Virgin Customer Service Is Not Effective

[jamesmansell]

I am at the end of my tether, and am about to quit my contract before it has started given how bad my customer service experience has been. Before I do I wanted to give Virgin one last chance / the community to help out. How difficult is it to install internet to a home when I can just order a mobile 5G router for the next day. How do I get virgin to stick to its promises and install the internet?

I initiated discussions a month ago and its looking like I won't have internet for at least 3 more weeks, how is waiting 2 months for internet in this day and age whilst having to be on the phone to Virgin for 15 hours plus any action a business can take?

In summary:

1. Virgin have rescheduled my install twice, with no warning (did not turn up), or with less than 24 hour notice.
2. Reasons for rescheduling the installs either were false, or I was lied to during the sales process
3. I had two different sales people sign me up to two different accounts, and two direct debits. Sorting this out yet again involved hours on the phone
4. My number was given to another account not in my name (GDPR breach), which means whenever I call up they think I am someone else
5. Virgin '100% committed' to the installs at the dates specified, yet did not follow through
6. Even though I won't be in the country for the proposed install date (and will be out for 6 weeks), still they didn't listen.

Given Virgin has lied, breached regulation, and taking 2 months to install internet I am nearly done with the company, but I wanted to give you one last chance to reply and sort this by getting an install in the next week. How can a internet company not install internet? That is literally your only job!

[-tony-]

i again add you are correct but only in the real world or a very small part of that real world - VM are not part of it - let me know if you find that unicorn 

[Travis_M]

Hi @jamesmansell

I've received a response from the Area Field Manager who've informed the reschedule has been due to construction. The team require local authority permission which is why the install hasn't took place yet and I regret to inform you they cannot by any means bring this forward due to having no local authority permission as of yet. 

I do sincerely apologise and if you'd like to escalate this, our complaints code of practice can be found here

Regards

[jbrennand]

Hopefully a Unicorn will appear soon 🙂

Being told there are "Construction Issues" to me can only mean either the pull team cant get the cable through the duct or there is no VM tee outside the property.

Is there one? It is usually covered with a small plastic disc or triangle at the edge of the pavement - midway between you and a neighbour. Look at other properties on the street that have VM installed - they will have "tees" outside with "cables" coming out and going to a brown/white omnibox on their exterior wall. And a cable from there into the property.

Cant think what other processes of an install requires "construction" and VM should have all of that in hand and be pretty accurate with assigning their own pull teams. But if the council is involved (or VM is) using third party digging teams it can go pear shaped.

EDIT - you are not alone - this was posted as I typed this...

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/BROADBAND-INSTALLATION-DELAYS-amp-FRUSTRA...

[jamesmansell]

Thank you both,

I will escalte this to a complaint. As the sales person told me there was a cable to my house, the resultant implied speed of set up induced me to enter a contract.

At the same time I do not understand why this issue was only found 3 weeks after signing a contract, less than 24 hours before the second slot for installation. If this has been found out on the day of singing VM would have been able to hit the installation timelines.

[LittleMick73]

Hi your "contract" will not go live until you have a working service so you won't be charged until then, at least you now know the council are involved, and we all know how fast and efficient they are. Regards Micky

[-tony-]

---

@jamesmansell wrote:

Thank you both,

I will escalte this to a complaint. As the sales person told me there was a cable to my house, the resultant implied speed of set up induced me to enter a contract.

At the same time I do not understand why this issue was only found 3 weeks after signing a contract, less than 24 hours before the second slot for installation. If this has been found out on the day of singing VM would have been able to hit the installation timelines.

