Virgin Media

Atletico03 · a week ago

I write to Virgin Media to complain about a new SIM card that was recently provided to me. It has been intermittently not allowing not allowing people to phone me since I got it. I know this because I have been forced to shell out £290 pounds on a new phone because Virgin but not respond to my queries and I was made to think that the issue was with the phone itself. Having looked into this, I can see many others have had the same problem. I am currently unemployed and it is an absolute disgrace, that this has cost me money due to Virgin.

This morning, using my new phone, I have missed important calls that could have cost me my benefits. I have had to convince Universal Credit that I shouldn't be sanctioned because I missed their calls this morning. What a humiliating and degrading experience caused by Virgin.

This is all because of the issue with the network/SIM card. Not only am I out of pocket. I almost lost my Benefits which I rely on to be able to live until I get a new job!

I require someone from Virgin to contact me immediately to get this resolved and to offer some sort of compensation and to at least fix the issue at the bare minimum because this is completely unacceptable and is not something which I have encountered with any other SIM card or mobile provider. Please phone me on a web-based/internet line or email as I cannot receive calls through your shoddy network/sim card.

Megan_L · Wednesday

Hi Atletico03,

Thanks for using the forums to get this issue looked into, I am sorry this has caused so much upset in your personal life along with creating a formal complaint.

I have had a look at your mobile services and can see you spoke to someone recently about this, can you tell me what was mentioned in this conversation with the agent please?

I also have some general advice that may help if you've not already tried them yet -

Can you tell me whether an error message appears on screen when you insert the SIM?
Also, what does the message state when you try to call someone?
Does it happen with all numbers or just particular ones?
Have you tried the SIM in another phone to see if it works?

Please let me know more so I can understand the situation better and take control of this situation for you. I will try my hardest to get it resolved for you if we can work together 🙂
Thanks so much,
Megan_L

Atletico03 · Thursday

Hi Megan

Thanks for your response.

You ask what we talked about and I'll attach a transcript at the end of my response to you. To summarise, the chat started at 10.51am and ended at 4:16pm with me being no further forward and being informed to 'call back in 5 days'. It's just completely unreasonable during a pandemic, on benefits and relying on my phone as my main form of communication to expect me to contact Virgin a further 5 days after a 5 and a half hour conversation.

The whole conversation is probably best summed up below around the 5 hour mark - "This has been the worst customer experience I've ever had. I only signed up for Virgin 3 months ago, but the service has been terrible. I told you an hour ago that I've been waiting for 4 hours to get this resolved and you decide to go for a break instead of helping your customer. Even above, you say 2-3 minutes and it's already been 15 minutes. It's completely unreasonable. And now I have to wait another 5 working days for a response? Can you please tell me how I can escalate matters? Do you have a complaints procedure? This is completely unacceptable."

In respect of your other questions;

Can you tell me whether an error message appears on screen when you insert the SIM? - No error message appears
Also, what does the message state when you try to call someone? - It's not an issue calling out, only when I receive incoming calls over the network (not internet) regardless of where I am in the city.
Does it happen with all numbers or just particular ones? - I've been informed by 4 or 5 different people (including Universal Credit) that they have had issues contacting me and have had to ring between 3 and 5 times to get through.
Have you tried the SIM in another phone to see if it works? - As you can see from the transcript below, I believed this to be a phone issue initially and bought a new phone as I simply cannot miss Universal Credit appointments or I'll lose my benefits. Only a few weeks after trying it in the new phone did I realise that this is most definitely a SIM issue. It appears many others have had similar faulty SIM card issues with Virgin.

Please feel free to read the transcript below, I am not an unreasonable person but it is important that I have this resolved soon.

