Can't Take Anymore Of Virgin Media!!

b1ffa

Would be a pointless exercise. Many are complaining that emailing VM is as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

We have already posted these issues on the VM forum. to which we have had thousands of views and many comments regarding faults where other customers are concerned.
the forum manager at VM who works for VM has responded and requests information for a complaint to be placed into the complaints department and he also stated we would be contacted on monday regarding the points raised.

mazza111

I'm one of the other ones who has had no problems with NTL,Telewest, Virgin Media, over a period of approx 18 years and 4 addresses.

Yes the occasional break down in the phone line, due to the prats breaking open the greenbox in the street so they can get their free cable turned on, water getting into it and blah! Usually fixed rather promptly.

My one gripe with them is their Indian call centres (the majority of the time, you do occasionally get a good one ). They just don't understand the broad Scots accent no matter how proper you speak.


On the matter of the verbal contract, it's explained to you when installing that it's a 12 month contract. So can't really see you getting out on that one.

I don't have much experience of the new superhubs, other than getting my sister's set up this morning and all went rather smoothly. As for them accessing your files after the call?? Why did you keep the program installed? No they shouldn't have done it, but I certainly wouldn't have kept any software like that on my pc.

b1ffa

at no point was anything explained. when arranging installation of services. nothing was explained. when paying the installation charge. Nothing was explained. at no point at all, has any of the T&C's been explained. The only way we know anything about Virgin Media's T&C's was when we read it on the Virgin Media website. - we have never been approached at any time regarding the T&C's by anyone. and nowhere in the T&C's does it state that by paying for the services, you agree to the T&C's in a court of law where services and or payments are being exchanged a verbal contract is not substantial. at no point at any time have we been informed of any terms and conditions or contracts or anything else like I say.

It was simply as this - phoned to arrange for the services to be fitted, a payment for connection was made. engineer arrived, fitted, went.
we have never had any phone calls regarding the terms of the contract. we have never had any letters or otherwise regarding the terms or anything else.

As for the remote access>

It was a third party application that was "run" not installed as advised by the call center staff in India. in order to check the wireless network adapter in the computer. - after being on the phone for over 1 hour. she ended the phone call and continued to try and access private documents. within a few seconds of the phone call ending I rapidly pulled all ethernet cables from the router, and switched the router off.
when attempting to turn the router on and reconnect and correct issues with the wireless router ourselves. we instantly incountered mouse movement from the other party. again, removing the ethernet cable and only when firewalling the third party application and actually blocking the connecting i.p address used was the connection disabled. we then corrected issues with the wireless superhub ourselves. which was pretty irrelevant in any case. as we have always had issues with the and all VM connections reseting at 1am on a daily basis.

for one they are NOT allowed to end telephone calls when using remote access software (we have already been told this by a manager at the tech center)

two, the actual call was NOT recorded OR Logged (as Told today by a manager at the complaints department).

three, the various faults and other complaints we have already "supposedly" had logged on there system turned out, half off the issues and complaints had NOT been put on to the system at Virgin Media's end.

The issues raised are now being dealt with by a manager who works for VM
(who actually stated, she only a few days ago had device issues with her own VM services, and was very suspicious and now concerned about what they had done with her own devices, with us having these issues raised it made the manager concerned towards her own security of her own devices.
Personally, It would not have happened to my own machines. but being away from home a family member was taken by surprise.

" not everybody knows everything about computers, not everybody knows everything about networking. for those who don't it would appear they are at huge risk of having privacy invaded, when all they require is assistance in correcting a fault with a virgin media device or connection."
if a manager who works for Virgin Media is now stating concerns over her own privacy and security it doesn't say a lot for VM.

vyle

worried_jim wrote: »

Virgin Broadband

The two main ingredients needed for a World Of Warcraft profile.

Hey now, a good friend of mine has a WOW subscription and he often has pretty kinky sex with an attractive italian girl he met through WOW. I'd be jealous if I was into women.

mazza111

Well, tbh I've never heard of anyone apart from those trying to get out of contract claim that they weren't told that it was a 12 month contract. I used to work for them (telewest days) and when revisiting sales calls when customers stated that they weren't told it was 12 months contract, or that they weren't told that they had a 2 month bill as their first bill, then the calls 99% of the time proved the customer wrong. In all honesty, in this day and age, would you not think there was a minimum contract length? Nearly everything you sign up for has a minimum contract length these days.

That aside, if VM asked me to install something, I'm afraid I would refuse, no one is getting access to my pc apart from me. They can give you instruction over the phone as to what you can do to check the connections. But maybe that's my paranoia that they aren't getting to my pr0n (joking) collection. Maybe that should be a lesson though, no you cannot have access to my pc, you can tell me what you want to access and I will access it for you. Although this may take longer than it would if they had remote access.

