Vulnerable customer appalling service
It has come to light that my 81-year-old grandmother is paying £94 a month to virgin media for the entertainment channels and sky cinema. A landline which she doesn't use and no internet. Virgin are selling this package including internet and Netflix for £45 to new customers. My grandmother has been out of contact 8 yrs and not once has there been any attempt to source her a new deal. She's a proud woman pays her bills on time and this came up with family by chance. She's also £550 in credit to virgin which they are happy to keep taking! I rang Sunday 16th March (total of 3 calls equating to 66 minutes) to complain about this and how vulnerable customers are being taken advantage of. I queried do virgin not have teams to help such people and elderly. I asked for her price to be looked at but all the girl could do was reduce her package. She said she would raise a complaint and someone would ring me back within 24 hours. No call received so I rang 2 days later on the 18th March (2 calls equating to 19 mins) , spoke to a girl i believe her name was Nicola. She was lovely but said I was told wrong it would take 72 hours for a call back. Again she tried to look at package but I believe it was still £70 for just the tv and landline so I said I would wait on a call back, which again never came. I rang again on 23rd march (44 mins this time) and was told that they had no idea why i would be getting a call-back that's not what happens? I am extremely frustrated by now 3 calls of different information. I explained my mum rang this week and got a call back within a day for her account yet my 81 year old grandmother is getting no grace whatsoever, yet he told me no call back was needed even though he could see on notes I had been told i was getting one. . I was told different advisors at different times of day can agree different price. Basically virgin trying to cover their backs at all costs. The guy agreed a price of £57 increasing to approx. £62 with years inflation. It was for the same package and he told me he had noted the file that I could ring back anytime up to end of month once I had spoke to my grandmother. I rang today to proceed with this quote, the 1st advisor could see the price and quoted me 2 figures one with broadband and one without, she passed me to customer relations and to get it set up and I was then told no can do, the girl didn't listen at all and said couldn't give me the price as rates change and that also physically can't buy a package without internet. Yet the 3 previous calls and 4 including the 1st advisor on this call has offered me a price on this basis. The call on 23rd I believe his name was Mark not 100% sure clarified I could call back to avail of this price and he was noting the file. How is any of this fare on an 81 year old woman paying over the odds and with call recording to back up absolutely everything I say here. As I said she's been out of contract since 2017. Could have left virgin media 3/4 times over and came back with new customer rates but being ripped off has got her nowhere! I was quoted a price 23.03.25 rang to proceed 26.03.25 and again getting mucked about. I am following proper channels for a complaint and will escalate to ombudsman also. I will be sharing on socials and any media outlet that will listen. Virgin are disgraceful , The service of the advisors is shocking and the information differs on every call. Do you not train staff? Also on the 1st call i wasn't provided with a complaints reference? I note when i log in to my granny's online account it shows she has internet yet has never had this installed , I have took screen recording of same. Also took screen recording of the fact your complaints pages purposely isn't working and I have had to search every where to find an email address. Took another screen recording of the fact your forum won't let me post as yet another error coming up. Come on virgin how is it right to treat customers this way. Where is the treating customers fairly in any of this? Maybe this will help in me actually getting a response!Frustrating Customer Service multiple years ago, and now I'm in arrears???
