Your home phone service is changing

[penders]

I got an email purporting to be from Virgin Media.  I wasn’t sure if it was spam or not. It’s from an email address that they don’t usual use and it looks to be in a different style.

It says “We recently got in touch to let you know that your home phone will be switched to our fibre network”.  However, it’s the first email I’ve ever had on the subject.

It says “If you have any more questions we’ve got all you need on our help page”.  However the page doesn’t actually address my questions.

Question 1: Is it genuinely from Virgin?

Question 2: I already have my phone service supplied by the Virgin cable. It splits into two in my garden, with one branch going to the phone in the home office, and one branch going to the TV in the living room. So why does anything need to change?

Question 3: I am not willing to move the phone from the home office into the lounge, so what are my options?

[goslow]

Q1 Yes, highly likely see

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Virgin-Phone-Switchover/gh-p/Switchover

and

https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/

Q2 See second link above

Q3 Ask VM to modify your home phone wiring so you can use your existing landline extension sockets via the phone connection from the VM hub.

VM should offer to do this free of charge for you as part of the switchover process.

Make sure they make modifications to your phone wiring so you can keep each piece of equipment in the same place (rather than the offer which sometimes crops up on here to move the hub to a different location)

Refer here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

Do I need to book a technician visit?

You’ll need to book a free technician visit if...

• You rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call – we’ll provide you with an Emergency Back Up Line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
• You’ve got connected devices such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, use a telecare device, or have other phones connected to extension sockets. You’ll need to contact your provider and let them know about the switch if you have any of these to make sure they’re compatible with a fibre service.
• The Hub and your home phone can’t be placed near each other.

For a 'wires-free' alternative (which you would have to buy yourself), consider using cordless phones with the base station plugged into the VM hub and cordless satellite phones used around the home as required.

[John_GS]

Hi @penders

Thanks for posting and welcome back into the community.

It would be genuine as we are migrating the phone through the hub as part of our 21CV service. 

Changing to the phone service via cable is a government objective and this has to be completed by 2025, we are choosing to take the change over now to ensure all of our customers have been migrated prior to the current telephone exchange being closed down in 2025.
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover and https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/ - those links should advise you more.

We can do extensions free of charge if you'd like?

Let us know if you want to book in the visit

Best

[landad]

Since my current landline phones are connected via vm fibre-optic cable, why the change when [with new 'fibre' connection] the calls will still be via the same fibre cable.

[penders]

That's the same question I asked earlier but was avoided by those answering my post.

[Nathan_B]

Hi there @penders, sorry to see that your question was not answered.

All details we had for this were provided via the links in our previous comment.

If you need any further help with this, please let us know.

Regards

Nathan

[penders]

My phone appears to have now switched over. I got no further comms from Virgin - just one confusing email sent in November.  No reminders, no follow up emails, no SMS message.  And no adapter!!  So now I have no phone service.  After 45 minutes on the phone to Virgin, I got the promise of an adapter in 3 to 5 working days!!  If Amazon can achieve next day delivery, why can't Virgin can't be bothered to? In the meantime, I have no phone service.  When I asked why the service has been so poor, she said that she wasn't personally responsible for the lack of communications.  I am really disappointed by this lack of customer service.

[Steven_L]

Hey penders,

Welcome back to the community and thanks for taking the time to post. I'm sorry for the experience that you have had, our systems show that the adaptor should have reached you in December. 

Unfortunately we don't offer a one day delivery as Amazon do, we have to send the package to the courier and then they would arrange delivery for you. 

Would you like to raise a complaint about your experience with us? 

Kind Regards,

Steven_L

[penders]

Would raising a complaint do me any good? Why did I not get reminders? Why did you not track delivery of the adapter?  When you mess up, why can't you pay the courier for an express service?  These are all choices that indicate to me that have prioritise cost-cutting over and above customer service.

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us penders, our system shows that you were reminded in December of the changeover but I'm not sure why the adaptor never reached you after it was sent around the same time. Raising a complaint would let the team investigate what happened and why we failed to send an adaptor over to you.

We aren't able to arrange a next day delivery but I will be sure to pass on your feedback to the team about this going forward.

Thanks,

Steven_L