Exasperated
07-06-2010, 14:26
It's all in the name, I'm utterly exasperated with the debacle I've just gone through and found what looks to be the most appropriate place to vent.
So, I've been a VM customer for about 5 years, formerly NTL/Telewest, full package tv/phone/internet, in TW1.
The service has always been a bit patchy, at least 4 service outages a year, TV signal intermittent at times, replaced the decoder 3 or 4 times at least. This latest episode is the final straw.
On the 14th March we came home from work to find no service at all. No TV, Net or Phone. Called the 0845 number and spoke to the Welsh team, who went through the usual checks and booked an appointment for an engineer for the 21st. Told them I couldn't make it for 4pm so she said she'd put a note on the account to tell the engineer to call at 17:30.
Date came and went, called the same number (each time being on hold for aaaages) and asked what happened. The offshore call centre explained that the engineer called at 4 and no-one was home. And that notes like this may not be read by the engineer. [customer service fail #1]
So I re-booked an appointment - the earliest they could do was the following Friday 28th. Took time off work to be there. Engineer attended and said the line to the house has been cut. Took me down to the street, and explained that one of my neighbours had obviously signed up and been connected to VM, but the contractors (to avoid routing another cable) had simply cut through our connection and installed the neighbours'. [massive service fail #2] And that he could do nothing about this and would have to call in and re-arrange an appointment. I was incredulous.
I heard nothing back for another week, and so called customer services again. Got to a manager in the Welsh office again who was very apologetic, said he'd put a £20 goodwill payment on the account, and that he'd find out when it could be fixed and get someone to call me back.
That never happened [customer service fail #3], so I rang them back today, was told an engineer would be at the house on the 9th June to 're-pull' the cable connection and sort it all out. The customer service person said something unintelligible over the bad connection the put me through to someone in Construction, who had no idea why I was calling. [fail #4] I had no idea why either, so I asked to be put back through to customer services and spoke to someone else (who was quite rude) [fail #5], this time I explained the whole situation *again*, and she said she couldn't credit my account for lost service until the situation was resolved. Not apologetic in any way - I was made to feel this was my problem. I asked to be put through to 'thinking of leaving us?' and spoke to someone who simply said I'm out of my contractural obligation into a 1 month rolling arrangement, but could do no further to escalate. No dispute resolution on such a line? Isn't that odd? [fail #6]
I'm furious.
Disconnected us out of sheer laziness?
Passive customer services?
Making broken promises to call back?
Being rude on the line to me?
Saying they can't credit me for what will be 25 lost days service, assuming they manage to reconnect me on the 9th?
A 'goodwill' payment being swallowed up in a credit against lost service, prospectively?
Lost time off work, and hours spent from my mobile to an 0845 number, and making me feel like the one with the problem...
What would you do?
Thanks for putting up with the rant by the way.
---------- Post added at 13:26 ---------- Previous post was at 13:24 ----------
I'll just add - followed up on the advice to write in and complain (I had to ask if there was anything I could do)... got to VM's website...
...and the complaint form is broken!!!!!!!
What a joke.
So, I've been a VM customer for about 5 years, formerly NTL/Telewest, full package tv/phone/internet, in TW1.
The service has always been a bit patchy, at least 4 service outages a year, TV signal intermittent at times, replaced the decoder 3 or 4 times at least. This latest episode is the final straw.
On the 14th March we came home from work to find no service at all. No TV, Net or Phone. Called the 0845 number and spoke to the Welsh team, who went through the usual checks and booked an appointment for an engineer for the 21st. Told them I couldn't make it for 4pm so she said she'd put a note on the account to tell the engineer to call at 17:30.
Date came and went, called the same number (each time being on hold for aaaages) and asked what happened. The offshore call centre explained that the engineer called at 4 and no-one was home. And that notes like this may not be read by the engineer. [customer service fail #1]
So I re-booked an appointment - the earliest they could do was the following Friday 28th. Took time off work to be there. Engineer attended and said the line to the house has been cut. Took me down to the street, and explained that one of my neighbours had obviously signed up and been connected to VM, but the contractors (to avoid routing another cable) had simply cut through our connection and installed the neighbours'. [massive service fail #2] And that he could do nothing about this and would have to call in and re-arrange an appointment. I was incredulous.
I heard nothing back for another week, and so called customer services again. Got to a manager in the Welsh office again who was very apologetic, said he'd put a £20 goodwill payment on the account, and that he'd find out when it could be fixed and get someone to call me back.
That never happened [customer service fail #3], so I rang them back today, was told an engineer would be at the house on the 9th June to 're-pull' the cable connection and sort it all out. The customer service person said something unintelligible over the bad connection the put me through to someone in Construction, who had no idea why I was calling. [fail #4] I had no idea why either, so I asked to be put back through to customer services and spoke to someone else (who was quite rude) [fail #5], this time I explained the whole situation *again*, and she said she couldn't credit my account for lost service until the situation was resolved. Not apologetic in any way - I was made to feel this was my problem. I asked to be put through to 'thinking of leaving us?' and spoke to someone who simply said I'm out of my contractural obligation into a 1 month rolling arrangement, but could do no further to escalate. No dispute resolution on such a line? Isn't that odd? [fail #6]
I'm furious.
Disconnected us out of sheer laziness?
Passive customer services?
Making broken promises to call back?
Being rude on the line to me?
Saying they can't credit me for what will be 25 lost days service, assuming they manage to reconnect me on the 9th?
A 'goodwill' payment being swallowed up in a credit against lost service, prospectively?
Lost time off work, and hours spent from my mobile to an 0845 number, and making me feel like the one with the problem...
What would you do?
Thanks for putting up with the rant by the way.
---------- Post added at 13:26 ---------- Previous post was at 13:24 ----------
I'll just add - followed up on the advice to write in and complain (I had to ask if there was anything I could do)... got to VM's website...
...and the complaint form is broken!!!!!!!
What a joke.