rob_eyres
15-06-2011, 23:53
Having read through quite a few of these VM forums being posted, I see quite a few comments about VM not being that bad. It would be interesting to know what their attrition rates are, as I belive that most would give up long before me, rather than do the continuous battle with Tech Support or Customer Retention that I have had for the last two years.
After being a customer of Both Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile for just over two years, I have today finally bid farewell to this totally unprofessional and incompetent organisation. It is not a decision I have made in haste, but after two years of one nightmare problem after the other with both organisations. I have today finally decided to terminate all of my services with them, before my sanity takes the same route as their obviously overloaded infrastructure in my area and the shambles which purports to be technical support and customer service. I would have thought that living in the centre of a city, which has had a cable service for at least 30 years that it would have been relatively simple and not unreasonable to expect to be able to get a reliable telephone, mobile and broadband service, Well Virgin! How wrong I was! My problems started on day one. Firstly I was supplied with a recycled telephone number (whilst I understand this is common industry practice after a certain amount of time has lapsed since the number was last in service) Within a week I was being inundated with calls at all hours for the previous owner of the number. I also from day one had a two toned dial tone at all times on the line, the kind of tone you have when there is a message on 1571, this was really irritating as I could not just pick up the phone to check if I had messages, but had to dial 1571 each time. Their overseas tech support said this was because I had another feature on the line, apparently it is standard practice to put a call bar on premium rate numbers on the line, which is considered a feature and hence the two tone dial tone all the time. I asked for this to be removed, but still I had the same dial tone. After numerous calls to Mumbai or wherever it is, I got put through to their second line tech support in the UK. Finally to resolve this, the phone line had to be rebuilt and a new number provided. Everything was then fine for a few months until the new version of Virgin media security was installed on my laptop. This then proceeded to freeze the whole system (I would like to point out that I have 20 years of industry experience in IT and Telecoms) So after several uninstalls, re-installs, hours on the phone to Mumbai and the UK, e-mails, more phone calls, I finally contacted Kapersky who design the core engine for the software and got more support from them direct. Finally someone in the second line VM tech support admitted that there was a problem with the software on Win Vista Basic and that I would just have to uninstall and wait for the next software release, what a complete waste of time! When I tried to address this with Customer Service, I was told that as it was free software, the fact that it didn’t work was irrelevant and referred me to the T & C’s of the contract. ( to add insult to injury, the actually posted me a copy of the T & C’s that week) Shortly after that my VM set-top box died, apparently this is a common fault on the old silver rebranded Samsung NTL box which I had been supplied with only months before as a new installation, the fault with this being the power supply unit in the box. My current bout of problems with VM started approx 8 months ago, I was finding that my internet connection was dropping frequently; friends of mine in the area who also have VM were also experiencing the same problems. Again more hours on the phone to Mumbai, who clearly haven’t a clue what’s really going on, first they tell you it’s a network fault, then they change their mind and say it’s an equipment fault and order an engineer, so you book time of too be there, then Mumbai call back and say it was a network fault and cancel the engineer, then a few weeks later the whole process starts again. (I have now heard this identical scenario from so many VM customers in my area, the organisation is becoming a local joke!) In the last 4 months my internet is down now from most Friday evenings and best part of Saturdays, this week it has been Monday and Tuesdays also. I had an engineer attend site last month who claimed my signal strength has been turned down on my connection to my local box and that he had adjusted it, Whoopee! I thought no more problems, alas as soon as the following weekend arrived of we go again. After last weekends round of calls to Mumbai and the UK tech and customer retention team, I was promised a call back today from somebody called Steve in the High End retention team, this was booked via the 151, I’m leaving you option by a lady called Kimberly on Saturday afternoon. The call was to be at 3.30pm today and I was told that I would need to be at the property, so again another day off work, 3.30pm comes and goes, then does 4.30pm. I call back to the retention team, to be told they have no Steve or such a position in their office, the attitude I was given by the surly character who dealt with my call, was the final straw, I give up! I’m off to BT, complete new free line and installation double the speed, half the price and free for the next four months, looks like I will be taking a fair few VM customers in the area with me too! One today has already been onto Watchdog and I have asked him to pass my details on to them. How VM have the audacity to advertise 30 and 50 meg services I don’t know, they can’t even keep my 10meg going in the centre of a city, or is that the answer? Am I simply not paying enough to be kept on the network when its busy ???? Alas to say my Virgin Mobile service provided that same shoddy third rate service, both in terms of reception in the City and coverage in the UK as a whole, evidently their customer services are also provided in the same incompetent and ineffectual fashion as Virgin Media, well at least the Brand is consistent! Needless to say I changed mobile operators 3 months ago, best thing I did, decent phone, decent coverage, decent customer service, double the minutes, same money I was paying Virgin Mobile, so where was the loyalty for having all four services for two years from them, I’d recommend three for mobile, far superior! Excellent coverage and customer support. Regrets? Not taking my business to BT in the first place, we live an learn!
