Price rises, broadband issues, charged for mobile,

[slimcraigy]

Hello. I've been trying to beat the price rise and get a few things sorted. 

I've had intermittent broadband issues since the beginning of February and phoned twice, logged a complaint and was told I should have automatic bill credit. It wasn't applied and I don't even know if the area fault was fixed. Tried again today on phone and still can't apply bill credit from WiFi guarantee so no point in having that at all.

Charged for virgin mobile for reinstating a phone number on a SIM £5.07 for no reason.

Phoned today and offered £10.75 off for six months automatically then £20ish one off discount, then same as I'm paying now which isn't thst much better. I'm on Volt ultimate so need to ring 02 as well to beat the price rise. Told them to note it down as I wanted to sort the bill credit issue and mobile charge first. 

I'm appalled with virgin services tbh, and completely gave up using broadband and used data it was so poor. I haven't even been watching any telly with virgin as I need it putting upstairs if I do continue at all and seriously considering cancelling due to poor service. 2 hours on phone. 

Still no hub 5 that they are supposed to offer with this bundle. Originally accepted offer and told I would be phoned back by the same lady.

There is basically no point offering the WiFi guarantee if they don't apply bill credit they said they would. They don't phone back when they say they will, they don't care about customers and just fob people off.

There is a language barrier problem as well where they don't seem to understand the issues I'm talking about. I mention one thing and they reference another. 

I'm really at my wits end with virgin and very annoyed. 2 hours on the phone now! 

[slimcraigy]

Really annoyed with virgin. I've been on the phone for over 3 hours., spoken to about 10 people, disconnected twice.

All I wanted was to offset the price rise which I eventually did. 

I wanted a box moving upstairs and they are insisting there is nothing wrong with the broadband when it is intermittent cutting out all the time. They won't send an engineer either and fob me off when I ask for a hub 5 which is (falsely) advertised with it and said if they replaced it, it would be the same one (hub 4). 

I'm livid with the poor service, how long it takes to get anything done, language issues, not being valued as a customer, argumentative representatives, misleading tactics. 

Who can I report then to for false advertising? Ive had enough of them and may just cancel tbh. I don't care any more as I don't watch thst much anyway. 

I spoke to an OK person at retentions who said my compensation for two months of intermittent broadband was £18 something, then insisted on me speaking to the technical department, and then got cut off. I've had to stop for now as I'm so wound up.

Is it ofcom or trading standards to report them to? I'm not joking either. 

[Vikki_M]

Hi slimcraigy 

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community.

I am sorry to hear about the issues you are having with the service.

Regarding the bill credit, if you are referring to the £100 WiFi max credit, could you please confirm if you have installed all 3 WiFi mesh Pods?

If so, and you are still receiving less than 20Mbps in every room, please sign in to My Virgin Media, click on Your Package and follow the steps in the WiFi Max tab to claim the £100 bill credit. 

If you are referring to the automated compensation scheme for loss of service, this is applied automatically. You must have a total loss of service to qualify for that. The details are here for you. 

Could you please expand on whats happened with the mobile?

Did you have an account previously that you cancelled? Has a new contract been started without your knowledge?

Please pop back to us when you can. 

[slimcraigy]

Helo thanks for your reply. 

Regarding the pods I have all three placed evenly around the place. I don't think it's a connection issue between them, as I have a third party router, and connection was dropping on that as well. I eliminated that from the setup and it still the same.

It makes me think router hardware problem or line fault with intermittent service. Yesterday was very bad like 2G speeds intermittently, although someyimes it's like 3G and just intermittent too.

I can't see anywhere to claim that wifi max guarantee. I looked on the app and in my virgin media page and I can't log back in as it just has the virgin media logo (infinite symbol or figure of 8 elongated on its side) but it keeps "buffering" just going round the logo.

On the phone they said I should be automatically compensated and it was worked out for each day. I don't know if they fixed the fault but doubt it. I asked about it when I rang back the third time and they didn't know I'd called despite me asking them to note our conversation down as always. There is a lack of communication between people there so every time I phone its frustrating and they wind me up no end.

 I dread phoning them due to the above and so many times I've almost cancelled altogether due to frustration, feeling undervalued, dismayed, gobsmacked at what they say, messed about between departments, its awful frankly.

Regarding the mobile charge/ SIM. I transferred from OOMPH to VOLT, so virgin mobile to 02 and didn't transfer my number within 30 days so it was deactivated. To reactivate my number I wanted to keep from virgin they said they'd need to activate and send a new SIM card, then I could port over to 02 from virgin for good. It may have been a separate account or number. I hope this can be understood. It was not meant to be a charge AFAIK and was for £5.04 so a weird non- round number.

It is very strange the WiFi guarantee would have to be claimed via the Internet (my virgin media) when they know your Internet isn't working properly, or when it does work intermittently it may show different speeds. I can't get it to load again anyway but will try again, its likely deliberate so it's hard to claim, but they did say they should credit me over the phone so either they lied or it hasn't gone on yet.

I was going to se what trading standards said about things, especially regarding the hub 5 being advertised and not given to customers on volt. That's out of order in my book and plain dishonest, and even speeds with a hub 4 won't outpit more than 1GB not 1152mbps as advertised due to the port being capped at 1GB vs 2.5GB on a hub 5.

