Virgin Media TOTALLT unreliable

Jay22_2

to start with

u buy a contract from them which gives you the follwing things as it states in the contract too:

TV = Large
Phone = Medium
Internet = Medium

but i dont get Latge TV as it says in the contract they gave me Medium TV package ... i rang them wrote to them but no use>>>>>>

and now in these few weeks i had no phone line and for the fist week when eva i rang on the number that give on the back of the bill for faults in service i ried them so i kept on getting this promt message that there is a problem in my area with the phone and they fixing it .........:(

the thing that was and peeving me off is that they didnt gave us no acknoledgement notice that there be no phone after few days as they be doing some mantaince work and also that it be back on by ??-??-?? time so which would have been less painful but they did NOT...

well after a week the promt message changes to there is no problem in your area with the phone service so i rang the 0845 numbers that i got from the 08005610061...

after like 23 mins of wait i got through to some body i could talk to and he said he booked somebodyto come and see the prob with my phone but on the day he told me like after three days no 1 came i rang again and the other guy tells me the same thing .....another 3 days

i got no phone in the house for over 2 WEEKS ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Jay22_2

i want to cancell the contract with "VIRGIN MEDIA" CAN I DO THAT

but they say i cant i would need to pay the qwhole year line rent if i want to cancell whether i use it or not ....

but the thing is that there is no service for over TWO WEEKS ...... shouln't i be allowed to cancell

when we as customers pay by cash or cheque they charge us like £5 for it or when they dont get a payment from our bank direct debit they charge us £50 for unsuccesful payment and if we want to cancell they charge us for he whole 12 months service .... AND IF THEY DONT STICK TO THEIR PROMISSES THEN WAT DO WE GET as these guys fromveirgin media told me "WELL WE'LL REFUND YOU ALL THE LINE RENT FOR THE PERIOD for which there has been no phone " i mean tha would totall up to like £3 is that all they can do and wat bout my calls that i been making from my mobile to them and the other which me and my family been making as we had no phone in the house ....

I JUST HATE THEMMMMMMMMMMMMM......

DonnyDave

I suggest that you email the Chief Executive who is Steve Burch. Explain the situation and point out that you are looking for compensation for the time without a service and for your 20-odd minutes onto the 0845 number on your mobile (do you have a mobile bill showing the call?). You will also have been without a landline (I gather this is the case) and therefore you have had to make calls from mobile phones.

but they say i cant i would need to pay the qwhole year line rent if i want to cancell whether i use it or not ....

I'm no legal expert and I haven't seen VM's T&Cs but I would think that you could claim "breach of contract" in this case, unless it says differently in the conditions of service. I which case, the contract is null and void.

I would try contacting the Chief Exec first. Expect him to pass it to someone senior in customer services and when he does, you will have a name of someone who is taking ownership of your complaint.

Many company's email addresses are firstname.lastname@company.com and a Google reveals mention of steve{dot}burch{at}virginmedia{dot}co{cot}uk

If the email address doesn't exist, then expect to get back an automatic email telling you of this. In which case, try sending it to steve{dot}burch{at}virginmedia{dot}com instead. Let us know which works.

Change {dot} to . and {at} to @ This is to stop spam bots reading this.

Jay22_2

DonnyDave wrote: »

I suggest that you email the Chief Executive who is Steve Burch. Explain the situation and point out that you are looking for compensation for the time without a service and for your 20-odd minutes onto the 0845 number on your mobile (do you have a mobile bill showing the call?). You will also have been without a landline (I gather this is the case) and therefore you have had to make calls from mobile phones.


I'm no legal expert and I haven't seen VM's T&Cs but I would think that you could claim "breach of contract" in this case, unless it says differently in the conditions of service. I which case, the contract is null and void.

I would try contacting the Chief Exec first. Expect him to pass it to someone senior in customer services and when he does, you will have a name of someone who is taking ownership of your complaint.

Many company's email addresses are [EMAIL="firstname.lastname@company.com"]firstname.lastname@company.com[/EMAIL] and a Google reveals mention of steve{dot}burch{at}virginmedia{dot}co{cot}uk

If the email address doesn't exist, then expect to get back an automatic email telling you of this. In which case, try sending it to steve{dot}burch{at}virginmedia{dot}com instead. Let us know which works.

