Forum Discussion

r1poffelderley-'s avatar
r1poffelderley-
Joining in
2 months ago

Vulnerable customer appalling service

It has come to light that my 81-year-old grandmother is paying £94 a month to virgin media for the entertainment channels and sky cinema. A landline which she doesn't use and no internet. Virgin are selling this package including internet and Netflix for £45 to new customers. My grandmother has been out of contact 8 yrs and not once has there been any attempt to source her a new deal. She's a proud woman pays her bills on time and this came up with family by chance. She's also £550 in credit to virgin which they are happy to keep taking! 

I rang Sunday 16th March (total of 3 calls equating to 66 minutes) to complain about this and how vulnerable customers are being taken advantage of. I queried do virgin not have teams to help such people and elderly. I asked for her price to be looked at but all the girl could do was reduce her package. She said she would raise a complaint and someone would ring me back within 24 hours. 

No call received so I rang 2 days later on the 18th March (2 calls equating to 19 mins) , spoke to a girl i believe her name was Nicola. She was lovely but said I was told wrong it would take 72 hours for a call back. Again she tried to look at package but I believe it was still £70 for just the tv and landline so I said I would wait on a call back, which again never came.

I rang again on 23rd march (44 mins this time) and was told that they had no idea why i would be getting a call-back that's not what happens? I am extremely frustrated by now 3 calls of different information. I explained my mum rang this week and got a call back within a day for her account yet my 81 year old grandmother is getting no grace whatsoever, yet he told me no call back was needed even though he could see on notes I had been told i was getting one. . I was told different advisors at different times of day can agree different price. Basically virgin trying to cover their backs at all costs. The guy agreed a price of £57 increasing to approx. £62 with years inflation. It was for the same package and he told me he had noted the file that I could ring back anytime up to end of month once I had spoke to my grandmother.

I rang today to proceed with this quote, the 1st advisor could see the price and quoted me 2 figures one with broadband and one without, she passed me to customer relations and to get it set up and I was then told no can do, the girl didn't listen at all and said couldn't give me the price as rates change and that also physically can't buy a package without internet. Yet the 3 previous calls and 4 including the 1st advisor on this call has offered me a price on this basis. The call on 23rd I believe his name was Mark not 100% sure clarified I could call back to avail of this price and he was noting the file. 

How is any of this fare on an 81 year old woman paying over the odds and with call recording to back up absolutely everything I say here. As I said she's been out of contract since 2017. Could have left virgin media 3/4 times over and came back with new customer rates but being ripped off has got her nowhere! I was quoted a price 23.03.25 rang to proceed 26.03.25 and again getting mucked about. I am following proper channels for a complaint and will escalate to ombudsman also. I will be sharing on socials and any media outlet that will listen. Virgin are disgraceful , The service of the advisors is shocking and the information differs on every call. Do you not train staff? 

 

Also on the 1st call i wasn't provided with a complaints reference?

 

I note when i log in to my granny's online account it shows she has internet yet has never had this installed , I have took screen recording of same. Also took screen recording of the fact your complaints pages purposely isn't working and I have had to search every where to find an email address.

Took another screen recording of the fact your forum won't let me post as yet another error coming up.

 

Come on virgin how is it right to treat customers this way. Where is the treating customers fairly in any of this? 

Maybe this will help in me actually getting a response!

4 Replies

  • unisoft's avatar
    unisoft
    Knows their stuff

    Main issue aside, the TV packages need internet as well now. This is for the catch up players and epg guide updates. VM flex works totally by IP so can't even display live TV without an internet connection. The older generation TiVo is deprecated in favour of V6 or 360 boxes.

    If you want TV you need internet but she would only need the lowest M125 speed tier.

    BBC Rip off Britain programme love these sort of issues, and it's come up several times before on these forums of similar stories where elderly or vulnerable customers have just seen their package prices increase over the years as a customer. I don't know why VM refused to implement system reporting checks highlighting where packages are clearly over the list price, even lowered automatically. Nobody should pay over the list price which is already expensive....

  • Hey totally get that but 3 advisors over the past week quoted me without Internet. I'm happy to take the Internet no issues. Anyone I talk to Is paying way under the prices of my grandmother and get so much more and aren't new customers. 

    Thanks for help i will contact rip off Britain as well and anyone that wil listen tbh. The service is so disgusting 

  • Hi r1poffelderley-,

    Thanks for your post and welcome to our community.

    We're sorry to hear you're unhappy with the price your grandmother has been paying for her services with us. We also apologise for any conflicting information provided regarding the call back

    We do send end of contract reminders to customers as courtesy to remind them to get in touch to discuss new deals if any promotional offers have ended.

    I can send you a private message to look into the complaint for you, however to set expectations only the account holder can confirm a new contract term. If you're looking to get a new deal/price for her, she would need to be the one to accept this. 

    Also, our current TV packages do require a broadband connection.

    I'll pop you the private message now so I can review the account and complaint and advise further from there 😊

    Please look out for the envelope in the top right of the page and pop back to me when you can. 

     

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person

    Purely on the package questions, VM's approach to re-contracting has always been...

    1: If you let your contract roll beyond the minimum term, VM won't do much/anything to stop you. The monthly price will be subject to annual rises, and will become uncompetitive within a couple of years, quite easily.

    2: Discounts & promotional offers can vary, and any verbal offer given is very often "of the moment". It's usually far better to have an idea on pricing before calling, in order to accept an offer on a call - knowing you have the statutory 14days cancellation period as your insurance.

    3: Elderly customers, and those who subscribe to the "loyal customer" school of thought as you suggest, are very much prone to losing out under point 1.

    Whilst you're quite entitled to follow the complaints procedure, I don't see the Ombudsman casting anything more than observations, on what are commercial decisions by VM on what pricing to offer particular customers. Service issues and/or failings, are a good thing to put in front of them.