Forum Discussion

therealbigmak's avatar
therealbigmak
Joining in
19 days ago

Broadband has been terrible for the past two days, Customer Service is even worse!

I work from home on a Thursday and Friday every week. Have been with Virgin for about 3/4 months now, never had an issue until yesterday (08/03). Every single call I took at work, I lost connection. Then when going on to my PC at night, I can't play anything because of the extremely high lag, which results in me losing connection. 

I pay for 1GB of broadband per month and I've just had to wait 15 minutes to load this website. On top of that, why in the bluest of blue hells is Virgins Customer service / Support section so bad? I signed in on the app, with it stating everything was fine with my connection. Tested my hub, said i'm getting intermittent issues in my area but wait 24 hours and it'll be fixed (same as it was saying all of yesterday). Fix what exactly? They don't know whats wrong, but are claiming they are going to fix it? 

Then I wanted to book an engineer. Even though its late, I did try calling. Got connected with the automation, spent 25 minutes on the phone going through steps and then it hung up on me. My neighbour, also with Virgin, informed me he was having issues also and booked for an engineer to come out on Tuesday. He told me he did this via the online chat assistant. Loaded up the website, after 15 mins, started going through the motions with the chatbot. Got to the point where it asked for my number and told me it was gonna message me on Whatsapp. Never came through. Then asked me to message it on Whatsapp, my message never went through. I'm just stuck in a ******* endless loop where I'm yet to actually contact anyone and get an engineer booked in (i more want to let them know they will be at my neighbours, so they could call here also on the same day) 

As for what the actual issue is, I have no idea. I work in IT Support myself. Streaming services are working fine, kids tablets, it's just my personal PC that is suffering the consequences. Have rebooted the router, the pc, unplugged, plugged back in, you name it it. It will not improve. I'm lagging like i've got less than a mb of internet, yet when running a speed test its telling me i have my full GB and 300/500mb on the wifi. Anyone experienced this before? Anyone got a clue how I actually contacting these people? 

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    19 days ago

    "Anyone experienced this before? Anyone got a clue how I actually contacting these people?" 

    You're not meant to contact them, because it's too much trouble to deal with customers. It's the Virginmedia way. 

  • Brits's avatar
    Brits
    Just joined
    19 days ago

    Yup just got home and getting the same as you. Intermittent issues but I have no internet al all. I got to a section that check the hub after rebooting and asks you to click which lights are showing on the router. I chose blue flashing, 30 minutes later it asked me to select the colour's again so I selected blue flashing and it said it has not been 15 minutes yet try after 16 minutes so another 20 mins and the same... all I can say is get used to it. Twice a month this happens last time it was 43 hours before resolved

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta
    19 days ago

    I'm sure VM are very pleased that they have a router mode on hubs so nice they can ping the WAN IP to the hub and not customer router yes only it does not test LAN to WAN of a customer connection missing the fact that is the problem.

    so fix your problems and get a better router with 1Gb ports and use hub in modem mode which is less likely to be a problem but still can be.

    Its like VM don't want you to have good internet and say router mode shows us if problem but the truth is they are missing what can be a problem for the customer.   

       

  • therealbigmak's avatar
    therealbigmak
    Joining in
    18 days ago

    Firstly all I wish to apologise for my terrible grammar and spelling mistakes on the original post, must have been extremely tired! 

    Just an update - 
    I spoke to my neighbour last night, who is also with Virgin. He said he is having the same issues as me and has an engineer coming out on Tuesday. 

    I managed to speak to someone on their online chatbot this morning and what a ride it has been. Firstly they told me that my connection is perfect and I don't have any issues. I told them this was bs and that I wanted an engineer sending out. They ignored that request and told me I would be monitored for 24 hours. I said this had been going on for 3 days so far, doing this would take me to 5 days. So I want to book an engineer. They ignored this again, then proceeded to tell me that they had done some trouble shooting and my issue was now fixed. Even though five minutes prior to this, they told me I had no issue and my connection was perfect. I asked what the issue was and what they had fixed, which they ignored and then told me to message back tomorrow if the problem persists ... even though they just told me they fixed my problem. 

