Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta
Joined 11 years ago
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Re: Breaking: OFCOM investigating VM over difficulty cancelling VM contracts
ALF28 wrote: It should be simple to automate cancellation in the online account? Of course it should be, and there's no technical reason why VM can't do it through My Virgin Media. But why would they do that? They've made leaving difficult for many years, and they've got away with it because Ofcom are asleep at the wheel. From VM's perspective it means a small proportion of customers will give up, and not bother switching, and even though that's a small number, it's a valuable number - if they can put somebody off leaving for a further 18 months then that's a revenue NPV of over a thousand quid a customer since those will be undiscounted prices. For those who don't give up they'll be handed off to VM's retentions process whether they want to or not, and that's hard-fought to retained as many customers as possible at the lowest possible discount. From VM's perspective that's really valuable - they know from all their data that once a customer is engaged in a retentions call, there's a good chance they'll be dissuaded from cancelling. My current ISP simply requests I email them to notify of cancellation, and as they're using Openreach if I transferred to another OR based ISP, I wouldn't even need to contact the existing ISP. Isn't it strange - Openreach suppliers have had a working GPL switching process for years, but that never included VM. One Touch Switching was announced by Ofcom for all ISPs including VM back in 2021 and still isn't working because (supposedly) it's all really, really difficult. That's nonsense - I was programming links between dissimilar computer systems back in 1986 and it is no big deal, so if it's difficult now then its because somebody is making it difficult.3.6KViews3likes0CommentsRe: Breaking: OFCOM investigating VM over difficulty cancelling VM contracts
And cancelling by letter worked fine for me, as my history shows I've always pointed that option to people here. But the point is that the company ENCOURAGE people to contact them by phone as the primary and (supposedly) quickest channel to cancel, and then they deliberately make cancelling via that channel slow and difficult. And don't forget that for a long time customer paperwork and even odd bits of the VM website directed customers to cancel via letter to Phoenix Park, years after the company had moved out, and for a good long period after VM stopped redirecting the post. Some poor suckers even still have paperwork showing a cancellation address near Winchester that hasn't been a customer service location for probably over a decade.3.7KViews1like0CommentsRe: Breaking: OFCOM investigating VM over difficulty cancelling VM contracts
goslow wrote: A big fat fine doesn't seem to be first choice in the ICO's proposed new approach to enforcement though https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2022/11/how-the-ico-enforces-a-new-strategic-approach-to-regulatory-action/ That's correct, I work for a regulator (not Ofcom, be assured), and fines are a last resort. Monetary penalties and prosecutions are long winded, slow, open to legal challenge, what a regulator seeks is compliance. So they'll be trying to understand what the facts are, why cancelling is difficult, what VM have been doing about it, and what needs to happen to make things different in future. Helping a non-compliant company into a compliant position is always quicker and potentially more effective than extracting a few quid from them. From a business perspective, fines are a corporate expense and are never paid by the parts of the business that create a problem. Unless there's direct criminality nobody will be help personally to account. So whilst I'd dearly like VM to be fined squillions for this long running, deliberate, and unacceptable behaviour, I don't think that will happen. The ideal outcome would be as somebody commented earlier, a simple "cancel my contract because I hate you" button in MVM. Other industries manage it, VM and other telcos should be forced to provide that However, where Ofcom are a pushover, I expect that all that will happen will be VM are found to have made things difficult, but will get away with a mumbled "dint meen it, won't do it again much" apology, before trying to get back as close as possible to the previous behaviours without breaking the letter of any promises to Ofcom. On the plus side, a regulatory investigation is difficult and very expensive for companies. I shall contact them and provide my observations during my time as a VIP, others may wish to consider whether they have anything to add for Ofcom. You EARNED this Virgin Media, now OWN it. Hahahahahhahahaha!15KViews3likes2CommentsRe: Introducing the new Virgin Media Community
