Forum Discussion

Maccaman's avatar
Maccaman
Tuning in
3 years ago

How do customers contact Virgin Media? online chat not working

I've been trying to contact Virgin Media for about 3 weeks now. The online chat button does not work! I have tried on two home computers, my work computer and three different mobile devices. I've been on hold for about 3 hours total now.

Has anyone else been able to contact them via online chat? This is ridiculous! 

Can anyone recommend another provider that you can actually talk to?

Thank you.

  • newapollo's avatar
    newapollo
    Very Insightful Person

    Hi Maccaman 

    Unfortunately he phone lines and other contact methods are extremely busy at present..

    Phone calls take priority over other methods of communication and are still the quickest way to contact VM.

    You should try calling 150 from a Virgin landline or mobile, or 0345 454 1111 but best to call at 8am when lines first open and are least busy to avoid call queues

    If you explain what the problem/issue is then the Forum Team may be able to help although they can't process regrades or cancellations 

  • Hi Maccaman,

    Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry for any issue you've had with contacting the team. 

    What is it you need to speak with the team regarding?

    ^Martin

    • Maccaman's avatar
      Maccaman
      Tuning in

      Hi Martin,

      I want to upgrade the fibre speed and my current contract is due to expire, so it's actually extra business, but I'm now considering moving supplier.

      I work during the week, so don't get a chance to call at any other time.

      Thank you.

      • Martin_N's avatar
        Martin_N
        Forum Team

        Thank you for that information Maccaman.

        Have you checked out your online account for any offers available?

        ^Martin

  • Chat button is a fraud. Here is the code behind the button. No wonder it does nothing. Really frustrating. 

     

    • joff_arris's avatar
      joff_arris
      Tuning in

      So it isn't just me then.  Finally somebody just came out and said it.  And there has been no rebuttal from Virgin.  Kudos. 

      The chat button does absolutely nothing.  The choice of browser should be irrelevant.  The advice to use the phone is comedic given the existence of the button and the time wasted with the button to date.

      If VM were estate agents (don't get any ideas, you are struggling with comms as it is):

      "Yes, yes of course the house has a front door, we can see it too.  But for reasons we are not prepared to divulge you must come in through the window.  But only try this first thing in the morning because later in the day everyone will be trying to get in through the window and, as windows go, it is definitely too small.  But it IS a window and for that you should be grateful.  Hang on, calm down, what do you mean the entrances to this building don't sound fit for purpose?  Has anyone told you about the chimney?"

      Probably simpler to shop around. What a silly way to do business.

      • Kath_P's avatar
        Kath_P
        Forum Team

        Hi joff_arris, 

        Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums.

        We're sorry to hear you're having some issues with reaching the team via live chat. There are agents working on it but it's worth noting that it's not an instant messaging service. 

        Can you expand on the reason you're trying to contact the team? There may be something we can do to help. 

        Thanks, 

  • Good morning Zoie,
    I think that the sort of response you have provided is exactly why people get frustrated, angry and feel that the company they are paying for service is behaving badly.  You are defending what is obviously indefensible.  If instant messaging is not feasible then a simple remedy that would reduce the irritation experienced by customers would be to take away the button that suggests it is.  And to be honest I think your assessement of feasibility is wildy wrong.  Amazon manage it with no trouble.  Smoothest return process I have ever encountered.  How?  Online chat.  As a company Amazon dwarfs VM.  So it is entirely feasible, VM just don't want to do it.

    For the record, despite a long time on the phone yesterday and multiple assurances from the representative I spoke to that the new package would go live the same day, I've checked my account this morning and am still on the old package.  So even when we do get to speak to someone it seems to be a very dubious time investment indeed.

    It looks as though VM are going to make the decision for me. And it isn't going to take 14 days.

     

     

    • Arissa_H's avatar
      Arissa_H
      Forum Team

      Thank you for coming back to us Joff_arris.

      So I can look into this for you and further investigate 🧐.

      I will have to private message you.

      Please watch out for the envelope ✉.

      Thank you. 

