VM loses customers and revenue
Virgin Media has lost 13600 broadband customers and 4.1% in revenue in Q2 in a poor set of quarterly results for the struggling company.
Which? Has also just tagged Virgin Media the worst telecoms provider of 2024.
Forum Discussion
Thanks for that.
I followed the link you gave (contrary to all spamming advice) and found it interesting and enlightening. Like many others. I have developed an aversion to using the phone helplines, because of the Which? findings.They have confirmed my feelings!.
modem mode on hub 5x could help
I am sure VM management will be straight onto that report to put things right! 😁
A little joke from the intro of a HIGNFY episode in May this year even paid tribute to VM's unique model of customer service ...
In Essex a traumatised customer decides to express himself creatively to deal with his experiences of the Virgin Media help line.
[Cut to video clip]
"Which? has written to Virgin Media’s chief executive urging the firm to improve its customer service."
Let's hope they sent their letter to the Sunderland address using signed for recorded delivery and kept a copy for themselves.
Considering how much I'm charged for 12 years of loyalty and my atrocious download speed (much less than advertised) I'm close to calling it a day with Virgin myself. I've been offered a very good deal from another provider, which I intend to give Virgin the chance to counter offer (if I can find an 0800 number to call them on), but I'm not optimistic.
Today I have finally bitten the bullet and formalised my 30 day cancellation notice. After being a Virgin customer since they took over NTL (and before them Comcast) this has been the first year I have been unable to negotiate a decent deal.
Yes, they've had plenty of money from me over the years - for a good few of those I was on top tv package, broadband, phone and even mobiles! At this point I am down to just broadband (tv is now rubbish to me) but the latest end of contract price increases are unreal. I have jumped ship and signed up to Vodaphone who were offering a brilliant deal working out at less than half the monthly cost for 2 years and faster (hopefully) speed!
Like the banking sector - no loyalty is shown by the companies, they're in the business of profit - so no loyalty is needed from the customer when getting fleeced.
Bye bye Virgin, it was ok most of the time while it lasted. 😘
I, too, have been tempted by Truespeed which promises a lot of services and high speed. Their fees are high though and I've dragged my feet about changing.
Virgin has worked well for me and I've lost count how many years since I joined. I have a simple setup of router hub with one wire to a distant room and the rest is wi-fi. The persistent problem was the email, which kept going offline and became unreliable. For that, I changed to Ionos - the little lady with the big blond hair. That's good and no adverts or spam.
I read the Which? thing but I feel that letter writing is not all that effective. The response is usually, "we are sorry you feel like that ...... ." The underlying comment is, " it is your fault for feeling like that, not ours. We ain't dun nuffin wrong."
With finance generally going to rats in the past ten years, the companies are all in survival mode and charge the earth for everything. Obviously, loyalty takes second place to that and we have to stump up or give up. I don't like the principle of having these community groups to sort out the business stuff. All big companies do it and I believe the various owners set it up that way, as a first line of defence. It lets them earn money while they sleep and the "teams" and helpers on these various forums (fora?) take all the stick. It's rather like we have formed a trade union negotiating with the owners - except they never get to hear about the problems. There is enough here to build an information motorway ti their doorsteps!
Agree with your points EddyFiss.
A positive of a forum such as this is, however, that it does allow customers to share information and knowledge about VM's business activities and practices. Regular contributors on here have a good knowledge of how VM operates and can pass that on to customers with a range of common VM issues and problems (such as delayed installations, automatic compensation, package renewals etc. etc.)
Yes, it is the sharing that is important. It builds a knowledge base that doesn't get lost as people move on, or when systems change. Long time ago, I was into writing software and the mistakes that I and my colleagues made then are still being made now, I think that is because the lessons we learned were either not heeded or didn't make it to any manuals. Depending on the mood I'm in, these mistakes either make me laugh, or cringe!
I'm not going to confess to what I did, suffice it say they were real howlers and at least two had far-reaching effects. I was rescued each time by the back-up boys.
It's ok if you want to laugh 🙂
Well, after my little moan the other day about leaving I have to admit to a U-turn. Virgin telephoned and offered what can only be described as a suitable deal for me.
The point I'll make here is that I was happy with the service over the many years I've been with them (I know some people aren't) and was reluctant to leave but why do they not treat long term, loyal customers with respect and price their services accordingly? Why did it come to me leaving and arranging a new provider before they came forward with a frankly crazy low price? I would have settled much earlier if they hadn't been so downright greedy. It's honestly like playing poker and bluffing through, waiting to see who gives in. I certainly don't mind companies making profit as that's their game, but extorting every penny they can when they don't need to riles me!
Rant over. The very brief trial separation worked and the divorce is off..........for now!
Yes, your story is fairly common. When I was miserable about my email failures, I tried to stay cheerful and practical. So I decided to reduce my package costs, only to find out that you have to threaten to leave. After taking that line, they did reduce the cost, but the package stayed the same. Good so far, but it seems to me that you can have anything you want as along as you will fight for it - and the VM staff are all up for that fight. It has been true for many years that business is a battle - you can't afford to have friends in business.
I was pleased to see that Scott Dixon agrees with me about self help. On the other hand I was one of a small number being lectured many years ago about an international organisation. The speaker didn't start by talking. Instead, he asked us each to write down how much we already knew. Individually, it amounted to the square root of not very much, but when he slapped it all on the board the sum total was better than just being pretty good. So self help can have its merits.
An interesting take on platforms like this one: Scott Dixon, of the Complaints Resolver, said: “Offering to have customer issues solved by fellow customers is disgraceful" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/companies-outsourcing-customer-service-to-other-customers/
