Total lack of customer service and in breach of contract

[Richb74]

On the 12th of October we upgraded our services online as our contract was close to renewal, these services were supposed to go live on the 19th October (upgrading to Fibre 1g TV360 extra Tv360 box), placing Virgin into a legally binding contract as per section 50 of the Consumer rights act 2015. Unsurprisingly the 19th of October came and went without any new equipment or services being changed.

Then after speaking on several web chats, whatsapp messaging and customers services on the phone, none of them could 'Find' this contact even when shared via whatsapp, all i got was 'oh let me see if i can match that offer' to my reply of no i do not want in matched i want it honoured to the value in the contract sent to me. Then we go round and round in circles being fobbed of by all of so called customer services none of who were able to help.

Finally manged to get through to the retentions team on the 23rd November who miraculously found the contract on my account straight away (why 6 other individuals could not is beyond me). They managed to honour the contract (well at least i thought they would) Engineer booked for Wednesday 29th November to install a new Hub to accept the 1G as ours is too old, a new main TV box for 360 as we have an old Tivo, and an extra 360 box for the bedroom. Unsurprisingly again the 29th came and no engineer visit even though this was confirmed once more with the retentions team the night before, so now we are paying for 1g fibre which we can't receive TV360 which we cant use and an additional box which hasn't arrived, out current Tivo box no longer works properly (no record or pause since the 29th) and the discount that should have been applied to the account hasn't been.

Upon contacting the so called customer service team they advised that no engineer had even been booked for the 29th. Upon finally managing to get through to retentions today they say the engineer was booked so someone here is clearly not telling the truth, Retentions were then going to look into everything and were apparently putting me on hold, next thing i hear is someone else's voice asking how they can help, back to the great customer service team, i really do give up with Virgin ad their total lack of any professional customer support, id be better off asking my cat for help at least my cat wouldn't continually make up stuff.

[goslow]

Have you logged a formal complaint with VM for all the issues?

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

This is unlikely to result in any useful outcome but is a required first step which would allow you to take the issue to arbitration

https://www.commsombudsman.org/our-process

General feedback on here from those who have used the arbitration process seems to be that it is accessible, fair and effective.

[Richb74]

Hi,

Yes raised 2 complaints one regarding the breech of contract and the other due to customer service and continued misinformation, will likely have to raise more no doubt as this doesn't look like anyone will resolve it

[goslow]

In which case follow through on the escalation process to arbitration 8 weeks after you first complained to VM or earlier with a deadlock letter as below

https://www.commsombudsman.org/our-process

You can also share your unhappy complaint experience with OFCOM.

They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Richb74 thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

We would like to look into this further for you, so please expect a PM from me to arrive shortly and respond directly when you can!
Many thanks

[Polly15]

We are experiencing a very similar problem and it seems we're not alone. 

[Molly_T]

Hi Polly15 👋 Thank you for joining this thread! 

I can see my colleague has already sent you a PM to offer further support with this.  Hopefully we can get it sorted as quickly as possible! Thank you for your patience whilst we investigate what has happened here and offer help. 

Please be aware response times can vary across the forum depending on staff working hours and availability. If you are in a PM with a staff member they will reply as soon as possible based on their working hours. We appreciate your patience in the meantime! Wishing you all the best. 🌞

[Richb74]

Still not fully resolved 2 weeks on from my first post, I have most of the services finally, still without Sky Sports HD channels on the Mini TV360 box.

Our contract for the next 18 months should be £114, just had our first bill through at £279 then an amended one at £174 which are due on the 4th Jan and it looks like Tom who has been great at sorting out these issues via PM has finished for the year now