cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Who do I speak to about continuous poor customer service?

mikeh99
On our wavelength

It is quite simple over the past 2 months I have had to make numerous calls due to issues with my broadband predominately to do with 

1) Upgrading of cabling, (5 to 11) very shoddy installation, after calls promised repull promised 4/5/22 did not turned up at all - chased in afternoon was advised still pending and been done by 7pm NOTHING and no contact, message or email to explain (a) why didnt turn up and (b) had been rescheduled to 19/5/22.  I have four inches of unburied fibre cabling at the border of my property currently cover over by a brick so no passer-by sees it and could pull it out / up.  I was not present at property when cable upgrade complete as I was not advised of date or work they just turned up and if it wasn't for checking my ring front door device on returning home I wouldn't even of know they had been.  No note through letter box - text message or email. 

2) Account deal promises not being kept or put through until chased and checked three times

3) Promised engineer to look at Post RS Errors - still don't know if or when this will happen

4) Numerous occasions on calls to VM just summarily CUT OFF - believe due to phone system capacity issues

5) Even after upgrading to 1GB still on average getting only 60% of promised download speed.

6) Promised three free wifi extenders now on 1gb contract - promised would be ordered and one arrive today 6/5/22 - NOPE!  Also told each one had to be ordered separately due to the ordering system and each one in turn could not be ordered until previous one received - REALLY???

To name but SIX

Asked to speak now on at least 4 separate occasions  to a manager to review my account and associated calls only to be told unavailable / busy would call later, NEVER DO!

Latest raised a complaint about no call back and above issues which has been summarily closed by email without any call or contact to discuss and closing email does not refer to what I actually asked to raise as complaint as about call back.

SO WHEN IS SOMEONE AT VIRGIN MEDIA ACTUALLY GOING TO LISTEN AND MORE IMPORTANTLY RESOLVE THESE ISSUES WHICH HAVE BEEN FESTERING ON FOR WEEKS IF NOT MONTHS.

HELP PLEASE

47 REPLIES 47

mikeh99
On our wavelength

Despite the initial encouraging contact from Jodi_S, Andrew-G and Molly have heard nothing further from them.

I realise this is not an instant reply but would have thought for instance since Saturday Jodi_S would have been in touch via at least private message.
And Andrew-G and Molly not heard from in about 24 to 48 hours.

Looking increasingly like I will have little choice but to go to OfCom / CISAS

I have tested my broadband this morning again and out of 1gb getting 582.03 mg download and my Post RS Errors across all 31 channels increased yet again.

No news on cable repull apart from having to wait until 19th May!

First of promised wifi extenders STILL NOT ARRIVED which was supposed to be here last Friday.

Are well will yet again call VM Customer care and see if 
1) I can get through without waiting too long
2) Not get cut-off in first two minutes
3) Then try to speak to a manager - no doubt they will be unavailable
4) Raise yet another complaint which will most probably be closed without any contact within less than 24hrs
5) Ask to get my cable repull done before 19th May - more chance of winning £10 on the lottery.
6) Ask about promised WIFI extenders

Thanks VM 

mikeh99
On our wavelength

Further update

I got lucky this morning and have the very good fortunate to talk to Lavinia who was I must say excellent.  Listened patiently, tried her very best to help me and was willing to hear my thoughts and theories.

Key things from our conversation
1) if a customer is put through from someone like Lavinia to Field and when prompted as a customer you press option you then get told to phone 150 AGAIN!  Thanks VM another cul-de-sac and waste of time.
2) It appears despite promises by previous person Michael you cannot order an appropriate Wifi extender for a HUB 5.  Thanks VM for another problem caused by your lack of testing / thought.
3) As explained to Lavinia to add to her knowledge if you have a Hub 3 and I think Hub 4 if you do a backup of configuration you create a xxxx.cfg file.  If you create a backup config file for a Hub 5 it creates a config.bin file.  Guess what VM THIS MEANS YOU CANNOT TRANSFER YOUR CONFIG SETTINGS LIKE RENAMING YOUR DEVICES FROM A HUB 3 TO A HUB 5.  Great for a VM customer who has say 10 or more devices to rename and try and remember which is which!
4) Despite asking still looks repull will be 19th May - doesn't actually need a total repull but a re burying under tarmac which I estimate is less than 20 mins work.
5) no engineer still arranged to sort out Post RS Errors
6) at least didnt get cut off this time
7) Most importantly during our conversation I offered my thoughts that say about 10 weeks ago VM might have potentially made a background configuration change as part of their annual ungraded which negatively impacted download speeds in relation to customer who have VPN connections.  Could this be why VM is currently receiving a far higher number of customer calls complaining about slow download speeds???   Think this needs to be urgently looked into please.  And yes after removing a VPN connection I set up last year whilst testing something and no longer needed it I removed it a few weeks back my download speed did significantly improve.

