Poor review of Virgin's internet, television, phone
Posted: Fri, 18 Apr 2008, 17:49:35, GMT | 7222 views | Commented on: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 Share
I have high standards of customer service, but even really basic versions of competence are lacking with Virgin Media. I mean - I have patience - but enough is enough! Note to those who are considering Virgin Media's Telephone, Internet (Cable Modem), or Television (TV) services: save yourself lots of time and hassle and do not use Virgin Media.
When we first moved into the house, the idea of having one company that could provide a bundle of services to include the TV, Internet, and Phone service was nice. I have a pretty good brand image of Virgin, so we decided to sign up for one of their VIP Packages that combines high speed internet, telephone, and HD television. You may have read that when they came to install the television and telephone, they were completely incompetent and tried to drill through a wall inside my house that wasn't needed - and did drill through the outside of my house into my neighbor's front yard. Oops. (If you didn't read the saga, you can read it at Moving Into Ealing Broadway.)
In any case, they finally got the installation done fine, and I set up direct debit to pay the monthly charge. After a month or so, I get a nasty letter than I hadn't paid my bill, so I call them. Oops. Their mistake, they didn't process the application but they have it fine and will activate it for the next billing cycle. Would I ever mind paying the current bill, because it's really hard being them and they can't process the outstanding balance with the direct debit. Fine, so we pay it. Then two weeks later, I get another nasty letter - saying that we're being turned over to collections. I call them on their secret speed dial from a Virgin phone - 170 - and they want to know my account number or home phone number. "I don't know, it's not on the letter, and I'm calling you from your own phone line, doesn't caller ID come through?" That's sorted. Yeah, so it shouldn't have been turned over to collections, big apologies. Everything's fine on the account after all.
This past Monday night we notice the internet isn't working. TV and Phone are fine though. Tuesday night the Internet still isn't working. I call Virgin Media. "We shut off your internet service because you haven't paid your bill since January and you don't return our calls or notices." "Um, first of all, I do talk to you all the time. Too much in fact. Secondly, I have paid the bill, multiple times and if it's not been processed, it's sure as heck isn't due to my lack of effort." The helpful lady at Virgin Customer Service (or maybe it's Virgin Collections) explains that upon digging into my account, the TV and Phone bills HAVE been paid fine - it's only the Internet bill that has not been paid. Would I ever mind paying that over the phone? "I'm on a bundle, I get one bill only, and you have my direct debit. How can the bill partially be paid?" "Oh, Virgin uses different billing systems, so even though it's a bundle, the charges are each handled separately." Whatever.
Not a problem, it so happens that Virgin Media HAS been deducting the right amount from my direct debit after all. It just hasn't been allocated properly on the billing systems. She will personally take the credit balance from my Virgin TV / Phone, and apply it to the balance owed on the Virgin Internet bill. Give it a couple of hours and the internet will be reactivated. After about an hour, the Virgin customer service rep calls back and confirms that the internet has been reactivated and the billing has been all straightened out, and apologies for the confusions, but every with Virgin Media is now completely fixed and everybody is happy.
Friday evening, about 5:15pm. Virgin Billing and Collections department calls me - "Mr. Earls," they begin. "This is Virgin Media Collections and we need you to pay your £172 balance on your internet bill." I explain the story of Tuesday, and how the nice other woman from Virgin Media took care of the problem and if they would kindly verify that, I'm sure they will notice that everything in fine. I am put on hold. Virgin man returns, apologies profusely, because it appears that the Virgin billing people made a mistake and instead of CREDITING the Virgin internet account with the right amount, they ADDED TO MY BALANCE OWED by that amount. Of course, they can't fix it themselves, but they'll send an email through to the billing department and it'll be sorted in no time.
Yeah. I'm so sure. The frustrating thing with all this (other than the obvious) is that the actual Virgin services are pretty damn good! The Internet is reliable, the HD box and selection is fine, and the telephone service is good. Why can't they just set it up properly and never touch it again? So what's the morale of the story? Unless you find these types of interactions engaging, or perhaps if you're lonely and want a guaranteed frequent amount of contact with people, stay away from Virgin Media. I'm sure there are equally good services out there that don't involve Virgin.
