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Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience
View Poll Results: My personal experience of Virgin Media customer service has been:
Excellent- I've never had any problems with them 249 18.91%
Generally OK 315 23.92%
Hit 'n' Miss - about 50/50 273 20.73%
Poor- they normally mess it up 239 18.15%
Awful - never had a useful phonecall to them 241 18.30%
Voters: 1317. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-04-2008, 23:44   #151
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

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Originally Posted by frogstamper View Post
Lostandconfused if I could just pick your brain for a min, I remember many moons ago the guys who were laying the cable for Nynex saying to me that if they cut through one of the utilities cables that Nynex were liable. Is this still the case if as above a company cuts through VMs cable?
I'm not 100% but i would imagine so. VM would do the repair but would bill the company that caused the damage. I know if a customer cuts the cable in their garden they are liable so would imagine it would be the same in the street.
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Old 12-04-2008, 16:58   #152
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

In 2005, I was a Virgin dial-up customer. When I got a new pc, I gave my old one to my disabled younger brother – who lives 100+ miles away. He can’t work, lives on disability allowances, etc, and has two carers with him each day to help him. I rang Virgin to ask how I could arrange for him to get Virgin broadband. I explained that I would be paying and managing the account as so doing was beyond the scope of his capabilities. I was advised that the service would need to be taken out in his name, since the BT line at his address was in his name and the necessary broadband setup could not be completed if the names were different. I therefore took this advice and set up a new broadband account in his name. I gave his address and my card details, set up the security information on the account, the service was installed and I paid each month via direct debit using my debit card.

In February 2006, I logged into the account and tried to update my card details as it was due to expire at the end of that month. However, this was not possible because upon entry of my cardholder address, a presumption was made that the broadband service was to be discontinued at my brother’s address and transferred instead to my address.

I e-mailed Virgin’s Support Team for advice. An exchange of e-mails followed, the outcome of which was that I should telephone Customer Services “… to arrange to have the bill sent out to your home address or any other available option.”

I telephoned on four separate occasions between the 14th and 20th February 2006 and on every such occasion, was advised that “someone” would need to call me back; though a note was taken of my telephone number, no call came. (I should say that we have had an answering machine and BT’s call waiting for several years now so it is not easy to miss a call.)

When my brother mentioned around this time that his computer was not working very well and that he therefore rarely switched it on as he was able to access his hotmail account and the internet from a college pc, you can probably imagine how much less urgent it became to me to communicate my new card information to Virgin Net, particularly as we had also suspended our home dial up account in favour of a new broadband account via another provider during 2005. He had stopped using the Virgin account so I imagined that, rather like an unpaid telephone or utility bill, delivery of the service would not continue once payments had stopped — which they surely would, in the absence of current card information — and sent a final e-mail stating that if they did not want my new card details, then we did not want the service and to cancel it.

How wrong I was. I was horrified when my brother mentioned in December that he had received a telephone call “… saying I owe Virgin £300 or something…” Of course, he had no name or contact details of the person from whom this call came, nor (he assured me) had he received any written communication about it.

I e-mailed Virgin and included the previous e-mail correspondence and a brief outline of the history, and requested information about the status of his account. They replied saying that no information could be disclosed since the account is not held in my name and I should telephone Customer Support… I continue to await the return of my call made on 27th December 2007.

In January, my brother received a letter from Garlands Debt Collection and Credit Management Services which stated that he owed £329.78 in respect of his Virgin Media Account. I immediately telephoned Garlands and, after confirming the account security information, and explaining the circumstances, was told that the current situation is nobody’s fault but mine and was offered a discount of 50% on the sum owing if I would settle immediately via credit card. I declined.

Once again, I telephoned Virgin’s Customer Support and explained all of the above. The chap listened patiently, then advised me that he could not discuss any aspect of this account with me since it is not held in my name. He put my call through to a more senior member of staff who further confirmed that although I am the person who set up this account, I am the only person who has ever made payments in respect of it, and I am the only person who is in a position to settle it, it was “…more than my life is worth to discuss it with anyone other than the named account holder.”

Whilst I understand that the terms of the Data Protection Act exist to protect both the privacy and property of the individual, I cannot see how my attempts at resolution could jeopardise either in my brother’s case. Indeed, if its terms have been applied appropriately and consistently in this case, how was the person from Garlands in a position to not only discuss, but to also offer to discount the sum outstanding by 50%? Is she not similarly bound by the terms of the Data Protection Act?

