Difficulty being understood.

[Canz911]

I have been on and off the phone all day. Being bounced from one offshore call centre to the next. I did eventually get to someone who could understand me perfectly but that was after arguing with someone who refused to accept my email address that I had given them. They bluntly said "You're not being completely honest with me" basically calling me a liar. I gave them the exact email that I use to log in to my account and the email address where my emails come in to let me know a bill is ready. 

Being accused of lying is downright insulting. I have been a customer for 6 years and this is absolutely disgusting behaviour. My main issue is my superhub 3.0, I am convinced I have an overheating issue because I have a solid red light at the bottom of my router. Which brings me to the next point. Upon telling the person I strongly believe it's an overheating issue they once again started to argue with me saying I was wrong. I have spent a good chunk of time on these forums today and almost every single post I have read even from staff have said it's an overheating issue. This person disagreed with me and staff members of this company. 

I hung up out of complete frustration and to be honest it was for the best before I really said something I shouldn't. 

After I calmed down I called back to try and get some solution on my issue. It was another offshore centre but this person understood me fine as I did him. I have been able to book a technician for the 25th of May. To replace the hub with a new one. They didn't argue with me. They did checks on their side everything seemed fine but they agreed to send someone out to replace the router. The one big sticking point is I have to pay for this. I have to pay out of my own pocket to get this hub replaced when I'm already paying £80 a month for my package.

Why? I have been with virgin media for 6 years and I've never felt more insulted as a customer in my life. I cannot fathom why it is this difficult to simply get a replacement hub.

My options are A: pay out my own pocket to get a replacement which I've done (it was the cheapest option)

B: pay out my own pocket to upgrade to a new package simply to get a replacement hub which means even more spending (especially after the 18 month contract is over)

It is a 6 year old router which needs replaced I've had it since I joined and took care of it as best I could and now it's finally dying. I am grateful I do finally have an engineer coming out on Thursday (if they even arrive) but the trouble I have went through to get this to happen makes me question why I'm still with this company. A "valued customer" being treated like dirt. 

[Canz911]

I can't seem to find a way to edit so I will leave this here. I've had some time to think about it and if this does not get fixed on Thursday when I get the replacement, I will be looking elsewhere. The way I've been treated today is unacceptable. I remember getting a letter saying my speeds would be increased due to me being with VM for so long and that I was considered a "Valued Customer" that is NOT the experience I got today. 

[newapollo]

Hi @Canz911 

The red light issue is generally with the hub 3 and normally due to it over hearing. It should be swapped out with a like for like replacment hub 3

As part of your agreement with VM they provide free servicing and repairs. If your equipment is faulty it will be replaced free of charge (although this excludes misuse/mistreatment and accidental damage)

It's possible the agent advised you that there would be a £35 fee, this would only apply if you weren#t there when the engineer caalled, or there was nobody aged over 18 at home for the tech visit

[asim18]

I highly doubt you will get a brand new hub. I believe all the Hub3's are all old customer returns. Some are over 10 years old. Chances are the one you assume is 6 years old is actually 10 years old. You will most likely receive a third, fourth or even tenth hand device.

They dont even check the old modems as I once paid £35 for a "new" modem which was actually a fire hazard. It was an old customer return with metal parts rattling around inside it.

[Canz911]

Heya, about to sleep and was checking this real quick. I was told I would be expected to pay £25 to have it replaced and then when looking through forums for more information I started getting mixed information. From what I am to understand now it is up to the engineer to decide if it's on me or VM. Quite frankly after today's phone call it's very difficult for me to care. I've been a customer for a good few years now as I stated in my original post and to be treated like I'm disposable garbage is uncalled for. To make things worse I am autistic. Events like this can be extremely unsettling. I have been looking at my options for BT and plan to call them in the morning to ask a few questions. G'night and thanks for the reply. 

[Canz911]

Heya, as I said to newapollo I'm about to sleep so just a quick response to say thanks for your honesty. I did see a few people saying they're all refurbished hubs I've personally owned this one since 2017 but I guess you're right it could be much older and simply dying. G'night 

[VMUser1812]

The £25 fee is the standard, ‘we’ll charge you this if a tech (please don’t call them engineers) turns up and there is nothing wrong, or if the issue is with your own equipment’. Which is fair enough really.

However your hub is showing the ‘red light’ issue, which means it is overheating (and hence faulty), or the LED is failing (and, again it is faulty). Therefore there is zero chance of them charging for a swop out of faulty equipment!

Well, there is a small chance that they might try it on, but this will be down to incompetence or/or a broken customer services model. It certainly won’t survive any sort of threat to escalate the issue or even to make a formal complaint.

[newapollo]

Hi again @Canz911 

Apologies, I made a typo when I said, "that there would be a £35 fee,"

That should have read £25.  It's something they are expected to inform customers off just in case there is a charge.

It's a long  piece of spiel if fully explained by the agent, see the example in the linked post  <<< here >>> 

[Canz911]

A message to any and all forum staff members who potentially have a look at this thread. I have made the decision to leave after my experience recently. There is no need to respond to this thread but I would like to keep it open to make sure people are aware the kind of experiences they can have with customer services. Transparency goes a long way. Thanks.

[robatwork]

I've also been frustrated in my dealings with the offshore centres. I feel like I'm dealing with a very polite and rather hard of hearing toddler, fixated on his prepared script. In fact only today on WhatsApp after I had complained about them missing an arranged appointment, I got: 

Stay safe and Take care!❤

Maybe I'm old fashioned but the heart was inappropriate in any circumstances, never mind a complaint. 

I've had very positive responses on this community forum, and I suspect they are just as frustrated with how some of their customers are dealt with by first line support. 

I shall almost certainly be following you out of the door, as I am getting too many outages to work from home reliably, and they seem unable or unwilling to fix it properly.