Not allowed to complain by email because of phone package

[criso]

I recently had an issue with some planned maintenance that we weren't informed about and wasn't connected properly after.

Came on here and was able to arrange an engineer and all sorted now however wanted to complain about what had happened.

I carefully wrote out details of the incident with headings/dates etc and submitted. 

Someone contacted me via Whatsapp offering to help get me "up and running".  I explained it wasn't technical help I needed but for my complaint to be dealt with.  Also it was quite long to type out again in whatsapp so it would be easier all round to review my submitted complaint. This took a while as there was more than one person contacting me on whatsapp determined to get me up and running but eventually they agreed to review the email respond.

I then got an email response saying they couldn't process my complaint by email as I am only on Talk Weekend for my phone (i'm on maxit for tv and 200mbps for broadband). They are offering  technical resolution via chat or phone and that's all they can do. 

It's long to type out in chat and explain on the phone, much easier to write it out with dates/times etc and not sure technical resolution is the right place.  So my questions are

• Is technical chat the best  place to deal with a complaint about being accidentally disconnected during planned maintenance you weren't informed about
• Can they refuse to process  a complaint because my phone package is a lower one
• What are my options to escalate

thanks for any advice

[goslow]

The type of phone package, of course, has no relationship to your ability to complain to VM. The nonsense given out sometimes by VM operatives on the phone lines is ridiculous.

Complaint options are here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

You can submit a complaint via My Virgin Media or by writing in (use a signed for service)

Don't expect too much out of the complaint though. Examples described on here regularly describe the complaint being closed within days/hours of it being submitted. Examples of 'resolutions' offered (also posted on here) are often nonsensical responses consisting of free text, written in broken English, combined with pick-list 'canned' replies. Frequently the 'resolution' has no relation to the basis of the complaint.

The main reason for submitting a VM complaint would be to allow you, later on, to escalate to arbitration (as a formal complaint to VM, to begin with, is a required first step)

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

If you had a 'total loss of service' of phone and/or broadband, did you qualify for compensation from VM?

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

Overall though, what is it you want out of the complaint or hope to achieve by submitting one?

[Beth_G]

Hi criso.

Thank you for your post. I'm so sorry to hear that your services were disconnected in error during maintenance, and for the overall experience you've had. 

To clarify, all agents are complaints trained and should raise a complaint when any dissatisfaction is expressed or upon request. Customers on any package or people who are not customers of ours are able to raise complaints, so I'm unsure why you were advised otherwise, again I do apologise. 

Any agents trained in fault handling would be able to take ownership of your complaint and work with you to provide a resolution.

I've popped you over a private message so I can take your account details and raise a complaint for you. We'd really like to turn this experience around for you.

Thanks!

[criso]

I did complain using their complaints service, the unable to process because of your phone package, was the response.

I did have complete loss of service for a week but don't think I qualify for automatic compensation as I was unable to log my issue as phone wasn't working and the online options took me through trouble shooting but no option to report a fault.

[criso]

Will answer but to clarify, complaint already raised but refusing to process via email.