Local outage is leaving me without Internet for over 3 weeks
TL;DR: My internet died after a local outage. Virgin Media sent an engineer who couldn't fix it. What followed was a week of chaos: being hung up on twice, promised callbacks that never happened, and engineers who were booked and then mysteriously cancelled. I was told four different stories by four different people, including that my one-year-old cables were "too old" and needed a rewire, with the next appointment being 2.5 weeks away. After threatening to release call recordings, I was finally put through to an "Executive" who has promised to sort it, but I'm not holding my breath. Right, where to begin? Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this whole saga, I want to make one thing clear: I have call recordings of most of the conversations I’m about to describe, just to prove I’m not making any of this up. I’m what you’d call a simple customer. I’m on Virgin’s M500 plan, just for the internet. That’s it. And for a while, it was fine. The issues kicked off on Thursday, 12th of June, when I got a text saying there was an outage in my area. Fair enough, these things happen. The internet was a bit patchy for the next few days, dropping in and out, but it mostly worked. Then came Sunday night. At around 9 pm, the internet decided to pack it in completely. The hub was just sitting there, its usual white light being interrupted by a flashing red one every few seconds. A sign of things to come, I suppose. Come Monday morning at 8 am, I was on the phone. "What's going on?" I asked. I was told the area fault was still active and it should be all sorted by 6 pm. And to be fair, I got a text at 2:10 pm saying the issue was resolved. Great news, you might think. Except for the small fact that I still had no internet. So, I called them back and, after a bit of back and forth, insisted they send someone out. An engineer arrived later that day. He checked things inside, then had a look outside and delivered the verdict: no signal was coming into the house from the street cabinet. He said it was a job for a specialist team, not him. He texted his manager and supposedly arranged for the right person to come the next day, Tuesday. Since I wouldn't be in, I confirmed with him that all the work was outside and they wouldn't need access. He assured me that was the case. Just to be safe, I rang customer service to double-check. They confirmed it too. On Tuesday, around 2 pm, my phone rings. It's someone from Virgin. "Good news, the engineer has been and closed the job. Just restart your router." I told him that was brilliant, but I wouldn't be home until quarter past six and asked if he could give me a call back then. He said he would. You can guess what happened next. I got home, restarted the router, and… nothing. Still dead. And the callback? Of course, it never came. So, I called them. Again. I explained the whole story to a lady on the phone, only for her to tell me that their records showed "no one was at the property today". At this point, I got a little bit miffed. I explained that I work from home three days a week and this was becoming a massive problem. And for my troubles? She hung up on me. I immediately rang back, absolutely fuming, and demanded to speak to a manager. I explained the situation to the new agent, including the fact I'd just been hung up on. He started the transfer, which put me on hold for a good ten minutes. I finally heard a "Hello?" and then… click. They’d hung up on me again. Forty minutes into my next call, I finally spoke to a representative named "Waye" (I've no idea how to spell it). To her credit, she was lovely. She said all the right things, promised me compensation equal to my monthly bill, and even gave me a complaint reference number. She said she'd booked an engineer for the next day, Wednesday. Then she asked, "As you're happy with that, can I close the complaint?" I told her, in no uncertain terms, that nothing was being closed until my internet was back on. Wednesday, 11:30 am. I called to check what time the engineer was due. The response? "I'm sorry, sir, but there is no engineer scheduled for today." The conversation that followed lasted nearly an hour, with the bloke on the other end changing his story more times than I've had hot dinners. First, he could get someone out for Thursday. Then, a minute later, he said the engineer from Tuesday had closed the job because it needed a "Network Management team," who were, apparently, working on it "as we speak." He then offered to book a "backup" engineer for Friday. Note how Thursday was suddenly off the table. I asked him if the Friday engineer was the same type of technician as the one on Monday who couldn't fix it. His reply was a wonderfully vague, "The engineer will come and do his job." Utterly useless. A few hours later, I decided to try for a manager again. I got through to a manager named Shirli. She was very nice, very apologetic, and said all the things I wanted to hear. She even managed to arrange an engineer for that same afternoon, between 12 pm and 4 pm. Given that my call with her was at 2 pm, I wasn't sure if she'd invented a time