So I ask again is anyone in the VM Community available to listen, discuss and resolve the above issues / thoughts?

mikeh99
On our wavelength

Further UPDATE
I have spent on two separate calls over 2hrs and 15mins speak to VM today.

Finally thanks to the persistence of Lavinia have got through to faults first Brian and then passed on to Sharvesh and now had to forms raised
1) reference of 116912_11602 for the cable
2) Network Asset to get my download speed checked as averaging less than 70% and Post RS Errors in hundreds slowly increasing everyday. Form number 107332_16061

Fingers crossed these may even be dealt with tomorrow.
Lavinia also informed me that my three free wifi extenders
1) cannot be ordered whilst there is an SRO open - great process / procedure NOT!
2) As before only one at a time can be ordered and then delivered before the next one can be ordered and so on. Again great process / procedure NOT!

So I do hope after at least 135mins of my time today counts for something and might actually start to get things fixed.

All of this would have been totally avoidable if jobs had been done right first time!  Had been communicated and updated properly! And someone had taken ownership and seen through to the end.

VM - it seems from the outside looking in you have a lot of broken / dysfunctional process and procedures which are dealt with by separate and isolated units / areas which all in all simply means the customers which pay you are not getting the service or value for what they pay for.

Please listen. 

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

In terms of the various technical aspects of the fault, VM seem to be looking at these, and there's no means of getting those owned or accelerated beyond the level they're already proceeding at.  Often these speeds of fix seem glacial, but the ability of staff to bypass VM's idea of due process is quite uniquely  limited.   Put simply, customers should join VM knowing its reputation, and accept that they're taking a gamble - if everything works fine, then all is good.  If you need to speak to somebody, for any reason, then sometimes all works well, sometimes the very gates of Kafka's hell creak open.  It is widely believed that Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was painted after trying to get a simple problem resolved by Virgin Media.

In terms of letting management know....well, they can read sources like Trustpilot, or the Ofcom complaint data, or see the number of complaints to CISAS that they lose (expensively), and they'll have much, much more date from the company's conversations with customers, particularly those leaving.  So the key point from all that is that they know full well what their customer service is like when things go wrong.  They know the telephony support is poor, inconsistent, unpopular with customers, often unbelievably time consuming, creates multiple repeat calls on the same issues, as well as difficult and time consuming to access.  And this, as you rightly point out is due to very poor internal communication, broken or dysfunctional processes, poor staff without the remit or desire to help, faulty data flows, poor record keeping, insufficient training and skill, etc etc.  But they've built this system.  It's how they want things to be.  You, I, and a good number of other forum members could have VM's customer service sorted in a matter of months, but that's not the outcome VM's over-paid and under-talented "leaders" want.  Customer service is not a priority, these people are all sales and marketing muppets obsessed by "campaigns", new product sales, new customer sign ups, and buzzwords.

So at this juncture what do you want to do?  You can easily complain to the regulator, but this is as effectual as prayer.  Ofcom do little or nothing useful for customers, and attempts to create a consumer services advocacy body for telecoms have been delayed and stalled by government for years for reasons you may speculate upon.  I'd still complain to Rip van Ofcom if in your shoes, I just wouldn't expect much to come of that.

This leaves two main options - taking your business to a company that isn't as shambolic, and/or formal complaint to VM seeking compensation.  From observation here and my own experience, formal complaints do not lead to any action to either improve broken processes or systems, nor in any action by fault finding and resolution teams.   Complaints are handled to VM's customary standards of excellence, so you'll almost certainly need to escalate the matter to CISAS - either after waiting 8 weeks from the date of a first complaint, or before that if you are offered a "resolution", and reject this and request and receive a deadlock letter.  If it's relevant, you can ask CISAS to require VM to release you from a fixed term contract without penalty.

So, a few questions for you, @mikeh99 :  Given what I've outlined above, within the very limited things that might be changed, what outcomes do you now want?  Do you have the time and the emotional resilience to keep banging your head against the brick wall here?  Do VM deserve your custom?  Do you deserve Virgin Media?

