Virgin Media Community

[matt1987ponting]

I'm only 1 month into my Virgin Media broadband contract, and I'm seriously seriously disappointed. 

I actually ordered my internet package at the beginning of June, but due to incredibly incompetent internal management and absolutely no communication within the team, my install was only completed mid August. 

So 2 months of tethering to my iphone for everything, work, streaming, gaming etc. The day i had my internet finally installed (I chose 300+ mbps package for gaming and streaming etc) I actually couldn't get online with the PS4 and had to revert to tethering through the iPhone. Then the internet worked OK for about 2 weeks. Now I can't even have a FaceTime call on the wifi, i have to just use my iPhone's package , and once again, I'm tethering my PS4 and laptop through my phone to get online. 

I called yesterday, they said there is a fault on your line, an engineer will call you back within 4 hours. I asked her to repeat and guarantee that would happen within 4 hours, she said yes and guess what. No one called. When I phoned this morning there were no notes on the system to say an engineer was supposed to call. Literally everytime i call Virgin this happens. It has been, hands down, the worst customer service experience i've had since i was at uni (and vowed never to use Virgin again!) 

Now I'm being told there is an area fault. I am area 21. I can see on this forum that this exact same issue has been reported in area 21 since May 2020. Please, Virgin, pull your finger out and fix this mess. 

[jbrennand]

What does it report on the “free & automated” Service Status number - 0800 561 0061 ?

Is there a fault reference number and estimated fix time?

Worth starting a BQM now so you can monitor the connection quality for future reference/discussion
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If you haven’t already, set up a free, secure and “offlsite” - “Broadband Quality Monitor” to continually monitor the state of your connection and record any true network dropouts , latency issues, packet drops, etc - it will thus allow you to differentiate between those and simple wifi dropouts. It does it 24/7/365 and it keeps a visual record of any/all of your network disconnections, useful data to have to match to the Network logs (in your Hub settings) and also in discussions with VM - note it will take a few hours to start seeing a sensible picture - post up the “link” to the “share live graph” (as per instructions on the TB website) when it starts to develop.

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

[matt1987ponting]

thanks John, I'll look into the BQM and call that number. 

Just so fed up 

[jbrennand]

I would be concerned that the fault may be overutilisation - they can take months or years to resolve.

But only VM can confirm if there is a known OU issue - they are often reluctant to state that straight out - however the BQM will be very informative in revealing that 🙂

[matt1987ponting]

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/fb034756ce8cd27f100d8bf0e449bddbd6... 

[matt1987ponting]

the phone number said 'there are no service issues in your area' 

classic. 

[jbrennand]

BQM working ok - will need a 24 hour data set to start making conclusions.

But first hour doesnt look good 😞

[matt1987ponting]

lol.

thanks for your help. to a non-tech person like myself, whenever i call Virgin and complain i've got no actual evidence and they just talk to you as if you're a child. Every agent tells you something different and passes off responsibility to the next time you call. It was a nightmare getting the thing installed in the first place. No doubt it will be around 3 weeks before they are able to get an engineer out to look. 

[lotharmat]

If that packet-loss continues; I don't think we'll need 24 hrs to get VM Staff to look! 😉

The forum staff are pretty fantastic at resolving stuff - Depending on work load the tech visit could be easily within a week!

[jbrennand]

You are usually speaking to VM's infamous "offshore" CS agents - they are poorly trained and possess little knowledge - but they are extremely good at reading from scripts and getting you off the phone so they can move on.

Installation procedures are usually ok in 9/10 cases but for the other 10% its a total Omnishambles ! Just take a look in the quick start forum if you really want some horror stories 🙂

This forum is the best place for any technical info/and advice and getting into contact with a UK based VM agent who is always more tech savvy and helpful.

One will respond here in a day or so - they usually wait until we community users have probed the issue and got to the nub of it so they can action more quickly.

We are going in the right direction now 😎