Loss of internet/very poor customer service

[Cfrancis]

Problems started in mid January when I was having intermittent Internet connection. 

Engineer came out on 26th January and tried to fix the cable and made it worse, causing complete loss of internet. I have been without the Internet since then.

Virgin arranged for technicians to come out on 10th February, which isn't great as I work from home, so I put in a complaint to resolution team and waited. 

On 8th February I got an email saying the resolution team tried to contact me, which is not true as I received no call text or email and neither did my wife, who they have contact details for. They then put a link in the email for me to claim compensation, even though a customer rep said it will be automatically applied, when I called them on the 26th. I clicked the link and it said that page can't be found. I replied to inform the resolution team of this and then got on the phone again to confirm with a rep that compensation will be applied automatically which they said yes it will. I have yet to hear back from the resolution team. 

Yesterday when the technicians were meant to come between 8am and 1pm, no one did and no one contacted me in any manner to update me. I phoned a rep again who cut me off. Phoned Again and a rep said someone will update me and they will be coming later that day as the previous job was taking longer.

I waited until 16:45 and phoned again as I needed to leave and pick up my child. The rep said I didn't need to be home when the work is being done, which is the 1st time I was told this! He also said they would be round before 6pm. I went out came back at 7pm and my Internet was still not working. I phoned another rep who couldn't tell me if engineers had actually been out to my address. She then gave a recall date of 23rd March, which is completely unacceptable. She also said the fix would take 2 people to complete, which virgin should know anyway and book accordingly. She then gave me a number of 02037065275 to call, which I called and is no longer in use and when I tried to phone back they office had closed. Showing she just wanted to get off the call and go home.

I phoned early this morning to get some answers and the rep said they would get a manager to call me back with some answers on why no one had updated me from virgin about anything and when the work is getting done. She said the manager would phone between 11 and 4.

15 mins later engineers turned up at my door to do the work. No one contacted me about them coming. Unfortunately because of the weather they couldn't do the work as the access they needed was frozen and they have to leave it to defrost and better weather then return but didn't give me a date when that would be as their contracted out be virgin. 

At 4:30 I. Rang back AGAIN and the rep saw my account was updated with a note saying a manager should ring me back. They tried to pass me to the field team to see what was happening and then cut me off AGAIN. I phoned back and the next rep passed me through to the construction team, who's office is closed at the moment so the automated service told me to ring back and hung up. 

So as I write this I'm on hold again trying to talk to someone who knows what's going on. I have spent hours on the phone waiting and explaining my situation multiple times. I trust no one to contact me from any team, especially the resolution team or a manager. 

For a communication company, no department actually seems to communicate with each other or their customers. I've never received a call text or email, it's always me contacting virgin. Virgin are happy to pass me links that don't work and numbers no longer in use. 

I've had enough of apologies, I want an actual person to update me who knows what's happening but I've given up on that happening as promises of contact never happen.

Even if I'm compensated the £8 a day for the loss of internet, it won't be enough to satisfy my displeasure at virgin

[Robert_P]

I'm going to send you a Private Message to get some details form you to allow us to discuss this in detail Cfrancis.

Looking forward to hearing back form you.

Rob

[Barzey]

What an unbelievable mess and way to carry on this has all been. If it wasn't written on here no one would believe such a story. But at last it looks like CFrancis is finally getting some proper, professional persons to help him at long last. I do hope so anyway.
Does 'VM Senior Management' not get to read some of the unbelievable stories contained in this their very own forum? Or are they, like most others, not interested or concerned as to the poor service that some of their employees are providing their customers?

[Cfrancis]

Robert P (Forum team) contacted me in private message and said he could cancel my account with no fees as previously agreed with other managers.

Wow, I thought, here's a staff member who is asking what I want and is competent.

Well after I agreed, I never heard back from him, which is just typical of virgins customer service. So hopefully he gets back to me today or I will have to wait again for someone to contact me.

I still haven't received a confirmation email to say my cancellation request has been authorised after being told by the rep on the phone I would get one.

So I still feel in limbo

[Paul_DN]

Hi Cfrancis,

Thank you for coming back to us i am sorry to hear that since being offered to be disconnected with no charge you haven't heard anything else, if this is still what you wish to do I8 will invite you into a private chat so Im can get this arranged for you, please click on the purple envelope to accept?

Regards

Paul.

[Barzey]

Its been a while since all this was running. But I must add an update that in my area the service has been excellent for the past 5-6 weeks after they completed a days upgrade work in our area. I even received a text in advance informing me that they would be doing it on a certain day which in itself is a miracle. I think the upgrade was to carry the 1 Gig service to the area as I have just been informed that it is now available if I wanted it. I contacted VM to find out more and even got to talk to a real person within 2 minutes of getting through the initial steps. This is SO refreshing and I hope that everyone else whom has had such troubles over the past year are also experiencing some improvement.

However after previously stating on here that I will not be renewing my contract in January 2022, I must say that I am really tempted to consider renewing after all as it has been really good since the improvement work. So I am wondering how have others on here got on with their problems recently and has it been holding up? Also is anyone on the 1 Gig service having problems with it? 

Any info will help me and possibly others as I am really not sure whether or not to trust VM again for another lengthy contract as their service and lack of care in the past year has been really abysmal until recently to say the least.

[risc19]

The problem when they add 1gig capacity to an area is that people are going to be snapping it up.

Virgins network is a type that is shared with everyone in your area.

Once people start signing up to gig1 in your area the free capacity will drop, thats ok in itself but unless carefully managed can easily lead to oversubscription.

If you look at almost every post on this site its either packet loss/noise or horrific latency/speeds.

I have some experience with oversubscription myself, it's not fun.

It's up to you of course, but if it goes wrong it's a hell of a fight to get it to go right.

What has your resent experience taught you?

[Barzey]

Yes, thanks for your words there. It was one hell of a year what with very poor Speeds, Outages, Phones not being answered, and if I was ever lucky enough to actually get to speak to someone on a rare occasion whom promised to call back they never did. My mind is buzzing with it all at the moment but I have a couple of months yet to make a final decision. Once again thanks for those words of thought.

[risc19]

You're very welcome.

All the best.