Incorrectly set up VOLT package (Missing O2 SIM/Order)

[BeardyManJim]

I recently moved into my first home (on the day I was moving in, fibre optic lines were being installed within the wider area and specifically on the cul-de-sac that I now live on), needing to sort out utilities for my new home I registered my interest with Virgin Media to get fibre broadband, despite not being able to place an order with Virgin Media for a month following the completion of the fibre optic line installations and the new telecoms cabinet at the entrance to the cul-de-sac, (I had rang through to customer services and asked if the fibre optic lines needed to be activated or if there was any additional work that needed to be undertaken before I could place an order and was informed that services wouldn’t be rolled out in my area for 3 - 18 months! despite having witnessed the fibre optic lines being installed just beyond the kerb line outside my new house within the carriageway which is quite literally less than 10 metres from the front door.) nonetheless I persisted without broadband in the hope that I would be notified soon that Virgin Media services were now active in my area.

Luckily the following month, I received an email to tell me Virgin Media services were now active in my area, so I promptly looked at the broadband offerings and decided to order a VOLT bundle which consisted of M100 fibre, Talk Weekends, an O2 SIM and Virgin Media Stream for £29.99/mth.

My order was placed on the 22nd of August and I set an appointment date for the fibre installation for the 26th of August (which I thought was great as I would have my broadband within a week of placing the order), however, the date for my installation appointment was within a few days altered to the 26th of September (I would now be within broadband for over 2 months since moving in - which while massively inconvenient to me as I cannot work from home without an internet connection, I can endure, although it is starting to affect my livelihood at this point).

To make matters worse for me, I haven’t received my O2 SIM or any broadband equipment (the modem/stream box etc.) yet, and it’s been over a month since placing my order. When I’ve rang through to customer services to try to resolve my issues (which I have done multiple times at this point - I’ve probably spend over 8 hours on the phone in total explaining my issue to various customer service representatives), they simply confirm that the installation date is the 26th of September to me and that I will need to speak to O2 regarding the SIM and I am promptly transferred through to their customer service team, after laboriously explaining my situation to them, they are unable to do anything for me as I never received a confirmation order number from O2 (I have a Virgin Media confirmation order number), when I attempt to make right this mistake with O2 by taking out a SIM deal and then trying to tie this back in with the Virgin Media order, I’m told that this won’t be possible and that I need to discuss the matter with Virgin Media (as you can imagine being bounced between Virgin Media’s & O2’s customer service teams multiple times, getting nowhere closer to resolving my issues is now becoming extremely frustrating and I am very seriously considering just cancelling the contract and going to a competitor).

Can I please speak to someone at Virgin Media who can resolve my issues as soon as possible? As I can’t seem to get anywhere close to resolving this with either Virgin Media or O2’s customer service teams despite trying multiple times; these forums and/or issuing a complaint seem to be the only options left to me.

[BeardyManJim]

Well I got a hold of a more informed customer service agent today, apparently Virgin Media don’t send out equipment and the engineer’s deliver any equipment as part of their installation appointments.

Just the missing O2 SIM to sort out now.

[BeardyManJim]

I’ve rang through quite literally 12 times now trying to get my missing O2 SIM sorted out.

I’ve got no closer to resolving my issue and I’ve been hung up on by VM customer service agents twice…

WHAT ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE! How difficult is it to send a SIM card in the post!?

[BeardyManJim]

Finally got through to a customer service agent who honestly put the other 12 or so customer service agents that I’ve spoken to at this point to absolute shame, and I was able to confirm the O2 order no. that was part of my VM Volt bundle I ordered.

She tried to help me and explain my situation to an O2 customer service agent but after waiting 15 minutes together for someone on O2’s end to pick up, she had to leave me as she was at the end of her 7 day shift. After waiting another 20 minutes, I was finally transferred through to an O2 customer service agent and explained the purpose of my call and gave the agent my O2 order no. and was placed on hold while the agent investigated my account and what had happened to my order…

Several minutes later, I was informed that my order had been cancelled and that number associated to that SIM had been disconnected and that I would need to place a new order with either Virgin Media for the bundle package or take out a new contract with O2 (upon asking if I could take out a new contract as I don’t want to have to delay my fibre broadband installation anymore so than it already has been), I was transferred through to an agent in the sales team, upon yet again explaining why I was calling and what I wanted to do, I was told that their systems were currently down and that they would call me back at 9am tomorrow.

I will update this post with the outcome either way, but given my luck thus far, I am ready for further disappointment.

Excluding the one customer service agent I spoke to today from Virgin Media, every single customer service agent I have spoken to has been unable to resolve this or even get me closer to resolving it. I want to formally thank her and bring to Virgin Media’s attention that the only reason I haven’t cancelled my order today and gone to a competitor is because of how helpful this customer service agent was. I would like to request that Lucy from the Plymouth call centre receive a gift card and is praised for the great service she provides by her supervisor, she has effectively saved this contract from being cancelled.

Thank you again Lucy from the Plymouth call centre!

I may have to wait until the 26th of September to talk to the installation engineer to further progress with a person who can help resolve my query as I’m quite frankly sick of listening to call centre hold music for hours on end, repeating my situation continually, being disconnected (and not receiving a call back afterwards - this is simply unacceptable from any business and if it happens again I will simply cancel my contract) etc.

[Anonymous]

I have had a similar experience earlier in the year.

I would suggest calling O2 quoting your order no that was cancelled. Ask them to resinstate the order and if they refuse raise a complaint, obtain a complaints number.