machine, but I was willing to hope. Of course, the engineer never turned up. At 5 pm, I was back on the phone. I asked for Shirli but was told they have no direct lines to managers. The new agent looked into why the 12-4 pm engineer was a no-show. Her findings were astonishing. The appointment had been scheduled, but was "immediately cancelled and rescheduled by the system." Why? Because the wiring to my property needed a full rewire as it was "too old." This is utterly impossible – the entire village I live in was only cabled by Virgin less than a year ago. I asked her when the system had rescheduled this phantom rewire for. She then had to manually check for the next available slot, proving the "automatic reschedule" was a lie. Had I not called, I'd have been left waiting for no one. "The next available appointment for a rewire," she said, "is the 3rd of July." Two and a half weeks away. I asked for a manager. This time, I got Soel. The pleasantries were over. He was blunt, and kept repeating that while the cable to my house was new, the underground cables down the road were old. This is also false, for the same reason as before. He stated there was nothing he could do about the two-and-a-half-week wait and that I was "welcome to cancel," and he would waive the fee. In a moment of sheer exasperation, I agreed. But then, I thought better of it. I told him to stop the cancellation and that I would be posting my call recordings online to show the world the level of incompetence and lack of care at Virgin Media. His tone changed. He said if that was my intention, he would connect me to the Executive Team, who might issue me with a Deadlock Letter so I could go to the Ombudsman. Finally, I was transferred to Akhil. He was, thankfully, one of the nicer ones again. I recounted the entire, sorry tale one last time. He listened patiently and said he would use his "executive powers" to push my rewire forward and that it wouldn't be two and a half weeks away. He promised he had put in a request and would call me back tomorrow. So here I am, waiting for that promised call from Akhil. As you can probably guess, I’m not holding my breath. I'm now deciding on the best way to get this full story, along with the call recordings, out to the public. I've already contacted a few newsletters about it, in the hope that one of them fancies picking up a story about just how farcical this entire process has been. We'll see if a bit of public light is the only thing that can get a simple internet connection fixed.Installation issues
I’ve made my fair share of bad decisions, but none quite as mind-numbingly absurd as trusting Virgin Media to actually deliver broadband. Instead, I stumbled into a bizarre circus of incompetence, a twisted realm where false promises, robotic customer service, and mind-blowing stupidity collide in the most ridiculous way possible. This company is not a broadband provider. It is a scam operation wearing a uniform. The Art of Talking Absolute Rubbish Virgin Media’s entire business model is based on making things up as they go along. Every time they speak, they somehow manage to dig their reputation even deeper into the bottomless pit of shame and failure. “Yes, we can install broadband at your house.” → No, they can’t. “The engineer will be able to fix it.” → No, they won’t. “It will be sorted next week.” → No, it won’t. “We’re escalating this to our specialist team.” → There is no specialist team. “We’ll call you back with an update.” → No, they won’t. Every single word out of their mouth is as reliable as a chocolate teapot. They lie as effortlessly as breathing, and I’m convinced their entire training program consists of learning new and creative ways to waste people’s time. The Installation That Never Happened Let’s talk about the circus of failure that was my so-called “installation.” This would have been hilarious, if it hadn’t been happening to me. They promised it would be an easy setup. → They were wrong. They sent engineers. → They were useless. They sent different engineers. → Still useless. They blamed “external contractors.” → As if I care who’s responsible, just fix it! They sent another team to do the exact same thing that had already failed. They blamed the council. → No, Virgin, the problem is YOU. Then, after months of this ridiculous game of hot potato, they finally admitted: “Oh, actually, the conduit is crushed, so you can’t get broadband from us.” FANTASTIC. After all that, they finally reached the conclusion that their own engineers had known from the very start. We had also told them in week one that there was an issue with the conduit in our road - as their own engineers had told us this in person! But Virgin media would not believe it - both us and their own engineers. Virgin Media had zero intention of solving this problem. Instead, they just let me waste months of my life waiting for a solution that was never going to come. If this level of incompetence was any more extreme, I’d assume I was being pranked by a hidden camera show. Customer Service? More Like Customer Torment Trying to get answers from Virgin Media’s customer support is like trying to have a conversation with