---

lets put this into context - you order an install - what the saleman said and agreed has been called into question - he wanted your order and would pretty much have agreed with anything to get the odrder - he can have no idea what state any cable was in or even if it exists 

from there you have an install date sometime in the future - that obviously includes a new cable - yes i know what the salesman said - the cable pulll date is a rolling date to be done any time up to the install date which is the internal work

now wlist VM to you is a 100% thing they [i suggest] are taking orders every day - those have to be planned - they do not have techs sat in vans to check what if any cable exists for your order on the day you order - so time passes to your install date and the pull team turn up to pull the cable - they found a blockage or whatever and reported back - thats how it works - it could have happened any time in the 3 weeks you mention - the fact it happened 24 hours before your install date is not relevent to how they work

from the time they find the blockage you are on hold - permits are required from your local council - 2 to 6 weeks are normal and then the work needs planning and once the work is done a pull team will try again and you then will be installed

there is no pro active work done - if you cancel the chances are they will not clear the blockage but wait for you or someone else to order on that part of the duct and the cycle will start again

[jamesmansell]

Tony - if you sell something under false pretenses that is fraud, end of. This is not morally or legally acceptable.

PLOT TWIST - VM rescheduled the 27th August Install and the 3rd September Install both the night before, even after sending confirmation texts and me paying for someone to be at the property - will VM now reimburse me for all this cost?

Does the ineptitude of Virgin Media know no bounds? How can you break 4 different agreed dates? Why is your service so shocking? 

Can someone who actually can enact change get in contact with me, or I will be turning up at your head office in Hammersmith.

[unhappyconsumer]

If you try to go through Virgin directly, all they will do is delay and lie, they will not attempt to resolve anything in a fair manner, if at all. Register your complaint, then go here : https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

Request every single bit of data possible, from the start of the contract until now - they are obliged to adhere to your request. 

This will likely trigger a call from the DSAR team looking to resolve the complaint with you to avoid doing the work of collating your data (lazy!). Hopefully they can resolve this for you. If that doesn't occur, you can refer the complaint to CISAS after Virgin fail to adhere to the 8 week timescale, and they will likely compensate you for your inconvenience and distress.

It costs Virgin upwards of £500 when the case is referred to CISAS. The level of customer service offered by Virgin is so appalling that the majority of phone calls should really go to this level. Don't be afraid to exercise your rights and follow this process as all Virgin will do is delay and delay then lie and lie - I'm still awaiting a DSAR I requested over 9 months ago, which is way out of timescale, and was already awarded £50 by a Virgin Manager when I complained 9 months ago that the telephone agent didn't know what a DSAR was (in breach of GDPR). 

[Andrew-G]

@jamesmansell  if you sell something under false pretenses that is fraud, end of. 

A missed installation date would only qualify as "false pretences" if the company might have reasonably known of problems that would delay the installation in the first place.  I doubt that applies, and any further delay is allowed for in the contract terms you agreed to.  If you take a look you'll find the relevant section i looking at the online T&Cs, it's section E 1.

I'm not defending VM here - lately the installation performance appears to have dramatically deteriorated for reasons unknown, but what I am saying is that you don't have any obvious legal recourse against the company.  You should get delayed installation compensation as a credit against your account if you ever do get connected (or you can claim a similar amount through the VM complaints process and if need be a CISAS escalation, should VM NOT connect you, or you feel the need to cancel because of the repeated delays).  

As for turning up at Hammersmith, what are you going to do?  That's a corporate headquarters, nobody will have a clue who you are or what you are on about, nobody technical is based there, and chances are most staff are still working from home.  The directors will be out playing golf, counting their loot at home, or making a nuisance of themselves to staff across the country who are trying to work.  I supposed the security team would welcome a disruption to the boredom they've endured over the past eighteen months or so.

I do understand the frustration of dealing with VM.  I'm a regular in this forum, and there is no company I've ever encountered that's as bad at communicating with customers or keeping its promises as Virgin Media.  

[jamesmansell]

Thanks Unhappyconsumer - I have just sent a very detailed GDPR request. Lets hope this catches their attention.

Andrew G - they said there was a cable to the house and install would be within 2 weeks. Subsequently the team has said there is no cable the house. That is a false pretence. The timing had no 'potential' attached to it in the conversation, instead it was 'guaranteed'.

Turning up at their HQ means it draws attention to the problem, and forces them to take accountability.

We need to stop apologizing for Virgin's behaviour, and start making them act like a normal company is expected to.

As soon as community fibre / hyperoptic / 5g expand everyone will leave and VM will have a very expensive white elephant in the ground.