We're posting this here in the futile hope that someone, anyone, from Virgin Media can actually contact us about the below instead of the radio silence we have experienced for a week now. Apologies for the long post.
We signed up for Virgin Media as first time customers on the 9th April via a field sales advisor who popped a card through our door. We were told we would get the first 3 months of service free if we signed up that day. Having tailored the order to suit the needs of the household (we said that we could not place the order if anything differed from what we asked for), we were told that everything would be installed without issues on the day of installation. Quite frankly, the order would not have been placed if this was not going to be the case. Once the contract came through via email, we contacted the field sales advisor once more who again stated that we would get the first 3 months free (it wasn't mentioned in the contract email) and that everything on the contract would be installed on the 26th.
The service was installed in the 26th April and here's where it all starts to go wrong. So despite being told otherwise when we ordered, the engineer did not have all items on the contract ready to be installed. His work order was incorrect. We halted the installation at this point as the contract was not being honoured. However, as the internet from our previous provider was due to be terminated that night (working from home means internet is essential), we went ahead with the install, having faith that this mix up would be quickly corrected. The engineer apologised for the mix up and installed what he could on his work order, saying that he would write in his notes what was missing and then Virgin would sort it out. During the installation, the Virgin Engineer cut out the Sky TV cabling in order to reuse the entry point on the house to feed the Virgin Cable in.
We contacted customer services on the 27 April in order to find out what was going on with our contract. A customer service agent by the name of Josh told us that the full contract would not be honoured and that we would have to pay extra to have what we originally agreed with the field sales advisor. Furthermore, the first 3 months free offer was not applied to the contract despite us being assured it would be by the field sales advisor when we ordered. On top of that, the Hub 4 that was listed on the contract was not installed and we were provided with a Hub 3 (which is not fit for purpose). Finally, the 360 box that was installed sounds like a jet engine taking off and is unacceptably loud. Every one of these issues was dismissed by Josh so we ended the call with Josh as he clearly wasn't very concerned with the problems we were experiencing.
A formal complaint was raised on the 27th April stating the issues. We were told we would get a reply within 48 hours. It is now the 4th May and we have yet to receive any reply from the complaints team.
Since raising the issue, we have contacted the customer service team several times with the vast majority of those we spoke to being very understanding, agreeing that the contract hasn't been honoured but ultimately conceding that they're all powerless to help. One agent even directly messaged the Virgin Media complaints team member to whom our case has been assigned to urge them to contact us. We have still heard absolutely nothing back.
During that time, we have also suffered poor service with the internet connection dropping out. Something that never occurred with our previous supplier.
We absolutely regret ever having signed up to Virgin Media. We're a mere week into being Virgin Media customers and we're entirely fed up already. We didn't quite believe the Trust Pilot score the company has but wow, is it ever accurate. And we didn't have too look very far in this forum either to see that they've been pulling these deceptive mis-selling practices for some time now.
At this point, the only way forward seems to be to cancel within the 14 day cooling off period as it is clear that Virgin Media do not care that they have mis-sold their services to us and hung us out to dry. The lack of any proper response to correct the issue is nothing short of a gross dereliction of duty. Problem is though, as mentioned, Virgin Media cut out the Sky TV cables so we can't just switch back anymore and now have to incur the costs of Sky reinstalling their cabling (rest assured we will be invoicing Virgin Media for any costs incurred as a result of this debacle).
Overpromising and underdelivering. That is the take away from our first encounter with Virgin Media. The feeling now is that we've been hoodwinked by the worst company we have ever dealt with and we fully intend of taking this further with the ombudsman.
The stress and frustration Virgin Media have caused us is entirely unacceptable. So, if there is anyone from the Virgin Media complaints team reading this, please get in touch.