a brick wall—except the brick wall is smarter and more helpful. Their phone system is designed to make you give up. Their chat agents are programmed to type random circular nonsense until you leave. Their managers don’t exist. (Or if they do, they’re hiding in a bunker somewhere.) Their entire operation is based on ignoring you until you go away. They should rebrand from “Virgin Media” to “Virgin Excuses”, because that’s the only thing they ever deliver. Virgin Media: The Company That Should Not Exist Virgin Media is not just bad at providing broadband. They are a disgrace to the entire concept of customer service. If you are thinking of signing up with them, don’t. Run. Run far away. Find another provider, even if it means chiseling a satellite dish out of rock with your bare hands—it will be less frustrating and more reliable than anything Virgin Media could ever offer. This company deserves to be studied—not for its technology, but as a case study in how to be astonishingly, laughably, offensively useless at everything. Virgin Media, congratulations. You have wasted my time, tested my patience, and proven beyond all doubt that you are an utter failure of a company. Now kindly get lost and never darken my door again. I will see you in court - because I will get compensated for this tsunami of nonsense.Installation issues
Virgin Media, the company that can’t figure out how to install their own broadband, yet still insists on pretending they can. It started simply: I asked for fiber. Virgin said yes. They gave me an install date. Then the circus began. The Never-Ending Clown Show For months, Virgin’s engineers have arrived, yanked on the conduit like confused cavemen, watched it fall apart, and then run away—only to reschedule and do it all over again. December 23rd: Failure. January 9th: Failure. January 21st: Failure. February 5th: Failure. February 21st: Failure. At this point, it’s not even incompetence. It’s performance art. Blame Everyone but Themselves. Rather than just admitting they’re useless, Virgin Media has mastered the fine art of pointing fingers: “It’s Avonline’s fault!” You hired Avonline, you absolute muppets. That’s like hiring a dodgy builder and then acting shocked when your house collapses. “The council won’t let us access the road!” Funny, since Avonline’s engineers have been out there working on the road. In fact, one of them even said: “Virgin Media on this road? Not a chance. The conduit’s knackered. Not gonna happen.” Then they tried anyway, snapped the fiber, and left the conduit even more broken. Genius. Truly. I hope the person responsible gets a bonus. I would just leave and give up, but they insist they will only send me all of the money they owe me (for multiple missed appointments, and an agreement to cover the difference between my Virgin bill price and the extortiantate out of contract BT price in the meantime) if I stay and wait to be connected - is that even legal? Lies, Lies and more Lies Meanwhile, their customer service team—trained, I assume, by a group of concussed pigeons—kept assuring me that everything was fine. Me: “Can you install fiber at my house?” Virgin: “Absolutely!” Me: “Then why are you literally paying my neighbours to leave because you can’t install fiber?” Virgin: “Uhh… unforeseen circumstances?” And speaking of my neighbours, I find out they were actually PAID TO LEAVE VIRGIN MEDIA because the company knew it couldn’t provide service - due to a broken conduit! Let me repeat that: They gave people money to go away rather than just fixing the damn conduit. Then they continue to sell this knowingy broken service to others on the same road. Even going so far as to send sales reps door-to-door! We have been waiting for installation since November 2024. Other neighbours have been waiting since October 2024. It is now nearly March 2025. Gaslighting 101 And just when you think Virgin can’t sink lower, they send me an email implying I haven’t been in touch. I’ve spent more time chasing these clowns than they’ve spent actually doing their job. At this rate, I could hand-dig a new conduit myself before Virgin Media figures out what’s happening. Final Thoughts Virgin Media, just be honest: Either fix the conduit and install the fiber, or Admit you can’t do it and stop wasting everyone’s time. Stop selling products you cannot provide. Instead, you’re stuck in an infinite loop of lying, blaming, failing, and rescheduling—like some kind of broadband time-wasting machine. Virgin Media: The only thing they connect is excuses.My virgin media package should’ve been installed on the 2 Dec 2024
My virgin media package should’ve been installed on the 2 Dec 2024. It is now the 30th Jan 2025 and I have had no WiFi in my property since. Additionally, I have had missed appointments when I’ve been guaranteed by phone agent that engineers would be sent out to install my service. I’m sick to death of the lack of openness from virgin media. I have no idea what happening. I understand delays can happen but 60 days later no service at all is unacceptable. I need answers from virgin media today I’ve had yet another appointment missed with no prior warning at all! I’ve raised complaints which have been open since mid-December which are still active despite promises from phone agents that they will be seen to ASAP. In all honesty I feel like every time I call to get any information I’m fed the same script each time by customer service agents who clearly have no idea what’s going on at all. I’m disgusted with how I have been treated and need advice with how I can escalate this.Internet outages, packet loss, general lag for the past 6 months with terrible customer service
