Hi Tom - thanks for picking up. I apologise in advance my response is long, but it's the best summary I can provide of the 3 hours of pain I had on the phone yesterday.
So background is when my wife moved out of her mothers home a number of years ago, she retained the VM package in her name and continuing paying for the service as she didn't want to burden her mother with this cost as at the point she was a few years from pension age, lived alone with limited income.
Recently we realised that VM offer a social tariff for people in her mother's circumstances (she is now a pensioner and receives Pension Credit) so they both contacted VM together on Wednesday to see about closing my wife's account and setting up a new account in her mother's name and to get set up on the social tariff product.
The advisor on Wednesday was very helpful and was arranging to do all of the above and they offered a deal for £20pm for Broadband + FLEX on a 30 day rolling contact, with 3 months free thrown in (this was never requested but gladly accepted). Given existing service provision a self install was booked for equipment to be received on Saturday and service switch over on Sunday. We thought this would be a straightforward setup.
Roll on Saturday and an contract comes through the post to my mother-in-law for £77pm for exactly the same services my wife used to have (high spec broadband, 360 TV service and a phone line). At 9pm the equipment detailed in this contact came, i.e. router and 360 box.
We called in yesterday but hit a brick wall getting resolved. Here are some highlights:
First agent - refused to deal with call as could not pass security on new account as no security had yet been set up. Pushed to speak to a supervisor but was told they were all on holiday (I rechecked - it was confirmed absolutely every supervisor, none were online that whole day!?) It took a lot of pushing by me to get passed to cancellations, as my logic was if VM can't provide a service we'd just leave.
Second agent - I explained this was going to be a complex issue and needed to know they could help. Confirmed they could and actually seemed to know what needed done, but needed to pass to another department
Third agent - hadn't been passed any details and didn't really understand problem. Asked to speak to supervisor and after 10 mins on hold he just terminated the call.
Fourth agent - when I called back I used the option to go back to cancellations. After some initial frustrations we concluded needed to go back to the activation team (same team as 1st & 3rd agents), but at this point I was insistent a complaint was logged before my call was transferred. I've since found this complaint was closed down about 30 mins later as resolved (it certainly isn't). I also asked to ensure that records were updated to reflect both old and new account holder had provided authority for me to deal with the admin of this complaint and the accounts on their behalf, which I believe has been recorded somewhere.
Fifth agent - seemed to know what needed done, but stated had to cancel the 18 month contract then pass me over to sales to get a new contract set up. Stated this wasn't ideal as would result in loss of service for several days, but if that was only option would reluctantly accept.
Sixth agent - sales team - where do I start. Didn't seem to know about social tariff, kept saying would look to offer me a better deal (they got nowhere near). Eventually directed me to go online to apply for social tariff, at which point I made clear my displeasure something which had been done on phone on Wednesday now could only be done online. Went round in circles. Asked for my earlier complaint to be updated with regards to this - they said they couldn't access complaints system. Asked to speak to someone who could. They said checked with supervisor but they were in a meeting. Pushed to speak to supervisor as if they were able to exchange instant messages, they should be available to speak to me. Eventually got someone who claimed to be a supervisor, but made a number of bizarre statements, including telling me I had no basis for complaint and also that sales team do not take complaints. Offered to transfer me to complaints team, although acknowledged they had already closed 15 mins earlier. When I challenged if they were really a supervisor they just left the call without explanation. Original agent then went round in circles for 10-15 mins more repeatedly saying they hoped I found that they'd been helpful , continuing to refuse to update any notes that would aid any complaint escalation and generally coming across they didn't understand a word I was saying to them.
So whilst it looks like we're now going to get equipment and go live on Wednesday, that'll be 3-4 days without any service and have lost the 3 months free service previously offered. I've also wasted 3 hours on the phone going round in circles and nobody has learned anything or taken any ownership for errors. Hence I'd like to have a phone conversation with someone who can look into what on earth has actually gone on here and put steps in place to make sure no-one else experiences this service ever again.
As noted above, both old and new account holders have provided authority for anyone at VM to speak to me to progress this. And if need be they can be called to reconfirm this authority (as want to avoid getting a response that I don't have authority to deal with this matter - to be clear this was provided yesterday by all parties).