Change {dot} to . and {at} to @ This is to stop spam bots reading this.

well..Dave as it's the second time they said som1 is going to come a fix the problem for me and they didnt show up and this guy booked a visit for today as i rang them yesterday i m expecting som1 to come today... "he did tell me that they will refund the line rent for the perid for whichthere was no service service" but thats not enough as i told him that

i know how its been for me a my family it's been like almost 20 day no incoming cal no answering machine service no outgoing calls nothing
and everybody in the house picking on me coz i m the one choose to go with virgin media each and every day they giving me headack that what is that prob with these guys......

as i it wasn't in my mide as i got so mad and upset in these few weeks but they should have suggested "call divert service" but nobody mentioned it to me and when i i did ask him yesterday he told me that it would take 24 hours to arrange and that i wont need it as some 1 is coming to fix it today...

usually we make allot of phone calls and as we have weenknds free calls so we use that too the recent bill that i received was like £30 od pounds,, i my self been making calls from the phone box is well which i have no proof if i want to claim refund for and for mobile we didnt make any call which i did make would be roughly bout £10-15 as we have more than 1 mobile so if decide to claim refund for that i might have to send both bills to them.

we didnt make no calls as i thought we'll be paying for it as i didnt know about the refund that they might pay me so thats why me and my family didnt make not many calls from mobiles..where as we should have been using our free calls which are included in our package free weekends calls..

they gave me this address if i want to take things any further:
Virgin Media OP Box 333 Metrix Court 12 Swansea FA7 9BB

what i want is some sort of compansation for all this stress and inconvinent they caused me and my family by all this ......

shouldn't they notify their customers when they cutting off their phone line for maintence or any other reason and should they not notify them when the work be done and when would they get their phone line back ?????
they cut it off for 7 days for many people including me and mine is still not back on yet..........

DonnyDave

Jay22 wrote: »

what i want is some sort of compansation for all this stress and inconvinent they caused me and my family by all this ......

I'm not 100% sure whether you should name your price, but you should at least say how much it's cost you in mobile calls. If you put a figure of compensation for mobile calls and inconvenience, they may agree, or they may say lower. They may agree to give you so many months free line rental.

At the end of the day, if they refuse, you can say that you will be leaving them.

If you reach a stalemate (deadlock) in your complaint, you can take it to an ombudsman. If VM are a member, then you can refer it to OTELO (the ombudsman).

Jay22_2

But u know Dave all of those calls that i made from my mobile aren't to virgin Media .... would that be a problem AND i got contract mobiles so i only used like £15-20 (out of my monthly allowance) on my different mobiles.

i thought they wont pay me for these calls ... so i just on my calls should i mention this in the letter which i would be writting to them..?

and as u mentioned if i ask for an amount for mobile calls they might ask me for bills as froof and it might not be as much as i would be asking threm for as its not all bout phone calls right ..

DonnyDave

Jay22 wrote: »

But u know Dave all of those calls that i made from my mobile aren't to virgin Media .... would that be a problem AND i got contract mobiles so i only used like £15-20 (out of my monthly allowance) on my different mobiles.

Doesn't matter where they're to. My point is that you have made calls from your mobile that you would have otherwise made from your landline. Therefore you have incurred extra costs.

If you put it to them and they don't want to pay any or all, that's up to them. You are then free to choose whether you want to bin VM and go back to your BT line.

Jay22 wrote: »

i thought they wont pay me for these calls ... so i just on my calls should i mention this in the letter which i would be writting to them..?

That's up to them and there's only one way to find out. They may not be under any obligation to pay any or all, but of course they can do so as a gesture of goodwill.

bbb_uk

If you signed upto TV:Large but you are on medium and you have proof of somekind that you actually signed up for large then VM have broke the contract by failing to supply what you and VM agreed to (ie large TV).

I believe (but not sure) that you can get out of a contract if VM have failed to provide a reliable service however I think there is a thin line at what point the service is unreliable bearing in mind that somethings are outside VM's control and it would be a hard case to prove.

You state you have had no phone for 2 weeks now so long as VM are totally aware that you have had no phone (ie records confirm you rang up several times, etc) then you could ring them up again and choose the option of leaving/cancelling your service - don't go through to any other department though.

