Virgin Media (was Smallworld customer) Cooling off

mah14681

Hello, I had my service switched from Smallworld to Virgin Media on Friday 21/11/14 as Virgin had bought Smallworld.


On the 21/11/14 I complained to Virgin: they'd turned up two hours later than I was led to believe, they reconnected my home network causing routing issues, disconnected the entire internal network from any service and connected my wife's PC only directly to the internet without the protection of a hardware firewall (modem only). The internal network should never have been touched other than to plug the cable for the WAN to their hub. The install didn't even need a technician on site, I asked for a DIY install option (offered by them) but they refused. They provided me with a first generation Super Hub, whereas on their site it states they only give out the new Super Hub to new customers. If I call customer services I can hardly hear over a crackling line to a foreign call centre where, it is a difficult and lengthly process to understand and be understood. After getting through to complaints, I explained the situation but have yet to receive a call back about this and what will happen next. Since the switchover I've had up to 15 odd calls a day up to 9pm from foreign countries which show tells of them using auto-diallers until someone picks up. I rarely got one or two of these per month with Smallworld. I now want to cancel my contract as since being provided with service from last Friday, I am dissatisfied with the hardware, the set up and the customer service and have yet to have anything resolved or even a proper reply from my complaint on Friday.


As I understand, the new contract ties me in to a minimum period once the service is connected although I'm not entirely certain I totally understand the wording, to be honest I'm really hacked off and just want out without giving them any more money. How does this stand when the only service provider on the cable is Virgin? I wouldn't have continued to use cable had I been aware of the shortfalls of Virgin and want to move back to a standard BT line and back to BT. The whole process of being switched over to Virgin was pretty much led by them with no alternatives presented, assuming that this was what I wanted.


Any advice is greatly appreciated.


Thanks


M

kwikbreaks

I believe VM offer a 28 or 30 day satisfaction guarantee. You should be able to cancel within that time with no penalty. If you try do do so they will employ every delaying tactic under the sun to try and make you run out of time.

Switching back to a BT phone line provided service will cost you at least a minimum term contract and possibly a fee depending on what you get and who you chose to provide it. A cashback deal should soften the blow - checkout TopCashback and quidco for what's on offer.

If you go ahead and cancel expect to be without service for a while. Possibly as long as several weeks.

mah14681

Thank you so much for that. This isn't covered in any of the relevant contract related material I've been sent. Though it is there on the website for new cable customers, 28 days.

I get cashback through Quidco, which is currently £90 for Infinity 2. Installation is minimal and BT is the only provider not to charge up front for the hardware/install. The BT phone line is still connected, just not provisioned with a number, and they're currently offering £100 Sainsburys card. To top it off, free Wifi.

I've 25 years experience in Networking and Computing, most of which has been in the last 9 years in my current role as Lead in IT for a national firm. I'm happy dealing with BT, I would prefer others but price-wise, service benefits and quality of the service provision, BT is my first choice in my current circumstances.


Thanks


M

mah14681

I spoke with VM retentions, they tried to explain that they would provide the right hardware and set up to solve those problems but then when I asked about my official complaint, I was told it would take up to 30 days for a proper response. Well out of the guarantee period and nowhere near what I would expect for a complaint response. When we finally got to cancellation, there was no offer of pay for what you've used and we'll cancel on a date, no, it had to be immediate, that minute, with a full refund, no negotiation. Will just have to call them again when the BT service is installed in little over a week and go through the process again. It took me almost ten strong explanations of why I'm so unhappy with them before they finally took the hint. The response was more of '!!!!!! off then' rather than 'sorry'. That may just be my frame of mind about VM at the moment. In fact I would be happy to say they're irresponsible with retentions and cancellations as well. I'll update on progress and hopefully have a little more good news later.

M