    I told them I wasn't happy, wanted this escalating, wanted to make a complaint. They then told me that if I wanted to book an engineer I could, but since this was a special engineer, I would be charged £25. 

    I've told them where they can shove that and I'm currently waiting to raise this over the phone. Absolutely superb service.

    • Sabrina_B's avatar
      Sabrina_B
      Forum Team
      16 days ago

      Hi therealbigmak 👋.

      Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community Forums, sorry to hear of the Issues that you are facing with your services. So that we can look into this we would need to bring you in for a private message, please look out for the envelope on the top right of your web browser or if you are using a mobile device, it will be located under your profile icon.
       

      Thanks.
       

      Sabrina

    • therealbigmak's avatar
      therealbigmak
      Joining in
      16 days ago

      Let's do another update to keep everyone in the mix. The full timeline so far! 

      - Issues start Thursday 6th/Friday 7th
      - Friday night I cannot use my personal pc, every game lags out, wifi fine. 
      - Check the app, says issues in the area, check back in 24 hours. 
      - 24 hours pass, same issue again, can't do anything Saturday night. 
      - Try contacting the number I found on the internet for customer service. This number is 100% automation. 
      - After spending 20 minutes clicking buttons and listening to BS, the automation hangs up on me. 
      - I speak to my neighbour, also a Virgin Media customer, who informs me he is having the same issue and has booked an engineer, via the chatbot online. The engineer will be coming on Tuesday the 11th. 
      - I wake up early Sunday morning and begin a chat with VM's offshore support team at 8am GMT, who in the space on 10 minutes tells me I have the perfection connection, I don't have an issue, then tells me I will be monitored for 24 hours, then tells me my problem has been fixed. 
      - I repeatedly demand to escalate this which is ignored, before they finally tell me their manager will call me. Stating however that their manager will just agree with them. Chat ends at 10am. Also informs me that if I want an engineer, I will have to pay £25 (neighbour hasn't been charged at all)
      - 7 hours pass and their manager finally calls me at 5pm GMT. 
      - Informs me that this isn't an issue on their end and this is a "me problem".
      - After telling said Manager to stop reading his script repeatedly, he cannot explain what the issue is, why his man said I didn't have one, but then they "fixed it" and couldn't explain why they were trying to charge me £25 for an engineer to come out when my neighbours was free. 
      - After realising that I wasn't going to stop, he agreed to book an engineer for me free of charge. Told me they would come on Monday the 10th. Then told me there were no spots, so i asked the engineer come on Tuesday the 11th at the same time my neighbours came. 
      - Tuesday arrives, I get home at 4pm awaiting their arrival. I see a VM van pull up, goes to my neighbour. Fixes their issue. Comes back out, I head to the door, he gets in his van and drives away. 
      - As I'm standing there scratching my head, my neighbour informs me that have other jobs to do on the housing estate (remember the manager saying this is a "me issue")
      - Another VM van then pulls up, and an engineer comes in. 
      - Probably one of, if not thee most socially awkward person I have ever met in my life. However, he stands there with his hands in his pockets and then informs me the cause of my issues are probably "dirt". 
      - The router isn't dirty/dusty, but he is telling me that dirt will be the cause of this, blocking the port. 
      - There is absolutely no dirt whatsoever on router port, ethernet port on pc, on the cable anywhere. 
      - He then checks the cable outside and tells me that the wire was "crunched" from when it was installed. Informed me that he had straightened it out. 
      - He then swapped the hub out for me, which I appreciated. 
      - Said he ran some more tests, everything should now be working. 
      - I sit down at my pc about an hour ago, fire a game of Marvel Rivals up to test said connection, instantly lags out and crashes. 

      So here we are, 5 days into my Virgin Media Customer Service Experience. I've so far had to shout at two Indian Gentlemen, I've been told it's been fixed twice when it hasn't, I've been told its my fault even though there are multiple engineers going to multiple houses on my estate and here I am, still sat with a **bleep**ty internet connection. I cannot wait to hear what crap comes out of their mouths next.