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Dazed And Confused By Virgin Media/Mobile
SpecialBrew_2
Posts: 178 Forumite
in Phones & TV
Sorry this is going to be long. My current package is 60Mb broadband, TV M+, Phone XXL (Talk Mobile 10, Talk Unlimited, Call Displ, Fully Itemised Billing) - bundle Charges total £53.75, plus phone line rental of £15.99, all totalling £69.74 per month. I downgraded from TV L last September, but have been with VM for donkey's years, since back when they were Telewest and before that when they were Cableinet about a million years ago.
I worked out that as BT Sport will be televising various local football matches this season that I'd normally have to go to watch, it would be cost-effective to me if I upgraded my package to one that included the BT Sports channel and stayed at home and watched the games on the telly instead. All good so far. Digging into my e-mails, I found one which said I could upgrade to the Big Kahuna package for £53pm + £15.99pm line rental. Investigating this on the VM website, I found that it included BT Sport and that I could also 'Add the UK's best value mobile SIM from just £5 a month.' I already have an eight quid a month Virgin Mobile which my husband uses, but he'd not long spotted the £5 SIM only deal (100 minutes, unlimited texts, 100MB data) and had been on at me to sort out one for our daughter, who will be using the old Virgin mobile that her sister gave her when she starts secondary school later in the year. Again, all good so far. I'd missed the deadline to order online, but the e-mail told me I could still do it by giving them a ring and I wanted to talk to a real person anyway.
I had real difficulty understanding the heavy Asian accent of the woman I ended up speaking to, but ended up settling on a bundle which included the BT Sports channels, 500gb TiVo, up to 152Mb broadband (me and my husband both need a connection to do our work and it's not unusual for the entire family to be online at times too, so we need fast broadband if we can get it) and keeping my phone package the same for £83pm including line rental. This figure is a bit gaspworthy to me, but before we had Talk Mobile 10 as part of our phone package the bill could be a lot more gaspworthy, not to mention unpredictable, thanks to having teenagers in the house who know how to disappear with a cordless phone when I'm not looking. The woman also sorted out the £5pm SIM and told me that a TiVo box would be delivered on the Monday (£20 rather than £50 because we would be installing it ourselves).
The SIM card came in the post the following day. My daughter could receive calls when it was put in her phone, but couldn't make any. The number showed up in my Virgin Mobile account beneath the number for the £8pm mobile my husband uses, but when I clicked on it I just got a page saying they are having technical problems, unlike when I click on my husband's, which shows me his allowances and what remains of them.
I figured I'd ring up and sort that out on the Monday if there were any problems with installing the TiVo box and get it all done in one hit. The TiVo box never showed up, so I rang up to find out why. What followed was one hour, twenty minutes and thirty-six seconds of being passed from one department to another and listening to 'on hold' music. Apart from the very last person I spoke to, everyone had accents so thick that I was hanging onto every word. I felt like throwing a party when the call finally ended almost an hour and a half later. I was told that there was no record of me ringing up to place the order and that I hadn't called them since downgrading my TV package last year, so I gave them the name of the person I'd spoken to when I called and asked how come the SIM card had turned up if I hadn't called at all. They couldn't answer that, but told me they could give me the same bundle I'd agreed to pay £83pm for £81pm, that they'd send an e-mail confirming the details within minutes (they didn't) and that the TiVo box will show up this coming Monday.
They then passed me over to Virgin Mobile, who said that the SIM card was a PAYG and needed me to put some credit on it. 'Not what I was told' I said, and after some shuffling about at their end they told me they'd changed it over for me to what I'd asked for. Sure enough, my daughter could make outgoing calls so all seemed satisfactory.
Then I opened today's post - a contract from VMedia stating that my new package starts on Monday (Call Disp, Fully Itemised Billing, Talk Unlimited Extra, Telephone Line Rental, Broadband XL (up to 100Mb), TV XL, 500gb Tivo Monthly Fee, Package total £81.24). With regard to broadband speed, this is not what was agreed when I first made the order, but I'm more worried about the impact on my phone bill. Is Talk Unlimited Extra the same as Talk Mobile 10, which doesn't seem to be included any more? Worse still was the letter I got from VMobile confirming a direct debit and telling me they'll do their best to contact me when I'm near my £200 limit. £200? The page in my VM account which should show me the allowances and what's been used on my daughter's phone still says 'Sorry, we're having technical problems', and so I dialled 789 on her phone to discover that she has already racked up £7.50 in charges since last Monday night and is being charged 40p per minute for calls to UK and landline, 15p per text and £1 a day for mobile web. This is not what I ordered at all.
I know I'm going to have to ring them up to try to sort this out, but after the previous experience I'm absolutely dreading it. My brain feels totally fried by it all and the space between my ears filled with confusing media bundle info. Is there something I might be saying that is preventing them from understanding me? Is there something simple I should be saying to get what I wanted in the first place? Is it still even possible? Would contacting them via e-mail be a better bet or would I just be taking the first step down another rocky road? I'm not bothered about looking like I don't know what I'm doing on here (mostly because I don't) and would appreciate any help as the whole thing is starting to make me want to go for a lie down in a darkened lunatic asylum.