In the meantime, my brother’s debt has continued to escalate, despite my assertion to Virgin that the service be stopped because, of course, such instruction cannot be accepted from me, since I am not the account holder! If Garlands was happy to discuss the account and take payment from me at that time, I do not understand why it was not suspended or put on hold pending resolution of the disputed outstanding sum.

Today, Virgin has at last responded to my letter of 11th January, some three months after I wrote to them — and it has taken many telephone calls and e-mails to get this response. The letter contains the same 50% settlement offer, but the sum outstanding is now £374.75 — £44.97 more than it was three months ago. Why is this charge being passed on to me when it is hardly my fault that it has taken Virgin three months to reply?

Furthermore, when I sought advice from customer services in 2005, explaining in some detail that, out of necessity, I would be funding and managing this account on my brother’s behalf, why was I instructed to set it up in his name if, by so doing, the account would become inaccessible to me?

Finally, if I failed to pay my utility bills, delivery of the service would not continue once payments had stopped; in such circumstances, at what point would Virgin Media suspend delivery of service or, rather, for how long or to what extent would it allow an outstanding bill to increase and escalate without customer contact?

As you can imagine, I am at a loss to know how I can progress this situation to a satisfactory conclusion. I feel particularly aggrieved because a) I sought and followed Virgin’s advice prior to setup and b) I made determined efforts to continue this broadband service when my card expired in 2006, but no-one from Virgin would return my calls. I do not want to pay even 50% of such a high price for a service that has not been used.

I should be so grateful for any advice.
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Old 13-04-2008, 09:41   #153
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Not bad . better with the newsgroup than via the phone.
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Old 14-04-2008, 23:47   #154
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

been with telewest/virgin for ten years+ and never had any trouble what so ever.

Well Happy
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Old 15-04-2008, 00:00   #155
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Been with NTL/Virgin about 8 years now and has been great upto last couple months. CS in UK has been brilliant though and the newsgroups are excellant.
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Old 28-04-2008, 17:46   #156
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Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

i have got a modem in my house, because my dad has an account with virgin media, and i bought another modem off ebay for £2 haha because we have two lines, one downstairs and one upstairs, but my modem says that it is registered when i plug it in, is there anyway of unregistering it, or making it work lol?????? thnx
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Old 29-04-2008, 01:52   #157
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

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Originally Posted by adam2008 View Post
i bought another modem off ebay for £2 haha because we have two lines, one downstairs and one upstairs, but my modem says that it is registered when i plug it in, is there anyway of unregistering it, or making it work lol?????? thnx
No there isn't. You've more than likely bought a stolen modem or one that wasn't returned to Vm although it's still their property. The modem won't work unless it's registered to your account.
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Old 23-05-2008, 19:05   #158
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Heres my experience-:

Virgin Media Broadband is anything but reliable their customer services being a total waste of time and say this with first hand experience not once, not twice but on several occasions, customer services will try and fob you off as quickly as possible or have you dialling un-necessary premium rate numbers, usually without results.

One classic experience I had was that I was without Internet and phone service and so was a elderly neighbor for a day and half almost, this was after another breakdown a week earlier, “we’ll have to get an engineer down and it’ll be in a couple of days time to check your wiring”, it literally to a bit of anger and frustration to explain that the neighbor was without phone as well and that it was a network fault – being an electronic engineer I had no idea what I was talking about ..!

Another classic was when the phone and Internet was off, again I checked with the elderly neighbour a few doors down, I’d just wasted £7 pound on a mobile phone I’d just topped up and wasn’t pleased; complaining about this I was told… “You should have dialled 150 it’s a free number… “What” I just exploded having more than a bellyful, “don’t ever take me as an idiot”, I screamed, “You tell me how the hell can I use ‘free phone’ when the network is down”? After all I did tell her the phone down the road wasn’t working as well and that it was a network fault?

