Virgin Media - getting it resolved

MothballsWallet

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been listed before, but I've just had an epiphany:

• Having problems with Virgin Media?
• Feel like you're walking on their Möbius strip logo?
• Spoken to many people, but getting nowhere?
• Don't know where to turn now?

Well, the answer is to contact a guy by the name of Ken Dugdale, who works in The Office of the Chief Executive at Virgin Media.

I only found him after writing to Sir Richard Branson's office while having a problem with Virgin Media.

Ta muchly,
MothballsWallet

soappie

My blood pressure is seriously high this evening. I have no 'pin protected' sky channels (again!) this time it comes up with some fault message whenever I try to put my pin in. I do have other channels thought

I have spent the last 2 hours trying, in vain, to get through to customer faults department. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just the same old horrible music.

I tried to circumvent the system by calling the billing department. All he could do (from India) was put me through to the fault department. And guess what..... I hung on again until I gave up and hung up at the same time as making a very rude gesture with my fingures at the phone (more particularly the people at the end of it)

I never had these problems when I was with NTL - only since the service has been taken over by Virgin Media.

Anyone else experiencing such problems and has anyone successfully claimed compensation off them?

A VERY annoyed and grumpy Soappie

changkra

The only way you will get anything sorted with this company is to demand to be put through to cancellations, which is really customer retentions. Depending on the severity of your problem you could end up with being offered all your compliant sorted out and any over payment if there is some and also so many moths either half price or free. Unless you have been through this dept. don't bother with RB just yet.. Sorry if you've already done this i only scanned your post

marleyboy

To be honest, every month I find myself ringing to report something wrong, My bill is constantly wrong, BB is a BIG JOKE, and over the months, this past year, the offers, savings and cherries I get from retentions to stay on, are wearing very thin on me. Whats the point of constantly offering me a deal for a service that obviously isnt working, that I have to pay a FORTUNE to ring over the appauling BB speeds we are suffering with due to an error on their service, which is constanty ongoing, for some indian operator to give me his script that flashes on his screen up until he says "ok we will send YET another technician". who cn call round twiddle his thumbs and say, the problems withVM, try ringing them back, a man can only take so much from a company before he says "Enough!"

ABBEYWELL_2

:mad:
My blood is boiling everytime I think about NTl or whatever name they decide to call themselves this week

for anyone who is thinking of joing them please do not as they are a disgrace and the worst company I have ever had them misfortune to deal with.

Basically its like this they are

TOO BIG to deal with your enquiry
TOO BIG to deal with your problem
TOO BIG to answer your query
TOO BIG to even answer the phone

Since the merger between NTL and Telewest a monster has been born and its
a monster that has no sympathy can offer no comfort or give any support.

Why am i so critical please dear reader let me explain

i have been with NTL for 8 years during this time have had tv brodaband and phone services and have spent in excess of £5000 a small fortune im sure you will agree NTL WOULD DISAGREE SMALL FRY TO THEM.

i have never recieved a correct phone bill during this time - ever
i have recieved a poor tv service compared to murdochs offering so have bit the bullet and gone to them for my tv pleasure at added expense

the brodadband is a cracker

ok paid £37 for xl 20 mb broadband but only ever recieved 4mb this was verified by 4 people at ntl so i have been promised a credit for 4 months overcharge whcih i have the pleasure of waiiting 3 - 4 weeks for

remember you pay in advance at ntl - nice touch that

want a piece of the special offer action - new customers only

ntl says no no to exhsiting mugs who have kept them afloat no to loyality

IF YOU DO ONE THING DEAR READER PLEASE TAKE HEED AND BEWARE IF YOU WANT A VERY VERY STRESSFULL LIFESTYLE AND ARE PREPARED TO MAKE PHONE CAL AFTER PHONEC ALL AFTER PHONE CALL AND RECIEVE SHODDY SERVICE THEN GO FOR YOUR LIFE- BUT B4 YOU DO VISIT HEL ON EARTH REMEBER 70,000 PEOPLE CANNOT BE WRONG.........................................
Virgin Media lose 70,000 customers

