Virgin Landline - Can't make outgoing calls

New hub now installed and phone now connected through hub. The Virgin engineer confirmed that Virgin are switching off people's ability to make outgoing calls on landlines so that this forces customers get in contact with Virgin.  It would help if your customer service staff at call centres were more aware of this as it would have saved me hours on the phone last Saturday getting nowhere!  Also, for every single time we've tried to make an outgoing call, or checked to see if the phone line is working, before we realised that Virgin had deliberately switched off our landline, we've been charged for each call - even though we didn't want to make these calls to Virgin.  Even when we've put down the phone straight away - it's charged us 38 pence for each one.  Some of the calls we made were because we were specifically asked to do to check if our landline was now working.  This means that even though Virgin instigated the blocking of outgoing calls on our line and the automatic connection to the Virgin Helpline, they did not route calls through to the free 150 Virgin Helpline, but to the but to the 0345 phone number.  I've now got an additional £10 in calls on my Virgin Media bill. Can't say I'm very happy about this. Seems a funny way to have gone about the whole business.  Couldn't Virgin have just sent us a letter to explain they needed to upgrade our hub and route our phone through the new hub?

I could not agree more with you. I have had exactly the same experience, my engineer is finally booked for the middle of July. Was told that they had been trying to contact me to let me know about the restriction put on my phone, this is a lie I have had no contact whatsoever, no missed calls no email and no letter only found out when I needed to use my phone and I was automatically put through to the virgin media helpline. While visiting my brother this week I explained what had happened with my phone and as he has virgin media was his phone ok, he wasn’t aware of any problem so we tried to use his phone and got put straight through to the virgin media helpline he too has had no contact from virgin media to him inform him of this change. 

Omg absolutely fuming,  I have been charged £14:53 for automatically being put through to virgin media via my land line

It seems like this is happening to everyone. No communication from Virgin at all.  Landline just switched off for outgoing calls, and customers are charged every single time they test the phone line to see if it's working yet. This really isn't on, Virgin Media.

I've had exactly the same on my latest bill. I can't figure out how Virgin are getting away with this. No letter, no explanation, no warning.  And then charging us for every call through to their helpline when we were just test our phonelines to see why they weren't working.

We weren't calling the helpline voluntarily, Virgin Media.  you'd cut off everyone's ability to make outgoing calls and were automatically routing our calls through to the Virgin Media helpline but NOT on the free 150 number, so everytime we tried to make outgoing calls we were just put through to your helpline instead, and then charged for each call!!

I'm on the M200 fibrebroadband and talk weekend, but you are missing the point. It's nothing to do with my package. It's the fact that Virgin are switching off people's phones so every time they make an outgoing call they are just re-directed to the Virgin Helpline, but not on the free 150 number, so we've been charged for every call we made. It seems the staff who work for Virgin don't seem to realise that Virgin are doing this, but our engineer knew when he came round and he confirmed this is what Virgin are doing at the moment. It really is outrageous.  A simple letter through the post to explain would have done it. Not impressed at all.

@jem101 - the engineer has already been, and the problem is sorted, as I've already explained.  It was him who told me Virgin are stopping outgoing calls to people on old-style landlines, but I can assure you Virgin did not contact me before they turned my phoneline off. No email, no phone call no letter, and they've charged me for every single call that they routed through to their helpline before the engineer visited to fit the new hub and re-route my phone. They didn't put these automatically re-directed calls through to their free 150 number but used the phone number that charges me.  I've now received a text saying another engineer is coming on Wednesday to fix my problem, but it's fixed now and I have no way of cancelling the new engineer visit. I can't cancel it from My Virgin Media account as there is no option to do that, and I'm not calling the helpline to hold on for hours to speak to someone to cancel it - I can't anyway because I'm at work.  This whole thing has been a disaster from start to finish. Virgin has really hit an all time low with the way they've handled this. They should train their helpline staff better so they know what's going on.

Hi Akua,

Nothing to do with me, my landline is fine. My issue is Netflix related.

  Paul

Hello John,

I have the same issue this thread relates too and like others, did not receive any information this was going to happen or what I need to do.

As I am unable to cancel my phone service from my package, can you please help ?

Thank you in advance,

Aneil

Thanks to Carley_S,

1. My issue of blocked outgoing landline calls has been resolved.

2. My landline phone was confirmed to be compatible with the new hub.

3. An appointment was made for an engineer to come and enable the switch over.

Communication was prompt and clear at all times.

Well done Virgin Media Community. You guys should take over the horrible phone support system 😀