I worked out that as BT Sport will be televising various local football matches this season that I'd normally have to go to watch, it would be cost-effective to me if I upgraded my package to one that included the BT Sports channel and stayed at home and watched the games on the telly instead. All good so far. Digging into my e-mails, I found one which said I could upgrade to the Big Kahuna package for £53pm + £15.99pm line rental. Investigating this on the VM website, I found that it included BT Sport and that I could also 'Add the UK's best value mobile SIM from just £5 a month.' I already have an eight quid a month Virgin Mobile which my husband uses, but he'd not long spotted the £5 SIM only deal (100 minutes, unlimited texts, 100MB data) and had been on at me to sort out one for our daughter, who will be using the old Virgin mobile that her sister gave her when she starts secondary school later in the year. Again, all good so far. I'd missed the deadline to order online, but the e-mail told me I could still do it by giving them a ring and I wanted to talk to a real person anyway.
I had real difficulty understanding the heavy Asian accent of the woman I ended up speaking to, but ended up settling on a bundle which included the BT Sports channels, 500gb TiVo, up to 152Mb broadband (me and my husband both need a connection to do our work and it's not unusual for the entire family to be online at times too, so we need fast broadband if we can get it) and keeping my phone package the same for £83pm including line rental. This figure is a bit gaspworthy to me, but before we had Talk Mobile 10 as part of our phone package the bill could be a lot more gaspworthy, not to mention unpredictable, thanks to having teenagers in the house who know how to disappear with a cordless phone when I'm not looking. The woman also sorted out the £5pm SIM and told me that a TiVo box would be delivered on the Monday (£20 rather than £50 because we would be installing it ourselves).
The SIM card came in the post the following day. My daughter could receive calls when it was put in her phone, but couldn't make any. The number showed up in my Virgin Mobile account beneath the number for the £8pm mobile my husband uses, but when I clicked on it I just got a page saying they are having technical problems, unlike when I click on my husband's, which shows me his allowances and what remains of them.
I figured I'd ring up and sort that out on the Monday if there were any problems with installing the TiVo box and get it all done in one hit. The TiVo box never showed up, so I rang up to find out why. What followed was one hour, twenty minutes and thirty-six seconds of being passed from one department to another and listening to 'on hold' music. Apart from the very last person I spoke to, everyone had accents so thick that I was hanging onto every word. I felt like throwing a party when the call finally ended almost an hour and a half later. I was told that there was no record of me ringing up to place the order and that I hadn't called them since downgrading my TV package last year, so I gave them the name of the person I'd spoken to when I called and asked how come the SIM card had turned up if I hadn't called at all. They couldn't answer that, but told me they could give me the same bundle I'd agreed to pay £83pm for £81pm, that they'd send an e-mail confirming the details within minutes (they didn't) and that the TiVo box will show up this coming Monday.
They then passed me over to Virgin Mobile, who said that the SIM card was a PAYG and needed me to put some credit on it. 'Not what I was told' I said, and after some shuffling about at their end they told me they'd changed it over for me to what I'd asked for. Sure enough, my daughter could make outgoing calls so all seemed satisfactory.
Then I opened today's post - a contract from VMedia stating that my new package starts on Monday (Call Disp, Fully Itemised Billing, Talk Unlimited Extra, Telephone Line Rental, Broadband XL (up to 100Mb), TV XL, 500gb Tivo Monthly Fee, Package total £81.24). With regard to broadband speed, this is not what was agreed when I first made the order, but I'm more worried about the impact on my phone bill. Is Talk Unlimited Extra the same as Talk Mobile 10, which doesn't seem to be included any more? Worse still was the letter I got from VMobile confirming a direct debit and telling me they'll do their best to contact me when I'm near my £200 limit. £200? The page in my VM account which should show me the allowances and what's been used on my daughter's phone still says 'Sorry, we're having technical problems', and so I dialled 789 on her phone to discover that she has already racked up £7.50 in charges since last Monday night and is being charged 40p per minute for calls to UK and landline, 15p per text and £1 a day for mobile web. This is not what I ordered at all.
I know I'm going to have to ring them up to try to sort this out, but after the previous experience I'm absolutely dreading it. My brain feels totally fried by it all and the space between my ears filled with confusing media bundle info. Is there something I might be saying that is preventing them from understanding me? Is there something simple I should be saying to get what I wanted in the first place? Is it still even possible? Would contacting them via e-mail be a better bet or would I just be taking the first step down another rocky road? I'm not bothered about looking like I don't know what I'm doing on here (mostly because I don't) and would appreciate any help as the whole thing is starting to make me want to go for a lie down in a darkened lunatic asylum.
December 'Make £10 A Day' Challenge - £1.82/£155.00
0
Comments
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Call 150 from your Virgin landline and select the option to "remove one or more services", you will then be transferred to a UK based call centre.Understeer is when you hit a wall with the front of your car
Oversteer is when you hit a wall with the back of your car
Horsepower is how fast your car hits the wall
Torque is how far your car sends the wall across the field once you've hit it0 -
I'll definitely give that a go as soon as their opening hours allow. Thank you.December 'Make £10 A Day' Challenge - £1.82/£155.000
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that seems shockingly expensive as just today i changed from paying 62.99 per month for
50mb BB
XL TV
XXL phone
to 53.99 a month for the big kahuna package which is
152MB broadband
XXL TV
M phone
and that includes BT sport etc0
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