Aug 9 2007 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post
VIRGIN Media has revealed the impact of its row with BSkyB after cable and broadband customer numbers fell by 70,000 in the quarter to June 30.
The group, which has well in excess of 100,000 television, phone and broadband customers in Merseyside, estimated 40,000 of the subscribers were lost because of Sky’s removal of its basic channels from the Virgin Media television platform on March 1.
The two companies failed to agree terms on pricing for the channels, including Sky One and Sky News, but Virgin said yesterday it expected the impact of the row to be contained within the second quarter.
Virgin, which has about 2,000 employees in Merseyside, has sought to bolster its own content offering with initiatives including a partnership with sports broadcaster Setanta.
Virgin’s customer base stood at 4.7m at the end of June 30, down 70,300 on the previous quarter and causing consumer revenues to fall to £619.3m from £637.3m reported for the first quarter this year.
The company, formed from mergers involving Telewest, NTL and Virgin Mobile, said it remained the UK’s largest residential broadband supplier, with 3.5m subscribers.
BT has around 3.8m broadband customers, but an estimated 700,000 of those are from the business sector.
Fixed-line telephone subscriber losses in the quarter were 56,900, which was an improvement on the 63,400 reverse seen in the first quarter.
Virgin said it had changed the way it markets and sells its telephone packages, in an effort to reverse the recent poor performance of the operation.
Overall, the group posted operating profits of £3m, against operating losses of £15.3m a year ago.
Virgin Media chief executive Steve Burch said: “The second-quarter results show encouraging broadband and mobile contract growth, a resilient performance by our TV business and signs that our fixed line telephony business is starting to react to renewed management focus.”
On Tuesday, Virgin Media said it had given potential bidders more time to put together their takeover plans after receiving “strong” interest in a possible deal for the firm.
A month ago, Virgin said it had received a takeover offer for the business, a £5.5bn move which analysts say is thought to have come from private equity firm Carlyle.
alistairhoughton

C_Ronaldo

ABBEYWELL wrote: »

:mad:
My blood is boiling everytime I think about NTl or whatever name they decide to call themselves this week

for anyone who is thinking of joing them please do not as they are a disgrace and the worst company I have ever had them misfortune to deal with.

Basically its like this they are

TOO BIG to deal with your enquiry
TOO BIG to deal with your problem
TOO BIG to answer your query
TOO BIG to even answer the phone

Since the merger between NTL and Telewest a monster has been born and its
a monster that has no sympathy can offer no comfort or give any support.

Why am i so critical please dear reader let me explain

i have been with NTL for 8 years during this time have had tv brodaband and phone services and have spent in excess of £5000 a small fortune im sure you will agree NTL WOULD DISAGREE SMALL FRY TO THEM.

i have never recieved a correct phone bill during this time - ever
i have recieved a poor tv service compared to murdochs offering so have bit the bullet and gone to them for my tv pleasure at added expense

the brodadband is a cracker

ok paid £37 for xl 20 mb broadband but only ever recieved 4mb this was verified by 4 people at ntl so i have been promised a credit for 4 months overcharge whcih i have the pleasure of waiiting 3 - 4 weeks for

remember you pay in advance at ntl - nice touch that

want a piece of the special offer action - new customers only

ntl says no no to exhsiting mugs who have kept them afloat no to loyality

IF YOU DO ONE THING DEAR READER PLEASE TAKE HEED AND BEWARE IF YOU WANT A VERY VERY STRESSFULL LIFESTYLE AND ARE PREPARED TO MAKE PHONE CAL AFTER PHONEC ALL AFTER PHONE CALL AND RECIEVE SHODDY SERVICE THEN GO FOR YOUR LIFE- BUT B4 YOU DO VISIT HEL ON EARTH REMEBER 70,000 PEOPLE CANNOT BE WRONG.........................................
Virgin Media lose 70,000 customers