To whom this may concern, As the title suggests, I have been having random internet outages, packet loss and general lag for the past 6 months. Our internet is consistently inconsistent, having minimum one to two internet dropouts a day. We have had numerous technician visits to discover and fix the problem. The first two visits didn't resolve our problem, but then a visit in late June discovered that the internet cable from the cabinet outside to our house was damaged in some way or another. We were told that works for replacing this cable would happen within the next week, around June 3rd, but was then delayed to July 10th. July 10th came around and this work never happened. They delayed this date back to July 19th, and somebody showed up that day and said that they would be replacing the cable. Again, no work was done and the cable wasn't replaced. We were told that the date was delayed back to July 22nd. And again, the cable was still not replaced. The date was again delayed back to September 19th. I managed to complain online through the Virgin Media official twitter account and create a new appointment on September 3rd. Again, nothing happened. I confirmed with the Virgin Media twitter account that the original reschedule to September 19th was still happening. Again, nobody showed and the cable has still not been replaced. We now have a new rescheduled date being October 8th, but we are so sick and tired of these lies. We are not ready to wait another 2 weeks for Virgin Media to do the same exact things. We have tried contacting Virgin Media through phone (which is a extremely difficult trying to contact someone real in the first place), emails, and online through twitter messages. We have had little to no help or resolvent at all from any of it, just broken promises. It has been affecting my entire family - it has affected my final year of university (a computer science degree which heavily relied on the internet), it is affecting my job search and online projects, my online gaming, my fathers remote work from home, my mothers online lessons and classes, my brothers online courses and trading, my family's online entertainment. It is affecting everything. It cannot go on any longer. I can't even begin to describe how angry and frustrated we are. Why are Virgin Media refusing to replace our cable? Why are we not being updated on what is actually happening with the works? It's utterly unacceptable. We are looking more towards complaining to an ombudsman or taking legal action now, but I wanted to give this a try as a last resort. I had originally forgotten about this official forum page and I'm frustrated I haven't used this sooner. I have created a Broadband Quality Monitor from thinkbroadband.com and have monitored our service through there. I will attach some screenshots of the service that we have been receiving and broken promises from over the last few months. We demand that this cable is replaced and our internet fixed. We also demand some compensation for the unreliable service and support. I hope this can post can get attention from more Virgin Media representatives so that this problem can finally get resolved.Contract mid-sold
Contacted Virgin as my contract was coming to an end. I wanted a bigger bundle but the offers were poor. Somehow got talked into taking out 1Gb broadband and 02 together for £64 per month. I was previously on an ok deal of about £30 for broadband per month. Since they issued the 1gb box I’ve had two engineers out to get it working and it’s still not providing speeds any better than what I previously paying for at half the price. On top of that 02 data is rubbish in my City and non existent at my place of work which I was also told was good. Somehow virgin don’t recognise this a breach of contract. Worse yet the pods provided to get the previous broadband to work need upgrading to work with the 1Gb box which an agent admitted to me 3 months after contacting about a string of issues. The two engineers who visited got speeds to work of course on their apps while in the house only to drop to zero by magical misfortune after leaving. I’m outraged with Virgin Service robbing my account for poor service and as always they threaten debt collection if I suggest I’m leaving due to pathetic service unless I pay a massive fee to end their contract.I’ve had it with virgin
