ARGH, Moving tomorrow and Virgin have cocked up.

spike7451

Self installs are a waste of time imho.

jb66

Ask for the modem to be quickstart, chances are the cable is live

ButterPie_2

I have previously just plugged in when a house already has virgin installed, and the salesman told me that was the case, and that he would book the switchover at virgin's end. The connection is perfectly good, it just isn't "switched on" at virgins end as why would the previous occupier still be paying the bill? I have all the equipment from my previous house - how would I know that virgin had changed the rules when the salesman told me they hadn't? He told me I could just use my previous equipment and plug it in to the connections at the new house once virgin had turned it on at their end, and, since that is what I have done previously and with no problems, why would I think he was lying?

There is already a sky dish, I didn't get as far as booking an installation with sky though.

Anyway, an update: the callback from complaints never happened, I called back myself and they said they would definitely call me back and checked my number. No callback again.

It's the lying that gets me. If they just held their hands up, said sorry, (ideally give us a token discount or something - a fiver even, just something to acknowledge that they are in the wrong), and arranged installation, that would be ok. As it is, all they can do is lecture me on not ringing sooner - I only rang yesterday because I didn't trust their salesman, but if I had trusted him, I would have just merrily been plugging it all in now and expecting it to work. Clearly VM expect customers to not take their word when they say things are sorted.

We pay £120 a month across all our virgin services, and have been with them for two years on this account (previous installs have been under the name of a housemate, when we moved out of the house we shared we created our own account, but I have moved a total of five times, each time self installing). I rang up a month before the move to book it. It wasn't booked. When I rang up to confirm and was told it wasn't booked, the staff member told me that the only way I could make a complaint was in writing. I then found the complaints number with a quick google. The complaints people said I should have checked the salesman was telling the truth earlier. They then twice promised to ring me back and didn't, despite having both my home number and mobile.

It is a shambles. They only get away with it by having a monopoly on cable internet - is there any other company that rivals them for internet speed?

outofworksch

I dont know if it will help but try posting on here http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Fibre-optic-broadband-cable/bd-p/Fibre

spike7451

ButterPie wrote: »

I have previously just plugged in when a house already has virgin installed, and the salesman told me that was the case, and that he would book the switchover at virgin's end. The connection is perfectly good, it just isn't "switched on" at virgins end as why would the previous occupier still be paying the bill? I have all the equipment from my previous house - how would I know that virgin had changed the rules when the salesman told me they hadn't? He told me I could just use my previous equipment and plug it in to the connections at the new house once virgin had turned it on at their end, and, since that is what I have done previously and with no problems, why would I think he was lying?

There is already a sky dish, I didn't get as far as booking an installation with sky though.

Anyway, an update: the callback from complaints never happened, I called back myself and they said they would definitely call me back and checked my number. No callback again.

It's the lying that gets me. If they just held their hands up, said sorry, (ideally give us a token discount or something - a fiver even, just something to acknowledge that they are in the wrong), and arranged installation, that would be ok. As it is, all they can do is lecture me on not ringing sooner - I only rang yesterday because I didn't trust their salesman, but if I had trusted him, I would have just merrily been plugging it all in now and expecting it to work. Clearly VM expect customers to not take their word when they say things are sorted.

We pay £120 a month across all our virgin services, and have been with them for two years on this account (previous installs have been under the name of a housemate, when we moved out of the house we shared we created our own account, but I have moved a total of five times, each time self installing). I rang up a month before the move to book it. It wasn't booked. When I rang up to confirm and was told it wasn't booked, the staff member told me that the only way I could make a complaint was in writing. I then found the complaints number with a quick google. The complaints people said I should have checked the salesman was telling the truth earlier. They then twice promised to ring me back and didn't, despite having both my home number and mobile.

It is a shambles. They only get away with it by having a monopoly on cable internet - is there any other company that rivals them for internet speed?

