prior to that ntl and never had a problem with any of there services.strange or its just my luck!!!
  • I switched to the Virgin Media Talk Anywhere 400 plan four months ago and every month I've been charged for local and national calls for the last 6 days of the billing period despite not using up all my free minutes.

    This month was the limit. According to my bill:
    Minutes available at start of billing period 557
    Minutes used 355
    Minutes carried over 202

    Yet they charged me £23 for standard calls between 14 Dec & 20 Dec.

    When I called them and spoke to the billing I was repeated told I had gone over my allocation on the 14th Dec yet they couldn't explain why I had 202 minutes carried over. Finally she credited the £23 and advised that I speak to technical faults. I did and they advised me it wasn't a fault and advised me to call Customer Services. When I called them I was told that despite what the bill said about available minutes, I had exceeded my allocation. When I asked what the minutes available/used and carried over referred to she said it referred to a different time period than the billing so should be ignored (what???). Basically, for the last four months I have received bills that have told me that I haven't used all my free minutes and some have been carried over yet I have been charged for all calls made after 14th of the month because I have exceeded my allocation!!

    This sounds like nonsense to me. Can anyone confirm or advise???
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