MontyMole
23-08-2007, 19:11
I feel bad for even thinking about writing this post. I am about to join the "me too" group of people who have experienced Virgin Media's lack of Customer Service. I know there are some good people at Virgin Media however over the last 2 weeks it seems they have all be away on holiday.
Sorry - this is a rant...
I have been with Nynex/C&W/NTL/VM for 8 years now. Got telephone, broadband, TV and even mobile phone from them. Great service up until now. The occassional problem, but that can happen with any service, but always sorted out quickly and the people I have spoken to have been helpful.
Then around 3 weeks ago I decided I wanted a PVR and was looking at moving to Sky for Sky+. So I rang VM and they offered me a V+ box which sounded better and they offered me a deal beating Sky. That combined with the good service so far persuaded me to stick with VM and go for V+. A engineer was arrange for Saturday 18th and I paid the £150 installation fee.
10am - Saturday 18th August. The engineer turns up to set the system up.
He replaced the STB and everything looked OK.
"Where do you want he Cable Modem plugging in?" - "What cable modem?". I hadnt been told that I would be moved to a separate cable modem so had to run around to find a plug extension board so this could be plugged in. He plugged it in but didnt connected it back to my PC. As he was walking out the door here is the setup CD. Just follow that, any problems call 151 who will sort you out and it's free. And off he goes. No offer to set up or check it is working. No offer to show how V+ works.
10.30am - I try and set up the broadband. Put the CD. It asks for a PIN that is on my welcome letter. I havent been sent a welcome letter and the engineer didnt give it to me. I call 151. Find out I have to call the 0906 number. Call that. They tell me I need to call the customer services number. I call that and they give me a PIN number. Get off the phone.
11am - Before I get to proceed with the broadband I notice the STB isnt working. It is on a continuous cycle of booting up and then showing interference and round and round it goes. I call 151 and report the problem. They speak to installations, apparently they can see the problem from their end and can fix it. Wait 30 mins power down the box. If it still a problem then the engineer will be back out today. "Today?" I ask to confirm "Yes.
12pm - Still got a problem. Call 151 again. "Can you call back at 2pm?" "I'd rather not, installations know about the problem and have said an engineer can come back today. Can I talk to them?" "No" "Can you pass a message to them?" "No - you have to call back at 2pm".
1pm - TV still not working. Try broadband again. PIN not being accepted. Assume it is a problem linked to the STB.
2pm - Call 151 again. "No problem. I will get in touch with the engineer and they will be back with you today but will call you first", "Do you know when?" "No" "But it will be today?" "Yes". OK
4.15pm - No sign of the engineer or a callback. So I call 151 again. "Sorry the engineer wont be with you today" "I was told they would be" "That isnt going to happen and they close at 4pm". I was annoyed after waiting in all day. "OK, do the engineers work on Sunday?" "Yes" "Can one come round tomorrow?" "No" "The earliest they can do is Wednesday but you might get a cancellation on Monday or Tuesday". I can't do those days so I have to book half a day off on Thursday (today) to wait for another engineer. "So an engineer will be round on Thursday to look at my TV and broadband?" "Your broadband should be working" "It isnt - Oh someone hasnt changed a setting here, I will do it now" I try the broadband again - no joy "It still isnt working", "OK I will tell the engineer"
So I wasted all day Saturday and was repeatedly given false assurances by Customer Services.
Today I take half a day off and wait for the engineer. In desperation I try the broadband again. No joy. I ring 151. "The PIN hasnt been set up", "I was given this PIN on Saturday" "I dont know who gave you that number or why but it has nothing to do with your account, you need to ring Customer Services". Ring 150. They give me a new PIN. The broadband setup continues but then shows my username wrong, it has a stray letter "i" in it and a number on the end. "I can fix that" the customer services rep does something and asks me to start the setup again. I do and the "i" is missing but the number is wrong "just change the user name to the correct one". I try that it displays an error and wont proceed. "You need to call broadband faults". Argh! Call 151 again. They explain that this happens when you go from an STB to a cable modem and I would have been told it when this was arranged - I wasnt, or it may have been in the welcome letter - which I wasnt sent. But they can fix it and transfer my email address and webspace etc across. Great. They do it but the webspace may not have moved and I may need to re-upload it.
So now I have broadband working again, just waiting for the engineer again.
10am Engineer turns up. Faulty box. Out with the old in with a new. And everything looks great. Told engineer about what happend. He tells me that on first installs of V+ boxes the update can take 24 hours but customer services are always wrongly telling people it is 30 mins.
So if he goes. Everything looks fine
Come home tonight and the V+ box is on a continual update process. Call 151 and it is a known fault.
The whole experience has been appauling. I have been offer £25 compensation for the inconvenience.
One thing I noted when ringing broadband support was that they dont always offer to credit the call if the problem is not your fault. They did on the first call but on subsequent ones, even though the problem was down to them not setting something up when they said they had or not providing the info needed they didnt offer to credit for the call I had to ask.
At times I wanted to shout at the person on the phone. I know it is not their fault and I refrained from doing so but to keep hearing "I am sorry about that but there is nothing I can do" over and over is not good service.
For a company that goes on about it's customer service there is something very wrong.
And for a company that goes one about offering everything together - it may be true of the services but it is definately not true when it comes to dealing with issues and they wont help by transferring you.