What prompted me to write this article was my recent complaint to customer services of slow out-going emails twice in about a week … it is usually a waste of time contacting customer services they are ever eager to get you to call a premium rate number where you can be holding on for at least twenty minutes or so, after several complaints and getting nowhere I decided to fill a on-line complaint form in at ISPA Representatives, ‘boy’, did this do the trick problem solved within twenty four hours, but for how long for I wouldn’t like to say..? http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi, my advice do try ringing customer services first, get your facts right, tell the truth and don’t lose your temper you have nothing to pay and nothing to lose, but they do get you wound up by acting dumb...!

davy
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Old 23-05-2008, 20:51   #159
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Quote:
Originally Posted by adam2008 View Post
i have got a modem in my house, because my dad has an account with virgin media, and i bought another modem off ebay for £2 haha because we have two lines, one downstairs and one upstairs, but my modem says that it is registered when i plug it in, is there anyway of unregistering it, or making it work lol?????? thnx
Oh dear, in your rush to get something for nothing from VM, it looks like you've been had.
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Old 23-05-2008, 21:09   #160
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

My modem keeps losing Ready Status, so I posted on the VM usenet site.

Was offered a Tech visit....

For Monday 26th May 8-12
















Let's see if a tech turns up on a BANK HOLIDAY!
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Old 23-05-2008, 22:47   #161
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Drat and double drat.... very, very slow outgoing emails again since my last post here, I thought it'd been fixed, I'll get back on to the ISPA folks.

Dave
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Old 23-05-2008, 23:04   #162
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Did you actually think they had anything to do with the 'fix'? I though that was sarcasm...

As if they have a 24 hour SLA!
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Old 25-05-2008, 04:01   #163
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

A member of the CEO at VM got me to speak to an engineer who confirmed it was a server fault the the lady was adamant she monitored our telephone conversation for the record, a three way telephone conversation... a couple of hours later the fault appeared to have been fixed only to return a few hours later, all this after complaining to ISPA - even sending a letter 'a' in a Email can take forever..!

I rang the CEO office at VM as instructed should I have anymore problems, I also sent a letter to the Swansea, Matrix Court department vis recorded delivery requesting in writing a confirmation date for the problem to be resolved.

This way the ball is in their court and I have ammo to go back to the IPSA or
CISAS.

I have proved complaining to customer services is useless, when this fails the next thing is to write asking for a confirmation date when the problem is liable to be resolved, the next stage is to complain to the IPSA, OFTEL or CISAS... phoning to cancel you services is a chicken way out... try and give them hell until they kick you out... thats when the fun begins.

It's not that Customer services haven't a clue, they do try to help, it's when they take the complaint.... nothing is done, lets face it they don't run VM and what can they do when complaints aren't followed up?

davy
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Old 25-05-2008, 12:44   #164
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris W View Post
This thread is for everyone to note their good/ bad experiences with Virgin Media's customer service department.

Please vote in the poll, and if you have an additional comments please feel free to leave them here!
one word TERRIFIC !!
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Old 25-05-2008, 14:57   #165
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Re: Virgin Media Customer Service- Your Personal Experience

Last Wednesday my broadband connection kept breaking up, the lights on my modem kept flashing and I noticed that when I had no connection at all, the interactive light on our V+ would flash resulting in loss of VOD..

As the problem was intermittent I decided to see what happened during the rest of the afternoon. By the evening the problem disappeared but next morning the V+ was flashing and I had no BB.

Phoning 151 I took the V+ option. I explained the problem and asked whether the V+ and BB problems could be related. I was informed, in a forceful manner, that there was no possibility that the 2 problems could be related and that the flashing interactive problem was a National one which would be cleared at 10am on 1st June. I asked if there were any checks she could make but she stated that she had no need to do any as she was certain it was part of the National Problem.

I then bit the bullet and called 151 BB. India again. I explained the problem. I confirmed that BB and V+ lights flashed at the same time, the guy tried to reset(?) the modem a couple of times without success and said there was definitely a problem at my end and that it could well be effecting the V+. He arranged a Tech visit for the next day and added that my phone call would 'of course' be refunded.

A nice Tech came next day and found that I had I had no Return path registering(?). After a delve and twiddle in the cab and in my wall box he attached a 'shiny thing' to the wiring inside. My Return path registered as ON and the power level 52dBmV.

BB is OK and as a bonus my VOD, which for months has needed a reboot every day to work, is working great.

Both my calls were dealt with off shore. One was down right rubbish but the other was spot on.
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