When the 'retentions' team answer just state that you have been in contact with trading standards and they advised you that it's possible to cancel the contract because VM have failed to provide a service that you and VM agreed to and that is you have had no phone for two weeks, etc (remember to mention everything that isn't right).

I have to reiterate that VM have to have been aware that you have had no phone so just ringing up and getting the automated thing saying there is a problem would not be considered proof because there will be no record of you actually ringing VM on their system (as far as I'm aware) because you basically listened to an answering machine. However, speaking with a tech support advisor (even to be told they are or aren't aware of a fault) then the call would have been logged and this can easily be checked.

Therefore, if it was a week after you've had no phone before you spoke with someone from support then VM will really only have proof that you've had no phone for one week unless they are/were aware of the outage. Normally if there is an outage it's generally only a day or few at the minimum.

I believe the retentions team are only open mon-fri though but I think they're open 'till 8pm (but not certain).

sanjeevgupta2065

Hi,

I sent this to Steve Burch (Chief Executive) and Steve Stewart (Managing Director - Customer Care) as I had enough with all the mistakes. After trying multiple email addresses, I discoverd their emails are:

[EMAIL="Steve.burch@virginmedia.co.uk"]Steve.burch@virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

[EMAIL="Steve.stewart@virginmedia.co.uk"]Steve.stewart@virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Please email them!

24 July 2007

Mr Steve Stewart
Managing Director Customer Care
Virgin Media
Sales Operation Support
Daleside Road
Nottingham NG2 3GG

Account Number:XXXXXXXX: ROTTEN CUSTOMER SERVICE

Dear Steve,

I refer to your letter dated 22 July with reference to my contract.

I am surprised at this letter as I am awaiting revised contract and I am not fully up and running yet! I can’t call you from my Virgin phone as you have not fulfilled your part of the contract and supplied this. I have called your “Customer Care” team (I can think of some alternative names for the team since I have spoken to 25 people - with the exception of one person who was actually helpful and took ownership in resolving the problem, gave me her full name and called back).

Here’s a catalogue of events which has left me very unhappy and completely demoralised with Virgin Media.

1)12 June - Sign up to Virgin Media online, for 4 for 40 bundle

2)14 June -Email from Web team to say they need more info – could I fax or scan – no email address given to send scanned email. So I had to go and find a fax machine.

3)21 June – I am called by Virgin Media and asked for a date to install. I query SIM and am informed it will be in post.

4) I am sent duplicate letters re installation day of 7 July. I had already made clear that there was no BT connection, but we had Virgin Media, so check to see if any specific connections required.

5) Meanwhile, I have not heard about SIM, so I call the “Customer Care” team who inform me that I have to call Virgin Mobile. They in turn inform me that my credit check failed. So I am OK to pay 30 by DD but not an extra 10 by 10!? (This entails waiting on the line for around 90 mins in total. I also ask to be sent revised 3 for 30 contract – nothing received to date.

6) Installation of TV and broadband takes place on 7 July, with the engineer informing me that a DP connection is required and he does not have expertise. He calls office but is unable to get a new date.

7)10 July - I have to ring Virgin Media to get a new date for installation – Monday 16 July, because I knew no one would call me.

8)16 July comes by and I am waiting until 18.30 – no one arrives. There is no postcard to confirm late arrival of visit of Virgin Media. By the way, I am sent a letter dated 9 July re installation to take place on 7 July!

9)19 July – no one calls or communicates by this date. I spend 100 minutes (one hour 40 mins) talking to 9 people and all are rude, unhelpful will not give me their full name. I am informed that an engineer did arrive at 18.50 – but no one is able to explain why a card was not left. One staff member complains about another who has put my call through and all keep passing the buck. Nothing is resolved about landline.

All the time, it takes around 10 mins or more to talk to someone. I am informed that I will not be charged installation costs. Also with each call, I am informed it will take 3, 5, or 10 mins – in each case it takes longer.

10)20 July – I have to call again and this time, Charlene is very helpful and really does offer to call me back – at last someone who actually knows meaning of customer care.

I am now given a revised date for land line – I again point out the DP connection and explain that the engineer must ring for the Porter and he will allow him access to my flat.