Then email complaintreviewservice@o2.com and you will get a UK based complaints advisor call you. They should be able to sort this. 

[BeardyManJim]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have had a similar experience earlier in the year.

I would suggest calling O2 quoting your order no that was cancelled. Ask them to resinstate the order and if they refuse raise a complaint, obtain a complaints number.

Then email complaintreviewservice@o2.com and you will get a UK based complaints advisor call you. They should be able to sort this. 

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Thanks for the advice jonesanthony, I will try this tomorrow, I was seriously beginning to suspect I was writing all this out for therapeutic reasons.

I genuinely feel like I’m owed some compensation for the grief I’ve been subjected to in trying to resolve this.

Taking out a contract for fibre and a SIM is hardly rocket science - VM & O2 need to seriously improve how their systems interact with each other and get more UK based customer service agents, they might cost ~4 times as much each as an agent in Bangladesh or wherever they are basing their oversea’s call centres to but they are undoubtedly worth the extra money.

Lucy from the Plymouth call centre on Virgin Media’s side was more helpful in the space of 5 minutes than everyone else I’d spoke to at VM in the previous 12 hours or so that I’ve been on the phone trying to resolve this.

The fact that no-one from Virgin Media has contacted me over this post yet is pretty poor aswell, having to rely on the kindness and good nature of other customers to help resolve issues because the customer service team is on the whole (at least from my experiences) completely inadequate at providing any help is pathetic.

I’m sad to hear you experienced a similar problem, I really hope you didn’t experience half the grief I have in trying to resolve it.

Thanks again for your message and advice.

[Martin_N]

Hi BeardyManJim,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to read about the issue you've had with both your home service and mobile services. 

It sounds as though you have sorted out the Home service part of the package but not the Mobile side.

Sadly we are unable to deal with that side. You would need to reach directly out to O2. Did they advise why it had been cancelled?

^Martin

[BeardyManJim]

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@Martin_N wrote:

Hi BeardyManJim,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to read about the issue you've had with both your home service and mobile services. 

It sounds as though you have sorted out the Home service part of the package but not the Mobile side.

Sadly we are unable to deal with that side. You would need to reach directly out to O2. Did they advise why it had been cancelled?

^Martin

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Hi Martin, it’s lovely to finally be talking to someone from Virgin Media.

I have reached out to O2 multiple times as I mentioned in my posts above. I wasn’t called back at 9am either this morning as I was promised (no real surprise to me - I’m just utterly disgusted at the poor customer service I have received from both yourselves and VM with the exclusion of Lucy from the Plymouth call centre and the O2 customer service agent I spoke to this morning), however, as per jonesanthony‘s advice, I have been able to get them to re-instate the account and reconnect the number.

No reason was provided as to why the O2 account had been cancelled.

I now await the SIM delivery which the helpful English O2 customer service agent that I spoke to (I don’t want to be that way but they the 2 English customer service agents from Virgin Media and O2 have been infinitely more informed and helpful than anyone I have spoken to in either your or O2’s call centre’s), said she wouldn’t be able to send a replacement SIM yet, as the number needs to be reconnected for 24 hours before they can send a replacement SIM.

I want Lucy from the Plymouth call centre to be recognised and rewarded for her top quality service, as I mentioned above she has saved this contract from being cancelled. She deserves a gift card or similar and some praise from her manager, can I please have that officially recognised and be notified that something along those lines will happen?

I’d also like to lodge an official complaint over the technical incompetence that has occurred in setting up my account and the grief it has caused me, I have called through to VM & O2 on no less than at least a dozen occasions to resolve this, I’ve walked into an O2 store to see if someone there could help me (this was before Lucy had provided me with the O2 order no. - so they were unable to help me), I’ve been on the phone for in excess of 14 hours and have been disconnected by Virgin Media customer service agents mid-call twice (which may not have been intentional but the fact I didn’t immediately receive a call back is completely unacceptable behaviour from any business) and (hopefully following receiving my replacement SIM) I will have the added worry of ensuring that my VOLT benefits are correctly applied on both O2 and Virgin Media’s sides.

Some compensation for my grief would be much appreciated, I can definitely say I won’t be recommending either companies to any friends or family members with the experience I have had thus far.

Thank you again for your message though Martin, as I previously stated I was being to suspect that my posts were simply a record of my experience for my own therapeutic/cathartic reasons.

[NinjaMeerkat]

The call centres in India are massively letting VM down. Whenever I have to contact VM if the person answering the call is in India I just immediately hang up to avoid wasting any time. 

[BeardyManJim]

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@NinjaMeerkat wrote:

The call centres in India are massively letting VM down. Whenever I have to contact VM if the person answering the call is in India I just immediately hang up to avoid wasting any time. 

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I wholeheartedly agree with you.

In fact, they are letting both VM & O2 down massively, I’m just going to demand that I be transferred to a UK based customer service agent whenever I need to discuss anything with either of them in the future. I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way, through my recent experiences.

I can account for the difference in hours that they have kept me on the phone, excluding transfers to different departments, if I would have won the call centre lottery and been connected with UK based customer service agents when I initially rang through to discuss my issues, I reckon everything would have been resolved in the space of 20 minutes.

I don’t even think some of the oversea’s customer service agents that I have spoken to could even comprehend what my issue was or how to resolve it. If I’d have been given an O2 order number from VM from the get go, I could have spent all those hours that I’ve spent on the phone actually enjoying my free time.

I can only hope that the service’s that I’ve ordered and will be paying for simply just exist and work as intended in the background once they are set up, as they should do. I am simply not going to stand for anything less at this point.