Hi. I hope there's someone here that can help me. A few years ago when I was a student, two of my friends and I had rooms in a student house. Most of the bills were included but internet wasn't, so we decided to go for Virgin Media for a year, despite only needing it for 9 months as that was the only contract option. I was the account holder, signing up with my email address. We all moved out, and I went to cancel the contract and disconnect it, happily sending the kit back to them and paying any early disconnection fees. I ended up being asked to speak to their customer service team over WhatsApp and happily explained the situation. I was moving to Manchester into a house where the landlord controlled and paid for the internet, included in the rent. This internet was also Virgin Media broadband and one of their more premium packages, so there was no need for me to have any sort of contract still. The chat was extremely frustrating, with the Customer Service Assistant repeatedly using different angles to ask me if I could keep my account. Each message took about 20 minutes to get a reply so it took hours. The conversation went something like this: "You still have 3 months! Are you sure you don't want us to transfer it to your new address?" "No that's honestly okay, my new place has a better version included from Virgin and the landlord pays for and manages it themselves. I would just like to cancel and can pay an early cancellation fee and send the equipment back" "I've just checked your new address and that version is much more expensive, are you sure you don't want to transfer this cheaper one?" "No, I'm not paying for the new one and its a shared house with it included, so please just cancel mine. I have no reason to need it anymore and would like to be out of the contract please". "You will have to pay an early cancellation fee" "That's fine, how much is it?" "Actually Luke our back office team will process regarding the service to the new address, so that you can use your own account" "I don't need it, please listen to me and cancel the contract, I have no need to pay for more Internet through my own account as I already have it through my landlord. Can I speak to a supervisor please?" "I understand Luke, are you moving to the new address permanently?" "Yes" "Have you got any friends or family that can take over the contract for you?" "No" "I understand that you may have already made up your mind , but would like to make sure that you are also not passing out an opportunity to re-negotiate your package with us." "I have no reason to have the package. As constantly explained. Please just disconnect me, I will be making a complaint if this continues" This then honestly continued for about another half an hour. Within the conversation I gave them my new address. Then, so many years later, I have checked my credit and although my credit score is absolutely fine, it mentioned me being in arrears. Now, looking back at the messaging with this customer service assistant, he did mention a cancellation fee but I never received a bill. I'd already moved house and didn't get an email or anything. He did mention it would cost £63 and I must have forgotten about it. My current problem is I've called Virgin, and now they can't access my account due to the security questions about about recent billing and there is none. They cant tell me what I owe, or anything. Despite telling them my new address in the above chat, because im not at the address I lived at in 2022, they can't send me a letter. It almost looks like my account has been closed but there's still an outstanding bill I'm unaware of. The lady on the phone said "well I can take a payment if you have an idea of how much you owe, but I can't tell you how much that is". I cant log into my account and trying to reset the password doesn't work. What? I apparently owe money, but virgin can't tell me what it is or get into my account. How do I know where the money is going, how much exactly to pay, if its going to actually pay off this mystery bill or not? It's just confusing. I would like to make a complaint as well because I have received nothing about this bill for years! Surely they still have some of my details if I owe them this money?? I haven't paid anything yet, but happy to do so if I've genuinely made an error. I just feel like the whole customer service aspect of all of my experience has been terrible. The confusion from which has potentially put me in arrears and affected my financials.First Engineer says cable from pavement to house is broken, second one says no. Not service still!!!
Don't know whether there is communication problem between engineers, or who's right or wrong. Second engineer just fixed some cables, didn't check if it's work, didn't tell anyone and disappeared. No wifi for the a week until the holiday.Without broadband for 4 weeks and being constantly lied too from Virgin
