A Call for Action: Exposing Virgin Media's Unacceptable Service!

Thank you for your response and support.

I can't believe how bad it is either! It feels like a systemic issue within Virgin Media. I’ve explored several alternatives, including FTTC, which unfortunately isn’t available at that particular location. I’ve considered other providers like Vodafone, where I’ve been a loyal customer for over 10 years, but their speeds and pricing just don’t make sense for my needs.

I also looked into 4G/5G options, as you mentioned, but the speeds are subpar in my area. While better than LLU, the cost-to-speed ratio isn't justifiable.

The whole experience is utterly exhausting, and the idea of quitting for the sake of my health and wellbeing is becoming increasingly appealing. Being on an uncommitted rolling contract should be an advantage, but the lack of viable alternatives makes it challenging.

I appreciate your suggestion to raise a formal complaint in writing and escalate to the Ombudsman. I will pursue this route as it seems like the most viable option to get any resolution. Thank you again for your advice and support.

Still Frustrated,
Crashbandicoot

Hi @Alex_Rm

Thank you for your response and for welcoming me to the community.

I appreciate your acknowledgment of the issues I've faced and the difficulty in setting up my Direct Debit, however, it is far more than just setting up my Direct Debit as I stated in my original post. It has been an incredibly frustrating experience, impacting both my time and finances.

I have received your private message and will provide the necessary details promptly. However, I must stress the urgency of resolving these issues comprehensively and swiftly. This situation has dragged on for far too long, affecting my credit score and overall peace of mind. Every single point I have raised needs to be resolved and in good time.

I look forward to your prompt and effective assistance in finally resolving these matters.

Still Hopeful for Resolution,
Crashbandicoot

Hi Gareth_L,

Thank you for your reply.

I'm sorry to say, that is simply not true. Yesterday, I managed to speak to someone who seemed to be in the middle of a party while trying to discuss my account. He asked the exact same security questions, and I provided the correct answers. Something is clearly wrong on your end, which does not surprise me given my ongoing issues with Virgin Media.

I have already tried making a payment through the provided link and encountered the same errors as before. It’s clear that the systemic problems within your service continue to prevent a resolution.

Due to the persistent issues and lack of effective support, I have now officially raised a complaint via online channels and escalated the matter to the Ombudsman. I expect prompt and concrete action to resolve these problems.

Still Waiting for Resolution,
Crashbandicoot

Hi @Zach_R and thanks for your response,

Unless you have a magic portal that can find someone capable of finding a resolution, I am doubtful there is much you can do - however, I am happy to elaborate and you can decide for yourself.

Back in early July (Monday 8th to be exact) Cadent Gas were replacing gas mains in our street and as they were using a pneumatic drill to dig up my neighbour's driveway, they dug straight through our cable.  I called Virgin within the hour but as you cannot speak to a human when reporting a fault nowadays, had no option but to have an engineer come out which required me to take a day of annual leave from work.  I did attempt to shortcut things, not waste an engineer's time and not waste my time (to be fair, Stevie Wonder could see what had happened) by contacting the Twitter team, but they were in 'unhelpful' mode on that particular day.

Engineer attended on the 9th (lovely lady) and agreed that the "cable is effed" (exact words) and that she would get a re-pull organised.  Later that day, I spied an Avonline van in the street (superb!) but it was short lived and disappeared.  There followed a series of messages informing us of works that would be done to re-pull the cable, yet each time nothing was done and each time we would call "customer service" {tries hard not to laugh} who would tell us that the cable had been re-pulled and they would have to send another engineer out. 

I have to say that the Virgin engineers that attended were superb, but their hands were tied as the resolution was a cable repull.   The final engineer we saw (can't remember his name, but superbly helpful guy) took photos and agreed with is that it was a complete mess and said that he had also found some sort of bodge in the cabinet. 

Following that visit, I spoke with customer service again (bearing in mind we are whacking through 10Gb of mobile data per day, for work and play) and having security cameras offline etc, to see if we could get some resolution;  essentially, the guy on the phone lied to me and said that Avonline would be out on Monday.   Somewhat hacked off, I was garnering opinions on other providers on Twitter the following day and despite not being tagged, the Twitter team were like a dog with a bone wanting to take it to DM.  (Funny how Virgin seem to care when their shoddy service is being publicly discussed, but don't actually care enough to sort things...) - during that exchange, I was told that it would be Thursday 25th July and not before, and there was no way that the chap on the phone should have said they would be out on Monday 22nd.

Come Thursday 25th July, Avonline arrived at the same time I arrived home in the morning, so I was able to explain in full to the guys what I knew of our cable run (already fairly familiar with it as we had no end of trouble when we moved in here about 15 years ago) and what I knew of the problems.  To be fair, those two guys were superb.  One of them walked where the cable runs underground and he noted numerous issues, including a missing pit (believed to be tarmacked over by Cadent), another in pretty dangerous condition on the pavement edge that quite literally could have resulted in someone breaking their ankle (he made a temporary repair using broken bricks and a lump of wood) and also noted where the new concrete was on the driveway next door.  He agreed that the cable re-pull had definitely not been done and said that it would almost certainly require a new trench and conduit the length of the street as well as new pits etc and that all at Cadent's cost as they had done the damage.  In fairness, he reckoned it could take a while as permissions would be needed etc, and that was fair enough. 
He and hie mate went on to "borrow" the cable from the house next door and make a temporary lash up to ours to get us some sort of service -  so we do have something now, but nowhere near the speeds we are paying for and it is about as stable as a psychopath, dropping out a few times a day.

Our cable run is a long one:

 Street names removed to protect the innocent....
The blue boxes represent cabinets - we are connected to one around the corner and because it is so far, it requires an RG12 cable, as the thinner cables were suffering from severe loss (we learned this all those years ago);  we cannot be connected to the nearer cabinet as the conduit runs the wrong way and apparently that cabinet is 'end of a line' (whatever that means)

I had a missed call from Virgin on Friday afternoon, which I returned - spoke with a nice fellow in the UK (unusual in itself) who advised that we sit it out and wait for a call back by the end of the day, if no call then I was to call back on Saturday morning.   No call came, so I called again (off-shore this time) and ended up being so frustrated I tried cancellations to see if I could get someone able to talk sense.  Eventually I was persuaded to wait for a call back, most likely today - they could see an open work order on the system, but no clue what was happening with  it. 

I had a missed call this evening - although goodness knows how I missed it as the phone was right next to me and neither it or my watch rang...  so, I called back (off-shore again) and after a bit of mumbling and not a lot of answers, the guy simply hung up.  I called back again, got a pleasant lady (off-shore again) who was somewhat more helpful, could see the open work order, but had no more info and said that there was no record of anyone from Virgin calling me today (well, my phone records beg to differ!) -- she went on to say that the re-pull should  be done by 29th August;  then that changed to 27th August.  When I asked if that was confirmed, or would it change, her reply was that if it changes, they will let me know....

Bluntly, the communications have been between nil and terrible for the most part.   We are circa seven weeks off the end of our current contract and Virgin are no longer the only ones to choose from.  Our original plan was to upgrade to Gig1, but as we have a cable connection that currently gives us roughly half of the speed we are paying for, I doubt it is capable of handling Gig1;  I have an Openreach pole less than 20ft from my front door and know it supports broadband up to at least 900mb...  so, much as we would rather stay with Virgin, we are equally not stupid....