We have now been without broadband for four weeks. To say our experience has been appalling is an understatement, I cannot express in words how shocking our treatment has been. We have been constantly and blatantly lied to by Virgin Media over and over again, promising that our broadband would be fixed, that engineers would attend and that we are a priority.
It all started back on 15th May when we lost wifi. An engineer came out the day after but said he couldn’t fix it and arranged for a team to come out on Friday 17th May which did happen, after a couple of hours the engineer informed us that there was a blockage down the street and they couldn’t get the cable up to our property and that they would need council approval to dig to find the blockage so were told this would happen on the Monday 20th May or Tuesday 21st May. We received a text message from Virgin stating a team would be replacing our cable on Saturday 18th May, I confirmed this via phone call in which I was told they would arrive between 8am - 1pm. When they failed to come I called again and was told it could be up till 6pm. Again after waiting, no one turned up and after contacting the WhatsApp chat I was told I’d need to wait for a technician to call.
On Sunday 19th May I received a text message stating our appointment had now been moved to Monday 20th May. After confirming this in the WhatsApp chat, I was told a Field Audit team would be out to visit and ‘get it sorted’
a team did appear on Tuesday 21st. I was working (dog walker) and did drive past my street and saw a virgin van at our property as well as council digging up the pavement further down. When I returned home, expecting the wifi to be back on, everyone had gone and we still had no wifi or any explanation as to why our broadband hadn’t been fixed.
Again I contacted Virgin for an update and was told to wait for an update. I eventually received a text stating our appointment had been moved to Wednesday 22nd May, when no one appeared yet again on Wednesday I took to the chat service and was now told it would be the day after…
And again we kept receiving text messages with appointments and each day I called or chatted with agents who assured me the work would be completed and we kept getting let down each time, completely in the dark as to what was happening with fixing our broadband…
On Friday 24th a virgin van did come to our street and I finally thought we would have our broadband fixed, but the van parked down the end of our street and seemed to be working at another property. I took a walk down to speak with engineers who just so happened to be the same engineers that attended the previous Friday, they were surprised we hadn’t been connected and that they had no jobs for us in their diary.
So as you can imagine this was extremely infuriating and I took to calling Virgin once again only to be told we now have an appointment booked on 10th June!! Over TWO WEEKS away… the girl on the phone agreed with me that this was an unacceptable time to wait but then recommend that we switch to a business account as we would have our broadband fixed quicker… I was told there were no difference in prices or service, just a case of changing the name from residential to business. As we were so desperate to just have our broadband fixed we were put through to Callum Bunn ‘Buisness Sales Executive’ who informed me that we had been misled and that switching to a business account would be more expensive, I would also loose my o2 double data and would also take 10 days to install. So we would just need to now wait until 10th June for our appointment. I did take to the chat service again on Saturday 25th May and was given a slightly closer date, 8th June between 8am - 1pm
Yesterday we expected again, a team to attend to finally fix our broadband, I was again assured it would be fixed ‘at all costs’
I also called and was again reassured our broadband would be fixed and to expect the visit between 8am - 1pm.
After 1pm when no one had turned up yet again I called and was told it could be up until 7pm. Again I stated my concerns that no one would attend and was again reassured a team would defiantly be there. 7pm came and went and I was not surprised that no one had turned up. It is now Sunday 9th June and we have had no correspondence as to what is happening.
To be without broadband for this ridiculous amount of time has had a severe impact on my Wife and I. She is registered disabled and has severe mobility issues (which I have told Virgin about constantly) She has had to travel to her mothers to enable her to work, she is really struggling not only physically but also mentally. I was told that our situation would be escalated as high priority due to my Wife’s condition.
I also run a business and require broadband, it’s been extremely difficult over the last four weeks. We are also loosing out on our paid subscription services such as Netflix, Prime, Disney+. Due to my Wife’s condition she enjoys online gaming, as do I and we have had no access to our PlayStation or Steam online gaming. Our house had a Ring security system which is down due to having no wifi, leaving us vulnerable and without evidence if anything were to happen. Our reptile tanks also have smart plugs which turn on and off at certain times, we have had to do this manually.
We rely heavily on our broadband and feel deeply hurt and appalled at the way we have been treated since our broadband has been off. Being constantly lied too by agents, kept in the dark about what is going on, getting our hopes up when there is obviously no intention of fixing our issue.
I will be seeking substantial compensation not only for loss of service but for the major inconvenience and also for loss of other services which we cannot access thanks to Virgin's incompetence. I will also be taking my complaint to the regulator or ombudsman as I feel this is such a serious issue.
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