Virgin Media Community

[Reluctantly]

Every time I get ready to call virgin media the muscles in my back get tight with stress and I feel a panic attack is not far away. This seems like a system designed only to torment you. 

I am leaving the country in one month and I simply want to register my leaving date with virgin and cancel my broadband. This should be a simple enough process, 5 minutes? Ten minutes at most?

I called virgin customer services at 6pm this evening and got into a queue with music playing, after 20 minutes the line went dead. I repeated this three times, so that's an hour of waiting listening to music plus the time it takes to go through the menu/enter your details. The fourth time I tried a different route through the process (I selected the option of wanting to "discuss leaving" instead of "wanting to leave") - this time after 20 minutes I got through to someone who told me that they could not do it for me but that they would transfer me to their disconnection department that could help me. After another 20 minute wait listening to music another person answered, she said she would have to get someone to do it and that it wouldn't be long - I was put on hold for another ten minutes then she came back to tell me she was still there and that it wouldn't be long - after another ten minutes the music stopped and the line went completely quiet although I was still connected - I stayed on the line hoping that someone would eventually take my call, after five minutes or so of silence I heard some keyboard typing on the other end of the line just before the line went completely dead. I tried to call again but was met with an automated response saying that the lines were now closed for the evening. 

My first call was made at 6pm and it's now 9:18 pm and I am no better than I was when I started more than three hours ago. 

Can anyone tell me where to direct a formal complaint?

I also wondered if anyone knew what the implications would be of just cancelling my direct debit immediately? I have after all committed over three hours this evening trying to inform virgin of my leaving date. Am I to assume from their response to my calls this evening that they do not need to know????

[Katie_WT]

Hello Reluctantly, 

Welcome to the forums and for your first post - I am very sorry that this has come about due to your poor experience you have had whilst trying to contact us to advise you are moving abroad. 

We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes this evening so I am sorry that you have been trying to get through to us with no success. I assure you that this is not the norm, however our Customer Relations team do close at 8pm. 

I would be more than happy to assist you with your 30 days disconnection notice and I have popped you a Private Message so we can take some information from you and assist you further.  Once we have passed security I will also be happy to log and deal with a complaint with you as per our Complaints Code of Practice. 

We would not advise that you cancel your Direct Debit as this will not cancel your account and may cause a missed or late payment. 

Please look out for the purple envelope and pop me a reply when you can where I will be happy to assist you further. 

Thanks

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@Reluctantly wrote:

Every time I get ready to call virgin media the muscles in my back get tight with stress and I feel a panic attack is not far away. This seems like a system designed only to torment you. 

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Yes. That's exactly how I feel too. 

The VM phone support system seems to have been intentionally designed as a not very subtle form of torture.

[Reluctantly]

For closure I thought I would post an update. 

I called again this morning before 9am. After 15 minutes I got through to someone at a foreign call centre (I was speaking to Glaswegians last night) and they were arduously able, after passing me around three different agents and taking payment details for a chunk of money, to register my intention to close my accounts. After more than 4 hours of effort I may have finally succeeded in severing all ties with Virgin forever!

The awful thing about trying to deal with virgin over the phone is that you are completely at their mercy. The system drives you insane but you have to stay completely calm and collected because any sign that you are losing your temper could result in the call handler taking you the "scenic" route to the solution just to **bleep** you off even more. You feel utterly helpless. I got the sense last night that the Glaswegian woman I was speaking to was a particularly spiteful and sadistic piece of work (I'm also from Glasgow, by the way, so I have nothing in particular against Glaswegians). By the time I was connected to her the call was already hitting the one and half hour mark and she must have known how long I'd been waiting - I'm sure she has that information up on her screen. She kept me on the line for another 20 minutes waiting before the line went silent. The call was still connected however so I just hung on hoping she would come back and help me. I am almost certain it was her that cut me off (I think she was just waiting until 9 o'clock to do it). The call was over 1 hr 45 min by the time I was cut off.

What kind of company does that? Is there no management monitoring her calls? How does Virgin still have customers? The Forum Leader Katie who responded to this post is nice and she seemed genuinely eager to help me solve the issue, but people like her are completely let down by the wider organisation. 

[Reluctantly]

I think I'm finally free! You should do the same, the relief and joy is immense! 

[Reluctantly]

Just seen news of the new Ofcom report, not surprised that Virgin and Tesco are rated worst for mobile services (Virgin around the middle of the pack for broadband - I shudder to think what kind of service is being provided by those rated lower than Virgin).

[agi]

I will be in this situation soon. Is it not possible to cancel by recorded delivery to bypass all this phone hassle. I am not sure I can be very polite after hours on phone

[HuntsVM]

Have to say I have been absolutely shocked at the customer service available.

Fist time I have had to deal with a broadband problem for a few years and ended up spending 50 mins talking to an overseas call center going through checks that were always destined to make not a bit of difference to the problem and then wanted to pass me on to a chargeable service support team,

he also refused or didn't  have the facility to arrange a technician visit.

So then I thought I'd phone up to cancel in order to try and move the resolution forward but cannot speak to a human being and just left on hold endlessly.

Have now cancelled my direct debit as is due to be collected in a few days as I simply do not know what else to do.

VIRGIN MEDIA - How has it come to this ? (customer of nearly 12 years)

customer service was never your strong point but this is unacceptable.

[jbrennand]

Cancelling a direct debit is a "dangerous" option. You will drop straight into default payment territory. That can escalate to VM instructing debt collectors to recover the money you owe them and possible black marking your credit rating. Which wont be good should you wish to join another provider, get a credit card, mortgage etc.
Try this. Call “Retentions” on 150 or 0345 454 1111 - options 1-1-4-5 "Thinking of leaving" - they are open Monday to Friday, 8am until 9pm. Saturday, 8am until 8pm and Sunday 8am until 6pm – [calling early is best!]) you will "usually" get a UK call centre who are more helpful and understanding and should just process your request.
If that fails, just take all of your paperwork/ID  into your nearest VM high street store and sit down with the manager in there and go through the cancellation there. Even if s/he cant do it - at least get them to make the call !

[Paul_DN]

Hi.

Thank you for reaching out to us In our community.

Sorry to hear that you have been unable to resolve your issue.

I would like to invite you to a private chat so I can look into this for you.

I will send you a chat invite shortly, please click on the purple envelope to accept the chat.

Many thanks 

Paul.