After being a customer of Both Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile for just over two years, I have today finally bid farewell to this totally unprofessional and incompetent organisation. It is not a decision I have made in haste, but after two years of one nightmare problem after the other with both organisations. I have today finally decided to terminate all of my services with them, before my sanity takes the same route as their obviously overloaded infrastructure in my area and the shambles which purports to be technical support and customer service. I would have thought that living in the centre of a city, which has had a cable service for at least 30 years that it would have been relatively simple and not unreasonable to expect to be able to get a reliable telephone, mobile and broadband service, Well Virgin! How wrong I was! My problems started on day one. Firstly I was supplied with a recycled telephone number (whilst I understand this is common industry practice after a certain amount of time has lapsed since the number was last in service) Within a week I was being inundated with calls at all hours for the previous owner of the number. I also from day one had a two toned dial tone at all times on the line, the kind of tone you have when there is a message on 1571, this was really irritating as I could not just pick up the phone to check if I had messages, but had to dial 1571 each time. Their overseas tech support said this was because I had another feature on the line, apparently it is standard practice to put a call bar on premium rate numbers on the line, which is considered a feature and hence the two tone dial tone all the time. I asked for this to be removed, but still I had the same dial tone. After numerous calls to Mumbai or wherever it is, I got put through to their second line tech support in the UK. Finally to resolve this, the phone line had to be rebuilt and a new number provided. Everything was then fine for a few months until the new version of Virgin media security was installed on my laptop. This then proceeded to freeze the whole system (I would like to point out that I have 20 years of industry experience in IT and Telecoms) So after several uninstalls, re-installs, hours on the phone to Mumbai and the UK, e-mails, more phone calls, I finally contacted Kapersky who design the core engine for the software and got more support from them direct. Finally someone in the second line VM tech support admitted that there was a problem with the software on Win Vista Basic and that I would just have to uninstall and wait for the next software release, what a complete waste of time! When I tried to address this with Customer Service, I was told that as it was free software, the fact that it didn’t work was irrelevant and referred me to the T & C’s of the contract. ( to add insult to injury, the actually posted me a copy of the T & C’s that week) Shortly after that my VM set-top box died, apparently this is a common fault on the old silver rebranded Samsung NTL box which I had been supplied with only months before as a new installation, the fault with this being the power supply unit in the box. My current bout of problems with VM started approx 8 months ago, I was finding that my internet connection was dropping frequently; friends of mine in the area who also have VM were also experiencing the same problems. Again more hours on the phone to Mumbai, who clearly haven’t a clue what’s really going on, first they tell you it’s a network fault, then they change their mind and say it’s an equipment fault and order an engineer, so you book time of too be there, then Mumbai call back and say it was a network fault and cancel the engineer, then a few weeks later the whole process starts again. (I have now heard this identical scenario from so many VM customers in my area, the organisation is becoming a local joke!) In the last 4 months my internet is down now from most Friday evenings and best part of Saturdays, this week it has been Monday and Tuesdays also. I had an engineer attend site last month who claimed my signal strength has been turned down on my connection to my local box and that he had adjusted it, Whoopee! I thought no more problems, alas as soon as the following weekend arrived of we go again. After last weekends round of calls to Mumbai and the UK tech and customer retention team, I was promised a call back today from somebody called Steve in the High End retention team, this was booked via the 151, I’m leaving you option by a lady called Kimberly on Saturday afternoon. The call was to be at 3.30pm today and I was told that I would need to be at the property, so again another day off work, 3.30pm comes and goes, then does 4.30pm. I call back to the retention team, to be told they have no Steve or such a position in their office, the attitude I was given by the surly character who dealt with my call, was the final straw, I give up! I’m off to BT, complete new free line and installation double the speed, half the price and free for the next four months, looks like I will be taking a fair few VM customers in the area with me too! One today has already been onto Watchdog and I have asked him to pass my details on to them. How VM have the audacity to advertise 30 and 50 meg services I don’t know, they can’t even keep my 10meg going in the centre of a city, or is that the answer? Am I simply not paying enough to be kept on the network when its busy ???? Alas to say my Virgin Mobile service provided that same shoddy third rate service, both in terms of reception in the City and coverage in the UK as a whole, evidently their customer services are also provided in the same incompetent and ineffectual fashion as Virgin Media, well at least the Brand is consistent! Needless to say I changed mobile operators 3 months ago, best thing I did, decent phone, decent coverage, decent customer service, double the minutes, same money I was paying Virgin Mobile, so where was the loyalty for having all four services for two years from them, I’d recommend three for mobile, far superior! Excellent coverage and customer support. Regrets? Not taking my business to BT in the first place, we live an learn!