Virgin Media/NTL

Erik6 · 23 July 2007 at 10:58AM

turnbull wrote: »

Hi,

I have tried to make a complaint over the phone and they refused to accept it. I told the girl I would write to them to complain and she told me she didn't know the complaints address!

I ended up searhing for it on the internet and wrote to them 5 weeks ago. Having heard nothing I have searched the internet again and found many stories of people who get complaints ignored. It seems they don't answer complaints!

What am I supposed to do?

I sent a complaint by recorded delivery in the end. I have had some response but if it's not dealt with by the end of twelve weeks I shall take it to CISAS.

Yabbo · 2 August 2007 at 12:47PM

I have written to Virgin Media 4 times as they have charged me £240.00 for a service I no longer have - this includes failure to collect direct debits x 2, service until September 07, Termination fee (I have had the contract for over 12 months) and various other fees that I have asked them to list but they haven't as yet. I have now received the £240 bill to be paid within 7 days or they will get the debt collectors/bailiffs in. Not sure what to do, but will try the complaints procedure, if not what is CCIS please?

steviec9 · 2 August 2007 at 1:15PM

I have had no internet since 20 July, fobbed off three times by Customer Services and Retentions Team only contacted me yesterday when they received notification from BT that they are taking the line back tomorrow. Very pleasant woman but she was rendered speechless by the lack of communication I have had. Have emailed them twice (two reference numbers) - still no reply. No idea when the internet service will be returned and I refuse to waste my life holding on a premium rate number for someone who clearly doesn't have a clue. Have cancelled my direct debit with VM and can't wait for their threats to start when they can't collect for a service they aren't providing. My last email to them gave them formal 30 day notification of termination of my contract and instruction to bill me manually for adjusted last period of (non) service, so the ball's in their court.

turnbull · 16 August 2007 at 8:47PM

Are you all stark raving mad?

What is wrong with you people. How on earth could you have any reason to complain about Virgin, the great company run by the people's man - Richard Branson. The hippy who loves us all and is trying to save our children by planting forests?

Well, let me join this post. I've written to Virgin 3 times at both their Portland address, London and Hook and never received a reply. I am owed £40 that they proised to refund and having issued a small claims court summons, surprise, surprise they have paid up saying that they don't admit liability but it would be financially unviable for them to defend this. I've also got my court fee refund plus a small amount for expenses.

This is the only way I found to deal with Virgin. I shall avoid Bransons companies where I can in the future and I feel sincerely sorry for all you others who have to deal with this 3 legged donkey of a company.

normanmark · 16 August 2007 at 9:06PM

I've had a lot of problems with Virgin, all on the billing side, i keep getting on the retention deals every 3 months & every month theres an error in how they calculate it.

However i'll be fair, they've sorted it out everytime & last time they even extended my current deal for a further six months! Service wise i cant fault it, never had the service down for more than a couple hours in around 3-4 years of service!

notso310 · 21 August 2007 at 1:21PM

I have had ongoing complaints from Virgin Media since moving address in June. When installing the TV & broadband they didnt install the phone line we required and despite having spoken with 12 different people and promised 12 callbacks I have yet to receive one. Now they have decided to change our monthly payments from £43.25 to £91.00. Again we complained and were told that the person who authorised the monthly charge of £43.25 shouldnt have offered that price and she could do us £65.00 minimum. When asked why then did they charge £91.00 she said that in june a database sweep removed many of the promotional rates given out and people had to re-request them. She would not let us talk to anyone else and could not give out a complaints address. As a last resort I cancelled my direct debit and wrote another letter to confirm this. Yesterday my TV package was removed from their system. I have sent 3 letters going back to 20th July, and although one has been acknowledged as received, I have yet to have a response to it. WHERE CAN I GO FROM HERE ??? PLEASE HELP !!!!

SillyBilly_3 · 21 August 2007 at 10:50PM

Every time we've had a dispute with a bill, my wife has just said "cancel the whole package, I'm moving over to Sky"

The response has always been the same - They've backed down and resolved it straight away.

Fella · 31 August 2007 at 10:03AM

Zutty wrote: »

I don't like to be a quitter, but if they won't play ball you're stuffed. I was with NTL for a number of years and although they were irritating at times, Virgin have made them look like saints.

I have never dealt with a company as bad as this one in my entire life. I have been lied to by at least 4 members of staff (one of them even acknowledged that the other three had lied to 'save their jobs') then went on to lie to me himself. I have been placed on hold and left there - cut off - told "oops, the system has just gone down, I'll call you back" and they didn't - promised letters and emails that never arrive - given a special retention offer that didn't exist, finally put on a retention offer only to have it removed the next month and be told I never had it in the first place?! They never reply to my emails or letters and the last time I called about a billing problem, the idiot tested my line speed, which had nothing to do with the reason I'd called him!

