Virgin Media/NTL
Comments
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Virgin Media really are disgusting & what makes it so bad is that it's literally impossible to get anything in writing from them.
They won't correspond by email & even if they PROMISE to send you written confirmation (I've had 4 separate promises from various lying scum so far) they don't. So you're forced to ring them endlessly every month....only you can NEVER speak to the same person so every month the whole painful hellish business begins again. I've now dealt with 15 different people at Virgin Media. FIFTEEN - & never yet managed to deal with the same person two months running. All they say is they'll "email them & get them to call you back" but they never do.
I'm actually genuinely intrigued as to what kind of recruitment process they have, since it has a 100% record of weeding out anyone honest, competent or trustworthy.
It's the kind of behaviour I'd expect from the worst fly-by-night company in the world, not one run by "Sir" bearded-tw*t Branson.
Far far FAR & away the worst company I've ever dealt with. The next 10 awful companies I've ever dealt with, combined, haven't been nearly as much trouble as this unholy abortion of a company.0 -
Virgin Media really are disgusting & what makes it so bad is that it's literally impossible to get anything in writing from them.
They won't correspond by email & even if they PROMISE to send you written confirmation (I've had 4 separate promises from various lying scum so far) they don't. So you're forced to ring them endlessly every month....only you can NEVER speak to the same person so every month the whole painful hellish business begins again. I've now dealt with 15 different people at Virgin Media. FIFTEEN - & never yet managed to deal with the same person two months running. All they say is they'll "email them & get them to call you back" but they never do.
I'm actually genuinely intrigued as to what kind of recruitment process they have, since it has a 100% record of weeding out anyone honest, competent or trustworthy.
It's the kind of behaviour I'd expect from the worst fly-by-night company in the world, not one run by "Sir" bearded-tw*t Branson.
Far far FAR & away the worst company I've ever dealt with. The next 10 awful companies I've ever dealt with, combined, haven't been nearly as much trouble as this unholy abortion of a company.
I use Virgin Media for landline and broadband, and have had much the same experience as Fella with NTL and now Virgin Media, except that I have on one or two occasions spoken to a person who is actually helpful and who does try to sort out the problem in hand. All credit and thanks to these people, because at all other times NTL/Virgin Media are totally frustrating.
It used to be almost impossible to get through to either customer service, customer retentions, or complaints at head office, but at least the call was free, even if it did take well over an hour to get through. Then they decided to charge people for calling them to make a complaint!
It's a deliberate ploy on their part to ensure that people who call in to complain cannot speak to the same person again, to frustrate the caller.
They never reply to e-mails or comments submitted on the website, and of course never confirm any agreements in writing.
But having said all that, are the alternatives any better?
I've explored and am still considering the possibilities of leaving Virgin Media, but the alternatives usually involve going back to BT, who are no cheaper and whose customer service was also abysmal, which was partly why I went to a cable company. Then there's the broadband aspect. Talktalk seem competitive, but there's been a great degree of dissatisfaction and complaints about them.0 -
Wow I was going to sign up to their broadband service as I was attracted by the £10 a month offer for switching customers, but after what I've read I'll be giving them a miss.0
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but will try the complaints procedure, if not what is CCIS please?
Virgin Media have to be a member of an adjudication system for internet and telephone services disputes. CISAS is the organisation that Virgin Media is a member.
Here is their website http://www.cisas.org.uk/ . They better explain how they deal with disputes... but roughly if you follow the complaints procedure without getting a resolution you can take your complaint to CISAS.
They are currently dealing with my complaint and I should get the desicion in the next day or so.0 -
Wow I was going to sign up to their broadband service as I was attracted by the £10 a month offer for switching customers, but after what I've read I'll be giving them a miss.
That's what i was supposed to be on. Yet after the £25 payment in advance, i was charged £36, then £18 then another £18.
So currently they have overcharged me £57. And the worst thing is that i was conned into signing up by direct debit, which i can now see is just a trick to steal money and cream interest. They must be making a packet by doing this.
Surely it's illegal?!?!?Instigated terrorism the road to dictatorship.0 -
Virgin Media is in a word totally useless, we asked for July's itemised phone bill 6 weeks ago, we received a copy of the statement,i rang again they re assured they would send it for £1 fine...did we receive it? no, just a letter to say they would send another un itemised bill statement.
Today my outlook express has a fault i ring their rip off 0906 broadband help number,it justs rings for ages then nothing,at least with ntl ok you did get through,after a while.
Surely there must be a legal requirement to provide reasonable level of service.
never put off buying a bargain today,it may be gone tomorrow0 -
Get a load of this policy for Virgin Media policy for non cable customers:
"Employees must cease contact with any person who indicates that the contact is inconvenient, unwelcome, inappropriate or too long. If the customer requests it, the discussion must be ended immediately."
In other words, when you have a legitamate complaint due to a long contract that in "small print" contradicts what it says on the home page of something like an e-bill, you are expected to be able to understand a disertation of their policies in a very long version. It makes them billions when the average customer agrees to their terms and conditions.
Impresume this means - In other words when an employee of theirs is either poorly trained, lying, or has the same impression as you or I have from reading the main page and they think they are telling the truth to you, you have no right to complain and be listened to by Virgin Media. You will be hung up on.
They seem to be actually saying that you will be hung up on the second you mention that you have been lead to believe that a procedure is always free and easy to follow or inappropriate for any reason; unwelcome -because it is perhaps grossly unfair; and even too long.
