Virgin Media Community

[chevrons2]

How do you get VM to actually deal with a complaint, or even contact you, (apart from just repeatedly sending standard letters that say they're going to do something soon)?

After reporting a fault (75 days ago) and requesting a call back (which was acknowledged) and then hearing nothing for weeks, I wrote to complain.

Weeks later I got a standard complaint response letter saying that I would be contacted asap (but within 28 days).

That didn't happen, so I wrote another letter and got an identical letter, so I wrote again and got another one!

Then I got a standard email thanking me for getting in touch, saying that they hoped that things were now sorted and asking for feedback. (I also got a letter telling me that VM's are going to increase the price for the service that I initially complained about in early November and I'm still waiting to be fixed).

I've filled in the online complaint form and I'm writing this as my last attempt to get them to respond.

I gave them the required 30 days notice that if they don't fully deal with my complaints within 14 days, I am terminating my contract. That was on 11/01/21, so they've got 2 days to sort it out or the contract ends on 9th Feb. I have been an NTL/Virgin customer since 1999 but I really can not put up with their terrible service any more. (I will report the situation to the ombudsman after I've left).

[Ryan_N]

Hi chevrons2, 

Thank you for your post. 

I am sorry to hear about this situation and would love to try and help make things better. Can I start off by asking if you could expand on what the complaint is relating to so that I can help? We wouldn't want to see you leave or leave you with this impression. 

Cheers. 

[chevrons2]

Thanks Ryan_N.

The original TV issues were problems with recordings and streaming services such as I-player, etc. We'd been having problems for quite a while but they were getting worse and that's why I tried to get them dealt with on 10th November. A week before Christmas, as VM had still not contacted us, despite us also writing to you, we decided to buy a smart tv, in order to enable us to watch I-player etc over Christmas. 

It would be nice to be able to get the service we pay for working properly but it is the fact that it has been completely ignored, despite 3 complaint letters, that really annoys me. Even if you somehow missed the initial communication, how can you acknowledge receipt of 3 letters between the beginning of December and last week, by sending standard complaint-response letters and still do nothing? Your (anonymous undated) response letters are all identical and all tell me things like: "You can be confident that we'll do everything to ensure that it is put right" and "A member of our customer complaints team will take ownership of your complaint and will investigate the issues you have raised. They will be in contact by phone or text in the first instance" ! 

The reference numbers that you have assigned to my customer-complaint letters are as follows:
C-1412203999 (re my letter dated 30/11/20, received by Virgin 4/12/20),
C-1301214662 (re my letter dated 11/01/21, received by Virgin 13/01/21),
C-2001214229 (re my letter dated 16/01/21, received by Virgin 20/01/21),
(I have no idea whether or not you have assigned any reference number to the fault I reported it on 10/11/20).

My first two letters gave three phone numbers for you to contact me.

The first thing that the person who has "taken ownership" of my complaints needs to do, is phone me and tell me that VM are going to refund me for the faulty service that you have continued to charge me for since I reported it on 10/11/20 and that you are not going to charge me for it again, until it has been fully rectified. Then, before putting those faults right, we can deal with the customer service. After that is fully dealt with, I will decide whether or not to give you another opportunity to fix the fault and whether to withdraw my notice of termination of contract.

You've had 76 days. You have 1 day left. If nobody phones me to sort all of this out by tomorrow evening, notice has already been given that our contract will terminate at the end of the notice period which started on the date of my second letter. I will not accept liability for the cost of any services that you provide after the contract has been terminated and I will pursue compensation for your failure to provide the services that I have paid for since the faults were first reported and therefore any breaches of contract that apply, plus your failures to comply with industry customer complaints requirements.

[Ryan_N]

Apologies for the delay in response here. 

This channel isn't a instant response channel so there will be delays at times in responses - we do have contact numbers, text numbers and online methods to contact the team. 

I can appreciate we are past the date you have stated above - have you managed to terminate the contract as of yet or speak with our complaints team since? 

If you've not been able to please let me know and I will send you over a private message. 

Cheers. 

[Zak_M]

Thank you for coming back to us @chevrons2 

We would be more than happy to try and assist you further with this. 

I am going to drop you a PM for some further account information: 

Kind Regards,

Zak_M

[chevrons2]

Thanks Zak_M.

I've received your private message and replied to it with the info that you've asked for.

3 days ago, in this thread, I supplied the 3 complaint reference numbers that VM gave me in response to the 3 letters I sent to your customer complaints team.  In 2 of those 3 letters, I provided 3 phone numbers that I can be called on. 

So, over the last 11 weeks, I have supplied all the information that you could need. Therefore, please do not ask me for this information again. If, due to VM's procedures, you can't access the information I have previously given, or you can not get someone in the complaints team to deal with this, then thank you but I am not prepared to waste any more time by helping VM to bypass their own hopeless customer complaints procedures.

However, if someone from the customer complaints team actually phones me, I will be happy to discuss everything in as much detail as necessary.

[chevrons2]

Hi Zak_M

In the last private message you send me last week, (after I provided my account details,  your complaint reference numbers and my phone numbers), you told me that you had flagged this up with the complaints team and that they should "reach out" to me soon. 

They haven't.    I'm still being ignored.

So, I'll update my original question. Perhaps you could answer it:

How do you get Virgin to actually deal with a complaint, after the following doesn't work?: A phonecall to technical support, an online chat, 3 letters (confirmed received by complaints department, given complaint reference numbers but the first recorded on the system and ignored, the second not recorded and the third closed despite doing nothing about it), plus a plea on the forum where two VM employees say they will help, and a review on trust pilot (where VM have the lowest possible rating, over thousands of reviews, claim to take complaints seriously while having a record of only responding to 5% of those negative reviews).

Please answer that question. How do you get Virgin to actually deal with a complaint, after all that?

[Mr_EMW]

That's a pretty good question.

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the answer.

Well, Virgin?