Kind regards

Ryan

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: >

10:51, Feb 22

You: Mobile

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: OK, let’s get you through to a member of our team 👍

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: I need to take a few details from you please. Your full Name Mobile Number Are you the Account Holder For example - Chat Bot, 07123 456789, Yes I am the account holder

10:51, Feb 22

You: Something Else

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: Thanks ⭐ Here is the summary I am going to pass to the agent

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: REDACTED

10:51, Feb 22

You: REDACTED

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: You are now in the queue for a member of our team. As we are currently experiencing high demand for our messaging service, it may take us longer than we would like to connect you. we will respond as soon as possible.

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: Please keep your browser open and in the meantime you may find the answer to your query at https://care.virginmedia.com/care/mobile

10:51, Feb 22

Virgin Media Bot: Thanks for your patience.

10:57, Feb 22

You: I write to Virgin Media to complain about a new SIM card that was recently provided to me. It has been intermittently not allowing not allowing people to phone me since I got it. I know this because I have been forced to shell out £290 pounds on a new phone because Virgin but not respond to my queries and I was made to think that the issue was with the phone itself. Having looked into this, I can see many others have had the same problem. I am currently unemployed and it is an absolute disgrace, that this has cost me money due to Virgin. This morning, using my new phone, I have missed important calls that could have cost me my benefits. I have had to convince Universal Credit that I shouldn't be sanctioned because I missed their calls this morning. What a humiliating and degrading experience caused by Virgin. This is all because of the issue with the network/SIM card. Not only am I out of pocket. I almost lost my Benefits which I rely on to be able to live until I get a new job! I require to get this resolved and to offer some sort of compensation and to at least fix the issue at the bare minimum because this is completely unacceptable and is not something which I have encountered with any other SIM card or mobile provider.

10:57, Feb 22

You: I've now been informed that I've missed out on an interview with a company due to the faulty sim card. The phone doesn't show any missed calls but my friends have stated that they need to call me 4 or 5 times before they get through on the network.

10:58, Feb 22

You: I've also complained using your community feature online but my post has not been responded to.

Info: We are just connecting you to Mary Jane who will be helping you today. They will be with you shortly.

11:08, Feb 22

Mary Jane: Good morning! You are through to mobile expert who would surely help resolve all your queries today. I am so sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you, Ryan. I know how important it is to keep in touch with our loved ones especially on these trying times. You are thru to the right person to fix this service issue. Let’s go thru your account together and resolve it right away! Before we get started, we’ll need to go through a few security questions. I’m going to send you a secure web form for you to answer. Please put the 2nd, 9th and 11th characters of your password in the secure link. This is the password you use when you call in, and not your online account password. Please keep in mind that the form will expire in 30 minutes once we have sent it to you.

11:08, Feb 22

Mary Jane: Mary Jane has sent you a Secure Form: [Mobile] Security Answer Request

11:11, Feb 22

Mary Jane: The following Secure Form has been submitted: [Mobile] Security Answer Request

11:23, Feb 22

Mary Jane: Great! We're in, Ryan. May you please check the long number on the back of SIM card and text it to us? It will be 12 digits. So I check if we have the correct sim serial on file.

11:25, Feb 22

You: REDACTED

11:36, Feb 22

Mary Jane: Thank you. As per checking, we have the correct sim serial number on file. Going back to your issue, may I know when did the issue starts? Do you have a signal bars on your phone right now?

11:37, Feb 22

You: The issue has been prevalent from when I first received the SIM I believe but I only realised this recently.

11:37, Feb 22

You: I have 2 bars out 4 just now.

11:38, Feb 22

You: I think it was when my old number got transferred to the new SIM card.

11:51, Feb 22

Mary Jane: Thank you for confirming, Ryan. Just to confirm, are you able to send and receive texts? As well using your mobile data?

12:00, Feb 22

You: Yes. The only issue is receiving calls. Which is very important to me.

12:00, Feb 22

You: I can receive calls through the internet but not through the network.

12:01, Feb 22

You: Is this going to take much longer? I've been on this chat for over an hour and I have a job interview shortly.

14:50, Feb 22

You: Can someone please respond?

14:50, Feb 22