Elderly Customer unable to resolve phone issue

[Debbie18]

My 85 year old Mum tried to call virgin to report a problem with her landline.. she was unable to hear or understand what they were saying so she hung up.. Give virgin their due they called my mobile after they couldn't get through to her on the Landline.. I explained she was very vulnerable & her phone line was also connected to her tel care line & was very urgent to get her some help, the operator took 45 minutes on the phone, I explained several times I was at work & the call was taking an exceptionally long time to sort, the outcome was he did arrange for an engineer to call at the property within 4 hours.. GREAT. ...

A couple of hours later the Virgin engineer called to advise they had found some loose wires & this had caused the voicemail service to drop out ?? He needed me to authorise the voicemail to be re connected ??  I did state that didnt make any sense if she had the service before why couldn't it just be reconnected, anyway I was advised it could only be reconnected with my authority, a further 20 minutes later the VM was reconnected.. 

Mum tried to call me tonight only to find that somehow, her pre set numbers to call her contacts is not working so she was in a complete set of fright & panic.. I live an hour away & unable to just pop in & sort her phone for her but she has been left in an awful situation for a vulnerable customer, I don't think she ever had vm on the phone & somehow its just the answerphone button on the phone itself  that has been knocked to off..

Im disappointed with Virgin that they have left her in this situation & what worries me further is whether they have checked her tel care line is working correctly...   

[Zach_R]

Hi @Debbie18,

Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

I'm so sorry to hear of your mother's recent landline related issues. I'd just like to clarify - the issues with the landline not being usable has now been resolved, however, it appears that her saved/pre-set numbers have been erased?

Thanks,
 

[Debbie18]

Yes landline is working, however how have the pre set numbers been erased?

[Debbie18]

Sorry just realised you are asking the question & not confirming.. Also it has made using the phone a bit complicated for her with the Virgin voicemail activated from what I can understand

[Zach_R]

Hi @Debbie18,

Thanks for expanding. Do you happen to know how the numbers were stored? If it's a feature of the landline equipment then I'm not entirely sure how they would've been erased, but we wouldn't have control over how the landline equipment itself operates.

Can you clarify what you mean when you say the voicemail service is making using the landline more complicated?

Thanks,
 

[Debbie18]

Yes Zach it is a feature on the landline that I set up, Mum was only using the answerphone service on her landline which is what I think she has accidently turned off. However when she was left a message yesterday with the virgin vm service in place she was unable to retrieve the message, she is almost blind & so relies heavily on memory to use things & if anything changes it is very difficult for her.. how does she retrieve a message using the virgin vm?

[Zach_R]

Hi @Debbie18, 

Thanks for clarifying. I'm afraid we have no control over the operation of third party equipment, so it may be something that needs to be raised with the manufacturer of the landline themselves. 

As for the free voicemail, there are details on how to use that here, but to listen to the messages you'll just need to dial 1571 and then follow the instructions over the phone. However, if it'd be better to have our free voicemail service removed then we can also assist with that.

Let us know what you think of the above and how you'd like to proceed.

Thanks,
 

[Debbie18]

Thanks for your help Zach, yes I appreciate I will need to reset the landline phone, & put the answerphone back on. The pre set numbers were all working before the engineer called so Iam not sure whats happened there. Iam disappointed that Virgin advised me she had the voicemail service prior to the call out as putting this service on has made it difficult & confusing for her to use the phone when she clearly hadn't had this service & was just using the answerphone on the landline.. Would you kindly remove this service for me please.  Thank you for all your help today..Debbie

[Zach_R]

Hi @Debbie18,

I can completely understand your frustrations. Please respond to the private message that I'll be sending to you shortly and we'll take a closer look at things.

Thanks,