Hi Lisa,
Thank you for the response. It is probably easier for me to let you see the below.
Dear Rachel,
RE: Pending install (existing customer house move)
As a reasonably long standing customer, one who has been more than happy with the service received to date, I now feel compelled to share the experience me and my family are currently going through.
I do not recall the exact date, however a good number of days prior to the 12th January (our move date) I spoke to Virgin Media to arrange the move of services. I was told the new address had not had Virgin services before, which would result in the need to do external work, hence the later than expected house install date of 25th January.
Within a week of the install date (25th) I received a very bland text message stating the installation was being put on hold, due to external work required.
With moving on the 12th and then by taking some holiday to work on the new house, my wife and I were originally comfortable to agree the 25th January install date. On receiving the text message I called Virgin to see what that would mean for us, to be told local council authority was needed to do the external work, meaning a delay of 5-6 weeks (someone since I am sure has said up to 8 weeks).
My first issue; I cannot believe this is the first time Virgin have had to seek such authority. Accordingly, from having to do this before, our expectations should have been managed and we should have been advised of the possibility of this issue arising. It feel more like Virgin were happy to keep the business and make a promise they might not be able to keep, but we have the customer already then and they will just have to wait!
I will now explain the experience I have had trying to ensure my wife and I can work from 25th and that we would have WiFi good enough to enable our children to home school properly, they are currently using mobile data that has run out once and doesn’t offer sufficient signal strength to run Teams schooling without constantly dropping out. I would point out our son is in his final year of A Levels, I am sure you can imagine how stressed he is at this situation with all the uncertainty around how he will be assessed this year.
Since the 20th January I have spend what must be 8 hours on the phone trying to get help, only to be repeatedly, more continuously, let down.
20th January - I was advised by your pre-install team they would email the field engineer manager to get coding changed so we could be provided with a WiFi dongle with 200GB data monthly. I stressed the need for us to have WiFi by 25th January and I was told this would be fine - first broken promise.
21st January - General chaser. I was told the person I spoke to yesterday had not put any notes on to reflect our discussion about the dongle. I was told I needed to speak to Mobile Services and was put through to Virgin Business, who then attempted to put me through to Mobile Services. I was on the phone for 2 hours 50 minutes and it then went passed 8pm so no-one answered!
22nd January - I was told a form had been submitted for the Dongle and I would receive that the next day. I double, if not treble, checked I would receive it the following day. I was told I would receive a text message or outbound call from your ‘specialist’ team to confirm. Second and third broken promises - no text/call and no dongle arrived on 23rd.
23rd January - I called to chase and was told the form had gone through, but they would submit again. I would again receive a text/outbound call to confirm it was being processed and a dongle would then follow. Fourth and firth broken promises - no text/call and no dongle arrived.
25th January - I called and was told at first you would fill in another form for a dongle, I suggested I that is not good enough as this has not worked before and why will it now. It was then suggested the previous form requests would be escalated to a supervisor who would look into matters and check the form was sent correctly. I asked what ‘checking’ entailed, as I was concerned if it was correct does the form then just sit int he form queue until processed? I asked for them to call the specialist team and get the form auctioned there and then, I was told there is no way to do this apart from send another form. I find it hard to believe the name of someone of suitable seniority could not be located to see this is action now. I asked, as I have done on two previous occasion how to complain, to be told I could to customer services only, however actually I cannot do that as it is a pending install and I am not technically a customer! Outrageous. I have had to leave the matter to be escalated and AGAIN cross everything in the hope I hear something and Virgin help us.
From the 20th January I have stressed our need to be able to work at home, as lots of people have to now due to COVID, with WiFI access from 25th January. Virgin have failed us repeatedly and on the first day back to working my wife has been called up by her line manager for failing to be able to attend a Microsoft Teams meeting.
There is a real threat to our livelihoods now, not to mention the risk to our children’s’ education and not being dramatic, to our son’s future with this happening in his final year of A-levels. If this matter continues any detriment will be the fault of Virgin and the atrocious service received.
Given the situation so many of us find ourselves in, working and homeschooling from home, this does not make for a good story, one that I am feeling more and more duty bound to share via modern mediums.
I would appreciate someone taking the time to actually do something here and see this matter is resolved.
I look forward to hearing from someone by return.