MrHalfAsleep: "Lots of whitespace on a desktop 'cos peeps like mobile phones." You've looked at the mobile experience? Admittedly no white space, but experience is different yet as bad as desktop, just in different ways. Surely I can't be the only person who participates in other forums where there's a good user experience on both desktop and mobile? Some aspects of the changes (eg navigation) are going to be a familiarity thing, and I'm not expecting perfection, but there's a lot here that could be usefully improved.7.9KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Introducing the new Virgin Media Community
Wow. One heck of a change. I accept change in appearance is necessary to keep things contemporary and keeping up with standards of web design, and I'll give you this is modern and visually attractive, but it's also totally lacking in digital ergonomics. Not clear how much can now be changed at this stage, but if you're looking for ideas, make much more efficient use of screen space, and improve the forum navigation (as opposed to VM navigation). Landing in the forum now and it's .....how to put it....just lacking forumness. Three levels of non-forum links are the top 25% of the screen, half the screen then given over to a "welcome back" banner that really does nothing useful for me, and the lower quarter (and a bit ore below on my 27" monitor) is VM information posts. I have to scroll down a further screen depth or so before I get to any actual forum member posts. Those are a jumble of Community Activity from all sub-forums, and only show three or four posts per screen depth because the presentation of each post takes up 7-8 lines each. If I click on the link to a sub-forum, say Networking & Wifi, the top half of my screen is wasted, and to get to actual posts and real content I have to scroll down through two entire screen depths to get past the (now purple) stickies - again, far too much depth wasted per post. Open a thread, and the same profligacy with screen space is apparent, with the left 25% of the screen wasted as white space, and the right 33%. I have an impression that there was either no testing by actual users, or that if there was, their comments were not heard and acted on.8.1KViews17likes0CommentsRe: 1gig, hub 5, unusable for online gaming, packet loss and latency issues
I agree JuicyGoomba, evidence conclusively points to a fault on the local VM network - maybe a cracked core on coax or something similarly intermittent and hard to detect. However, VM have had many chances to take ownership and sort it out, clearly as a corporate entity they can't be bothered, so where are you contractually? And what are your other ISP options? If a fixed term is coming to an end, then just arrange a new ISP and cancel VM by letter. If you've got time to run on a fixed term, then VM might just agree to release you without penalty, but more likely you'd have to use complaints and Ombudsman Services to get that outcome (and say £100-150 compensation for the poor connection, poor customer service and need to escalate to the ombudsman).3.5KViews1like3CommentsRe: Virgin Media's answer to CityFibre?
cje85 wrote: Other than the small, insignificant 13.8% (average) price hike. Point of information, Sir! "The small, insignificant 13.8% (average) price hike that's applied in a manner that the majority of customers (who are on discounted deals) face much higher increases in their monthly bills." How that's in any way legal kcuf knows.11KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Virgin Media's answer to CityFibre?
tepark wrote: Yes the massive price increases are forcing my hand, and the "customer Services" well... far from "top notch". That's polite sarcasm, as it pleases the forum staff more than outright humour with a sharp edge (which I find gets me a brief ban from the forum). But I've already voted with my feet, and left VM a couple of months back.11KViews0likes6CommentsRe: Virgin Media's answer to CityFibre?
A long and complicated story behind it, but no, VM can't just increase their upload speeds - the core cable technology permits around 10:1 ratios. Within that there's some leeway to offer more to some customers than others, but overall the ratio holds true. As and when VM have a true fibre offer that's not got a DOCSIS element in the chain then yes they can consider symmetrical speeds (which is not to say that the economics will make that attractive to VM), but for this even to be an option they'll need to have upgraded the network to XGS-PON, and the customer droplinks, as well as replacing the customer's hub. That's part of the strategy but it is years away. If you want faster upload, go with CityFibre. If you want VM's bundles, TV offering, regular massive price rises, and top notch customer service then stick with VM.11KViews3likes22CommentsRe: RPI increase confusion
Chris_W1 wrote: We usually give the option to cancel with out EDF during the price increase. Errrm...what about the changes proposed to terms that will remove that right? Or have I got it wrong, and although there will be a price rise method in the contract, it's going to be voluntary as to whether customer take it? The other thing about the baked in price rise is that it is on the undiscounted price, so anybody on a discount will see higher proportionate increase.1.6KViews0likes4Comments