  • Thanks Arissa_H, PM sent.

    To ensure there is a(nother) full public record of how difficult it is to deal with VM (credit where it is due, at least the forums are public) I'll echo here what I said to you, minus the personal info.  Hopefully this will help others with their expectation management:

    As of this morning the new package is showing when I click my contract.  The contract started on 16th Jan and indicates I should be getting the M500 Fibre broadband. 

    Despite rebooting everything I am still only getting 300Mb.  So something is *still* wrong.

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person

      Hi joff_arris 

      Comparing your pictured upload speed and the speeds shown on the  /our-speeds-explained  page you are actually on M500 (screenshot below)  Your download speed is also above the minimum (258 Mbps) shown on the same page.  It's possible that your speed has been restricted by either the browser or app you are using to measure the speed, programs running in the background, ethernet cabling etc.

      Have you tried using https://samknows.com/realspeed/  ?  If that works it will show the speed to your router and also to the device you are using for measuring the speed.

  • Good morning, @newappollo.  Your attempt to assist is much appreciated but it does seem a touch unfortunate that in your haste to defend VM you have posted the table of upload speeds.  I don't think this is what you meant.

    For the record we are talking about this page:  https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/our-speeds-explained

    The correct screenshot would have been this one:



    You are correct in that my speeds are presently above the minimum speed guarantee but in order to retain my business I was lead to believe that I have been upgraded.  The trouble is that I am getting the exact same speeds, if not slightly less than when I was on the M350.  Therefore there has been no upgrade.  Furthermore, in the interests of full transparency, VM also state the following on the page from which we have screenshotted the data:

    "** The expected speed range is the normal download and upload speed that you could expect at peak times (8-10pm, Monday-Sunday). This is in line with Ofcom’s guidance."

    So in line with Ofcom's guidance I should, at the time of posting be experiencing speeds of between 499-542Mbps.  And yet this morning the best I can get is 298Mbps.

    VM also boast >98% reliability further down the page:




    It is strange that since my "upgrade" the only thing I have experienced is the 100% reliability that my connection is not running at the speed I have been sold despite the fact that on the M350 package it always was.

    In the interests of those looking at this thread in relation to the original topic (and apologies for hijacking) the VM interaction stats are as now follows:

    • Days since original enquiry by phone:  4
    • Days since original enquiry on which follow up communication has been necessary: 4
    • Time on phone to VM during original enquiry: 1hr 5 minutes
    • Number of VM operatives spoken to on phone: 2
    • Posts to community forums: 5 (this is the 5th)
    • Result: no further forward.  Internet approx 40Mbps slower than achieved on M350 before the upgrade to M500.
    • Conclusion:  Communicating with VM really is a grind.

    Number of days left in cooling off period: 11

    For the record I am using a PC connected to the router with Cat6 ethernet cable that I know to be good as I am getting the expected internal transfer rates.

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person

      joff_arris wrote:

      Good morning, @newappollo.  Your attempt to assist is much appreciated but it does seem a touch unfortunate that in your haste to defend VM you have posted the table of upload speeds.  I don't think this is what you meant.

      For the record we are talking about this page:  https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/our-speeds


      @jofff_arriss 

      For the record, I posted the correct table from the above linked page to show that the Upload speed you posted yesterday as receiving  (41.45Mbps) is in line with the expected speed range for the M500 tier, whereas the expected upload on the M350 tier is only 36-37Mbps which seems to indicate that you are provisioned for M500 and not M350.

      Please try measuring the speed using https://samknows.com/realspeed/  as I suggested yesterday and post a screenshot of the result as that site does show the actual speed to the router which should confirm if you are provisioned correctly and will also indicate any speed faults.

      Results run via speedtest.net can often show as being slower due to browser overheads and programs running in the background. The results via speedtest.net can vary according to the ctual browser used for testing and those results can also be skewed by AV programs, firewalls and VPN's.   I would advise downloading the ookla speed test app and use that rather than the browser version

      Also log into your hub settings (192.168.0.1) and check what the provisioning speed is shown as under the provisioning tab (Advanced Settings > Tools > Network Status > Configuration 

      You should be looking at the Primary Downstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate and the Primary Upstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate

       

      • joff_arris's avatar
        joff_arris
        Tuning in

        @ newappollo.  Fair call re the upload speeds, but still feels like a diversion given all of the information I have supplied to date.

