Contract renewal shambles - Round 2

[Eric001]

Two weeks ago I had difficulty in renewing my VM contract. (Nothing unusual there, judging by this forum)! Fortunately the problems were pretty much resolved by Community Support.

I then ordered an upgrade - activating Volt and taking up an O2 sim-only package and here we go again with another VM shambles.

I received the VM contract summary sheet and contract information sheet on 13/4/24. The VM activation date for a broadband speed upgrade was given as 16 April and the O2 sim was to be delivered within 7 - 10 working days (ie tomorrow 26 April). Then, surprise, surprise... nothing further.

Until tonight... when I get an email from VM saying "It's great to hear you're thinking of joining us!" (I've been with them for donkey's years) and "it appears that some information that we need to process your order was missing" (yet they've issued the contract documents). I'm then asked to phone "the team".

It seems that it takes VM **two weeks** to even think about fulfilling an order, despite their quoted timescales.

Do I want to phone, sit on hold, and eventually speak to somebody who has no knowledge of the situation (from past experience)?   No.

Do VM actually want customers? I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone to them.

[Paul_DN]

Hi Eric001,

Thank you for reaching back out to us in our community and welcome, sorry to see you have had further issues with your package including confusing emails, although you had already agreed a deal before adding the Sim to make it a Volt deal, the email you received would have been a generic one due to the system picking up the fact the package had changed again, this is inline with the date you were advised this would activate, if you would like us to double check even just for peace of mind, please look out for the white envelope to join a private chat.

Regards

Paul.

[Eric001]

True - I waited for the renewed contract to be confirmed before ordering the O2 sim. If the VM system accepts the order then it should be able to process it. To imply that it's my fault for confusing the VM order system is bizarre!

The VM email I received asked me to call an 0845 number - no chance.

It seems that despite my "confusing" the VM system, the order/contract documents were generated and the broadband speed was (eventually) upgraded. 

Still no sim though, and after a day of private chat the VM suggestion that I should contact O2 is laughable. I can imagine the response if I phoned them and said "I ordered a sim through VM; I don't have an O2 order number; I don't know whether VM passed on the order; where's the sim?"

Thankfully there are other sim-only deals available. It's also interesting to see that pretty much all the best deals listed by "Which?" are from small providers using the Vodaphone network.

I'll be checking them out next week if VM can't honour their own contract!

[Paul_DN]

Hi Eric001,

You can find all the contact methods for O2 here, we do not deal with SIM's here and this is billed separately Via O2.

Regards

Paul

[Eric001]

Contact O2 about what? I don't have any evidence of any order placed with them.

(1) I ordered the sim through VM. (2) VM accepted the order and gave a delivery time for the sim. (3) VM then emailed to say they had insufficient information to proceed with the order (which I don't believe).

To be quite clear - VM is the retailer and is legally responsible for delivering what they promised. If I buy a fridge from Curry's and it's not delivered, they won't tell me to contact Bosch in Germany!

It's no surprise that a recent "Which?" survey stated "Virgin Media was the worst performing big broadband firm for customer service – our analysis showed it received the worst ratings for overall customer service, the ease and speed of getting a response, and its technical support. It received a disappointing satisfaction score of 38 (out of a possible +100) for overall customer service – the lowest of the thirteen providers we looked at. Its scores for technical support and the ease and speed of getting in touch were even worse: 34 and 26 respectively. These scores put Virgin Media substantially behind the average scores for the broadband sector." 

[Eric001]

Contact O2 about what? I don't have any evidence of any order placed with them.

(1) I ordered the sim through VM. (2) VM accepted the order and gave a delivery time for the sim. (3) VM then emailed to say they had insufficient information to proceed with the order (which I don't believe).

To be quite clear - VM is the retailer and is legally responsible for delivering what they promised. If I buy a fridge from Curry's and it's not delivered, they won't tell me to contact Bosch in Germany!

It's no surprise that a recent "Which?" survey stated "Virgin Media was the worst performing big broadband firm for customer service – our analysis showed it received the worst ratings for overall customer service, the ease and speed of getting a response, and its technical support. It received a disappointing satisfaction score of 38 (out of a possible +100) for overall customer service – the lowest of the thirteen providers we looked at. Its scores for technical support and the ease and speed of getting in touch were even worse: 34 and 26 respectively. These scores put Virgin Media substantially behind the average scores for the broadband sector."

[Eric001]

My previous reply seems to have disappeared (twice) so I'll try a shorter response!

(1) I am aware that sims are billed separately - that's not the problem. I don't have a sim so links to O2 billing are irrelevant. Neither do I have any evidence of an order placed with O2.

(2) I ordered the sim through VM.

(3) VM accepted the order and gave a delivery time for the sim.

(4) VM then emailed to say they had insufficient information to proceed with the order (which I don't believe).

(5) It is quite clear from the above that VM is the retailer and is legally responsible for delivering what they promised. (If I buy a fridge from Curry's and it's not delivered, they won't tell me to contact Bosch in Germany)!

[Lee_R]

Hi @Eric001 thanks for getting back to us.

We're sorry for any confusion around your O2 SIM order.  As my colleague previously recommended, we don't currently have access to O2 systems on our side and as it's an O2 SIM we'd usually recommend reaching out to them via the contact details provided.  As you've reached out to us, I would like to see if we can chase this up for you. I am going to send you a private message. Please keep an eye on your inbox in the top right of your screen.

Regards

Lee_R