I do however agree that you should have had an engineer out to check the various problems that you've had, especially in bad weather. Really does suggest that connections could be open and weather is affecting the service, maybe you're hooked into a box that's been forced open too. However, I don't see any way of you getting out of the 12 month contract. I would be asking them for a refund of every day that you have been without service though.

custardy

mazza111 wrote: »

Well, tbh I've never heard of anyone apart from those trying to get out of contract claim that they weren't told that it was a 12 month contract. I used to work for them (telewest days) and when revisiting sales calls when customers stated that they weren't told it was 12 months contract, or that they weren't told that they had a 2 month bill as their first bill, then the calls 99% of the time proved the customer wrong. In all honesty, in this day and age, would you not think there was a minimum contract length? Nearly everything you sign up for has a minimum contract length these days.

That aside, if VM asked me to install something, I'm afraid I would refuse, no one is getting access to my pc apart from me. They can give you instruction over the phone as to what you can do to check the connections. But maybe that's my paranoia that they aren't getting to my pr0n (joking) collection. Maybe that should be a lesson though, no you cannot have access to my pc, you can tell me what you want to access and I will access it for you. Although this may take longer than it would if they had remote access.

I do however agree that you should have had an engineer out to check the various problems that you've had, especially in bad weather. Really does suggest that connections could be open and weather is affecting the service, maybe you're hooked into a box that's been forced open too. However, I don't see any way of you getting out of the 12 month contract. I would be asking them for a refund of every day that you have been without service though.

given the OP is returning to Sky
I would say they knew and accepted the fact

MultiCat

My partner and I signed up for Virgin Media in October last year when we moved into our own place together; nothing but trouble since.

The problems started as soon as I made the first phone call. I spoke to an "adviser" on their sales line who informed me that as a heavy user (downloading, console gaming, video streaming) I only needed 10mb. I told them I was looking elsewhere and I would get back to them.

Couple of days later I get a call from a "senior sales adviser" who offers me a completely free phone line if I take out their fibre optic package at 10mb (which I was looking at). I agree and arrange for an engineer to come out and fit the package.

Six weeks later the engineers finally arrive after missing 2 appointments (both of which I took days off for); whilst 1 of them is fitting the fibre optic cable the other sits around doing nothing of the sorts (even though there was plenty to do by the looks of it). After installing the cable and showing me the most simple of simplistic tasks, I asked after the phone line that I had been promised, "Nope. Nothing on our list here." And off they went.

So we started using the Internet regularly and noticed that our speed kept dropping by about 3/4 every so often. It got to the point where it was interfering with our usage so I called Virgin Media (on my 3 mobile - no free calls for me). The woman on the other end was surprisingly helpful but I was on the phone for a good hour and a half going through all the possible problems. She told me that everything was fine on my end and that she would send an engineer out to check the lines.

A week later and there was still no word from the engineer and the problems were still persisting so I tried the technical support again. I barely said 5 words before the patronising technical support adviser said, "Traffic Management" as if I should know that.

I asked him what, "Traffic Management" was and he told me to go look it up on the Virgin Media site.

So began a very lengthy battle with Virgin Media about how inappropriate this policy is and how my needs were not met effectively by the first sales advisor who recommended the 10mb package. They also refused the free phone line that they had previously offered me. I reminded them that I had not signed the contract yet and I was extremely disappointed with their lack of service.

I suggested they move me up a package for a discounted price for my troubles. "Oh, we can't do that. We can waiver the installation fee if you upgrade to the 30mb package though." I had to control myself and tell her that I've already had Virgin Media installed and I'm not paying another £50 for someone to flick a switch at their end.

She then informed me that I was still within the 28 day period and I went straight to cancellations. I told them their service was awful and I wouldn't be paying a penny for all the trouble I've had. The cancellation was put through and the costs were wiped.

Unfortunately, the story didn't get much better. The block of flats we live in currently only have the connections for fibre optic and so we had to go back to Virgin Media. Thankfully we never had to pay another installation fee as the equipment was already installed. We also went for the 30mb package but had to pay £30 to get a Super Hub. No real problems with the Internet so far, except the PC gets a bit of a dodgy connection.

Helix

The traffic management is meant to be changing soon, although the full details haven't been released yet. If they stick with the current traffic management scheme, then when the new Ofcom rules come in later this year they would no longer be able to advertise their broadband as being unlimited.

custardy

Helix wrote: »

The traffic management is meant to be changing soon, although the full details haven't been released yet. If they stick with the current traffic management scheme, then when the new Ofcom rules come in later this year they would no longer be able to advertise their broadband as being unlimited.

and rightly so
Im on 50meg so it isnt really an issue
however I was on 20meg and doing a lot of downloads/reinstalls on some PCs
hit the cap and boom,an afternoons work becomes 2 days

MultiCat

Helix wrote: »

The traffic management is meant to be changing soon, although the full details haven't been released yet. If they stick with the current traffic management scheme, then when the new Ofcom rules come in later this year they would no longer be able to advertise their broadband as being unlimited.

That's good to hear as that was exactly my argument; they can't advertise unlimited broadband if they cap you at any given opportunity.