Forum Discussion

Topgun's avatar
Topgun
Dialled in
23 days ago

Incompetent or devious, what do you think?

When I last renewed my contract, just over a year ago, I got caught up in the TNT sports controversy. This consisted of lots of people being offered a renewal of "exactly the same package as you are currently on", or words to that effect, only to find that TNT sports went missing. A year later, we seem to have exactly the same situation arising, except this time it involves a downgrading of Netflix.

I initially assumed that both these issues were just further examples of the poor and incompetent VM customer service that, unfortunately, so many of us have been used to over the years. However, I'm beginning to think now that this may not be the case. I now think that both these issues fall into the devious category, rather than the incompetent one. I think that VM are basically playing a numbers game. I think they assume that only a very small percentage of people will notice, or be bothered to contest the loss of part of their package. Those that do, have it re-instated after arguing their point, but the vast majority don't do that, and then VM are quids in!

I'd be interested to know what others think, are you in the incompetent or devious camp?

P.S. Just one last point I'd like to make, although generally unimpressed by VM's customer service, (as you might have gathered!) I've always found the mods on here to be very helpful and competent with any issues I've had to raise with them. However, I don't know what percentage of VM's customers use, or are even aware of this site, but I'm guessing it's very small.

 

  • I'm in the same situation - renewal includes TNT Sports, but there's absolutely no mention of Netflix in the paperwork - I've spent mosty of the afternoon trying to find out whether I'll keep my exisiting NetflixStandard, if I'll be downgraded or if they'll remove it completely - all I managed was to get someone on chat who offered me a worse deal than I am being offered at £20 more....it's shocking that VM see this level of customer service as acceptable....

  • Further to this I've just been on chat with someone else who has confirmed that renewal will drop to Netflix with Adverts as that's all VM now offer in the current bundles and that if I want a better package I'd have to deal with Netflix directly - I pointed out that their offer to "Choose this deal and keep your current Virgin Media plan without losing anything" amounted to fraud and they've now gone very quiet - I'll update if I get any further (which I doubt)...

    • Gareth_L's avatar
      Gareth_L
      Forum Team

      Hello Gaspode64.

      Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Before we can apply for new contracts we send the details to customers and ask for consent. This allows our customers to check through the details. If you still need help, let us know and we can have a look over your account.

      Gareth_L

      • Gaspode64's avatar
        Gaspode64
        Dialled in

        Hi Gareth - please could you look into this - the phrase "Choose this deal and keep your current Virgin Media plan without losing anything" is pretty unambiguous, yet the contract documents make absolutely no mention of Netflix (I currently have Netflix Standard included in my package) - I'd be happy to renew on the terms offered, but I don't want to lose my Netflix option (or have to pay extra to keep the same level of service)...