And one question for VM's senior management: Why not adopt my proposed marketing strapline for Virgin Media "Where customer service comes to die"? I'll put aside my creative rights, you can have that for free, you've earned it.  Put that on the bottom of all your printed, online and TV adverts and it would certainly satisfy the ASA guide of legal, decent, honest and truthful rather more than the various straplines you've used for years.

mikeh99
On our wavelength

UPDATE
On Friday last week had a call from Carol from Construction - very supportive understand and discussed at "length" (no pun intended) my cable issue.
Promised it would be rearranged from 19th May to 17th / 18th or 20th and to leave it with her.  May even get a construction field manger to come out to oversee this being done due to the issues I have already mentioned.

Left the above in Carol's capable hands.

Guess what - this morning at 8.38 from Virgin Media I get a text message advising me the "external works" are scheduled for 19th May.

Is anyone capable of getting this sorted????????????????????????????

Phoned Carol back on the number she called me on and then was diverted to an answer system.  Explained the above now 12:02pm and still heard nothing.

Thanks for coming back to us with your update @mikeh99, I have looked into this and can see that Carol is looking into this today and has added a note that she is going to give you a call back at some point today with an update on the latest of your construction work. Has she been in touch with you yet?

Regards,

Steven_L

mikeh99
On our wavelength

Steve_L
Yes Carol has now call me and promised to give me an update as soon as she knows date and time.  Mentioned I had text message - said to ignore as this will be changing.
Thank you for checking.

As previously stated if the job had been done right and as was as before all of this would be totally unnecessary

Thanks for coming back to us @mikeh99 and I'm glad that Carol has come back to you with an update, also I totally agree that this would have been resolved, if the job was done correctly at the first time of asking. I hope that you can get this sorted very quickly going forward. 

Regards,

Steven_L

mikeh99
On our wavelength

Steve_L
Hopefully will hear today when the cable will be sorted and then once this is completed Lavinia can then order singularly my promised to me first of three free wifi extenders for my HUB 5 which I was told I can have as now on 1GB.

The next is then to get an engineer out to resolve my growing Post RS Error issues.

And then an Engineer to sort out why on average I only get around 60% download speed.  With this final point literally just tested on OOKLA and got PING 17ms DOW|NLOAD 498.04 UPLOAD 50.88 as at 8:23am. and capture the following

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1Locked400289
2Locked400289
3Locked400286
4Locked400295
5Locked400320
6Locked400301
7Locked400322
8Locked400302
9Locked400274
10Locked400301
11Locked400309
12Locked400311
13Locked400303
14Locked401337
15Locked400352
16Locked400326
17Locked400371
18Locked400390
19Locked400415
20Locked400353
21Locked400340
22Locked408322
23Locked400372
24Locked400436
25Locked402462
26Locked400461
27Locked390372
28Locked390362
29Locked395365
30Locked390301
31Locked400280

 

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

12270000003.340QAM 25612
22110000003.640QAM 25610
32190000003.540QAM 25611
42350000003.140QAM 25613
52430000002.940QAM 25614
62510000002.840QAM 25615
72590000002.640QAM 25616
82670000002.140QAM 25617
92750000002.240QAM 25618
102830000002.540QAM 25619
112910000002.940QAM 25620
12299000000340QAM 25621
13307000000340QAM 25622
143150000002.940QAM 25623
153230000002.840QAM 25624
163310000002.640QAM 25625
173390000002.840QAM 25626
183470000002.840QAM 25627
193550000002.640QAM 25628
203630000002.340QAM 25629
21371000000240QAM 25630
223790000001.940QAM 25631
23387000000240QAM 25632
24395000000240QAM 25633
254030000002.140QAM 25634
264110000001.940QAM 25635
274190000001.439QAM 25636
284270000001.139QAM 25637
294350000000.839QAM 25638
304430000000.639QAM 25639
31451000000140QAM 25640

 

Network Log

Time Priority Description

16-05-2022 18:50:21noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 18:50:08noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 18:48:24noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 17:26:21noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 17:22:56noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:45:45noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:43:10noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:40:57noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:37:19noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:30:39noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 16:28:26noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 15:38:36noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 15:33:15noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 14:57:32noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 14:48:38noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:42:50noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:41:43noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:39:56noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:30:12noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:29:37noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:27:35noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:27:14noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 13:25:07noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 12:53:12noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 12:51:26noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 12:13:35noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
16-05-2022 12:11:19noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
15-05-2022 13:47:06noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
15-05-2022 13:44:50noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
15-05-2022 13:26:50noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
15-05-2022 13:23:30noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
15-05-2022 13:20:10noticeCM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 24; Chan ID: 41; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1 2 3.;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;

 

Hi there @mikeh99

 

Thank you for your updates and I am so sorry to hear that this has been a difficult and ongoing issue for you. 

 

Please do let us know how things are looking and what is arranged on your call today? 

 

Thanks again.