I'll have to see what is said but 3 hours on a phone, umpteen department's, 3 phone calls over a month or so (as I couldn't face the frustration of ringing up in between more) for simple issues is why I feel so let down to put it mildly, undervalued etc.

Thanks for your reply. 

[slimcraigy]

Sorry I forgot, the connect app says poor speed - hub isn't as fast as it should be. I will try running again but I've rebooted and reset it many times before so I don't know.

[Kath_F]

Hi slimcraigy, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one and for expanding on things. 

If you're using a third party router with the hub in modem mode then our pods wouldn't work as they have certain requirements. I've listed these below. The WiFi Guarantee also wouldn't come in to play when using a third party router. 

• The Hub must be in 'Router Mode' and not have been changed to 'Modem Mode' 
• Channel Optimisation must be left on 
• The SSIDs must be the same and broadcast enabled 
• The SSID must be password protected 
• The Passphrases of the SSIDs must match

As long as all of the above points are all met then the Pods will automatically connect to your Hub's WiFi and begin broadcasting. The wireless details from the Pods will be the same as the Hub's details, so no additional steps are required to connect up the devices in the home.

If you have the hub in router mode and the third party router connected to, this would cause interference. 

In terms of the hub 5, this is available on certain packages now but if you joined when a Hub 4 was the offering, any replacement would be like for like. You can opt to upgrade but there would be cost involved for upgrading. The same goes for moving your hub - there is a £35 charge for doing this. If you would still like it moved, let me know and I can arrange this for you. 

The hub itself is showing as online, both the upstream and downstream power levels are at optimal ranges as are the signal levels. There is no fault in the area either so the teams are right when saying there is nothing to suggest you're having issues. That's not to say something isn't wrong though although from a network perspective - everything is as it should be.

We need to take a closer look at your set up. Make sure you're connecting as I've mentioned above and ensure all the lights on the pods are off. If you're certain everything is set up correctly then let us know and we'll book an engineer to come and check things for you. 

Many thanks,

[slimcraigy]

Hello. Thank you for looking into things for me. The third party router is a back up and I use the hub with pods not in modem mode. 

As I said the issue is intermittent so I'm not surprised you couldn't see anything. It's been a bit better recently though, but it's done this before better then worse again. It's kind of strange when there was a national outage mine was affected and unusable, but *may* be a bit better now. I wonder if they found a fault in my area and fixed it then... 

Where does it say in the t and c's that if you have a hub 4.it has to be like for like. It was advertised as hub 5 and therefore I feel that is false representation of the product. I was offered a hub 5, but never got phoned back. I have a recording of that phone call as well so they know full well what should have been offered and actually was offered. 

As feedback I feel this business model of not appreciating customers on the largest package will be a large detriment to your service, especially the false advertising. I should have a screenshot of the deal anyway but can't see it atm as the page won't load (advertising link from search engine). 

The compensation claiming is difficult to do as well, it's either auto or you're on the app with no Internet access to claim it in the first place, or it works intermittently and speeds may be fine temporarily. Clever stuff really. I did feel I should be compensated, but also made me feel like I was telling untruths when it's difficult to prove an intermittent issue in the first place. 

I appreciate you looking into things and I need to keep an eye on things really. I am certain it is all set up correctly (and by process of elimination felt it was line fault due to acting on the hub and the third party backup) and feel I will likely need an engineer to come out eventually. I will have to see what's it's like a bit longer, and decide then. I also want a box moving upstairs so can the same engineer that does that be arranged to check the lines and things then? 

Regarding the boxes I ideally wanted 3, but may have to make do with 2 as I have the v6 boxes atm and feedback has been poor for 360 so want to keep the V6 as long as possible. That is another issue IMO if you pay for service should you not be able to choose an extra V6 (3 total) ? Is there any other way to have 3 boxes and keep the V6's? Unsure about two v6s plus streamer. 

The no hub 5 or paying extra is a huge disappointment tbh, seeing as they proudly advertise it. I'm really offended by it tbh. Is the £35 charge for the hub included with moving the box/ hub?

Thank you for your time. I realise I've used emotive language and my dismay is not personal by any means, it is the practices as a company I am frustrated with as it borders on dishonesty IMO. I have to think about reporting it the regulator seriously as no one else seems to be doing but I've read similar frustrations. Thank you. 

[Kath_F]

Hi slimcraigy, 

Thanks again for coming back to us on this one and confirming your set up. You have mentioned the third party router being used as a back up - does this mean it's turned on and broadcasting at the same time as your hub? If so this would cause interference and could be the reason you're seeing these issues. 

With the pods, are there any lights on them? If so, what colour and what sequence do they have? These are still not showing as connected to the hub so won't be helping at the moment. 

In terms of the Hub 5, looking at previous contracts, I can only see a Hub 4 was offered. We do sometimes run promotions and send offers via email. If you received one of these emails then you would need to follow the instructions in there which will then allow you to get one. If you've not received an offer and are relying on new deals that are now being offered, then these wouldn't apply to you I'm afraid. Any equipment is replaced on a like for like basis unless we no longer offer that in which case we would provide an upgrade. 

In terms of moving the hub, the charge for this is £25. The charge for activating a new hub is £35. There may be other charges involved depending on your package though so it's worth speaking to the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111 so they can advise on that side of things for you. 

We understand it can be frustrating and we don't take anything personally here in the Community. We're here to help where we can. 

Let us know if there is anything else we can help with. 

Thanks,