View Full Version : Terrible Customer Service?
badexperiences
25-10-2008, 14:41
I've had such bad experiences with Virgin Media that I've just made a site to try to inform other customers considering to go with them just how bad they can be. They seem incapable of doing anything correctly, and their customer service is terrible. If you've had bad experiences with Virgin Media, please support my site
[Admin Edit:-Third party links removed - It is very rude posting such links without permission from us]
Positive comments with regards to VM are also welcome if you can think of any!
i cant help but think if everyone was to avoid any company that someone had a bad experience with, there would be no companies left to choose from.
Indeed. Reading through the site posted, I agree that the OP has not had the best experience, but I'm sure you could find similar stories about every other ISP out there.
I'm not trying to make excuses as bad customer service is bad customer service no matter where it is from
badexperiences
25-10-2008, 16:05
But if people were to avoid companies that almost EVERYBODY had problems with, that wouldn't be the case. I didn't decide to create the site as a rant just because I was treated badly. There are so many people saying how bad Virgin Media are. The only ISP I could find with lower ratings were TalkTalk. Be Broadband and O2 have much better ratings. Fine 100% of people arn't happy, but I know of about 5/6 student houses who have gone with Virgin Media and not one has had a simple installation. They have all been delayed/overcharged/lied to. This might just be that all students are getting their installations at the same time which puts a strain on the system during September/October, but a company the size of VM should anticipate this and ensure they don't take on more customers than they can handle.
If you thought you had it bad, read this one that was posted in virginmedia.feedback.
The original was badly formatted so I've tried to make it a bit easier to read.
Well hello there, as your welcome letter gleefully welcome's us....
We were due to get 1 x V+ TV Box, 1 x Normal TV Box and our phone line and
number swapped from BT to Virgin. We are already on 20Mb broadband. Simple
enough? How wrong could I be....
The `Engineer' was booked to install between 1pm and 6pm. He phoned my
father in-law at approx 10:30am to say he would be with us within 10mins. My
father-in-law was asleep at the time, having been working all night. Why my
father in-law was contacted is still a mystery as they never have and now
probably never will contact Virgin Media. My wife and I were out at the time
and had just bought a coffee and something to eat. After getting a `not to
happy' call from my father-in-law we had to leave what we had just purchased
to rush home, to let the `engineer' in.
He then went about his business installing the V+ box and phone line.
He removed our existing Sky+ box and I mentioned that we still need that to be working
as there was still programs that we had recorded and needed to watch.
He said no problem I'll leave it so it can still be used.
Once the V+ box was installed he showed us quickly
what a few buttons do and I mentioned that can the V+ remote control the
volume of the TV. Again he mentioned how to do it. He then finished off
installing the phone line. It was at this point that we found out that our
existing phone number had not been ported over (despite requesting it to).
Again I had to spend another half hour on the phone Virgin to arrange for
the number to be ported over. Luckily we still had our BT phone line still
active, so I could swap the phone back to the BT socket. So that's the
Virgin phone line not in use until the number get swapped over. He then
gathered his stuff together and started to leave, when I said `what about
the second box for upstairs and the wireless router?' a look of WTF are you
talking about? came upon him. I said `yes we ordered a second box for
upstairs and was also supposed to be supplied with a wireless router' Right,
I haven't got that on my job sheet, he replied and promptly phoned someone
at Virgin to find out what has gone wrong. He said he had another job to go
to and then would come back once it had been confirmed that a second box
could be installed.
I then phoned up again to complain about the poor
service, the fact that my father-in-law was woken up (he subsequently couldn't
get back to sleep despite working the following night) and the fact that we
had to rush home having just purchased a coffee and something to eat,
instead of being there for 1pm to 6pm when it was originally booked for. The
woman on the phone was very good. I explained all of the above and she
totally understood our annoyances and offered a £10 credit into our account
as a goodwill gesture.
I then went to use my PC/Broadband (again Virgin Media)
only to find this wasn't working. I checked the modem lights and
disconnected/reconnected it. This failed to get the broadband working. So
yet again I had the misfortune of having to call `customer services' to find
out what has happened. After explaining yet again all of the above I got
transferred to the broadband support section, who checked the connection and
said it should be working fine. I said the only thing it could be was my
broadband connection had been disconnected and not reconnected by the
`engineer'. He then spoke to one of his colleagues in installations who then
in turn spoke to someone else in that department. I was then told that
someone will be out that afternoon the fix the problem.
