Virgin Media Customer Services, what a joke!

Debaal

Ok, I'm fairly used to the shoddy service and am no stranger to the standard games call centres use, but Virgin is currently surpassing itself.

Unfortunately I'm a little naive and don't go through my bills with a fine tooth comb and usually just look at the summary. Then last week I noticed that my phone call charges were higher than I expected. On further inspection I saw that I no longer had free national and local calls (anytime).

So started the long haul of getting a straight answer to a straight question, so last week I call CS and was told that it had been removed at my request in May. At that time I had an issue with them relating to Direct Debit charges and requested the removal of Caller Display, downgrade of my internet package and tv package, that was it! Oh and a complaint about a manager. No mention of taking away my national call service.

I stated that I had not requested the removal of this service and asked for a refund of any excess that had been charged and was told that I would receive a callback from a manager.

3 days later.......no callback, but I did receive a friendly e-mail asking me for feedback on how well they had dealt with my complaint?!?!?!

So I gave the most scathing report of their service and ticked the appropriate box to say that I wanted feedback on my feedback.

3 days later.....nothing.

So I braved the phone once again today. Navigating through those highly annoying 'press 1 for....'.

Call 1. Not annoyed but did state it was a complaint - cut off

Call 2. Asked to give details again, name, telephone number, first line of address, password, post code. This time slightly agitated I was told that I would receive another callback. I explained that I had already gone through this time wasting excercise last week and was not prepared to sit around waiting for a callback that probably wouldn't come. To which I was told that I shouldn't raise my voice (I was speaking on speaker phone) cut off

Call 3-8. Told to give details a total of 12 times, spoke to at least 6 people who felt they had the potential to be a manager and insisted on ignoring my request to speak to a manager or felt that they would be the best person to deal with a complaint that might actually include them.

Using the old 'if you raise your voice the call will be terminated' they successfully managed to not make the problem disappear into thin air.

Finally getting through to a manager, it turned out they only deal with happy customers, not irrate ones. As an initially sane and polite customer Virgin Media managed through ignorance, avoidance and bullxxxx to do what they do best......fail to offer Customer Service.

Once again I tried to get through to a manager who actually did the job they are paid for, this time I was told that I would be put through to a manager, so was put on hold..........11 mins later I was put through to another ordinary CS rep in India (having been speaking with the Glasgow centre), they had no information but again tried their best to pretend that they could be a manager, until finally they said they would transfer me to the complaints department. At last!!!

Oh if it were that easy! No once again, put through to another witless stranger who told me that they weren't the complaints department and in fact there isn't one!!!!

This one call had so far taken me 29 mins, 4 requests for all of the standard identity questions, travelled from Glasgow to India and still I was no closer to speaking to anyone capable of dealing with my enquiry. Thankfully Watchdog was running a piece on Virgin Media so that kept me occupied.

Then I got to speak to a manager, who thankfully wasn't interested in giving me lessons in diction, manners, voice volume who said he would look into it.

One callback later (probably the first time they have kept their promise on that one) the manager first informed me that it was because they hadn't received any payment of my current bill (received today) and not due for payment until 24th October?!??! He then stated that because it happened 5 months ago they wouldn't deal with it?!?!!? I then requested a copy of the telephone conversation as it was, according to him, being recorded, to which he stated that I would not be allowed, nor could I receive details of notes on my file.

So the upshot is, some idiot took off the service in error, Virgin Media policy of 'don't admit to anything and the customer is always wrong' prevails and if they do do anything wrong you have to be quick to catch them or it's your fault and tough titties.

I cannot believe that these idiots are getting paid to operate a CS department that doesn't deal with problems, managers who sit on their !!!!!! and dodge doing their jobs. I heard laughing at the India call centre, at the Glasgow call centre they repeatedly kept asking for information I had clearly already given (pretending that they could only type at about 4wpm), using 'raised' voice to terminate at the earliest opportunity, lied about complaints departments, vague about the amount of managers actually working ranging from 1 to quite a few at Glasgow, gave false information in relation to the Data Protection Act, and basically were more interested in getting good feedback for doing nothing but make a small problem into a big one.

So to avoid this kind of corporate crap that is now the norm in the UK I will be taking my complaints to higher management at their inconvenience. At least that way they can see they are paying idiots to not do their jobs properly!

All this so they don't have to admit a mistake a repay no more than about £6 for each month of the error.

WHAT A BUNCH OF MINDLESS MONEY GRABBING INCOMPETENTS!:mad:

trinidadone

Dam, let us know how u get on with your letter

trisontana

Virgin Media were on Watchdog last night. In this case the story was about customers being charged for pay-per-view films they had never ordered. They had tried for weeks to speak to somebody sensible at the call centre to get the matter resolved, but to no avail. As soon as the BBC intervened everything was sorted out immediately.

I know that the old NTL always had a bad reputation for so called "customer service". I think many people had hoped that when Virgin came on board things would improve (just look how good Virgin Mobile was). But it looks as though you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

chartreuse_2

I've mentioned this before, (whether in another thread or in the pub, I'm not sure) but it bears repeating. In situations like this, it sometimes helps to dial 150 and navigate through the menu to the disconnections department (or whatever it's called this week).

Those calls terminate in Darlington rather than India or Glasgow and, more importantly, the people you end up talking to have somewhat more authority than the average CSR.

changkra

trisontana wrote: »

Virgin Media were on Watchdog last night. In this case the story was about customers being charged for pay-per-view films they had never ordered. They had tried for weeks to speak to somebody sensible at the call centre to get the matter resolved, but to no avail. As soon as the BBC intervened everything was sorted out immediately.

I know that the old NTL always had a bad reputation for so called "customer service". I think many people had hoped that when Virgin came on board things would improve (just look how good Virgin Mobile was). But it looks as though you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

NTL customer service gets 10/10 compared to Virgin Media:rolleyes:

ElegantlyWasted

changkra wrote: »

NTL customer service gets 10/10 compared to Virgin Media:rolleyes:

I completely agree. Never had a problem with NTL, but I had so many with VM. I can't be bothered to go into it now as it's resolved, but suffice to say that I wouldn't go near them again. Branson's whole franchise seems to be taking a bit of a knock at the moment.

C_Ronaldo

Ive had no problems at all with VM,

Debaal

C_Ronaldo wrote: »

Ive had no problems at all with VM,

You might find when you have one, that's when the trouble starts.

galaxynicole

Yep, I'm sick of them too! :mad:

I'm moving to Vodafone at Home. It's £25 for Telephone (through BT but line rental is included in the 25 pound) and Broadband 8Mb (free router) + Inclusive Landline calls and 25% discount on Mobile calls.
Getting my old freeview box out of the cupboard for the TV bit.

The only two downsides for people who want Vodafone at Home.

1. You have to have a BT landline in your house already. Installation is around £120 (I don't but it still works out cheaper than Virgin over a years time)

2. Need a Vodafone contract to get Vodafone at Home. Not a problem for me as I work for them. (No I don't get discount on Vodafone at Home, darn it lol)

I would of happily stayed with NTL as they were good to me even when Vodafone brought out their broadband and phone service, I still felt like NTL was giving me the better deal because of the TV but now it's VM and I keep losing channels by the minute I might as well be on Freeview and save money.

C_Ronaldo

Debaal wrote: »

You might find when you have one, that's when the trouble starts.

well if we do we'll get it sorted,

adandem

Oh no, I'm having problems, our connection is always dropping.

We don't have Virgin Media, just broadband (virgin.net) as there's no cable in our area. Will 150 still work do you know?