Virgin Media....are my opinions correct ? Should I join ?

richardvc

I've been investigating changing broadband / TV etc recently and Virgin has been installed in our town in the last six months.
Their one year deals would save me a fortune but and it is a big but, all I've read on Facebook, forums and the internet in general is how appalling their customer service is. How they don't honour agreements, promise but don't deliver and that their actual CS department just don't know what they are doing.
In my years with Sky, I've only had occasional problems (one quite serious) and their CS was excellent.
I like the idea of Virgin but am not sure the savings, which would be significant, are worth it if there is a problem.
Opinions ?

Neil_Jones

Phone Sky and see if they will match the Virgin deal?

cranford

I have been with VM for 8 years and have no problems and have been able to get a £40 off a month for the last contract and about £10 to £20 for previous contracts. If you select retentions on the customer services menu you normally get a UK based  person and not  an overseas one. Currently they have been trying to entice both existing and new customers on to their top package with good offers but after the 12 months is up you can expect to pay nearer the going rate.  The current top offer include 2 boxes, a limitless mobile sim, Sky sports and cinema, BT sports, Kids channels and BB at a speed of 500mbps currently for £79 a month (£35 set up) but £139 after 12 months. Very few people need speeds of 500mbps but depending on when your existing sim contract ends the limitless sim could be worth about £250 over the 12 month contract,

cruiser53

we we have been with VM for 20 plus years and are currently paying £72 per month for broadband and phone , ( no tv ) rang VM to see if they would match the other suppliers that are offering a good deal but they said no, the problem is we have their e.mail address and we cannot use it when we switch, at the moment it would be very inconvenient for us to use a different e.mail address but are setting things in place to enable us to switch in about one months time, I find it very frustrating when we have been a customer all that time and they are very unhelpful and do not reward loyalty.

pickledonionspaceraider

I agree with @cruiser53

Similar story here, we have been with them for 15+ years, since they were 'diamond cable' - and my opinion is, they only treat newcomers well.    I left once

The customer service really is shockingly bad, We had an issue recently with an intermittent fault - and the VM guy literally shouted at me on the phone and called me a liar, when I told him that the fault still was not fixed, and put the phone down on me.  I made a complaint and was given a complaint reference no - and a week later when I rang to follow up, they said there had been no complaint logged, and accused me of making up the complaint number?!

We are currently looking at other options.  As well as the rubbish customer service, the prices seem to rise year on year and we see newcomers given great prices and free TVs, whilst loyal customers get shouted at and called liars...

JJ_Egan

VM savings may well be only for the first contract .

Complaints yes for every ISP  but the millions who have good service don't post .Sure somebody posted near identical complaints about Sky this week .

Blot

Virgin Media not too bad on the whole but we get quite a few service outages, sometimes quite short but of late some major ones taking out the whole neighbourhood for several hours. Get the feeling that the network infrastructure initially installed here some 20 years ago is getting flaky . They can get well pushy in trying to sell their enhanced packages , never in the way of reducing your price but in the way of extras free on a new 12 month contract which of course reverts  to full price in a years time. Had one on today (well offshore by the accent)  who hammered on for minutes on end despite me saying over and over " I DO NOT WANT IT"  Generally they are well insular and trying to address a particular problem is beyond the pail , cloth ears does not come close to it . Try finding a contact you can discuss things with their end. I well remember the farrago we had when we had the original system installed in our new house and despite our telling them they might have problems due to their street box location they would not listen , come the arranged day they turned up looked at it and said "we have a problem."  The resultant was that we had no phone, television or broadband for 6 weeks and the chap who had bought our previous could not get his line in because they could not move mine so he was stuffed also.
  The foregoing apart it is not bad when it is working. We just ensure we now have an outside aerial, and charged mobile to take over during the outages.

richardvc

Blot said:

Virgin Media not too bad on the whole but we get quite a few service outages, sometimes quite short but of late some major ones taking out the whole neighbourhood for several hours. Get the feeling that the network infrastructure initially installed here some 20 years ago is getting flaky . They can get well pushy in trying to sell their enhanced packages , never in the way of reducing your price but in the way of extras free on a new 12 month contract which of course reverts  to full price in a years time. Had one on today (well offshore by the accent)  who hammered on for minutes on end despite me saying over and over " I DO NOT WANT IT"  Generally they are well insular and trying to address a particular problem is beyond the pail , cloth ears does not come close to it . Try finding a contact you can discuss things with their end. I well remember the farrago we had when we had the original system installed in our new house and despite our telling them they might have problems due to their street box location they would not listen , come the arranged day they turned up looked at it and said "we have a problem."  The resultant was that we had no phone, television or broadband for 6 weeks and the chap who had bought our previous could not get his line in because they could not move mine so he was stuffed also.
  The foregoing apart it is not bad when it is working. We just ensure we now have an outside aerial, and charged mobile to take over during the outages.

That sort of sums up my thoughts how it would turn out.....The system around here has only been in the town a few months but already I've read comments locally that the CS is appalling and that a number will be going back to "whoever" when they can. Seems a shame as the product and what they offer looks amazing but it's no use if it can't be delivered !!

irc

We were with VM for over 20 years. Good service.  Call  centre became annoying  lately calling frequently  to try and outsell. I ended up blocking their number. They take advantage of loyalty  our deal  of 100mb broadband and medium tv plus phone was going up to £82. Best offer even after saying I was leaving  was £10 off.

So we went to Vodaphone. £23 a month plus £100 to get a new roof aerial  for freeview.  We have Netflix. Don't  miss Virgin TV. Don't notice slightly  slower broadband.

£50 a month saving.

focusonskill

I'm wiht them for nearly a year now. There was one service outage over the year that cannot be fixed over the phone so an engineer was arranged to come the next day. However the issue was resolved the next day before engineer came. I called to cancel my broadband last week since my initial deal of £25 for 100M ends soon. They offered the retaintion offer at same price which I declined and proceed to cancel the service. The next day they called again for retention, offering £19 for 50M but I still declined as the deal with another supplier is £15 after cashback. Today I got another call from them lowering the price to £14 which I accepted. Conclusion is that they'll only offer you the best price if they know you are seriously leaving. 

driver_rider

focusonskill said:

I'm wiht them for nearly a year now. There was one service outage over the year that cannot be fixed over the phone so an engineer was arranged to come the next day. However the issue was resolved the next day before engineer came. I called to cancel my broadband last week since my initial deal of £25 for 100M ends soon. They offered the retaintion offer at same price which I declined and proceed to cancel the service. The next day they called again for retention, offering £19 for 50M but I still declined as the deal with another supplier is £15 after cashback. Today I got another call from them lowering the price to £14 which I accepted. Conclusion is that they'll only offer you the best price if they know you are seriously leaving. 

This is good to know. I have only been with them for a few months but when I am looking into getting the ultimate package.