We have now been without broadband for four weeks. To say our experience has been appalling is an understatement, I cannot express in words how shocking our treatment has been. We have been constantly and blatantly lied to by Virgin Media over and over again, promising that our broadband would be fixed, that engineers would attend and that we are a priority. It all started back on 15th May when we lost wifi. An engineer came out the day after but said he couldn’t fix it and arranged for a team to come out on Friday 17th May which did happen, after a couple of hours the engineer informed us that there was a blockage down the street and they couldn’t get the cable up to our property and that they would need council approval to dig to find the blockage so were told this would happen on the Monday 20th May or Tuesday 21st May. We received a text message from Virgin stating a team would be replacing our cable on Saturday 18th May, I confirmed this via phone call in which I was told they would arrive between 8am - 1pm. When they failed to come I called again and was told it could be up till 6pm. Again after waiting, no one turned up and after contacting the WhatsApp chat I was told I’d need to wait for a technician to call. On Sunday 19th May I received a text message stating our appointment had now been moved to Monday 20th May. After confirming this in the WhatsApp chat, I was told a Field Audit team would be out to visit and ‘get it sorted’ a team did appear on Tuesday 21st. I was working (dog walker) and did drive past my street and saw a virgin van at our property as well as council digging up the pavement further down. When I returned home, expecting the wifi to be back on, everyone had gone and we still had no wifi or any explanation as to why our broadband hadn’t been fixed. Again I contacted Virgin for an update and was told to wait for an update. I eventually received a text stating our appointment had been moved to Wednesday 22nd May, when no one appeared yet again on Wednesday I took to the chat service and was now told it would be the day after… And again we kept receiving text messages with appointments and each day I called or chatted with agents who assured me the work would be completed and we kept getting let down each time, completely in the dark as to what was happening with fixing our broadband… On Friday 24th a virgin van did come to our street and I finally thought we would have our broadband fixed, but the van parked down the end of our street and seemed to be working at another property. I took a walk down to speak with engineers who just so happened to be the same engineers that attended the previous Friday, they were surprised we hadn’t been connected and that they had no jobs for us in their diary. So as you can imagine this was extremely infuriating and I took to calling Virgin once again only to be told we now have an appointment booked on 10th June!! Over TWO WEEKS away… the girl on the phone agreed with me that this was an unacceptable time to wait but then recommend that we switch to a business account as we would have our broadband fixed quicker… I was told there were no difference in prices or service, just a case of changing the name from residential to business. As we were so desperate to just have our broadband fixed we were put through to Callum Bunn ‘Buisness Sales Executive’ who informed me that we had been misled and that switching to a business account would be more expensive, I would also loose my o2 double data and would also take 10 days to install. So we would just need to now wait until 10th June for our appointment. I did take to the chat service again on Saturday 25th May and was given a slightly closer date, 8th June between 8am - 1pm Yesterday we expected again, a team to attend to finally fix our broadband, I was again assured it would be fixed ‘at all costs’ I also called and was again reassured our broadband would be fixed and to expect the visit between 8am - 1pm. After 1pm when no one had turned up yet again I called and was told it could be up until 7pm. Again I stated my concerns that no one would attend and was again reassured a team would defiantly be there. 7pm came and went and I was not surprised that no one had turned up. It is now Sunday 9th June and we have had no correspondence as to what is happening. To be without broadband for this ridiculous amount of time has had a severe impact on my Wife and I. She is registered disabled and has severe mobility issues (which I have told Virgin about constantly) She has had to travel to her mothers to enable her to work, she is really struggling not only physically but also mentally. I was told that our situation would be escalated as high priority due to my Wife’s condition. I also run a business and require broadband, it’s been extremely difficult over the last four weeks. We are also loosing out on our paid subscription services such as Netflix, Prime, Disney+. Due to my Wife’s condition she enjoys online gaming, as do I and we have had no access to our PlayStation or Steam online gaming. Our house had a Ring security system which is down due to having no wifi, leaving us vulnerable and without evidence if anything were to happen. Our reptile tanks also have smart plugs which turn on and off at certain times, we have had to do this manually. We rely heavily on our broadband and feel deeply hurt and appalled at the way we have been treated since our broadband has been off. Being constantly lied too by agents, kept in the dark about what is going on, getting our hopes up when there is obviously no intention of fixing our issue. I will be seeking substantial compensation not only for loss of service but for the major inconvenience and also for loss of other services which we cannot access thanks to Virgin's incompetence. I will also be taking my complaint to the regulator or ombudsman as I feel this is such a serious issue.