This is the worse experience I’ve ever had with broadband and regret renewing my contract with virgin. For the past month there has been no/intermittent internet. All trouble shooting has been tried and virgin site advises it’s an issue in the area. There have been dates since the beginning of the month advising when it will be fixed but it never gets fixed. I’ve made 3 complaints now and almost everyday for the past 10 days I’ve been speaking to virgin where they advise the issue will be fixed. I work from home and have to use my phone hot spot in order to work. I’ve registered loss of service twice but the option is no longer there. I think what annoys me the most is the lies that it will be fixed when it won’t and hasn’t been fixed. What exactly am I paying for. I’m so grateful that when I upgraded my phone with three network that I picked unlimited internet as I would not be able to work now if I hadn’t.House Move Cut Me Off Early
I told them I want the internet moving on the 3rd, they assured me the internet would be fine and working until I move house, and my ex has ordered virgin to be installed a few days before just incase. HOWEVER, Midnight has just hit and you've disconnected me from the internet completely, my account is unmanageable because you've changed all my details to a new account (my volt boost had better still be there). I made it totally clear about needing internet, and the staff reassured me time and time again (why do I ever listen to virgin media). I don't want to have to call, I want it on tomorrow morning. First thing. As for the "New Account" you've given me, it flashes up with a £150 bill before showing "Preparing your property for installation". Well, I wasn't told there was a service move cost or installation cost. I kept with Virgin Media because it was the easiest solution, but you're making it very difficult playing these stupid games, and if it carries on I'll be gone to BT, I'm not even in Contract atm.... and if your staffs signed me up to a new one, then nope cos I never signed or agree'd to one. Honestly this is utterly shocking. EDIT: I've just read elsewhere on the forum that there's a £20 self install cost for moving, which I was never made aware of, and reading up that's for a self install... my property has never had Virgin Media installed at it before, so I gather that's where the £150 has come from? Again, wasn't made aware there was a cost, so you can't be charging me, and if you insist on it I will just cancel my service right now.Trying to leave VM keep getting lied to....
After 20+ Years with NTL/Virgin Media they put the price up too far so we finally decided to leave. My wife (the account holder) contacted VM on the 19th March to arrange disconnection because of the steep price increases. Usually she can "negotiate" a reduction with VM's disconnection people but the best their reps would offer her was £40 despite VM offering the same package to new customers for £26, this smarts a bit as we have been a loyal customer of VM/NTL for more than 25 years. So my wife rang and spoke to VM rep Michael at 13.33 on the 19th March and said we were leaving and he gave her a service end date of the 18th April. He said he would arrange the disconnection of our TV and Broadband starting from the 19th march but said that as we were taking our landline number to our new ISP (Vodafone) that that the landline part of our service couldn't be cancelled straight away we would have to wait for the "port" of the number to our new ISP to be complete, this was completed on the 9th April, 01633 66**** (previously an NTL number) is now on working on our new Vodafone service and Vodafone are billing us for it as well as VM! She subsequently received an email from VM on the 20th March to say her *new monthly bundle cost would be £19.00* and that her next bill would be generated on the 18th April. The email also said: "Your new package now includes: No New services have been added We've removed: TV: TiVo Monthly Fee - Mixit TV Broadband: Volt M250 Broadband" This made good sense up to this point. On the 23rd March my wife gets another email from VM saying her new monthly bundle cost is £57.60 and that our "New" package is TV: Mixit TV & Phone Talk Weekends - Line Rental ? So having agreed to one price (£19) VM simply Jack it up to £57? now it make no sense and smacks of sharp business practice. To confirm my wife rang VM's call centre and was told our last bill would be £57.00 not the £19.00 as originally agreed with VM representative Michael on the 19th March. Rang VM's call centre again and spoke to "Ryan" who said he couldn't tell her what her final bill will be "the system" wouldn't show him the bill because of the way the disconnection was done? and that she would have to wait for the email bill in about a months time? So my good lady is fairly fed up with this at this point and raised a complaint through VM's portal, their response was contact the "customer retention team" so.... She contacted VM's "customer retention team" and spoke to their representative "Maika" at 11:05 on the 12th April. Maika confirmed that our landline 01633 66**** was successfully physically ported to Vodafone on the 9th April, I can confirm the line is now working on the Vodafone network and that Vodafone are currently billing us for this service. Maika said that Virgin Media's telephone number "Export Order" would take seven days to complete from the physical port date of 9th April giving a completion date