I have tried to be brief, but you will see that the whole experience has been rather frustrating. I have lost 3 days including waiting around and making calls. The stress has been top of the scale.

Here’s what I would like:

1) An apology from you and what you are dong to improve “Customer Care” team. I don’t want excuses about different departments – you are the MD for Virgin Media Customer Care.

2) A landline – hopefully on 20 July.

3) A revised contract for the 3 for 30 unless you can get me 4 for 40 and send SIM card, in which I will sign the original contract once I have all the services, including landline.

4) I would like to be compensated - my suggestion is that you make a donation to the charity where I am Director of Fundraising and Communications – XYZ for 5000 pounds, which is my time for the three days I have wasted, plus the stress caused as result of no land line, having to use my charity’s phone line and my mobile. I will of course still pay my charges.


I have copied Mr Steve Burch, your Chief Executive in the hope that you will deal with this quickly and that whoever reads his mail will ask you to deal with this as a matter of urgency. I trust that you will not be sending a letter “Thanks for the letter you sent us. We’re on the case and a member of our team will be in touch as quickly as possible.

“It usually takes us around 10 days to reply but wanted to let you know that we’re a little busier right now and it may take up to 15 days”



I had shares in Telewest and used both Telewest and NTL services…wish I had known that you had worked (again the Customer Service levels were very low) there before signing up to Virgin Media – I would have gone to Sky. But then you have responsibility for approximately 5,000 in-house and outsourced agents and service 5 million customers, so why would you care about one customer. But that’s how it starts… I googled you to see what I could find out about you…it was not good for you. You and Virgin Media could do with some positive PR.

I am sure that Mr Steve Burch, an ardent Democrat and Vietnam veteran, who was happy to let NTL, with its reputation for rotten customer service, disappear into the mists of time as if it never existed would hope that rotten customer service is not offered by Virgin Media.

Despite spending £25 million on rebranding, Virgin Media suffered a 46,900 fall in customers to 4.8 million in the first quarter. I wonder what the figs were like for the second quarter? The web is full of stories of people who are unhappy – I guess they will continue to vote with their feet and go elsewhere – mainly Sky. You should always remember that it does not matter what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel. They will always remember how you made them feel. You want to some benchmarking, try Tesco - I have never had bad experience with them or First Direct – who may not offer the best rates, but provide superb service and respond immediately to phone calls – if they can do it, why can’t you?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,







Copy:

Steve Burch
Chief Executive Officer
Virgin Media Ltd
Media House
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
RG27 9XA

hercules2007

Have you had a reply from this?

I have sent a letter of complaint to these guys also. I used the following names as well.

[EMAIL="david.bond@virginmedia.co.uk"]david.bond@virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

[EMAIL="Neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk"]Neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I have spent over 10 hours on the phone to Virgin Media to to get our problem resolved. Over the last two months we have received a total bill of £2082 for Additional features on a TV Services we do no have.

We currently only have phone and broadband!!!! We're with sky for our TV!!

I am now in the process in cancelling the remaining services with them

cazzie_4

We are having a nightmare with Virgin. My boyfriend signed up for the contract in a shopping centre and then the day he move into his new flat, with no warning the installers phoned and said they were coming that day. They came 30 mins later and broadband and TV were installed without a problem.

But the guy at the shopping centre had put down the wrong address, so they couldn't connect the phone. We were told if we phoned on the Mon (they arrived on Sat) and changed the address we would be connected.

This was 2 months ago, 7 phone calls and 1 email later we are still not connected to virgin and they are taking the full £30. As we have the £30 tv internet and phone package.

Everytime my boyfriend phones he is told it will be sorted out and they promise that someone will phone him back that day, they never phone.

The best response we had was a reply from an email, a letter was sent to us saying were sorry your unhappy and a customer service rep phoned. He said it would be sorted out and that he would phone back that day and a week later nothing.

My boyfriend has given up and as the account is in his name I cant phone up, otherwise they would be hearing exactly what I think to there customer service.

I am emailing again today, any advice please. I think we deserve money back as we shouldn't pay for a service we dont have.

All we want is a phone line that were paying for, is that really too much lol. :mad: