How does one follow up a complaint?

[AnnoyedMike]

I recently raised a complaint about loss of broadband service.  I wasn't expecting anything particularly helpful in response to my complaint but I was at least expecting something that read like it was written by someone with good communication skills. The response I've got is ambiguous in whether any further response will be forthcoming, doesn't even attempt to answer the questions I asked, fails to provide any resolution, makes a false statement, and is overall barely coherent nonsense. Look at the state of these two sentences for example:

Outages would already be updated on our website Mike and if not, if still facing issues with broadband. Give us a chance we will sort the best resort to resolve the issue.

The email starts with:

We have a little update on your complaint with us. We didn’t want to delay things, so we’ve gone ahead and looked into a resolution for you.

All of which is quite oddly worded and "little update" makes it sound like maybe there is going to be another update to follow. But the email ends:

We’ll keep your complaint open for 28 days from now just in case you still want to talk through your options. Please ring us on 0345 454 1111* if you’re not completely happy with the resolution.

Which suggests that's the only response I'll get and if I'm not happy with this response I have to phone up. Even though I raised the complaint via the website, no information is provided about following up the complaint via the website. I've no idea what options are being referred to. I phoned that number, none of the available menu options has anything to do with following up a complaint. So how it one supposed to engage in dialogue about a complaint with Virgin Media?

Note to forum mods: Don't even think about merging this post to some other thread.

[unhappyconsumer]

This occurred to me repeatedly, they never follow-up on complaints, send a letter advising if you do not contact them they will close the complaint (despite requesting a final response letter to take to CISAS as my complaint resolution) then they close the complaint and force you to re-open a new one. They will then repeat this process for years at a time. I received over £300 compensation during my time with them by following up and complaining for around £50 per error, then eventually escalating to CISAS once I left.

Go here www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

If you want to test how robust their GDPR compliance is, request the DSAR via a different method first (they are obliged to be able to receive the request through all channels of communication. I have found it is typical the customer service advisors and managers on phone and webchat do not know what it is, and if you complain then ask to speak to a manager they will often give compensation of £40 - ensure the agreement is the compensation solely applies to the GDPR issue rather than you actual complaint content. 

You can also open a conversation with the VM forum staff, they seem poorly trained and tend to act in a combative manner, which adds to the distress and inconvenience caused by VM customer service.

Hopefully, the data request will trigger a call from the DSAR team looking to resolve the complaint with you to avoid doing the work of collating your data. Hopefully they can resolve this for you. If that doesn't occur, you can refer the complaint to CISAS after Virgin fail to adhere to the 8 week timescale, and they will likely compensate you for your inconvenience and distress. 

Send me a message if you get stuck at all 🙂

[unhappyconsumer]

Yes, VM mods merge unrelated threads by the same users, either out of incompetence, or malice - judging by some of my private message conversations I would imagine it's the latter. 

[Martin_N]

Hi unhappyconsumer,

Thank you for your post. I'm sorry if you feel we merge unrelated threads. 

We only merge threads that are related to each other. 

Is there anything else you need assistance with?

^Martin

[unhappyconsumer]

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Virgin-Media-Complaints-Team-Do-the...

The topics merged here were not similar - the primary similarity is the user creating them, rather than the content. Comments?