Virgin Media - Useless!

kat1311

I've been with Virgin Media for a year on a BB and phone package. As I'm a student we moved houses this summer and decided we would stay with VM at our new house, but change packages to BB, TV (basic) and Phone. I negotiated a good deal with VM and they agreed to give me £100 one off-cashback, as they were offering this to new customers. In June I booked the install to take place on 2nd September.

A week before the install was due to take place I rang VM just to check they were still expecting to come. I was assured they would be there between 1 and 6pm. I made a special trip over to my uni house (over 90 mins from my parents home) so I would be there for the install. At 5pm on the 2nd Sep there was no sign of VM, so I rang them from my mobile to find out where they were. 'They'll be with you in the next hour' I was told.

6.15pm and no VM. I then spent over 2 hours on the phone, being passed between 5 departments and waiting up to 30 mins in a queue to talk to someone... who then passed me to another department. These phone calls cost me over £10 in mobile credit... when I complained I was told 'it's free to ring from a VM landline' - the very landline that I was phoning to complain hadn't been installed :mad: :mad: Eventually I was told that my services had been activated according to their records. The only suggestion VM could give me was that the installation had taken place at the wrong address!! :mad: :mad: She promised to ring the area manager on his mobile and left two messages, asking him to contact me about the problem over the weekend. I stressed that I wouldn't be in the property again until late Sept/ early October and the install would now have to wait.

The area manager never rang me back. After a weeks holiday I returned home to contact VM again today. After another hour on the phone, 3 departments and a 20 minute queue I hung up and dialled the disconnection department. Suddenly someone wanted to help me! :rotfl: Because the system has my services marked as 'installed' my new installation is a regular call out, with a 2 man crew... soonest avaliable date - 28th Sept. I move into the property on 23rd Sept. The whole point in having the install take place at the beginning of the month was to avoid having to wait for BB,TV and phone in the property. I told VM I wasn't happy that, having booked the original install in JUNE I would now have to wait 6 days in the property without any services. 'We're very busy' I was told. As a 'good will' gesture they have refunded me £10 for my mobile costs and upgraded me to a HD VM box (we don't have a HD TV so it makes no difference whatsoever). That's it.

I have never been so annoyed with a company - the lack of customer support is appalling, sorting out VM mistake has cost me hours of time and money.

I've just seen on the VM website they are advertising pay-as-you-go mobile broadband. Should I ring them back and insist that they provide me with this whilst I wait the 6 days for the install? Or should I push for more compensation. I'll be alone in the property for 6 days without TV, BB or a landline - all due to Virgin's mistake

spike7451

Couple of points for you to ponder...

The majority of install work is done by contractors,so VM got rid of the Install Area Managers some time ago leaving that to the contractors managers instead.Some 'one man' upgrade work is done by VM's in-house engineers but the majority of that & all 'two man' install & construction work is done by the contractors.Because VM is not expanding the amount of 2 man crews was drastically reduced.
The contractors often have 'Phantom Crews' so in effect they take on more work than the need in case some jobs fail (no one in/construction issues ect) because the contractors get paid by the job. (Sky do this as well)
Chances are either your job was a phantom (especially if the were notes on your job that you were'nt moving in till later that month) or miss-booked & because the are only a handful of 2 man crews,hence the long delay.I've been to installs that took me 20 minutes & others that took well over a day to do,you don't know until you get there.The installers can only dial certain numbers on their locked phone so wouldn't have been able to call you.
As to the job being shown as completed,it is more likely closed off by the contractors manager but IIRC,the average CS erk can't access certain systems so is only guessing that you are 'active'.

Because the system has my services marked as 'installed' my new installation is a regular call out, with a 2 man crew... soonest avaliable date

If your services were shown as Installed,then they wouldv'e booked an early life fault which is done by a one man service tech (my old job) unless she has booked a fresh install also hence the long delay.
As for compensation,don't hold your breath,I've dealt with VM's contractors before investigating customer complaints.The contractors are very good at covering their !!!!.
You need to speak to the Contractor Liaison Manager (or whatever they're called now).If you're in NI,pm me & I can get you a name.

paulsad

I had a really positive experience with vm just the other week; Engineer was prompt & couldn't have been more helpful - s'pose they have good and bad days!
Just like all the others...