        There was a very good reason not to bother with the SamKnows website.  But... sigh... we'll do it your way. <Starts unplugging everything and physically moving hardware so we can get the VM router talking to the SamKnows website>

        Some time later....

        I have completely reconfigured my home network so that the VM router is now in router mode as opposed to modem mode. Previously it was connected to a Netgear R7000 router running DDWRT. This router is now not in the mix. Just the VM box and my PC connected to it with CAT6, no switch anywhere in between.

        • The VM box has been factory reset and the setup steps completed.
        • The default firewall running in my OS (OpenSuse Tumbleweed) is disabled.
        • Every single browser add-on is disabled.
        • The VPN (which has not been running during any of the previous speed tests) is disabled.
        • Every other machine on the network has been physically switched off.

        I go to the SamKnows website and....

         

        For the sake of completeness I have repeated everything above from a fully up to date Windows laptop connected to the Hub via Wifi (wouldn't want my ethernet cables being implicated).  The outcome when attempting to access SamKnows was the same.

        So what next?

        The light on the front of the router is showing solid yellow.  According to VM this means everything is working normally.

        The Hub 3.0 diagnostic tool reports the following:

        "Your home network has a few problems.

        ...


        1 Gateway IPv4 address is valid.
        2 Your broadband connection is working.
        3 Your broadband connection is ready.
        4 The temperature of your Hub 3.0 is normal.
        5 The status of telephone line 1 is not ready.
        6 The status of telephone line 2 is not ready."

        Nothing surprising there.  I have not plugged the telephone into the hub as the adapter has not arrived.

        So there goes another two hours of my life and we are no further forward.

        But that yellow light is very interesting isn't it?  I've done a bit more digging and it seems that another VIP has indicated to a user that "Yellow light syndrome" is indicative of failing components within the Hub, going as far as to indicated to their correspondent that VM probably sent them a refurbished (i.e. second hand) hub, see:
        https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Yellow-light-on-hub/td-p/5304658


        VM, you seriously need to step up.  Stop relying on kind people like newappollo.  They can't do anything.  This is your problem to fix.  How about sending me a new Hub to go with my new contract? 

        Number of days left in cooling off period: 9

         

  • With the VM router in modem mode I have a solid red light on the front (has always been the case as far as I recall), which according to VM is an indication that the router is too hot.  I have just confirmed the maximum surface temperature of the router (it varies, this was the highest reading I could find anywhere on the body of the unit) to be 37deg C using a Fluke 62 Max IR thermometer.   This cannot realistically be too hot.

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person

      joff_arris wrote:

      With the VM router in modem mode I have a solid red light on the front (has always been the case as far as I recall), which according to VM is an indication that the router is too hot.  I have just confirmed the maximum surface temperature of the router (it varies, this was the highest reading I could find anywhere on the body of the unit) to be 37deg C using a Fluke 62 Max IR thermometer.   This cannot realistically be too hot.

      <------->

      Primary Downstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 575000085
      Primary Upstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 55000085


      Hi again joff_arris 

      The hub3 light is always a reddish (magenta) colour when in modem mode.   It's only considered a possible fire risk when it's that colour and operating in router mode.

      Your rates of Primary Downstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 575000085 and Primary Upstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 55000085 confirm that you are correctly provisioned on the M500 tier.

  • Apologies for the oversight.  Final bit of detail as requested by newappollo:

    Cable Modem Status

    Item
    Status
    Comments
    Acquired Downstream Channel (Hz)
    331000000
    Locked
    Ranged Upstream Channel (Hz)
    49600024
    Locked
    Provisioning State
    Online
     

    Primary Downstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 575000085
    Primary Upstream Service Flow > Max Traffic Rate: 55000085