Ron Buist (82.41.146.230) from Glenrothes says: seeing all th comments about virgin media its all bull i have been with virgin for 10yrs i have broadband,tv,landline,mobiles and never had a problem if i do there back up is second to none and all free calls (posted Wednesday, September 08, 2010)
ty (77.101.180.242) from birmingham says: i have been with virgin for 2 months now! and i have been charged extra this month of £35 i rang customer service they say this information does not come up on the system so i have to write a letter which could take up to 28 days reply but judging by everyones reports on here i doubt i will virgin media sucks big time! (posted Wednesday, September 08, 2010)
LJN (80.192.163.46) from Blackpool says: My Experience with this company has been pretty mixed, I've been with them for a few months now. I chose the basic 10mb broadband, HDTV & A Phone line.. I decided to update my TV package from the standard 65 channels to the middle 100 Channels what the guy over the phone failed to tell me (and so did the T&C booklet i got) was that when ever you upgrade you're service with the company they charge you DOUBLE the amount for your first bill, So a service that should have cost me £35 for the first month cost me £70. I was less than happy about this but decided to let it slide. The next day my internet went down for a good few hours Again I'm a pretty laid back person so I let this little slip up pass by. But since my connection has been up & running again My connection speed has dropped from its previous 5mb(half of the amount I'm paying for) to a measly 2.5mb (and that's at a push) But anyway onto the phone line. Well it works rather well actually, The only downfall is I've gotten somewhere around the region of 70 calls from telemarketers asking if people live here by names I've never heard of! (I'm pretty sure I've heard some of the names on Eastenders) Called Virgin up to try fix the whole thing, Apparently they're stumped (Clearly they don't get Eastenders over there in India) (posted Sunday, September 05, 2010)
na woo (82.132.139.31) from cambridge says: virgin. absolute wankaz (posted Friday, August 27, 2010)
dave (82.132.138.252) from swansea says: they are hated by everyone who's been with them dont sign up with them you must take a phone line and they take the box of you once you finish with them or they'll fine you £250 richard branson is using our money so he can pump it into his crap cars in formula 1 the git (posted Wednesday, August 04, 2010)
Katie (86.31.82.232) from Exeter says: Been with virgin for two years now. I moved house and I cancelled my previous account, and verified this by phoning to check. I then set up a new account at my new address - they got all the details wrong continually, and in the last year,I would say that my broadband has been working about a tenth of the time. Phoning them is awful, because you always end up knowing less than before you rang. Anyhow, it has turned out that they never stopped taking money off my card for my last account, and they owe me a year's worth now. They said they would send me a cheque, but that was a while back - they haven't sent me the cheque at all. Not a good service. (posted Tuesday, August 03, 2010)
Very Satisified (82.36.189.144) from Worcestershire says: Excellent service, only 2 'outages' in 3 years better than when I was with BT and Wanadoo, who I'd been with since they were Freeserve in 1998. It's not always the suppliers fault guys and girls, it can be equipment at the users end - somethings need setting up correctly and certainly the manuals reading. I know, I have customers who think a byte is something a dog does and a megabyte is something a really BIG dog does - LOL Way to go VirginMedia!! Overall, very good but I do empathise with those who may have issues ;-) (posted Wednesday, July 28, 2010)
tracy (94.1.15.142) from portsmouth says: never ever go with virgin media. gone over to sky now best thing i ever did. still getting grief with virgin even now gonna be a court case they cant win this time lol got names and documents bad move ? (posted Friday, June 04, 2010)
melanie (82.39.192.14) from jarrow says: I get paid different times of the month so can't pay vm by DD. When i do recieve my bill i often haven't got the funds until i get paid, have tried explaining this to vm,frequently get late payment charges (which i never pay) they are now threatening to suspend my services (even though ive paid for the services)just with held the late payment charge, considering they get an extra £5 a month for non DD payment,just want to know can they do this? As far as i'm aware its also illegal to charge for late payment, i'm sure it doesn't cost £to send a letter (posted Tuesday, May 18, 2010)
Dan (62.7.228.97) from London says: They say it's fiber optic internet, it's just an unreliable cable tv internet. The connection drops all the time and can be worse than being on an old 14K modem sometimes. Also the TV is poor quality, much worse than FreeView with an indoor aerial. Just avoid Virgin. (posted Friday, May 14, 2010)
lisa (82.32.65.89) from bath avon says: i been with vegrin media since october i had nothing but trouble with it we ring them all they say is do this do that it still dont work when i rang them and said i was leaving them they said we will send someone out on monday and took 3 weeks internet off my bill lets see if they do come tomorrow my husband has been abused by to people how work for them never applogise for there rudness (posted Sunday, April 18, 2010)
lisa (82.32.65.89) from bath avon says: i been with vegrin media since october i had nothing but trouble with it we ring them all they say is do this do that it still dont work when i rang them and said i was leaving them they said we will send someone out on monday and took 3 weeks internet off my bill lets see if they do come tomorrow my husband has been abused by to people how work for them never applogise for there rudness (posted Sunday, April 18, 2010)