Aug 9 2007 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post
VIRGIN Media has revealed the impact of its row with BSkyB after cable and broadband customer numbers fell by 70,000 in the quarter to June 30.
The group, which has well in excess of 100,000 television, phone and broadband customers in Merseyside, estimated 40,000 of the subscribers were lost because of Sky’s removal of its basic channels from the Virgin Media television platform on March 1.
The two companies failed to agree terms on pricing for the channels, including Sky One and Sky News, but Virgin said yesterday it expected the impact of the row to be contained within the second quarter.
Virgin, which has about 2,000 employees in Merseyside, has sought to bolster its own content offering with initiatives including a partnership with sports broadcaster Setanta.
Virgin’s customer base stood at 4.7m at the end of June 30, down 70,300 on the previous quarter and causing consumer revenues to fall to £619.3m from £637.3m reported for the first quarter this year.
The company, formed from mergers involving Telewest, NTL and Virgin Mobile, said it remained the UK’s largest residential broadband supplier, with 3.5m subscribers.
BT has around 3.8m broadband customers, but an estimated 700,000 of those are from the business sector.
Fixed-line telephone subscriber losses in the quarter were 56,900, which was an improvement on the 63,400 reverse seen in the first quarter.
Virgin said it had changed the way it markets and sells its telephone packages, in an effort to reverse the recent poor performance of the operation.
Overall, the group posted operating profits of £3m, against operating losses of £15.3m a year ago.
Virgin Media chief executive Steve Burch said: “The second-quarter results show encouraging broadband and mobile contract growth, a resilient performance by our TV business and signs that our fixed line telephony business is starting to react to renewed management focus.”
On Tuesday, Virgin Media said it had given potential bidders more time to put together their takeover plans after receiving “strong” interest in a possible deal for the firm.
A month ago, Virgin said it had received a takeover offer for the business, a £5.5bn move which analysts say is thought to have come from private equity firm Carlyle.
alistairhoughton

we dont have a problem with virgin media where i am, its been fine,

mrs_scrooge

Another customer with blood boiling here after spending almost an hour on the phone to them

Am not at all racist but the staff in the overseas call centres have even less of a clue. They may speak English well but they don't seem to grasp the problem and its very obvious they don't! Tonight's person in faults said I needed to speak to accounts (to alter an appt?) and then lost me in transfer. Phoned back and selected a different option. Next overseas person apologised and said I needed faults (again) and would transfer me. At this point having been on previously for over half an hour and then lost you would expect to be put straight through..............oh no I was transferred right back to the beginning of the faults menu. Having had enough of going round in circles I hung up.

My bill has been wrong for the last 2 months (since changing package) and one of my boxes isn't working. 2 separate visits have failed to fix it and the engineers contradict themselves and each other! Another 9 days to wait before they are coming back to try something else!

Since June I have had problems with retentions (re negotiating new package and new services), billing and faults. Is any bit of this company functioning well?

In reply to C_Ronaldo who says VM are fine where he/she is my advice is DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING. In my experience (with NTL and Virgin) that's when it all starts to go horribly wrong!!

mrs_scrooge

P.S. It gets worse I've now got their horrible music going round and round my head..........

theallpowerful

I'll come in here on the side of Virgin...

I sympathise with all the users who're having problems, bu to be fair they've always been really good with me... On the rare occasions we've had a problem, I've got straight through to customer service and they've sorted the problem out immediately, and have always received a credit on my bill for it.

I think the services we buy from them are good value for money, and love my V+ box!

It's a shame that they don't seem to be able to maintain consistency of service and give everybody the great service I've had...

darwin-rover

theallpowerful wrote: »

I'll come in here on the side of Virgin...

I sympathise with all the users who're having problems, bu to be fair they've always been really good with me... On the rare occasions we've had a problem, I've got straight through to customer service and they've sorted the problem out immediately, and have always received a credit on my bill for it.

I think the services we buy from them are good value for money, and love my V+ box!

It's a shame that they don't seem to be able to maintain consistency of service and give everybody the great service I've had...

Agreed , my service is faultless , CS are usually helpful with problems sorted pretty quickly , and I always get through to UK CS . Best time to phone is before 4pm and you'll get through quickly .
As you say its just a pity they cant offer the same level of service across the board , although this may be to do with the infrastructure - VM is a mish-mash of companies that have been merged/bought over down the years .


For anyone on the 20mb (XL) BB service with Windows XP , read this page
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/20mb-broadband-optimisation.php

mrs_scrooge

Another day and I've spoken to 2 more people overseas (that's 4 in a row). I'm ex NTL BTW. The final person seemed to grasp more of what I was asking so I'm more hopeful but then I threw him by mentioning that my Radio Times had not arrived on a couple of occasions. This caused confusion!

The first person I spoke to this morning called me Mrs 'my christian name' over and over again. If these overseas call centres have not been trained how to address an English person what hope is there that they will understand the more technical stuff?

I used to be with AOL and I remember a similar situation with their technical suppport when it moved overseas. They sounded like they were reading from a crib sheet and when you asked them anything that they couldn't use their stock answers for, they blanked.

If companies need to use overseas call centres then the staff need to have a very good understanding of English and also be well trained. I feel sorry for them but ultimately Virgin are supposed to be providing a certain level of customer service.

Rant over (for today!)