jmay: Don't hope for too much - a returns kit is essentially a garden rubbish sack and a post paid returns label for Collect+ (Yodel). My suggestion to improve this has been ignored.
Make sure you get a receipt when you hand it over to the Collect+ shop, as in the unlikely event that Yodel do lose the hub, your responsibility stopped when you handed it over. To be fair I've just got an email confirmation from VM that my hub's been received back, so the process generally works.
And that "generally works" point is perhaps the problem - I got returns bag without any difficulty at all, you are one of a number of people who report that they haven't got one, sometimes after multiple requests. The Yodel returns likewise, they work most of the time for most people, but for a few it goes wrong and VM expect customers to prove they've dispatched the hub. The same "generally works" seems to be a design principle for Virgin Media, as it applies to new installations, cable re-pulls, customer support, setting up contracts, house moves, billing, replacing hubs, email services, wifi etc. The one area where "generally works" doesn't apply is complaint handling - that seems universally and intentionally poor.
Maybe this offers a new tagline for VM?
Welcome to Virgin Media!
Where stuff generally works!
Except when it doesn't, and then you're ggubered
