I upgraded from 10mb to 20mb 3 months ago to help with online gaming (on the ps3) and have received shockingly bad service ever since. It's become more and more apparent, til yesterday out of frustration I called to make a complaint to customer services and downgrade back to 10mb (it's not like I was getting what I was paying £30 for anyway!). According to my 'status' page the broadband service is 'good' - obviously this is incorrect as there have been frequent maintenance repairs carried over the past couple of months, and none of them seem to have made the slightest bit of difference. Online surfing is snail pace, pages taking ridiculous amount of time to load.... think dial up speed. Watching online videos is practically impossible due to unlimited buffering and trying to go online on the ps3 is well simply depressing! I was first told that I would not be compensated for my loss of service as I apparently had not contacted them about this but suddenly there seemed to be a change of heart as I explained I called on several occasions only to be fobbed off with the usual 'restart the modem' rubbish... Like none of us have tried that already.
He offered me a £10 credit, which is pretty laughable but I will take it and ask for more as I've been paying £30 for a terrible service that has left me frustrated and unable to utilise it in any capacity that it was originally intended. I asked him why he said he could not compensate me and now had backtracked. He replied " Oh that's because I can see you contacted online technical support" - AN ABSOLUTE BLATANT LIE. What do you expect though right?!
I still feel this amount is inadequate. To rub salt into wounds I asked where my £30 referral credit had got to, only to be told there were no notes on either parties accounts and this would not be done. I made sure to confirm the notes were placed onto the account at the time of referral in August as I have heard plenty of stories about missing credits in this regard. It took escalation to a manager to have them finally accept the credit should have gone onto both accounts.
I was then forwarded to the technical help department, who were apparently supposed to be my first point of call. In fact the operator said I should have called them first if there was a fault with my connection, and after explaining the issues (for the millionth time) he went on to tell me.... "24th November 2010".
What do you mean?! Aren't you technical help, weren't you going to help sort my problem out? Isn't that why you asked me to call you for? 24th of November 2010? Is that when this will finally be sorted out? Can't you do anything on your end?
"No sir, I cant help you. The engineers will be working on the problem, and the date is 24th November 2010, I am just reading what I have here. I can't make promises."
What annoyed me was, he waited until I had explained in detail my problems with my connection before he told me they had major network maintenance planned. Why couldn't he just be straightforward and honest from the get go and tell me to save me the hassle?! Why can't the various departments speak to each other, instead of ping-ponging me around? I am sure customer services should be sick and tired of hearing about unhappy connections, and simply tell them the problem is due to maintenance due to capacity issues. Just a little honesty.
Why does this information: 24th of November 2010 - NOT show up on my broadband status page. Why is the broadband status set to GOOD SERVICE? when it clearly isn't. Why can't Virgin Media send me an email APOLOGISING for the awful service, and an update as to when this obviously global issue will be sorted?! I have read contradictory comments by forum mods here that say I should make a complaint to ask for compensation once the usual service is restored - when the contact centre say I should be in contact with them constantly. I will wait patiently until the 25th, and then forward on a complaint to Virgin Media management - UNLESS any Virgin Media support member can tell me this date has been pushed back to DECEMBER already?!!! In which case I will cancel.
I have been a customer since the telewest blueyonder service (7-8 years) and always received a top quality service. I have seen this quality reduce dramatically over the years, and it sucks that there is no cable alternative.
For the record, these are my ping test results:
I would appreciate it if any of the support team can let me know if they have any updated information from the planning team as to when the maintenance will be carried out for this area BIRMINGHAM B11 or whether they can confirm the date provided is correct by the planning team. Thank You.
That said these results sometimes do not translate well whilst playing ps3 online as i'm still affected by lag (i'll partially blame the psn network for this) but it helps I can use the broadband for the primary purpose on the PC without so much frustration.
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