Virgin Media Community

[qwerty1]

Hi.  I've been stuck in Iceland, since lockdown.  My Virgin mobile SIM (on an Apple 6) worked fine until 28th April but now simply says 'no service'.  I've two other Virgin mobile SIMs (used by other family) and all the same.  I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with the local provider (Vodafone).   I guess it's related to my account but all looks fine when I check the account online ... and I can't see how to contact Virgin to discuss this.  Any suggestions on how to get Virgin's attention .. to look at the account and try to fix this?   Thanks 🙂

[Tom_F]

Hi qwerty1, thanks for getting in touch.

I am sorry you've encountered this problem while abroad. I'd like to take a look and see what we're able to do to help. So please look out for my PM requesting some details & get back to me when you can & we'll take it from there.

Tom

[Tom_F]

Hi qwerty1. Really sorry for the delay with this - I understand an attempted fix for this was implemented yesterday - when you're able to check can you let us know if that's been successful for you?

Thanks,

Tom

[qwerty1]

Hi Tom.  As you may know, the Network team have been attempting to work out what's wrong but so far no fix.

[Tom_F]

Thanks for getting back to me - I am sorry, other impacted users have indicated similar. I've gone back to the network team to let them know, in the meantime can I just double check that you've rebooted the handset (or activated then deactivated flight mode) to give the SIM a fresh connection to the network? Also, if any of the options for manual network selection offer any different results? The more info I can provide the better chance we have of getting this resolved asap. 

Tom

[qwerty1]

Thanks Tom.  Kind of you to reply but this has been going on for 3 months; there's a string of probably over 30 messages on a PM starting with you back probably in March and going on now with the Network team for a further few months.  I've done everything (well beyond switch on/off; amend settings kind of stuff) including buying a new iPhone, obtaining new Virgin SIMs  ...   and presumably network partners in Iceland have been involved, but still no resolution.  When a problem like this affects only a few users, I doubt it makes business sense to invest much resource in to a resolution, so I doubt it'll get fixed. Affected users will either endure the problem whilst visiting Iceland or will drift away from Virgin.

[Tom_F]

It's been a long & frustrating situation I can totally appreciate that. When we first spoke about this I wasn't aware of any wider issue but as general diagnostics didn't help I queried a wider issue and was told there wasn't any.

That remained the case for a few weeks until more impacted customers got in touch here. I fed back each example with as much information as possible (along with the comments/suggestions of VIP's here too).

At this stage I'm aware of at least 5 affected users and last week the network team began to take notice. 

I won't pretend to understand the technicalities but I do understand that much of this is out of our direct control - that's of no consolation to you as a VM customer but due to the nature of the issue all I can do is chase this from here and I'll continue to do that until we reach an outcome. 

Tom

[qwerty1]

I understand all that.  I also greatly appreciate your efforts and enthusiastic, tenantious efforts early on.  I recognise that this is a techie issue most likely related to the roaming partners and possibly largely outside VM control.  It is what it is.   Given the likely costs to the Icelandic network providers, whose own customers aren't affected, I doubt there will be resolution and thus I'd advise any VM customer affected either to put up with lack of service whilst in Iceland, or to switch to another provider.  That (personal) advice doesn't detract from the fact that you and others within VM have tried hard to identify and fix the problem and your admirable intentions should be acknowledged.

[Melissa_F]

Thanks for the kind words for Tom_F - I'll make sure he's aware 🙂

I know he'll be doing all he can to continue to push for a resolution for this, for you and the other customers impacted.

It just might take some time.

Thanks

Melissa