Appalling Service - returning equipment issues

[Sar17]

I was a very happy Virgin customer for 16 years but would never return to Virgin after the service I have received over the past month.

I moved house a month ago to an area not covered by Virgin’s services. Therefore I had to switch to another media provider. Virgin disconnected my services on 2 July, agreed to refund my credit balance and said they would send a prepaid envelope for me to return my equipment. I agreed to do this.

A couple of days later, no prepaid envelope had been sent but Virgin contacted me telling me not to return the equipment as they will collect it from my new home instead. I booked a date for collection on 20 July and a day off work. For two weeks, Virgin kept sending reminder text messages they will collect on 20 July. Even on the morning of 20 July, I received a reminder message. I waited in all day, only to received a text at 5pm stating that Virgin were unable to collect today and will arrange another date. I had wasted a whole day off work waiting at home.

The next day, I received an email instructing me to return the equipment in the prepaid envelope (which I had not received) using their list of agreed collection points online or I would be charged £40 for not returning the equipment. When I looked at the online list, none of the near locations accepted Virgin parcels, meaning I would need to spend even more time and cost travelling several miles to return the equipment. Bearing in mind Virgin had already failed to send any prepaid envelopes, then changed the arrangement stating they would rather collect the equipment, then failed to collect too. Therefore I refused to send and stated Virgin need to collect or it will not returned at all.

Since then, I’ve chased Virgin customer services five times. Each time, the customer service adviser has agreed to arrange collection and waive the fee, but the next day I  receive another threatening email to return the equipment or be charged. Yesterday I spent five hours just trying to confirm collection and refund dates to no avail. This morning I received yet another threatening email.

This is absolutely diabolical service. Virgin are stating the equipment is worth £40 charge yet cannot be bothered to collect so they can avoid refunding monies due to me. After 16 years custom! I will never return to Virgin Media in the future and will recommend others not to use Virgin either.

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

[Reece_MH]

Hi @Sar17,

Thanks for your post, and a warm welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm really sorry to hear that you have had such a poor experience when cancelling and returning the equipment - it's definitely not what we aim to provide. I've taken a look at things at my end and can see that you spoke with the team and they have performed the necessary steps to get things sorted.

However, to ensure that everything goes smoothly, I'm going to drop you a PM for some more details. Please look out for it in the top-right of the Forums, in the purple envelope.

Cheers,

[Sar17]

Thank you Reece but I have been “assured” that the issue has been resolved six times now. This leaves me extremely sceptical anything will be done.

I have replied to your private message.

[Reece_MH]

Hi @Sar17,

I appreciate your scepticism towards my assurance of resolving things and completely understand why. I'm going to do my best to assist you with this, and get things sorted once and for all. I've received your PM and have responded.

Thanks,

[Sar17]

Surprise, surprise! Virgin has now charged £40 for not returning the equipment. After six calls to customer services assuring me that this charge would be waived, Virgin have done exactly the opposite.

Time to escalate my complaint to OfCom. Hopefully with enough complaints to the communications adjudicator, Virgin will have to improve your awful customer service in the future.

[John_GS]

Morning Sar17

I can see you are in a PM with my colleague who is dealing with this for you. When he has heard back, he'll be in touch

Best.

[3boris]

We are also experiencing horrendous problems with the return of our 12yr old hub last November. Perhaps because we were selling and moving out of our home before our contract ended, no packaging or labels were sent despite numerous telephone calls to customer service. No contact was made by their uplift service either until a week after we had moved out and had arrived at our home in Portugal. We were advised on the evening before we moved to take our hub to our local Scot-mid Co-op and we received reassurance that by doing this the £40 fee would be waived. As we had no packaging which could be scanned at the drop off point, a photo was taken of us handing it over to the shop manager. Since then I have spent hours on the telephone trying to get this matter resolved - why can they only give you a direct number to follow up on your complaint. 

Like you we had previously been very happy with Virgin Media’s service - there is certainly no way we would recommend the company to anyone

[Kain_W]

Many apologies for the issues faced 3boris,

Welcome to the community.

Can I ask regarding this, what equipment was being advised to return?

Let us know,

[3boris]

We returned an Arris Hub to the Scot-mid Co-op, Whitehouse Road, Edinburgh on the 25th November 2022 as advised by your customer services.

As we had still not received any packaging or labels by that date, we took a photo of the hub being handed to the store manager.

We do not know what else we could have done. Each person who has replied to our complaint seems to ignore the information given.

[Zach_R]

Hi @3boris,

Thank you for the additional details on this. Did you also receive a receipt to confirm the return of the equipment?

Thanks,