Virgin Media - One Big Disappointment

not_loaded

DatabaseError wrote: »

No you're not. just cancel the contract. Nobody is forcing you to take VMs services.

From #6 above:

They went ahead and upgraded however, and in the post I got a Welcome Pack stating how great it was that I’d signed up for a new contract. They were supposedly compensating me for lousy service, but actually setting up a new twelve month run of payments that I’d be obliged to pay. As I’m moving house soon, I phoned (several times of course!) to get written agreement that a twelve month commitment had NOT been made by me.
They then promptly removed the ‘compensatory’ upgrades, saying that unless I paid over £100 for Vplus, then I was stuck with the old defective equipment I’d got!

Inactive wrote: »

Absolutely not true, do a bit of research on the net, there are still some excellent smaller ISP's, I have been with mine for almost 3 years, I have never had any problems whatsoever.
No stitch in long contracts either.

So right on top of moving away, who is the ISP who’ll provide a month or two of services for only a month or two’s money. That’s TV, phone and broadband?

countingcrow62 wrote: »

I have always found Virgin Media quite good. I have been with them for about 3 years. Most of that time I was usually on a deal of about £10 per month. Just been upgraded and the only deal I could get is 6 months at £14 and 6 months at £18.

They’re taking £20 from me for 1.2 to 1.4 speed typically.

efun

You guys want me to have a rant at VirginMedia? Tell you what, this is the NINETH DAY that I am without internet service! 9th bl**dy day.

I have been calling every single day to make complaints and all I get is estimated time that the service would be back on - which never happened.

Lies lies lies.

not_loaded

Heck, at least mine does function, albeit very slowly.

You have my sympathies.

I begrudge the £20 a month though, and loathe their attitude problem, for what equates to the old dial up speeds.

DatabaseError

not_loaded wrote: »

They’re taking £20 from me for 1.2 to 1.4 speed typically.

not_loaded wrote: »

I begrudge the £20 a month though, and loathe their attitude problem, for what equates to the old dial up speeds.

I wish I'd had your modem...my 56k barely managed 44kbs

staffie1

not_loaded wrote: »

Heck, at least mine does function, albeit very slowly.

You have my sympathies.

I begrudge the £20 a month though, and loathe their attitude problem, for what equates to the old dial up speeds.

Are you on fibre optic cable or copper telephone wire for your BB with VM?

not_loaded

DatabaseError wrote: »

I wish I'd had your modem...my 56k barely managed 44kbs

I did say ‘equates to’. I’m talking (of course) like-for-like speeds using today’s bloated websites that would never have run at all in the 56k days. I now sit there waiting for that blue line creeping across, just like the old days! Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!

staffie1 wrote: »

Are you on fibre optic cable or copper telephone wire for your BB with VM?

Fibre optic cable.

countingcrow62 wrote: »

I did not realise they were that bad! I must have been lucky

It’s when you have a problem (or several problems over the years) that you realise how dismal their customer service is.
When I moved from dial-up to BB they deleted my account and all my email. Three times that day this was claimed ‘not possible’ and ‘never happened’, but the next day a very nice guy phoned to say he’d restored it for me following the accidental deletion. (that of course never happened…) :rolleyes:

soul619

well when i moved house the engineer came to fit it all and he put my phone line onto a bt socket... go figure that one! i had to wait a week for an actually virgin phone box on the wall!

but on a positive note my mom brought a v+ box for £69 and she hasnt been put on a new contract..

culpepper

we have cancelled our VM service.
It was really flakey in may and june despite them sending us the new modem.
Emails were days old or lost in the ether entirely.
We were using our 3 dongles so that we could access emails in the end.
Virgin on the telephone , would say there was nothing wrong and the service would miraculously return for the rest of that day, then be back to crawling the next morning.
The only useful pieces of information we received from their support people were that if the ready light was flashing ,not steady, on the modem, it was their fault and if we didnt receive service for several days in a row, we could appeal for a price reduction after we received the next bill.

not_loaded

soul619 wrote: »

well when i moved house the engineer came to fit it all and he put my phone line onto a bt socket... go figure that one! i had to wait a week for an actually virgin phone box on the wall!
but on a positive note my mom brought a v+ box for £69 and she hasnt been put on a new contract..

Mmm… I asked them to resolve the awful TV picture problem months ago with Vplus but they absolutely refused without £120/£140 (can’t remember exactly) and a twelve-month sign up.

They’d then be getting more money in the bank each month, and the box back of course when we move away.

Nose. Face. Spite.

not_loaded

An August update, further to my earlier whinges: I got a call following last week’s telephoned complaint. I thought, ‘great! Someone is going to do something!’ Oh no! He’d worked out a ‘deal’ for me at only £12 a month more I could keep what I’ve got AND have the 10meg broadband immediately.

When I said they’d promised me exactly that back in April for no more money a month, and since then they’ve put my bill up 10%, he really couldn’t understand what my complaint was! :mad:

He then said (presumably realising no commission was coming his way) I might not even get the 10meg by Christmas! What moronic marketing people VM are employing. I asked him to ensure my file was marked ‘extremely unhappy customer’.

A couple of days ago I got an email surveying my views on how my recent complaint had been handled. I put a few choice words down; deceit and dishonesty were a couple of them.

Today, I get yet another customer service call expressing their sorrow that I’m not a happy customer. I’m pretty sure now that I’m on their ‘take the Mick when it’s quiet’ list.

This polite and pleasant young lady listened to the long list of equipment and service problems, and then told me there was nothing she could do about it. Hmmmm…

Coincidentally today in the post I got an opportunity to buy a Virgin Pension and Virgin car insurance. Let me try and think for a few seconds just what the Virgin branding means to me…