78 year old Mother-in-law’s outstanding issues and resulting complaint

[Jimwilks]

I’m raising this here as I just haven’t got the patience to call the contact centre again to explain to another agent there, and face the absolute lack of customer service I repeatedly have experienced, trying to help my aged and recently bereaved mother-in-law. I’m hoping someone might pick this up and reply or get in touch? I’ve raised a complaint via the contact form and have had a couple of texts inviting me to call them, implying that I would get through to the person dealing with the issue (as opposed to them calling me as I’d expect after a complaint) and when I did call in expecting to speak to someone dealing with the issue I was surprised to have to wait for the agent to read the details again. I had one agent refuse to put me through to a supervisor (saying they couldn’t do that) and another agent explain that they didn’t have the discount left that their colleague had so I should call back in 7 days when the new discount rolls in - and on hearing from my Mother-in-law tonight that she still is having problems just felt that I couldn’t face calling VM again so would try this way. I’ve been with Virgin for years now and always raved about their customer service to others, and paid more than I would have done elsewhere partly because I knew I’d never have issue with dealing with them. Calling in now, the system basically does all it can to prevent anyone speaking to a real person (I’ve had to play the game of guessing which options might mean I speak to someone and which end up with a recorded voice saying ‘thanks and goodbye’ before cutting the call), when you do there’s a real lack of understanding, sensitivity and compassion, agents seemingly cannot raise a supervisor and there’s such a variance between what one agent can offer compared to another.

I’ve contacted VM’s call centre to try and resolve issues my 78 year old mother-in-law’s having with her tv (heavy pixelating, loss of sound, picture and sound out of sync etc), to be told the issue would be resolved in 48 hours. I asked how we’d know the ‘fix’ had been applied to be told we should just rely on the word of the agent (More than 48 hours later problem still persists - just had her call me, upset that she can’t watch what she’d hoped to watch). I explained to agent that she still had the oldest TiVo box and wondered if VM might simply offer a replacement, after all it seems that replacing the equipment might be next step in trying to solve anyway. The agent said no and I instead asked whether we could renegotiate her contract to see what that might cost, with a new box as part of it. He offered a monthly price only £2 more than her current contract which was great but then told me there’d be a £30 installation fee. I wasn’t happy that she would basically going to have to pay more in the hope that it fixed a fault with the Virgin service so declined and ended the call, especially when I could easily disconnect the old one and connect the new.

My mother-in-law lost her husband just over 3 months ago and has had the issue with her tv service for a number of weeks, but has been living with us for those 3 months and therefore didn’t have cause to raise the issue, thinking it might resolve itself by the time she returned home properly. Because of the importance of her tv to her right now she said she’d pay the extra and the fee so I called back less than 10 minutes later and eventually spoke to another agent who offered a monthly cost of £10 more a month, couldn’t go lower and said her discount had run out and I should try again in a week, told me I should have the premium engineer installation at £65 (I said no) and then told me it was £35 for the regular one (is it £30 or £35?). I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told they could not do that and ended the call irate when I realised the agent genuinely wasn’t going to pass me to someone more senior. I then submitted a (long!) complaint form that evening, stating that I’d prefer phone or email contact (I think). I then got a text asking me to call in to discuss my complaint and when I did the agent had to read it through again, at which point I was even more frustrated and so ended the call. 

I know that customer service isn’t like it used to be, and that firms have cut costs by shifting operations and cutting staff due to the pandemic, but when the result is all of this it just gives customers absolutely no reason to remain. I’d argue that the terrible customer service right now is causing the company more problems than it’s ever coming close to solving. The original issue in this case is probably easily solved in the end (I hope so anyway) but the way this has all been handled has been what’s really inflamed things for me.

I’ll continue to wait to be contacted in relation to the complaint or this rant(!) as I just can’t face calling myself again as the texts ask me to but in the meantime my mother-in-law continues to suffer the issue, despite an agent’s assurance that it would be resolved before now. My complaint outlines my expectations and would be great if these, at the very least, could be honoured.

yours possibly shouting into a vortex!