of 16th April 2024, she also said I would get a bill then. Maika's Call Reference Number: FOR0033175713. Maika went on to say that the 30 day termination notice would start from the 9th April for *ALL* our VM services? All this despite being given assurance by VM representative "Michael" on the 19th March 2024 that the 30 day notice for the Broadband & TV elements of my contract would start on the date of my conversation with him giving a cessation date for these elements of the 18th April 2024. It gets worse...... New bill from VM received Fri, 19 Apr 2024 at 7:26 "Your bill £62.95 Bill date: 18 April 2024 Payment date: 7 May 2024 You've chosen to pay your bill by Direct Debit. We will request £62.95 from your bank or building society on or immediately after 7 May 2024. About this month's bill... Let us break it down for you Package changes: £0.73 You've made some changes since your last bill. To view your latest package and see a full breakdown of what has been added / removed, please use the red 'view this bill' button above to sign in to My Virgin Media. Your package: £62.22 As you've made some changes since your last bill, this value might look a little different to last month. If you've added a service or changed your bundle, those changes will be reflected in this amount. Your package includes your standard monthly bundle / package cost, plus any promotions and discounts applied. This month they cover your advanced month from 16 April. Owed from last month: £0.00 Your Virgin Media account is up to date, thank you." Other than the cancellation my wife hasn't made any package changes as noted in this VM's email and the bill amount is not that agreed with their representative Michael on the 19th March 2024.. But It gets worse still..... Out of the blue my wife then gets a "Whatsapp" message from VM: (Edited as it's rather long but a complete transcript is available) 19/04/2024, 16:42 - Virgin Media: Hi N*******, this is Virgin Media O2. We noticed that you have an open complaint on your account C-0904*******. ........................... 19/04/2024, 18:35 - Virgin Media: N******, Thank you for clearing the security on the account, and I really appreciate your patience. I understand that you are worried about the final bill, as you spoke in March about disconnection and were informed that on April 19, your account will be disconnected and the final bill will be 19.00 GBP. Still, your account was not disconnected, and you were informed that your account will be disconnected on May 15, and then your bill will be 62.00 GBP and you will get a refund of 18.00 GBP on your account. Please allow me to check on the account, and be assured that I am looking into the complaint right now to help you with a resolution. Kindly stay connected. It might take some time. 19/04/2024, 18:36 - N*******: Ok Im not going anywhere until I get a resolution to this fiasco 19/04/2024, 18:52 - Virgin Media: N******, Thank you for your patience, and I really appreciate your patience. I am sorry that it took me time to receive your complaint and account. I understand that you contacted me in March to request disconnection. However, only a homephone switchover request was taken, not the complete account. I am really sorry for that. I am taking ownership to make sure that your disconnection date is getting disconnected early and you will not receive the bill for 62.95 GBP on your account. As I have provided you with the resolution, I will close the complaint........ 19/04/2024, 18:57 - N******: Can you tell me my disconnection date? will it revert to the originally agreed 18th April? 19/04/2024, 19:00 - Virgin Media: N******, Not to worry, as your account should get disconnected on April 18; hence, April 18 is already passed, so your account will be disconnected tomorrow. And as you are requesting an email confirmation, we will make sure that you receive an email confirmation with the disconnection date, which will be tomorrow. Needless to say no email was received and the "closing bill still shows: You can't deal with people like this saying one thing and then doing something different and then just blatantly lying to fob you off so they can close a complaint. Disgusting shoddy behaviour. Where can we go from here?installation date keeps getting moved!
Hi all, as a newly joined customer (less than 72 hours) I have already become disillusioned in carrying on my custom with VM. I booked an engineer installation date for Friday the 26th April and this was confirmed via email. I then received a text to say that this has been postponed to the 6th May, which will subsequently leave me without an internet service. I have spent the best part of an hour and half on the phone and have been passed from pillow to post with the overseas team. I have been told twice that a 3rd party is due to visit the properly as part of the pre- installation service. They were due on 03.04.23. I have then called again today 05.03.23 and was told that pre installation date was rescheduled today. To my surprise, NOT, nobody has shown up. I don’t really want to have to cancel but I ready do not see any other option. can someone kindly look into this? thanks!
