We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
We're aware that dates on the Forum are not currently showing correctly. Please bear with us while we get this fixed, and see Site feedback for updates.

Virgin Media don't want our money - in a recession!

I have had an unbelievable experience. I and my boyfriend were trying to get VM services in our home - XL packages of landline, cable and broadband plus Sky Sports.

We signed up on 7th March. We were oblivious that there was anything wrong until the 24th, when someone rang my bf and told him that there was a problem with the traffic - we live in London on what is called a 'red route' which means you can't stop or park. But they gave the impression they were dealing with it and told him they would ring back. They didn't. We rang them on 26th to find out what was happening. They told us we would have to get a special parking permit but the permit phone line was closed since we called them after work. We rang VM back the next morning (27th March) and were told that our installation had been cancelled - and nobody had bothered to tell us. We rang the permits line and were told a permit would cost £48. We refused to pay.

Last week I rang on Tuesday (31st March) and they had good news - the installation would happen on the 5 or the 12 April! They would ring back to tell us which it would be. They didn't. I rang again on Thursday (2nd April) and was told it would be Sunday the 5th so we both rearranged our plans for Sunday and waited in. Nothing happened after an hour so we rang the general helpline which was the only place open on Sunday - they had no record of any installation!

I spent yesterday morning ringing them and trying to find out what is going on. They told me yesterday morning it would take another 2 or 3 weeks while they dig up the road, even though the man in the flat upstairs has Virgin Media services already so I would have expected the under road cabling stuff was done before. Yesterday after work they rang and told us they would not install at all since the cost of digging up the road was £750.

I was told by the area manager that our road is particularly bad when it comes to arranging things with TFL for digging up the road. But it seems a nonsense to me that they say more than one household on our road needs to sign up before they will dig - by the time the next household signs, we will probably have gone with a competitor so the next household will not be allowed to get their services either. And we know that our upstairs neighbour already has their services - so why is it OK for him and not for us? As far as I know it is not usual for several households on the same road to get together and apply for cable and internet together. I cannot believe they are turning down customers and mucking us around in this economic climate. They must be raking it in if they can afford to give such shoddy customer service and turn down our money. Nobody we spoke to until yesterday (when we were finally put through to a manager) knew what was going on or had any power to do anything even if they did. They repeatedly promised to get back to us and didn't, or sometimes emailed us intead - we cannot check emails which is why we are trying to get internet installed. I cannot believe that a VM customer care staff member would tell us a barefaced lie - either he is incompetent at his job or he feels he has carte blanche to say anything to get a customer off the line, I don't know. And now they are claiming we cannot have their services when others in our building and our road already receive them. Basically, if you live on a red route in London, VM don't want your money.
«1

Comments

  • CHR15
    CHR15 Posts: 5,193 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I believe VM simply take the orders willingly but contract out the installation.

    They would have been blissfully unaware of any complications with your install, instead, just left it to the contractors to sort out.

    But still an annoyance for you as the customer.
  • Pssst
    Pssst Posts: 4,803 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I wouldnt have thought VM would be interested in installing more ducts.
  • lizziem_2
    lizziem_2 Posts: 84 Forumite
    Pssst wrote: »
    I wouldnt have thought VM would be interested in installing more ducts.

    I am sorry, I don't know what you mean. What are 'ducts'?
    CHR15 wrote: »
    I believe VM simply take the orders willingly but contract out the installation.

    They would have been blissfully unaware of any complications with your install, instead, just left it to the contractors to sort out.

    But still an annoyance for you as the customer.

    As far as I know they did not contract out our installation. I only spoke to VM employees at their head office and call centre. It did not get as far as the actual installation so maybe the contracting out would have happened further down the line when the installation team were involved. But it did not even get that far.
  • Oh well lets ignore permits etc and the massive disruption digging up roads will cause all because one person wants cable :)

    Lets hope those living next to heathrow dont want it. Will need to cancel a days flight too.

    Its unfortunate but some houses simply cant get cable, Virgin are doing their best to install it but given the costs they are well within their rights to tell you to get sky.
  • lizziem_2
    lizziem_2 Posts: 84 Forumite
    Oh well lets ignore permits etc and the massive disruption digging up roads will cause all because one person wants cable :)

    Lets hope those living next to heathrow dont want it. Will need to cancel a days flight too.

    Its unfortunate but some houses simply cant get cable, Virgin are doing their best to install it but given the costs they are well within their rights to tell you to get sky.

    I know that it causes hassle to dig up the road. What I am annoyed with is the fact that it took VM a month to figure out they could not provide it. If there is a certain area which is a no-no, why couldn't they flag that up either on the postcode search on their website or at least on their own computer system so that someone could have rung us sooner and apologised and told us we could not have the service? Instead they messed us around and made out we could have the service and then suddenly we can't.

    And as I said the gentleman in the upstairs flat in my building already has Virgin Media so something is wrong somewhere - if nobody in the area had it fair enough but they must have installed his service somehow - why can he have it and not us?
  • Tozer
    Tozer Posts: 3,518 Forumite
    If they can supply upstairs then the duct (the thing the fibre goes down) should be there so there shouldn't be a need to dig up the road at all.
  • lizziem_2
    lizziem_2 Posts: 84 Forumite
    Tozer wrote: »
    If they can supply upstairs then the duct (the thing the fibre goes down) should be there so there shouldn't be a need to dig up the road at all.

    Thats what I thought but they insist they need to dig.
  • CHR15
    CHR15 Posts: 5,193 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Is the guy upstairs on Virgin CABLE though?

    VM do supply ADSL broadband to those outside Cabled areas along with a cheesy freeview box
  • lizziem_2
    lizziem_2 Posts: 84 Forumite
    CHR15 wrote: »
    Is the guy upstairs on Virgin CABLE though?

    VM do supply ADSL broadband to those outside Cabled areas along with a cheesy freeview box

    We are in a cabled area, if we weren't they would not have let us sign up on their website, since the application requires you to go through a postcode search. I am pretty sure he has cable, since as I say their site told us we are in a cabled area, thats not the problem.
  • tc0001_2
    tc0001_2 Posts: 16 Forumite
    lizziem wrote: »
    We are in a cabled area, if we weren't they would not have let us sign up on their website, since the application requires you to go through a postcode search. I am pretty sure he has cable, since as I say their site told us we are in a cabled area, thats not the problem.

    Virgin website cable check is unreliable. My postcode shows every house on the street can have cable, however it is only on one side of the road and the even numbers do not have it.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 348.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 452.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 241K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 617.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 175.7K Life & Family
  • 254.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.