Virgin on the ridiculous.

[Alanj_49]

I have been with Virgin Media since early March, my broadband has been up and running since 13th March, and that is when the problems started. As part of the package I asked for my number with BT be ported to Virgin, and after three port requests it still has not happened. Part of the problem is that my phone number used to belong to Virgin and it was moved to BT some 15 years ago. Now you would think that moving the number 'back to home' would be a fairly simple thing, but you would be wrong. I have been on at them time and time again, been told things that are simply not true, been promised callbacks that never happened, been asked to wait a few extra days for the porting team to resolve the problem. Yesterday I was told it had been ported 6 days ago, until I told him I was calling on the BT line, then I was told I had been given wrong information, which I already knew. Then I was told that I had to contact BT to tell them I was moving to Virgin, which I do not as the port request does that, and to top it all I was told he would have to put another port request in (the 4th), by which time lost it and hung up. I am told that I will get a call from retentions on Tuesday to follow up on the 3rd port request, now that should be an interesting conversation.

[David_Bn]

Thanks for reaching out to us @Alanj_49, and a very warm welcome to you!

Sorry to hear of the issues you've been experiencing with the number port request from BT over to ourselves.

Do please keep us posted with how the proposed call back goes on Tuesday and we'll be on hand to offer further assistance off the back of this call, if this is required.

Thanks

David_Bn

[Alanj_49]

That callback never happened. I have been speaking to retensions again today and have basically been wasting my time. The line has NOT been portted after 5 weeks, and now I am told that some 'person' put in another port request - the 4th. I did NOT ask for this to be done!!! The customer service is the worst I have ever come across, why is it that the virgin porting team cannot port one of their numbers back to virgin, and WHy am I kept in the dark and have to keep pushing for anything. I have spent more time on this that anyone should have to, and up to now it has been a complete waste of my time. I asked what it would cost me to trash the contract, and lo and behold I was told there was nothing they could do as there is a work request (port) in!!! (The one I didn't ask for) And guess what, I was told that someone would call me back at 9.30am tomorrow  as their shift is ending- I am not going to hold my breath. I am at the point now where I will ask for a letter of stalemate and refer it to the Communications Arbritration Service. I asked for the name of the person, which I could'n't understand and when I asked her to spell it she said it was company policy for them not to spell out their names..you couldn't write the script for this.

[Joseph_B · Accepted solution]

Hey @Alanj_49,

Sorry to hear that this is still ongoing, with this we would like to look into this further with you as best as we can to hopefully provide some further information.

For this I will be sending you a private message to confirm some extra information.

Joe

[Alanj_49]

I did not get the callback that I was promised the other day, and I am still racking up bills from BT while this whole sorry saga goes on. Why is it that NO ONE from Virgin has come back to me to tell me there is a problem with porting the number from BT? I feel that it is now in limbo with nothing being done at all, what efforts have the Porting Team made to resolve this issue?

[Staircase12]

Firstly, callbacks simply don’t happen, ever, well, maybe, sometimes! It’s a rouse to get you off the phone and they chalk up a ‘closed call’. This has been the case for years, and if a member of the forum team were to respond on here and dispute this, they are basically lying, because this is absolutely the case. And they know it but can’t admit it for obvious reasons!

Fair enough.

Secondly, does VM even have a ‘Porting team’? And if they do, does it consist of more than a single apprentice who also is tasked with the far more important job of cleaning the CEO’s car every day? Who can say?

Alas, you are outside the automatic 14 day cooling off period when you could dump VM completely without penalty. I think you will have to go legal, cite ‘Breech of Contract’, ie they promised to port your existing number, you promised  to pay them £x per month. You’ve done your part, they haven’t.

[Alanj_49]

I was, at the 21 day point offered the option of terminating he contract. To that, I asked for it to be put to me in writing, but they refused to do that unless I accepted the resolution. I told them that I would not accept anything of that nature until it was put in writing, then impasse. I had a sum added to my account, and if I did accept the offer that would be paid to me directly. I was not going to accept the termination offer without it in writing, as there had been so many times that I was told one thing, and it turned out not to be true and the next thing to happen would be a huge bill taken from my bank account. If at the 8 week point there is no resolution I have to option to take it to the Communications Mediator Service, as OFCOM do not directly investigate complaints. To put one thing right, I have no complaint at all with the broadband, that is working, and has worked to my satisfaction from day 1. It is the porting of a phone number that is in the Virgin block of numbers that Virgin cannot seem to be able to take back home. I have had no correspondence whatsoever from Virgin on this matter, I have had to spend an inordinate amount of my time trying to get this resolved.