In regards to too long and the other catches: Have you ever received a paper letter shortly before the expiry of your policy from your home contents insurance company explaining in the first paragraph that you need not do anything and you will continue receiving insurance the following year; then read through the whole 6 page letter and find that on page 3, about 30 paragraphs later, it explains there is a huge increase in your direct debit price for home insurance? That is, you would only know this if you continue reading the whole boring letter!
Is it any wonder that an automated service for billing from Virgin Media doesn't always work? For every second it is malfunctioning Virgin Media is making millions from non-suspecting customers. So your disatisfaction that is a reason for them to hang up on you immediately.
Can you imagine how many employees they would have to employ to prevent massive disatisfaction? A fair share of those billions would be used up.
This is, of course, their policy for non-cable customers. Who knows what their policy is for cable customers?
There is a snail mail address for complaints, and they promise to reply within five working days. I SHOULD receive a reply from them by Monday or soon after. Let's all phone their operator and ask for the complaints address. They will be swamped. They don't seem to have an email complaints address.
I may post more details once I receive a reply from Virgin Media/NTL
About half an hour after posting my complaint I saw the shocking cases against Virgin Media on Watchdog this week.
David0 -
I have been a customer of Virgin Media ( Formerly Telewest) for two years now and I have never had so much stress. I moved address in August this year and have now found out they have given me another years agreement. Since August I have had nothing but garbage service. firstly they took two months service charges from me only for me to be told this month that they never recieved it. Baring in mind i have the proof on my bank statement. Then my second box in my bedroom broke down twice so I didnt have service for 4 weeks. They sent out an engineer only to be told the last engineer was that lazy he had cut my aerial wire to use for a line instead of going to his van which was two steps away and using the correct cable. Then i was told he could not repair it but he would contact the call centre and they would contact me which they did but said they would have to get someone else to contact me which they have not done so yet!!!!!!! I have cancelled my direct debit until I get something sorted. Is there anyway I can cancel my agreement with them without getting charged another years subscription.0
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I decided to add my voice to the complaints about Virgin Media, although having read some of the accounts here, my experience pales into insignificance!
We had been with Telewest for several years with no problems, but that changed when Virgin took over and we decided to switch to Sky in August. My husband gave a month's notice to Virgin Media by phone, and we were given a date for disconnection and collection of the equipment; we were told that the direct debit would be taken as normal for the final payment, but as the contract was being terminated in the middle of the payment period, we would be entitled to some money back, and we should call Virgin after the final payment was taken, cancel the direct debit and ask for a cheque to cover the balance. So far, so good - we were disconnected and the equipment was collected as arranged.
Two days later, contrary to what we had been told, we received a letter from Virgin Media informing us that the final amount due (£15.09) had been adjusted and would be taken from my account as usual by direct debit on 19 September. I was surprised to receive on 11 September a red final demand for the £15.09, but (foolishly perhaps) I ignored this, assuming this would be taken from my account as advised. On 24 September I checked my account and found that not only had the £15.09 had not been taken, but that the direct debit had been cancelled. My husband called Virgin Media, who didn't seem to know why they had cancelled the direct debit but said we should send a cheque to cover the £15.09 owing, which we did the following day. We assumed that was the end of the matter - how naive were we!
On 29 September we received an unpleasant letter from Westcot, a debt collection agency, demanding payment of the £15.09 and threatening court action and bailiffs. My husband phoned the agency and they agreed to put the 'debt' on hold for 2 weeks while they checked with Virgin Media. I then wrote to Virgin expressing my annoyance that they had instructed a debt collection agency when there was no debt to pay. Their acknowledgement, addressed to my husband, despite the letter having been written by me, was the only reply we had, unless one counts the unsigned and undated compliments slip which arrived on 25 October with a brief note that our account was now clear . On the same day, we had a further demand from Westcot this time for £15.09 plus £30.00 in legal fees! Another call to Westcot, who implied that Virgin did this frequently, and they would again put the 'debt' on hold while they investigated. We then received a letter from Westcot saying they had raised a query on the account and this could take several weeks to investigate! My husband then wrote to Virgin Media at their London Offfice, but had no reply at all. I then wrote again to Swansea complaining about the harassment we had suffered, and suggesting that an apology and ex-gratia payment would be in order, failing which I would be referring the matter to Ofcom. The reply, again sent to my husband and addressing him by his Christian name, claimed that the sender had attempted to contact him by phone but could not make contact. If this is true, I can only assume that she tried to call on the Virgin Media line, which of course had been disconnected! The letter was remarkable in that despite it being only 7 lines long, it contained at least 12 grammatical and spelling errors, 2 factual errrors, and it was unsigned. The letter did confirm that we owed no money, but I'm not convinced we've heard the last of it. I am now considering whether it's worth replying, and whether Ofcom will really care! I'm just amazed that Virgin Media have any customers at all.
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I too am totally disgusted with what passes for customer service at Virgin.
Last Saturday I received a letter from Moorcroft Debt recovery saying I owed £12 and had a week to act before they took the matter further. At first I thought it was a scam as I have a Direct Debit with Virgin. I thought I'd better check it out anyway and phoned Virgin. Hung on for (the first of many) 10 mins only to be told I had to ring another number. Hung on for another 10 mins to be given another number. It seems they have a policy of keeping you hanging on, paying 0870 rates, one of the automated messages even stated it could take approximately 15 mins to get through. To cut a long story short it took me over 3 hours of being passed from pillar to post to finally get through to the correct department - virgin customer services can't access ntl databases etc. It transpires that Virgin had a billing problem in July and the calls I made during that time were somehow charged to my old ntl account that had been closed in April. They hadn't sent out a bill and the first I knew was the debt recovery letter. Bunch of cowboys, one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.0
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