Simply the worst customer service

[leew1]

So frustrated right now.  My Broadband has been intermittent for the last 8-10 days.  Drops for a few seconds to a few minutes but very regularly.  Not the equipment, Virgin confirm it’s an issue but never getting resolved.

Just called customer service yet again.  Confirmed again that it’s an intermittent issue but will be resolved in 24 hours.  How many 24 hours do they need in the last 8-10 days to resolve it!

Was told by customer service they need to book a technician, she can’t as all supervisors are in a meeting.  Expects me to call back to arrange that.  So I am supposed to try and guess when the supervisors will not be in a meeting so I can get someone to book a technician to look at the issue despite them knowing for over a week of the issue and that they were already looking at it.

I have had this service 20 years now going back to NTL and there is just no company like it terms of customer service and managing faults.  I wait for things to hopefully resolve themselves as I just know the pain of dealing with them when I have to call.

Fortunately new cable has been laid in the street giving access to multiple providers so in a few weeks I won’t be limited to Virgin any more.  

20 years, not a missed payment, top package at around £100 per month and then treat you so badly when something goes wrong at their end.  

‘I wii call you back within 20 mins’ - 2 hours later it’s safe to assume I won’t be hearing from them again.

#fed-up

[goslow]

Sounds like you might not be a VM customer for too much longer but ...

Have you set up a BQM to track and monitor the disconnections 24/7?

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

This can help in building up your collection of evidence on the issue should you wish to take it further (complaint to VM, complaint to arbitration etc.)

The BQM graphs can also help sometimes with identifying the possible causes for the disconnections.

[leew1]

Thanks didn’t know you could do that, have created a monitor.

[leew1]

Got a text message apologising for the connection issues. They will monitor over the next 24 hours…

Useless!

[goslow]

Once your BQM has started to collect some useful evidence of the disconnections, you could post the link to the live graph on here.

Some of the regular forum users are able to decipher the graphs and extract some meaning from them as to what the issue might be!

If, however, VM has acknowledged the problem and has claimed they are monitoring your connection, then the purpose of the BQM will be for your own record of evidence to capture the frequency of the problems and see if it matches up with whatever VM tells you.

If you are posting up any info, make sure it anonymised though and does not contain any personally identifiable info such as IP address etc. otherwise it will be blocked by the moderation process.

[Daniel_Et]

Hi @leew1, thank you for your posts.

We're sorry to hear about the problems you've been having and that you feel this way 😔

I can see you've been in touch with the team since your last post. Did they manage to book an appointment for you?

Please pop back to us at your earliest convenience.

Regards,
Daniel

[leew1]

Yes, the engineer was out this morning. Martin(45792).  

Excellent service from him at least.

He gave me a new modem and replaced cables that had been there since NTL installed the original system in 2002.   Not had any issues with the connection since.  He did say the signal was negative something but after he was done it was +9, which I take to be good.

Martin waited until everything was fully working, tested, and fully explained everything he did. He is a credit to Virgin most certainly.

[Matthew_ML]

Thank you for reaching out and leaving this positive note.

Please do reach out anytime you may need some advice or help in the future. Cheers  

[JohnUK777]

Same here Lee,  20 + years,  going back to wen VM took over blueyonder. 

It seems prices just go up and up, and the service goes down and down. I dread having to ring up for anything, especially on the technical side, I just KNOW it`s going to be a complete nightmare before I even ring.

Trying to get any help from anyone who speaks and understands English , is near impossible. 

Always end up speaking to someone in Philippines, takes hours just confirm account details, let alone start to solve a problem.   I dread it.      Meanwhile...   Price increase, ......and another price increase.....  and......  so on.

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @JohnUK777 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us. Apologies for the delay in responding and with he prices rises.

Whilst we know that price changes are never welcome, against a backdrop of rising costs, increased usage and continued investment, we have openly set out to customers that we are introducing inflation-linked price changes from April 2024.

Our terms and conditions are very clear, transparent and fair, complying with all requirements from Ofcom and consumer law. These price rises are commonly used across the industry and in other sectors.

The 13.8% price rise that Which? are quoting from customers’ bills this year is an average price rise with many customers having smaller increases and some (for example vulnerable customers) being excluded completely. As is made clear in our terms and conditions, in April 2024 our customers’ monthly charge will be subject to an increase of RPI+3.9%.

There are no plans to further increase customers’ monthly charge and we have explained that Which? are misrepresenting a clause in our terms and conditions in their article.

We have, and will continue to do so in the months ahead, stepped up to help customers during the cost of living crisis – for example through our social tariffs, tackling data poverty, giving customers data-free access to debt & money advice, and remaining the only major mobile network to offer inclusive EU roaming.

Our contact team are on hand to assist with any queries that you have, or discussions regarding any issues including your package and to look into costs and saving money, we can bring you into a private message and look into this with you. 

Thanks

Sabrina