VM - A series of unfortunate events

[SouthernGeordie]

Hi All,

So we moved in to our property about 16 months ago and took out VM when we moved.

Although we only wanted Broadband, we picked a bundle as at the time it worked out more cost effective.

We've had outages on average monthly to our service, most of the time only a few hours, but as we both work from home, it's not really helpful. Most of the time it's "Engineering work" in the area and other times, it's an outage in the area. Never an explanation.

We're coming to the end of our "deal" (April 1st) and got notification of the price rise. As we are able to cancel free of charge, I decided to take the time to see what else was about and what Virgin could offer for a comparable price. Cost of living crisis has hit everyone, us included so we need to reconsider our bill.

Rung them after deciding on a maximum price we can pay for Broadband and spent almost half an hour on the phone, going round in circles. Despite explaining multiple times the money we could afford (and knowing what deals are available from other providers and VM themselves). In the end she managed to fob Me off by saying I needed to call back next month due to contract length etc...

I'm now going to have to go through the same process again. I'm hesitant to stay with VM as although the speed is good, the poor customer service and frequent drops in service are atrocious. I'm not sure how VM can get away with it!?

All I wanted was for them to tell Me the best package I could get for my budget and either decide to stay on the new deal, or leave for another provider. Instead I've wasted half an hour and got to go through it all again!

[SouthernGeordie]

Thanks for the insight Andrew-G.

I've now had my cancellation request completed.

If they're willing to offer Me something comparable to the New customer deals I'd potentially re-consider, but it seems they aren't.

Openreach can't offer an equivalent speed, but as much as I don't want slower internet, it's money that is the deciding factor, which they don't seem to understand.

Your other post is worth considering as well, thank you! Especially interesting as contracts are 18 months, so potentially get locked in for the last 6 months next year.

My previous ISP (who used the Openreach network), I was with them for 15+ years across 3 different properties. During that time I had only 1 or 2 price rises of a couple of pounds. They also only had 2 outages in the entire 15 years. Virgin hit 2 outages in 2 months.

[Akua_A]

Thank you for the update @SouthernGeordie 

We are glad you have been able to reach our team to discuss this. We are however sad to see you go. We will take your feedback onboard and pass it on to the relevant team for quality training and improvement.

Thanks,