I understand what you are saying & can only sympathise.The problem is the salespersons often do not have a clue as to what us engineers do in order to provide the services a customer want's.Many a time I have been to a install only to find out the salemen has promised the world,heck I remember one where a customer's TV was in the center of the living room & she didn't want Coax running all over the living room...No probelm said the salesman! Well how the h**l do you get the feed from the wall Isolator to the Cable TV box without wires!?...I once also knew of a salesman who sold a full tv & phone package to a partially sighted & deaf person,same saleman also sold a full tv pack including childrens TV pack to a spinster!! Said saleman rightly got the sack!
As to the service not working in the new home,it has possibly been physically disconnected in the street cabinet & anyway,for the phone a new connection would have to be provisioned.

diamonds

Telephone will not work but take Vbox & modem and they should then update address

spike7451

diamonds wrote: »

Telephone will not work but take Vbox & modem and they should then update address

Not if it's been physically disconnected in the DP Cab.

ButterPie_2

Update - I didn't get the promised call back from the swarmy man in the complaints dept (who came out with such gems as "internet? A nice girl like you shouldn't use the internet - you should be reading a magazine" SHUDDER - glad it wasn't face to face) so I rang them myself yesterday, and got through to a lovely helpful lady who then sent out an engineer within the next half hour, who connected up my boxes and phone and brought out the new modem, and was lovely throughout. The lady even rang me back to check everything had gone well.

OK, I thought. Then swarmy guy rang back just now, trying really unsucessfully to flirt, using every trick in the "customer rapport" book with no skill, riling me up massively. He siad that he had rung me but I had left my phone with a friend, and he had been trying all weekend, as he was "worried about me". I said that, actually, I had the phone with me all weekend and hadn't even visited any friends, and that I had given him my number on Friday, yet when I spoke to someone yesterday they still had an old number. He said that I must have not given him the number, but I remember vividly, as I read it off my business card to check I got it right.

He said that, as a good will gesture, he would credit me with one months free services. Then he revealed that this would come off the two months bill I had to pay at once. I said that I had not been informed of this at any point (I would have set the money aside if I had), and he told me that it is standard policy. Fair enough, I said, I can understand that, however, I should have been told. He said it is my responsibility to look up terms and conditions myself. - I said I was not told where to find the terms and conditions, and in fact the salesman told me that moving house would not cost me anything or mean any interruption in my bills or services. The complaints man then said that I have no proof of what was said to me, and that by accepting the months credit, I was forfieting any right to complain further. "If you complain further, it will only come through to me, and I will immediately charge you £44 (the monthly charge is £22.45)".

I asked if calls are recorded, he said, only a very small selection are, a big company like Virgin could not possibly record all sales calls. I said that, actually, I have worked in telesales for international power companies, doing hundreds of calls a day, and they managed to record every one. I then asked if I would be entitled to a cooling off period, as this is effectively a distance sale, and he tried to withdraw the "goodwill gesture" (ie bribe to shut up) as "if you contact OfCom, I will have no choice but to make things very difficult for you, but I want to be your friend, you are a nice young lady, you are only 26, why should you worry about this?"

During the call, he also tired to weasel out of me my eBay username. He said that he thought I probably sell some nice things (I had mentioned in passing that I use eBay, and he kept chomping at the bit to prove that I am a business customer - I have actually previously spoken to the business department and they have told me that, as the majority of use of the account is personal, I do not need a business account).

I asked him if there was someone higher up that I could speak to (mostly about his attitude and the fact that he avoided answering any questions directly - eg "what will I be charged this month as a basic service charge?" "I can't say - you might change your services or buy films" "if I don't buy anything or deviate from the basic service in any way, what will I be charged?" "Well, we refunded you £26, which gave you a credit of 17p, but we accidentally charged you 17p, so then we refunded you £1.25, and if you accept my goodwill gesture that will be another refund, but then you have to pay in advance.." "Just give me a number." then he finally told me) and he told me that he IS the highest power within Virgin Media. Hmm. Somehow I doubt that.

Good God, I have trained people in customer service, and I would have sacked him on the strength of that phonecall alone. I was relatively happy before he rang!