I can hear you all telling me to switch companies if I'm not happy - the problem is, that Virgin is my only option for broadband, the BT line is ancient and can only just handle voice calls.

I'm at my wits end with them, I have a poor quality service and am being overcharged for it but everytime I try to remedy the situation, they just find a new way of taking the pee.

Boy does that strike a chord.

VirginMedia are so unbelievably disgusting it is making me ill dealing with them.

Here's my experience, summarised as much as possible:

Jan - rang & spoke to retentions & was offered a one year "deal" on my tarriff.

Feb - bill correct.

March - bill incorrect. The person I rang denied I'd ever been put on the cheap tariff. After endless phone call finally got them to agree I was correct & amend bill. Was promised that all future bills would be correct.

April - bill incorrect. The person I rang said that the special tariff can ony be applied "3 months at a time" & it had expired & they'd have to reapply it & amend my bill. They amended my bill & told me the tariff had been reapplied & they'd diary it out to be reapplied at each 3 month interval.

May - billl incorrect. Spoke to supervisor this time. Was told that the tariff hadn't been reapplied but that she would reapply it personally AND diary it out to be reapplied AND put a note on my account to ensure if I ever had to ring again all details would be on my notes.

June - bill incorrect. Spoke to a CS rep who said there were no notes of any kind on my account, no special tarriff & she refused to discuss the matter. Then she cut me off. Rang back & spoke to a different CS rep & then her manager. Was told that the bill would be corrected & she'd send me a written letter confirming the tarriff that I'm on & that it would be applied correctly to all future bills.

July - no letter received & bill incorrect. Person I spoke to said there was no record of any of the above & also refused to believe that I'd ever been offered the tariff in January. After very lengthy phone call she finally agreed I had but only because I had an email from way back in January from the girl who gave me the offer, confirming the details. (thankfully I requested a confirmation email at the time). In order for me to forward this email to them, they had to "open up" their system to allow external mail through. The person I spoke to said she would personally write me a letter confirming my tariff & that it had finally been applied correctly and send me TWO copies just in case one got lost in the post.

August - neither letter received & bill incorrect. Have rung every day since Monday leaving messages for the person I spoke to last month or her manager to call me but still waiting for a call back.

Every one of those phone calls involves the usual menu, lengthy wait, multiple security questions & then having to explain the whole situation from day 1 to each person. I spend an average of 2 hours every month trying to get this resolved.

I'm at my wits end with this. Am seriously considering ringing BT or Sky & asking if they'd like to use me as the poster-boy for why no-one should ever EVER use Virgin Media. I can prove everything above, I have the 6 incorrect (& then amended) invoices & the names of every lying NTL employee that I've dealt with.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Sotheran · 1 September 2007 at 8:59AM

I've just had a letter forwarded to me from my old house from Virgin Media. I was with them for almost 6 years (well NTL) broadband, tv phone etc - never a late payment - between £50 and £60 a month. I phoned to cancel my contract as we couldn't get virgin at the new house and was told to leave my (5 year old) set top box behind or throw it away as they didn't need it back - I remember being a bit shocked at this and asked the bloke if he was sure - he was - they were telling all of the owners of the old boxes the same thing. Anyway the letter (sent 3 months after I've moved) is to inform me that if I do not return my equipment to them they are going to forward my details to a debt collecting agency - they want £250. I of course stupidly did not hang onto the box and left it at the house thinking that the lovely lady that bought said house might be able to make some use of it. I think this is some kind of a con - tell them to they don't need to return box - wait THREE months to give them a good chance to throw it away and then send a really threatening and rude letter. First baby is due a week today - really don't need this sort of hassle - do I have to pay this completely unreasonable amount of money? I don't need debt collectors or a bad credit rating :-(

Curly_Girly_2 · 11 September 2007 at 2:31PM

Sotheran
I've had similar problems - we couldn't continue with NTL/VM as our new village doesn't have cable. The contract was nicely cancelled and I asked them what they wanted to do about the box. They said they'd send someone out to collect it. I said they needed to come to our new address and gave it to them - they sent the final bill to new address so I know they have this. Nobody turned up.
We went to old address last week to see if there was any post for us (most post has been forwarded successfully but not everything), and sure enough, a letter from VM saying we would be charged £250 for failure to return equipment.
I called, and arranged collection for today. Waited 4 hours, no-one turned up. Spent 30 minutes holding to get through to someone, who said an engineer would call me within 15 minutes. No-one has called - that was 2 hours ago.
I am trying to return their blasted box (it's over 3 years old, I'm quite certain they won't be reusing it) but they won't come and get it - how is that my fault?!

Virgin Media/NTL

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