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Utter incompetence in adding channel to package

utterlyfrustrat
Joining in

I've been a Virgin Media customer for many years. The 'customer service' is now at the point where it's completely and utterly not fit for purpose, and clearly Virgin are happy with that.

I promised by children Sky Sports HD for Christmas and we still don't have access (19th Jan). It's a lot of money for us and they were hugely excited and grateful with the present. I saw channels could 'easily' be added to our account via the app so it all seemed very straightforward; select what you'd like to add, see the new monthly cost and submit your changes. What there is no mention of until you have placed the order via the app is that it will take 7-14 working days for them to activate and channels you wish to add. Great start.

However, at this point in the process only having to wait 7-14 working days would be positively luxurious. I have so far spent countless hours over many days with online support trying to find out why we still don't have access, and I still don't have a resolution. Every time I contact support and go through the entire process again they claim there is no record of any contract agreement on the system and no history of my previous chats, or my original web order, despite my inbox being full of 'pre-contract agreement' documents generated on the rare occasion I get someone who seems to know how to resolve the issue and promises everything is now resolved.

Each time I start the whatsapp chat process early afternoon and respond immediately to messages with clear and concise information. Twice now it's got to 9pm and I get the 'End of Day BOT' message and that's that. So I have to explain everything from the start all over again. All the security information > explain the issue > go through the process with person 1 > can't see any previous agreement > try and match the deal > can't match the deal > transfer me to someone else > vague apology > pretend to speak the manager > yes we can get that sorted > send the pre-contract documents > promise it will be active the following day > nothing happens. Rinse & repeat.

Can Virgin Media explain why it's OK for them to conveniently lose contractual documents on numerous occasions? Can I do the same when I'm no longer interested in being tied to a contract?

Literally all I want to do is add Sky Sports HD to our existing package. Why am I nearly a month in and many, many hours of my life trying to deal with this situation?

I am at a complete loss as to how it can be so difficult. If it was a one off you could put it down to someone making a genuine mistake and something not being processed correctly, but at this point in the process there is clearly major systematic internal issues. You're not "sorry we're busier than expected today", you're chronically understaffed with admin systems not fit for purpose.

I'd like to hope I've just been very unlucky but I doubt I'm the only person having these issues.

I honestly have no idea what I can do to get this situation sorted. Does anyone have any suggestions on who I need to contact in order for this ridiculous situation to be resolved?

5 REPLIES 5

Ashleigh_C
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi there @utterlyfrustrat 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the forums, its great to have you here.

I am so sorry that you have faced this issue with your deal, I'd be happy to take a look a closer look into this with you via a private message.

I will pop you a PM across now, please keep an eye out for the envelope at the top of your screen alerting you to a new message.

Alby41
Up to speed

Several Mr Jobsworth's strike again at VM .. why just a simple request to add a Sky sports channel which has not been done apparently... to an account at the press of a few controls is incredulous to me ... perhaps I am a dinosaur and expect things to be done rather than find a way of not doing them is the way to go !!! .. cmn VM get this customer sorted 😉

SnookieBoi24
Joining in

@utterlyfrustrat hi there, did this get resolved for you? I too signed up to add Sky Sports/Sky Sports HD on 18/02, got the email confirmation and pre-contract agreement on 20/02 and also highlighting that my next bill will include the additional c£40 a month for the add on and a further c£40 for the usage between now and the next bill date…but no added channels. So what I’m just throwing c£40 for 3 weeks of nothing!!

It was finally resolved, but only after Ashleigh_C from this forum stepped in to take a look. Once they were on the case it only took a day to get all the contract paperwork updated.

After my initial post I went through the WhatsApp support process again, eventually believing it had been resolved after more empty promises, only to find my next monthly bill was almost double the agreed price.

Although annoying, their terms for adding new channels appear to allow them almost 3 weeks to get it sorted. If you contact support you'll just be brushed aside with 'wait 14 working days and then get back in touch if it's still not available'.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect channels will be added immediately. Hiding the activation timescale in the T&Cs or on the confirmation email is a sure-fire way to annoy everyone.

Hopefully your new channels will appear soon. If not, I'd recommend creating a new forum post and hope someone like Ashleigh_C can take a look and get it sorted.

Good luck!

Glad to hear my colleague resolved this for and we are sorry for any trouble caused. 

Matt - Forum Team


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