VIRGIN MEDIA home phone ring length scam

spookylouis

My home phone ring length, before being picked up by the free voicemail service, suddenly went from 10 to 3 yesterday. When I rang to enquire, the Customer Service person said in order for me to qualify for more rings I would have to upgrade to the Voicemail plus, at a cost of £1.50 a month. When I said that I couldn't get to the phone within that time because of a recent hip replacement, the person still stood firm. I see this as discrimination, as most disabled, elderly and any normal person would not be able to get to the phone in 3 rings and should not have to pay for what everybody else can receive. It is also a ploy, in my mind, to get more money out of us either by having to upgrade, or by phoning the person back who has just rung, as curiosity will always get the better of us. I had the same problems a number of years ago with NTL, but they managed to sort it, and as I was aware Virgin took on our accounts as they stood.

Does anybody have any suggestions (other than buy our own answerphone) or similar experiences?

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums spookylouis.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Although it's directed mainly at the BT equivalent 'service', it sounds like you're a candidate for my personal DUMP 1571* campaign! Sorry, it does suggest the purchase of an answering machine.

* I've amended that page to include a link back to this thread (thanks again spookylouis).

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how long it'll take BT to follow suit?

DonnyDave

As per Heinz's post, please dump your voicemail service. Virgin Media will be making more money from all those calls that are answered when they connect to your voicemail.