[japitts · Accepted solution]

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@Jimwilks wrote:

I’ve contacted VM’s call centre to try and resolve issues my 78 year old mother-in-law’s having with her tv (heavy pixelating, loss of sound, picture and sound out of sync etc), to be told the issue would be resolved in 48 hours. I asked how we’d know the ‘fix’ had been applied to be told we should just rely on the word of the agent (More than 48 hours later problem still persists - just had her call me, upset that she can’t watch what she’d hoped to watch).

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Welcome to the "inconsistency" (I'm being polite) of VM's offshore CS. It sounds to me like the agent you spoke to didn't know how to resolve the fault you were reporting, so just asked you to callback so as someone else could deal with it. Pixellating pictures are usually caused by a signal issue, and the only fix is for boots-on-the-ground to locate the cause of that fault and physically rectify it.

The complaints process isn't the best way to resolve a service fault, but I can understand your frustrations. VM staff do respond on this forum and can hopefully intervene here - fault rectification is totally free of charge and there is no need to make any changes to your mother-in-law's package to get a service fault resolved.

Does your mother-in-law have VM home broadband? I ask because the legacy TiVo boxes are no longer replaced but are now swapped out for a V6 instead. They run the exact same software as TiVo, but on a much newer & quicker box - but it needs VM home broadband.

[Jimwilks]

Yep she has broadband with VM too - was advised when I last arranged a new contract on her behalf to call in at some point months later to see if she was eligible for free upgrade to V6 but completely forgot and now the agents just don’t know what I’m talking about and so are at least consistent with that!

[japitts]

There's not been a proactive TiVo > V6 swap for many years now, and you're running a grave danger of your mother-in-law being "sold" a conversion to the newer TV360 software that she probably doesn't want or need.

Wait around here, I don't often say this but don't throw good time after bad with the telephone agents who I suspect could make things even worse than they already are.

I've pushed your post to the top of the staff queue for a response tomorrow - the only complication you may have now, is whether you are authorised to act on your mother-in-law's behalf. I'm going to park that for now.

[jem101]

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@japitts wrote:

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@Jimwilks wrote:

I’ve contacted VM’s call centre to try and resolve issues my 78 year old mother-in-law’s having with her tv (heavy pixelating, loss of sound, picture and sound out of sync etc), to be told the issue would be resolved in 48 hours. I asked how we’d know the ‘fix’ had been applied to be told we should just rely on the word of the agent (More than 48 hours later problem still persists - just had her call me, upset that she can’t watch what she’d hoped to watch).

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Welcome to the "inconsistency" (I'm being polite) of VM's offshore CS....Snip

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Japitts, i do have to say 'well played sir' on your post which, well castigates VM's customer service failures, (and you know, and I know, that they are legion), without actually saying as much and hence risking Kai's wroth!

[Molly_T]

Hi Jimwilks! 👋 Welcome to the community! Thank you for posting. 

So sorry to hear of the recent issues with your Mother in Law's TV service, and subsequent issues in trying to get this sorted. I can really appreciate how important her TV service is, particularly in a time such as this (that you have outlined.) I'd also like to express our sincerest condolences for the families recent loss. I'm sure this additional stress is the last thing you need!

I'd like to offer some help. In the first instance I think it's best we get an engineer out to have a look at her TV box, who will be able to advise if it needs replacing. If this is the case it should be completed within the service visit. 

Generally speaking we don't support with package changes via the forum (they are best completed in real time), and as you have already experienced there can be some variance on which packages are available from day-to-day due to limited time offers. Again, i would like to help with this if I possibly can, but I do have to also warn you that any package change must be completed with the account holder for security reasons. 

Just to also address the complaint, if there is not one currently raised I will raise a new one on the account for you and offer support, discussing what you would ideally be looking for as a resolution, and then doing my best to help resolve the issues. 

In order to get the ball rolling and to get someone out to her as as soon as possible I will send you a PM to confirm a few account details and get an appointment booked in for the first available slot - unless there are any availability issues I need to be aware of ahead of booking! You can find my PM in the top right corner of the page 📩 in your Inbox. We can return to this public thread a little later, when possible. 

All the best!