I then went to reinstall my Sky+ box only to find that a one of the cables needed for the
Sky+ box was being used by the V+ box. I then noticed why my broadband was
not working. The `engineer' had disconnected the broadband to use the cable
to connect the V+ box up! So I had a choice either have no broadband or no
V+ TV. So that was the V+ service out of use. The two thing's we had
`installed' were now sitting there uninstalled and useless. I waited in all
afternoon for an `engineer' to turn up and by 5pm I phoned up yet again to
find out what was going on. Again after another long wait and listening to
Amy Winehouse singing Valerie for what seemed like the thousandth time, I
was passed to the installations team who assured me that someone will be
there by 6pm. At 6:30pm
I phoned yet again explained all of the above and
requested to cancel the service as obviously I was paying for something I
couldn't use and requested a full refund as I obviously have had nothing
installed as requested. The man on the phone accepted that what had happened
was totally unacceptable and offered to credited our account with £30 and
escalate the matter. He also mentioned someone will phone me up to resolve
the issues. I was then put me on hold whilst he spoke to the installations
team who then in turn spoke to their manager. I was offered the chance for
the manager himself to come and install the equipment at around 10am the
this morning, but I said this wasn't acceptable as that would mean that I
would have to take yet another day off work to sit at home in the faint hope
that at some point the installation guy `might' on the off chance, turn up.
After some time it was agreed that he will turn up and do the install after
5:30pm, when I would be home. 5:30pm came and went so about 6:35pm I phoned
up yet again to try and cancel the service I didn't have. The woman in
retention's, put me through to installations, who in turn put me back to
retention's. I then explained all of the above yet again and she offered to
raise an official complaint, I said this should of been done already the
previous night. She said there was no record of this being done. There's a
surprise, I said. So I went through all of the above yet again whilst she
wrote out the complaint. She mentioned someone will phone up to go through
the details of my complaint. I'm not holding my breath.....
xspeedyx
25-10-2008, 16:24
Wow that is shocking
Mick Fisher
25-10-2008, 20:15
Truely shocking. But.........
If/when the poor sap ever gets his Sky+ swapped for a 'working?' V+ and experiences VM DTV he really will have something to complain about. :shocked:
Some folks just don't know when they are well off. :D
ontheball
26-10-2008, 22:08
Dude nice site.
whydoIneedatech
26-10-2008, 22:13
He has posted this in many other forums and some removed his links.
Callumpy
26-10-2008, 22:42
Hehe, only Be on the Broadband providers page, funny
The only ISP I could find with lower ratings were TalkTalk.
Erm, on that site you linked to I have seen that Pipex, Tiscali, Eclipse, Bulldog, & BT Connect broadband all have similar or even worse scores then Virgin Media. And 73 reviews of a service (as Virgin Media has had) is quite a small sample size to gain a conclusion from, although I agree, it indicates there is a problem. Maybe it's a case of Virgin's customer care not being up to scratch, but as I've not had the opportunity to use it (much) then my experience so far has been pretty good.
watzizname
27-10-2008, 07:45
He has posted this in many other forums and some removed his links.
Probably VM fanboy sites, you know the type, won't hear a harsh word said about them, thank god nobody here's that uptight :)
whydoIneedatech
27-10-2008, 08:34
Probably VM fanboy sites, you know the type, won't hear a harsh word said about them, thank god nobody here's that uptight :)
Some people think the other way about this site but they are quite wrong and should check out the other type.
tweetypie/8
27-10-2008, 08:42
I've had such bad experiences with Virgin Media that I've just made a site to try to inform other customers considering to go with them just how bad they can be. They seem incapable of doing anything correctly, and their customer service is terrible. If you've had bad experiences with Virgin Media, please support my site [Admin Edit]
Positive comments with regards to VM are also welcome if you can think of any!
sorry m8 but i cant go along with what your saying,form personal experience i have always been well treated by vm and virgin mobile and im sure there are plenty more out there just like me.
Links removed - I do find it very rude when people come along with a cause and then post links without express permission from the CF Team. :mad:
badexperiences
27-10-2008, 13:23
I apologise for not asking permission first.
The thing I've found which is so bad with Virgin Media is that their customer services team are so offensive and seem from my experience to blatently lie.
I am not trying to say that everybody has terrible experiences with Virgin Media, as it sounds like there are a few satisfied customers (although I have got a lot of support from people who have also had truly shocking experiences). I just feel so badly treated that I want to make MY opinions on Virgin Media public. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I don't claim to represent anybody elses.
joglynne
27-10-2008, 15:08
It's always dangerous to assume that what you see on the net is a reflection of the main customer base's opinion of any organisation.
