Virgin Media Community

[clos]

I'm abroad for a few months.

On 25/2/22 I rec'd an email to say a new sim was on its way to my UK address. 

Customer service advised that this was because of the ee->vodafone migration.  They arranged to send me another new sim to a UK based friend. He activated it and I paid £50 for it to be couriered to me. It is working fine in my phone,

Two weeks later I got an email to say another sim was on it's way. Customer service said this was a mistake and this 3rd sim was cancelled.

Yesterday I got an email to say another sim was on it's way ( the 4th one). Now customer service are telling me that when my current ( 2nd) sim was activated in the UK it was actually.
done on the old EE 4g network. I was informed that what I should have done was to upgrade my current 4g tariff to a 5g tariff and then activate the sim.

So basically the sim I have now which is working will be deactivated in 14 days and I will have to spend another £50 for this 4th sim to be sent to me.   

Is anyone else having the same experience? There is nothing in any emails,  or on the Virginmedia website to say that I had to take the initiative to upgrade my tariff before I activated the sim.  Customer service also didn't inform me about this during any prior phone calls. 

I think this is really poor service by Virginmedia

[Travis_M]

Hi @clos

Thanks for posting on our community forum!

I'm so sorry to hear about your issue and the mishap with the SIMs, did the team advise that the newest SIM on the way is the correct SIM card? 

Regards

[clos]

Hi Travis_M

The issue is not with the sim.

All 4 sims I have rec'd have been "the correct sim".   The issue is that I have now been told that I am on a tariff that is incompatible with these  sims.  

I have also been told that it was up to me to change/ upgrade my tariff before activating the new sim and paying £50 for it to be couriered to me.  How was I supposed to know that ?

Is it correct that everyone has to make sure they are on a compatible tariff before activating their sim cards?  If so, please point me in the direction of when / where that information was conveyed.

[Travis_M]

Hi @clos

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure exactly what has been advised to yourself via the phone calls - if the team have advised that you would need to change / upgrade your Tariff then you would be able to do so by contacting our team on 789 or 0345 600 0789 and our mobile care team will advise further and get this sorted for you.

My apologies for the inconvenience caused, our complaints code of practice can be found here

Regards

[clos]

Thanks for your reply.

 As mentioned previously my current sim was activated on the EE 4g network. It will not work if I now upgrade my tariff to a 5g one.

Customer Service said my  options were:

1.  Upgrade to new 5g tariff. Get a new sim delivered to uk address. Activate that sim on the vodafone 5g network . Spend £50 ( again!) to have a sim couriered to me.

2. Do nothing.  Stay on my 4g tariff with my current sim. Every 2 weeks, virginmedia will automatically send me a new sim. Each time this happens I can request that the sim is cancelled.

Since I don't want to spend £50 I will choose option 2 and raise a formal complaint.  Thanks.

[Ayisha_B]

We are very sorry for the poor experience you have had @clos and I can appreciate this must be frustrating. If you have raised a formal complaint, all issues and impacts will be taken into consideration to ensure a fair outcome is reached.

Let me know if you have any further questions or need our help with anything.

Kind Regards,

[clos]

A 5th and 6th sim was sent to my UK address last week.

This sim in my phone ( which I only received a few weeks ago ) has been made inactive. I am stuck abroad with no functioning mobile phone.  Great!

[Paul_DN]

Hi clos,

We are really sorry to hear this, we have sent out new sims as we are no longer on the EE network and a new Sim for Vodafone is required for everyone, we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Regards

Paul.

[clos]

Hi Paul

Thank you for your reply.

I have now been sent six sims in the last couple of months.    I didn't request any of these. On each occasion I was told it was because of the switch to vodafone.

So you are suggesting the previous five were sent in error and only this sixth sim will work? 

[Paul_DN]

Hey Clos,

When a new sim is sent it cancels the previous one, I am not sure why so many have been sent, have you called us to advise your Sim didn't work and the Sim sent at that time?

Regards

Paul.