steve (82.32.65.89) from bath avon says: we have had nothing but problems with are virgin internet we have had new modems and wireless routers and that still dose not cure it when you phone vigin broadband all they say is its your lap top gone down or turn it on and off its a load of rubbish we are thinking of going to talk talk and when you phone them up they are very rude to you the service you get is a pauling and is not what they say it is not happy with them and ares is still not right (posted Sunday, April 18, 2010)
gcamina (81.96.127.223) from Londonderry says: I'm still waiting for my WiFi router since September. "In the meantime" I was given a 15m cable to link the modem in my sitting room with my computer in my office at home. Nice and decorative, as you may well imagine. I'm not gonna go thru details on how I got this thing working at the very beginning, but these people are useless on the phone, and I was calling from my mobile, so I spent the equivalent to two bills to get it (not) fixed. A friend of mine used her Virgin phone to sort it out for me. She felt guilty because she'd suggested me to join in. To be fair, their service's been excellent until today (internet down to a halt for unknown reasons). (posted Saturday, April 10, 2010)
Steve (80.0.183.111) from Rossendale says: this may be old, but. everytime, Virgin media refuse direct debit, every 2 months the problem arises, they made me think the bank refused payment. The bank verified their lie, they (VM) refused payment themselves, just so they can pocket an extra £10 late payment fee. so from now on, I am only paying through the internet each month, because their direct debit is unreliable. (posted Friday, April 09, 2010)
Paul P (92.237.88.224) from Bath says: Was with their dating service. it was rubbish so tried to cancel. over a year later and after many many emails they still take money out of my account for a service I don't want or use in any way. I even resorted to rude comments but only get back the standard answer. I consider it theft at this point. (posted Thursday, April 08, 2010)
annoyed (90.195.178.57) from Medway says: Just moved into my new house and want to have the kerb dropped. Have a Virgin media plate on the path outside my house and the council won't drop the kerb until it is moved. Virgin want £230.00 to come and give me a QUOTE to move it - said it could be hundreds more. Cannot believe it! (posted Tuesday, April 06, 2010)
SAA (82.110.152.51) from Newcastle under Lyme says: Over the last 6.5 years I have had nothing but poor support from this crowd. In facrt their customer service teams are joke. Here is a small sample of what I mean. 1. The installation was in place before we moved in. Excellent. Switching on the services very easy Within three months the telephone stopped working for 6 days. Nothing happened until I contacted them from an alternative phone and asked to close the account down. Telephone BB and TV The pjhone 'miracuosly' started to work within 5 minutes 2. Poor installation meant that the cable from the public highway into my house went through the front garden flower patch less than 2" below the surface. Digging up some plant I chopped the cable clean in half. Phone customer help line. The technician (well he said he was a technician) refused to handle my call unless I sat by my computer and reset the modem as he believed that by resetting the modem the cable would, by the intervention of a higher intelligence, automatically join together again. 3. I was having problems with the telephone again. Emkails were sent by me. I then received an email asking me to telephone them with my problem!!!!!!! 4. Television and broadband failed so I phoned them. I was asked to use the internet to check if Virgin Media had any regional faults. 5. Television and broad band failed whilst I a was on line. Down the road was a virgin media van. After a short discussion with the gentleman he advised my, and proudly, that as contractors to VM they only received payment when the new customer signed a satisfaction notice. That was fine by me. HE THEN LET ME KNOW THAT HE AND HIS COLLEAGUES HAVE NO ISSUES ABOUT DISCONNECTING AN EXISTING CUSTOMER TO GIVE THAT CONNECTION TO THE NEW CUSTOMER. When questioned about this i was informed: THEY SEND THEIR OWN TEAM OUT TO SORT OUT THE PROBLEM OF THAT EXISTING CUSTOMER AND THAT WAY HIS COMPANY GETS PAID FOR A GOOD INSTALLATION. In 6 years I have been reconnected by a faults engineer 9 times. Whenever I call a system fault in the local engineer knows he simply has to got to the CAB and reconnect me. Reporting this to VM I was advised by customer service that the contractors had advised VM that this does not happen and I was asked not to phone in to customer service with my lies.......... Oh and there is more...a lot more............. Can anyone advise how to get a service from another supplier without paying the BT reconnection charges? (posted Thursday, March 11, 2010)
Anna (82.44.224.31) from London says: If you value your time money and sanity DO NOT SIGN UP TO VIRGIN MEDIA. The internet service is unreliable (I often lose it altogether for no reason they can explain), the TV is clunky and also unreliable at times and the customer services takes on average 10 minutes to get through to and when you do you speak to someone in another country with a poor grasp of English who will either cut you off, tell you they'll call you back and then won't and will generally be of no help with the problem. There is nobody you can call if you have a complaint, you have to leave a message with the customer 'care' person (who you may remember often doesn't understand what you are talking about) and wait for someone to call you back to discuss your problem. They don't call you back. The most frustrating irresponsible company I have ever wasted my time and energy on. Vote with your feet and find an alternative or wait for your service to go wrong at your peril! (posted Sunday, February 28, 2010)
