Virgin Media Community

[mg1978]

Hi - please can someone direct me to someone in Virgin Media who would be willing to help me with the below. This is truly the worst customer service experience I have ever had! Below is an email I have written to the CEO/COO/Director of Customer Services in the knowledge that they will never read it but in the hope this company has some kind of system setup for complaints and someone somewhere will listen. 

I am writing to complain about your appalling, abysmal and downright disgraceful customer service operation and to express my sympathy and regard for you front line agents who are clearly not equipped to deal with customer issues. I am fully aware having managed customer service operations that you will never read this email and that you will have a team responding but you should hang your heads in shame at the blatant disregard for customer service. Over the last 4 months, I have been on hold for more than a whole day in total trying to resolve issues!

I renewed my contract at the end of October specifically on the basis that I would not pay more than £26/month.  This was actually £28 but a £2 credit was provided. The £2 credit was not properly applied and I was continually overpaying. I called again in December 20 being told it would be resolved and it was not so I had to call again on the 11th Jan 21 when I was informed the issue has been fixed, a refund would be provided and I would only pay £26 for the rest of my 18 month contract. The £26 for the duration of the contract was why I signed up otherwise I would have cancelled and frankly speaking having a whole new set of cables drilled into my walls to get Virgin Media meant I was not inclined to change provider after a year. I was happy at this outcome.

Then on January 22nd, I am very surprised to receive a letter telling me of a £3.50 price increase from March 1st 2021. So far, I have spoken to 4 of your advisors today and been on hold for a total of more than 2 hours:

• Advisor 1 said he can’t do anything, put me on hold, gave me no indication for how long and never came back. I put down the call because I actually have a job to do apart from phoning you all day
• Advisor 2 said the price increase didn’t affect me to which I said please send me that in writing. He said he could not and he then gave me a number to call
• Advisor 3 said there was nothing he could do to which I asked to speak to Manager. Left me on hold for over 25 mins giving no indication of when he was coming back and the call dropped
• The 4th time I went through to new sales and lo and behold got through without holding (You should be embarrassed by this!). This advisor was the best one although she told me initially I would not be impacted by the price increase to then say I would be and there was nothing she could. I asked to speak to a supervisor and am currently on hold and have been for 25 mins. I have given up and put the phone down

Are advisors told to leave ‘difficult’ customers on hold and never come back? Everyone seems to have a response of ‘nothing I can do’. Where is the empowerment and ownership to solve a customer issue? Clearly customers do not matter in this environment.

I do not blame your customer advisors since clearly they have been abandoned by you in terms of how to offer any kind of effective customer service. You though should feel utterly embarrassed and ashamed at telling a customer he has to swallow a 15% price increase during these times (that’s a lot more than inflation!). I’m not sure if you have noticed but there is a ranging pandemic on when people are worried about jobs and livelihoods. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened and I have previously been with Sky, BT and Vodafone.

I would like the price increase rescinded and an apology for this outrageous and shameful experience.

[Megan_L]

Hi mg1978,

Thanks for using the forums to get this situation looked into, I am sorry that its caused some frustration. 

Any discount that you’ve been offered for the 12/18 months will still be honoured – so if you accepted a fixed price then you’ll receive that until the end of the discount period.  If you accepted a £ or % amount off, this will also continue to be honoured but you will see your price increase from the 1st March.

We will advise you in your communication how the price change will affect your deal.

Changing prices is never an easy decision, which is why, unlike other providers, this is our first cable price change in 18 months. We know 2020 was a difficult year for many people and so we decided not to rise our cable prices last year. 

Over the last year our customers have been using their services more than ever, and data use on our network has increased by up to 95%. With many people working from home and relying on our services to keep in touch with family and friends, it’s been even more vital that we keep people connected.

We need to continue investing in our network to meet this demand and ensure our broadband service continues to deliver the fastest widely-available speeds in the UK. We’re investing more than £1bn in our network – helping to improve performance and reliability for our customers.

At the same time, we have supported our customers with a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost. Whether that’s giving more than a million customers a free speed boost, upgrading millions of Hubs with more reliable and even faster WiFi, offering even more customers the chance to get their hands on our V6 TV box or providing new content and channels, we’re committed to giving our customers access to the best content and worry-free connectivity.

I also believe that customers with that % of inflation are eligible to cancel without penalty if they are not happy with this. You will still need to give 30 days notice but you will be able to leave without penalty. 

I hope this information helps. 

Megan_L

[jonathanpye]

---

@Megan_L wrote:

Hi mg1978,

Thanks for using the forums to get this situation looked into, I am sorry that its caused some frustration. 

Any discount that you’ve been offered for the 12/18 months will still be honoured – so if you accepted a fixed price then you’ll receive that until the end of the discount period.  If you accepted a £ or % amount off, this will also continue to be honoured but you will see your price increase from the 1st March.

We will advise you in your communication how the price change will affect your deal.

Changing prices is never an easy decision, which is why, unlike other providers, this is our first cable price change in 18 months. We know 2020 was a difficult year for many people and so we decided not to rise our cable prices last year. 

Over the last year our customers have been using their services more than ever, and data use on our network has increased by up to 95%. With many people working from home and relying on our services to keep in touch with family and friends, it’s been even more vital that we keep people connected.

We need to continue investing in our network to meet this demand and ensure our broadband service continues to deliver the fastest widely-available speeds in the UK. We’re investing more than £1bn in our network – helping to improve performance and reliability for our customers.

At the same time, we have supported our customers with a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost. Whether that’s giving more than a million customers a free speed boost, upgrading millions of Hubs with more reliable and even faster WiFi, offering even more customers the chance to get their hands on our V6 TV box or providing new content and channels, we’re committed to giving our customers access to the best content and worry-free connectivity.

I also believe that customers with that % of inflation are eligible to cancel without penalty if they are not happy with this. You will still need to give 30 days notice but you will be able to leave without penalty. 

I hope this information helps. 

Megan_L

---

Thank you for picking this up Megan.

I think the issue goes beyond the price rise here. This is about customer service aswell. You have provided an obvious pre-scripted response to someones issue yet it seems the core issue of poor customer service as identified by mg and experienced by many of us is totally bypassed and not addressed. What is VM doing to improve customer service?... you said you can cancel your contract if your not happy with the rise in cost but you need to be able to get hold of someone to do so!!

[mg1978]

Thank you for the replies. I am frustrated by the price rise but I guess that is what is. I can definitely say though the customer service is abysmal and wrong. Someone in Virgin Media should be worried about that and I find it hard to believe customers are disrespected in this way.