Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

I got a call on my mobile this afternoon to tell me the landline was out. It's dead besides a sound on the line which sounds like someone's left the phone of the hook in another room. It's not the sockets as I've taken each phone out, so called the operator who said I'd need an engineer. In five days. So regardless of my situation, and the fact our bills have gone up by 5-10% a year the service is now like what you'd expect in a backward country.

I will definitely be sending this straight to the top, how can we pay top rates for rental and get bargain basement service? What if I was in business or housebound? They simply let people have no telephone at all for five days and sod you? Something has to change, I will also be calling the radio about this and without any joy for the company will follow up with the newspapers.

Meanwhile thank goodness the broadband works as I need that every day, and the TV, and it's clearly only my line as the operator checked it. Any clues what the symptoms point to, any tips I could try myself to get it back on?

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Unfortunately, sometimes there are no earlier available dates for fixes to services. It is a residential service you have, which means that the fix will as soon as is possible.

You will be able to get a credit for the days without your landline once it's confirmed as fixed.
If you had a business line, then you're paying for a specific agreements for a fix time. It's why business lines cost more than residential ones.

If you're housebound and are registered with Virgin Media as needed the line for medical or other accessibility reasons, then you're given priority for landline issues (this doesn't extend to TV or broadband).
By the sounds of it you've done all the checks that you can, anything else will require an engineer.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Thanks Ben, I'm watching a guide on Youtube now and have one or two more goes to try now. The last couple of times it packed up it fixed itself, one when an engineer was booked and the other was intermittent and kept going off a few times a day for a few weeks then fixed itself over a year ago. I doubt it's connected.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Do what we did and cancel it, with 2 mobiles each with unlimited minutes we weren't prepared anymore to be leeched by the "line rental" which given the street was cabled around 20 years ago is long since paid for.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

If you don't use it then of course don't pay for it, but line rental doesn't just cover the physical kit, but also all the other costs associated with running the phone service.

Just as your monthly broadband cost isn't just for the Hub and the cables.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

If everyone thought like you then Virgin would not be able to expand or improve their services... it takes all customer to pay their bills to move forward...

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Just finishing choking on "improve their services" :D

What I do think is a great idea albeit many many years late is companies being forced to include the line rental cost in the phone service price. Proper transparency in pricing.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

What a fuss. The other week for the first time in over 20 years my VM landline went down. I went online and booked an engineer on the Saturday who came on the following Tuesday and fixed the connection with no problem..I have always found their phone service totally reliable. In fact it's been the most reliable of their services and far superior to BT whose telephone service used to be up and down faster than a tarts knickers.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

How would you know Maggy?... Unless you are an undercover tart!:D:D:D

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Cable always used to advertise services as one price which included line rental but it didn't work because the pricing was then compared to the ex-line rental cost that other providers advertised with.

So VM had to change to the same way of advertising for consistency in comparisons.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Yup, things might change now that Vodaphone are advertising no line rental and including it in the overall cost justas VM used to do. The difference being they are making it a marketing ploy where VM did not.

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Here's the first update, the guy came on Wednesday, said it was a ring trip and had to be fixed at the exchange which they did the following day. Six days later my phone went dead today and there isn't even any voltage as the phones light up when in use and they're not coming on this time. No faults for years and two in a week, or maybe something was loosened last time? Too much of a coincidence?

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Sounds like the first was a transmission fault and now a power fault. Without knowing what kit is used etc where you are it would be hard to tell

Re: Virgin phone left me up the creek with no paddle
 

Odd coincidence it packed up so quickly after the repair, but unlikely to be connected due to the delay. I wrote to the Virgin boss (not Richard) and although I haven't had a reply yet it miraculously came on today by accident. I'm sure none of them touched it as they'd be waiting to come on Tuesday. At least it's working anyway.