chris (195.173.57.160) from essex says: Well i cant agree with the above comments 100% i have been with virgin media now for 18 months and i did have some problems in the beginning like V+ box's breaking x2 lol. Now i have had no issue's and i do get a quick response from the customer care team, maybe its because i work in the telecoms industry and know how to talk to them (in a professional sense, they cant use the my managers on the phone lol) i also work shift and need a 24hr support. I do think i have been lucky as i have not had to call after 8pm which 9 out 10 goes to india and touch wood i been good so far . To finish i did take me a awhile to not have to worry about virgin but in the end it's all ok. Peace out (posted Sunday, February 21, 2010)
Roger (94.168.214.205) from Bradford says: just had a problem with my tv and broadband as a shift worker i need 24 hour assistance and virgin now only operate a service fron 8am to 8pm why the hell am i spending £90 per month for a part-time service absolutly disgusting that they put profit before customer satisfaction i'm out of contract and will be phoning sky asap who seem to appreciate their customers more DO NOT HAVE ANY SERVICE FROM VIRGIN MEDIA (posted Tuesday, January 19, 2010)
Jim (86.15.153.108) from Grantham says: I spoke with a nice Indian chap today who couldn't explain why Virgin charge £24 per year for caller id to be diaplayed on landline phones. BT bog standard service includes caller id for free..... go figure. (posted Saturday, December 26, 2009)
Rob (81.99.184.105) from London says: I had nothing but total and utter ineptness and incompetence for 3 years. Awful service, unreliable internet, phone problems, pushy phone calls (sometimes my fault I will admit, but nevertheless, extremely rude, and sometimes unintelligeable voices from India), and a REALLY bad technical faults dept. who spent 3 weeks trying to rectify a TV fault at my house - that turned out in the end to be at THEIR broadcast centre after all.. And HUNDREDS of TV drop outs and lost picture. In the end I gave up and went to SKY. Great installation (within 48 hours), great service, great (in fact, AMAZING) HD service, and Sky+ is incredible! 3 service bundle negotiated for 18 months at £21.99 a month. That's 10Mb net, phone, and Sky+HD with 1150 channels. Including Sky Movies free for 6 months. Move over Virgin, that's how the big boys roll - because, by all accounts, and certainly by us anyway, you are USELESS! (posted Wednesday, December 09, 2009)
Carol (86.1.65.0) from London says: Virgin Media are incompetent and totally inept. Okay when things are going well, as they do sometimes, but mindblowingly stupid when there is a problem. They are only interested in making money, unfortunately. (posted Wednesday, December 02, 2009)
Brendan (81.107.37.137) from Cambridge says: We're based in Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) and as per the first posters comment the telephone and broadband service is reliable but the customer service and service options are quite diabolical - unless you're prepared to pay the high administration fee if you want to speak to a real person before you get too old. Only a "born-yesterday" fool would believe the usual announcements like "Your call will be aswered shortly", or "Your call is important to us". Tiresome lip-service. The most infuriating thing with Virgin is that they insist on blocking release of your telephone number unless you dial 1470 EVERY time. When I had a spare half-hour one evening to talk to an operator, the administrator (AKA Indian call centre operator) stated that he could disable the block!!! However, dialling 1470 doesn't work if you simply add it to the beginning of numbers in your phone book! To call friends that choose to block withheld numbers means that you have to grab a pencil and paper, write the number down from the telephone phone book, dial 1470, wait for the bloken dial tone, and only THEN can you call from the number you've committed to paper and know that your number has been released. In Cambridge Virgin have the optical Broadband monopoly for domestic services, so whatever services and charges they dictate you're stuck with. In any event, don't bother with their phone services if you want the freedom to do what you want with the services that you are paying for. Get a BT phone line so you could then at-least switch to ADSL broadband as a fallback if unreliable in your area. Lastly, I didn't mention that I had been charged for about two years for a second phone line when supposedly the second (fax) line was "Free". So, was it "Free" when I called to correct it? Oh no... they insisted on charging me £3 for the second line regardless. If you're looking for broadband and phone, AVOID VIRGIN !!! If you want HDTV, get a Sky box if avoidance of shoddy workmanship and exposed connections offsets concerns over a dish on your wall. (posted Saturday, November 14, 2009)
ablott (149.254.219.92) from nottingham says: so so so agree this is so stupid in my case, iv got the new 20mbps XL package and i need to activate my internet by calling them but every time i ring its say sorry there are no people avalible to talk to and activate your account iv rang 8 times in the place of 2 days all at dirrerent times and it says the same thing its f*****g p*****g me off sooo badly and every time i call it cost me £3 what the f**k is virgin about!!! (posted Friday, October 02, 2009)