OK rant over. A letter of complaint has already gone in so we will see if I get a reply.
Sorry - this is a rant...
I have been with Nynex/C&W/NTL/VM for 8 years now. Got telephone, broadband, TV and even mobile phone from them. Great service up until now. The occassional problem, but that can happen with any service, but always sorted out quickly and the people I have spoken to have been helpful.
Then around 3 weeks ago I decided I wanted a PVR and was looking at moving to Sky for Sky+. So I rang VM and they offered me a V+ box which sounded better and they offered me a deal beating Sky. That combined with the good service so far persuaded me to stick with VM and go for V+. A engineer was arrange for Saturday 18th and I paid the £150 installation fee.
10am - Saturday 18th August. The engineer turns up to set the system up.
He replaced the STB and everything looked OK.
"Where do you want he Cable Modem plugging in?" - "What cable modem?". I hadnt been told that I would be moved to a separate cable modem so had to run around to find a plug extension board so this could be plugged in. He plugged it in but didnt connected it back to my PC. As he was walking out the door here is the setup CD. Just follow that, any problems call 151 who will sort you out and it's free. And off he goes. No offer to set up or check it is working. No offer to show how V+ works.
10.30am - I try and set up the broadband. Put the CD. It asks for a PIN that is on my welcome letter. I havent been sent a welcome letter and the engineer didnt give it to me. I call 151. Find out I have to call the 0906 number. Call that. They tell me I need to call the customer services number. I call that and they give me a PIN number. Get off the phone.
11am - Before I get to proceed with the broadband I notice the STB isnt working. It is on a continuous cycle of booting up and then showing interference and round and round it goes. I call 151 and report the problem. They speak to installations, apparently they can see the problem from their end and can fix it. Wait 30 mins power down the box. If it still a problem then the engineer will be back out today. "Today?" I ask to confirm "Yes.
12pm - Still got a problem. Call 151 again. "Can you call back at 2pm?" "I'd rather not, installations know about the problem and have said an engineer can come back today. Can I talk to them?" "No" "Can you pass a message to them?" "No - you have to call back at 2pm".
1pm - TV still not working. Try broadband again. PIN not being accepted. Assume it is a problem linked to the STB.
2pm - Call 151 again. "No problem. I will get in touch with the engineer and they will be back with you today but will call you first", "Do you know when?" "No" "But it will be today?" "Yes". OK
4.15pm - No sign of the engineer or a callback. So I call 151 again. "Sorry the engineer wont be with you today" "I was told they would be" "That isnt going to happen and they close at 4pm". I was annoyed after waiting in all day. "OK, do the engineers work on Sunday?" "Yes" "Can one come round tomorrow?" "No" "The earliest they can do is Wednesday but you might get a cancellation on Monday or Tuesday". I can't do those days so I have to book half a day off on Thursday (today) to wait for another engineer. "So an engineer will be round on Thursday to look at my TV and broadband?" "Your broadband should be working" "It isnt - Oh someone hasnt changed a setting here, I will do it now" I try the broadband again - no joy "It still isnt working", "OK I will tell the engineer"
So I wasted all day Saturday and was repeatedly given false assurances by Customer Services.
Today I take half a day off and wait for the engineer. In desperation I try the broadband again. No joy. I ring 151. "The PIN hasnt been set up", "I was given this PIN on Saturday" "I dont know who gave you that number or why but it has nothing to do with your account, you need to ring Customer Services". Ring 150. They give me a new PIN. The broadband setup continues but then shows my username wrong, it has a stray letter "i" in it and a number on the end. "I can fix that" the customer services rep does something and asks me to start the setup again. I do and the "i" is missing but the number is wrong "just change the user name to the correct one". I try that it displays an error and wont proceed. "You need to call broadband faults". Argh! Call 151 again. They explain that this happens when you go from an STB to a cable modem and I would have been told it when this was arranged - I wasnt, or it may have been in the welcome letter - which I wasnt sent. But they can fix it and transfer my email address and webspace etc across. Great. They do it but the webspace may not have moved and I may need to re-upload it.
So now I have broadband working again, just waiting for the engineer again.
10am Engineer turns up. Faulty box. Out with the old in with a new. And everything looks great. Told engineer about what happend. He tells me that on first installs of V+ boxes the update can take 24 hours but customer services are always wrongly telling people it is 30 mins.
So if he goes. Everything looks fine
Come home tonight and the V+ box is on a continual update process. Call 151 and it is a known fault.
The whole experience has been appauling. I have been offer £25 compensation for the inconvenience.
One thing I noted when ringing broadband support was that they dont always offer to credit the call if the problem is not your fault. They did on the first call but on subsequent ones, even though the problem was down to them not setting something up when they said they had or not providing the info needed they didnt offer to credit for the call I had to ask.
At times I wanted to shout at the person on the phone. I know it is not their fault and I refrained from doing so but to keep hearing "I am sorry about that but there is nothing I can do" over and over is not good service.
For a company that goes on about it's customer service there is something very wrong.
And for a company that goes one about offering everything together - it may be true of the services but it is definately not true when it comes to dealing with issues and they wont help by transferring you.
OK rant over. A letter of complaint has already gone in so we will see if I get a reply.