Caller ID not working after engineer visit
Port failure in cabinet stopped phone ringing when caller heard normal ringing tone at their end. Virgin help line spent 45 minutes trying to convince me it was all my fault, but eventually agreed to send an engineer. That fault fixed this morning by engineer who swapped my line to a different port because the old port in the street cabinet had died.. Ringing restored, but now find that Caller ID, which has worked perfectly for years, is now absent. Called Virgin help line. Virgin guy took ages to understand the problem and, afer quite a long call, finished by saying it must be my handset. There are no enabling options at my end and it is no coincidence that the problem followed the port changed. Now Virgin first line has failed to to find a solution, and blames my end for this problem, where do I go now?Simply the worst service ever
Wow, I genuinely don’t know where to start. My complaint and issues go back to May this year!!! We are building a new home and unfortunately VM are the only ones offering fibre at that location. I contacted them to make them aware we would be moving and requested that they come to the house to install a cable from the road to the house (approx 20m) as we were having a new drive way and the builder had installed ducting under the drive for the cable. Our builder also said he wanted the cable in before he laid the drive in case there were any issues. 4 weeks on at the end of June, a VM engineer comes and does a survey. He recommended he supply some free issue cable so we could install ready for the move. No cable arrived, no engineers arrived. Back on the phone. Promised an install team would be out within the week to sort the cable. Another 2 week passes - nothing. Back on the phone. Promised a team would absolutely be on-site “Thursday and we will give you 1 months service FOC as goodwill”. Thursday arrives, no engineers. Back on the phone. No credits given or any notes for the free month. We are now in September and I have spent literally days on the phone, being passed from pillar to post, to the Phillipenes and back. Back on the phone. A civils engineer turns up, does a small cut from the service to our wall and goes. No cable team, no install. Back on the phone. Now after over 5 months of sorting, a very upset builder, the cable team arrive, we help them install the cable as quite simply they were clueless. Cable installed ✅ but as a result of the delay, my builder had to return to lay our driveway and so we posponed our “Movers” team appointment from 30th Oct 23 to 30th Dec 23 - and given I know how seriously bad virgin are, I contacted them prior to make sure they wouldn’t all of a sudden cut us off at our existing address and try to connect the new address. I had this confirmed on the phone and via the shockingly bad WhatsApp message service and I quote “I can confirm no service will be disrupted”. Guess what? We were cut off despite the assurances we wouldn’t be. Back on the phone. A form needed to be completed and a reconnection request submitted. First call I was promised 24 hours, no service. Back on the phone. Then I was told 48 hours. Still no service. Back on the phone. After 57 hours our service came back on, but guess what, he’s the bonus prize…TNT sports had gone as a service (typical on Champions League week), our second box in our bedroom completely stopped working and they sent a new 18 month contact through and DOUBLED our charges 😭😭😭. Back on the phone. Spoke with Yazmin in customer services, seemed as if she was on the ball, put credits on our account to bring the bills down. I then asked if the movers appointment had been put back to the end of December as previously confirmed. It had been moved back to 15th November (honestly you could laugh it’s that bad). She promised it would now be put back to the 12th Jan 24 (at my request) and the TV service should now be as it was previously. I get home last night from work (7th Nov) no TNT sports, second box in our bedroom not working. Back on the phone. Now speaking to David (Geordie accent) in the retentions team. He actually said my account was all over the place and he’d never seen anything like it. My luck. Virgin has only reconnected 1 of the 2 boxes and put us on a different service to what we had before, which took off TNT. He couldn’t do anything about it after 2 hours on the phone, said he would call me back today to sort as it needed the movers team back involved and they had now closed for the day. Had a call back this evening from David, he confirmed we now needed to return a perfectly working box of last week and have a new secondary box sent out to us. He also said in order to get TNT sports back, he would need to put me through to Movers again. 45 minutes later I am now on with some Irish guy who tells me he can’t add any services back on and that the retention team are the only ones that can do it. I ask for David again, not available. 45 minutes later I get passed to some Indian guy who sounded like a robot (issue with his headset I was told), he put the phone down then called me back, issue not as bad but still difficult to hear him. I told him to read the notes as I refused to repeat the story again for the 9th time. He said he could add the secondary box for delivery and put TNT back on my account for a small charge. Honestly my head nearly come off my shoulders. He then said I would have to speak to retentions team for them to get the service back on FOC. I said you are meant to be retentions, he wasn’t, he didn’t have a clue. Put back to retentions at 9pm, I left it ringing for over 30 minutes then was cut off. Still without the service we had prior to virgin deciding to cut us off. Back on the phone tomorrow. Moral of the story, avoid Virgin at all costs. If another provider is only a few pounds more expensive and you would receive a similar package, stay clear of Virgin. They are a complete mess in terms of organisation and internal communication is non-existent. I will be cancelling with them in the morning having had 6 months of non stop issues, lies, bad service. It’s just not worth having to deal with them.