Satisfied customers will rarely seek out forums such as ours purely to extol the virtues of the firms concerned so what you tend to see is a unbalanced view. To say that "it sounds like there are a few satisfied customers" assumes the majority of customers are dissatisfied which I do not believe.
This in no way belittles the problems you have had and if you are still having problems I am sure there are members of this forum who would be quite willing to see if they could help.
I apologise for not asking permission first.
The thing I've found which is so bad with Virgin Media is that their customer services team are so offensive and seem from my experience to blatently lie.
I am not trying to say that everybody has terrible experiences with Virgin Media, as it sounds like there are a few satisfied customers (although I have got a lot of support from people who have also had truly shocking experiences). I just feel so badly treated that I want to make MY opinions on Virgin Media public. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I don't claim to represent anybody elses.
a student with to much time on there hands. how unusual :dozey:
chickendippers
27-10-2008, 20:59
I didn't receive my referral credit even after phoning up, so wrote a letter to the complaints department and a few days later received a call and it should now be sorted *cross fingers*. From the website it doesn't sound like you've followed the correct complaints procedure.
nunoamorim
29-10-2008, 09:24
a student with to much time on there hands. how unusual :dozey:
and you are????
and you are????
not a student :erm:
nunoamorim
30-10-2008, 10:21
not a student :erm:
.......were you ever one?:dunce:
badexperiences
01-11-2008, 18:20
Just an update for you - Virgin Media have pushed back the installation date again! We've now been told that there are no free engineers for at least another week. New date 8th November! I've spoken to two people from customer services who both told me there was 'nothing they can do'.
badexperiences
21-01-2009, 10:16
We did finally get our services installed and we were issued a £50 credit to our account to make up for it...
...well that's what we were told anyway. When the bill turned up we were overcharged and there was no credit to the account. Phoning up VM we were told that the operator needed to speak to the person who agreed to apply the credit, but they would ring us back. A few days went by and they didn't phone back.
Eventually we did manage to get things sorted and I believe we are now paying the right amount. No real problems with the service itself, but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired!
Stabhappy
21-01-2009, 10:23
It's a shame that if an install goes wrong it can be such a hastle.
musicmaster5000
21-01-2009, 14:32
I do have to agree VM do have terrible customer service, I remember when it changed to VM they said "It would only be a name change" yeah... along with "Traffic Management" and the crap customer service.
When ever we phone up it's like they're reading a script (they probbaly are) and problems just don't get solved!
The NTL side of it suck and always have done, whereas the Telewest side as always offered superior customer service and technical help and did win awards for doing so.
RIP Telewest/Blueyonder.
musicmaster5000
21-01-2009, 14:37
The NTL side of it suck and always have done, whereas the Telewest side as always offered superior customer service and technical help and did win awards for doing so.
RIP Telewest/Blueyonder.
Amen!
dannybear
21-01-2009, 16:41
Amen!
The NTL side of it suck and always have done, whereas the Telewest side as always offered superior customer service and technical help and did win awards for doing so.
RIP Telewest/Blueyonder.
Indeed, Amen!
They was very good!
They knew what you was talking about on any issues you had problems with. Now you get a person who just follows a simple on screen set of rules. Who dont know jack to be honest.
The thing I've found which is so bad with Virgin Media is that their customer services team are so offensive and seem from my experience to blatently lie.
Consistantly.
---------- Post added at 20:41 ---------- Previous post was at 20:39 ----------
...well that's what we were told anyway. When the bill turned up we were overcharged and there was no credit to the account.
Lost count of the number of times this has happened, it's almost as if they do it on purpose ;)
---------- Post added at 20:42 ---------- Previous post was at 20:41 ----------
The NTL side of it suck and always have done, whereas the Telewest side as always offered superior customer service and technical help and did win awards for doing so.
Indeed, never had occasion to complain, entirely the opposite to VM.
RIP Telewest/Blueyonder.
Definately.
So what are you going to do the next time you need to call? Put up with poor support or do 150 and wait for "thinking of leaving us", then ask to speak to a agent from Scotland or Liverpool or you will be leaving. I know this works because I know some that do it, I may just try this myself if I need to call VM.
cripinuk
25-01-2009, 20:58
All they seem to ever want to do is send me a new modem,im on my third now..
Wrong place to complain mate, try calling 150 and tell them you'll cancel unless you are warm transfered to someone with a Liverpudlian or Scottish accent.
The more people that do this the better, yeah I know there are good offshore agents though the general consensus is they are not very good as a whole.
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