Virgin Media – Ooh, they didn’t want to ask me this….
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Yet more trouble with Virgin Media’s broadband service – and guess what? The poor fools sent me out a customer satisfaction survey!!!
Oh how I laughed…
Anyway, they asked me how likely I would be to recommend their service to a friend or colleague…..I answered: ‘0 – not at all likely’
Below is my reply when they asked why I had given this answer…
Ok, how long do you have? Try having a listen to this..
http://www.staggeringstories.net/MildlyPerturbedBy-TheStatesOfJerseyAndVirginMedia.mp3
Its only part one, ‘cos Ive had more hassle with your company since…
Basically, scrap the Indian call center – the poor folks there only seem able to stick rigidly to a script and can’t understand when you say something outside it’s list of possible responses.
Scrap the premium rate phone number for broadband – The trouble I had getting the charges refunded even when I’d been told by several people they had been – they still turned up on the bill.
Get communication with the engineers’ dept sorted out so if an engineer visit is canceled he doesn’t turn up – and then you get charged….
Scrap the 5 pound per month non direct debit fee…it’s blatant profiteering and quite possibly illegal – and yes, I’ve spoken to Ofcom about it and your general failing service.
Virgin Media’s customer service has become so poor and seems to be only about how much money it can make for the company….
So, no, I won’t be recommending Virgin Media to my friends – I want to keep them….
As I write this my phone line with Virgin Media has been down for at least six days (maybe more, that’s when I first noticed it). So for the past week no one who doesn’t have my mobile number (which I give out very rarely) has been able to phone me. I’ve called Virgin Media about this several times, each time they acknowledge a fault in my area and say that engineers are working on it. They’ve had all working week to do so but it is still offline. Absolutely pathetic. Thank goodness my cable modem and television service is still running – or I’ll have been picketing their offices by now.
They really have deteriorated to a new low. Things have been on the slide for quite a while but ever since the merger of Telewest (as was in this area – Eurobell before that) with NTL and their rebranding to Virgin Media it has started to become intolerable.
I used to be too far from the BT exchange to get ADSL but it’s certainly time I tried to figure out if that is still the case. The Virgin TV service is a grave disappointment, when I signed up at the end of last year they had two (though only part-time) HD TV channels. That quickly fell to one – the BBC HD Trial channel. I had expected them to expand that range, not further restrict it. I almost hate to do it but when my 12 month Virgin TV contract is up, in a couple of months, I’m going to seriously consider returning to Howling Mad Murdoch’s Sky. Anyone can give me a phone line. It’s just the broadband that is in question. Time to get away from Virgin, if I can.
I must be one of the few people who’s had no problem with Virgin Media from what I’ve been hearing recently.
From when I signed up over 3 months ago I’ve had only 1 minor internet outage for about an hour. Their internet speeds are also the most reliable I’ve come across. None of that ADSL 8MB nonsence which actually turns out to be close to 1MB because you’re sharing it with 50 or so other people. My Virgin media 2MB line had always given me exactly that, nothing less, and there’s none of that pesky montly cap stuff as well.
The TV from them has also been great, I’m loving all their on demand stuff, and haven’t had any problem with anything else. I don’t use their phone line at all, but considering I’m only paying £30 a month for the whole lot I’m not too bothered (Net, TV, Phone). I was paying at least that for just broadband with my old supplier due to the old BT line rental added onto the high ADSL charges.
You are very lucky, Chisel! I’ve been using them for phone and broadband for a few years now, back when they were still Telewest. I had no problems for most of that time. I’ve only been taking their TV package (their top TV package and V+ box (or TVDrive as it was known then)) for about ten months. A couple of months in on their TV they lost half of their HD channels (okay, that’s one of two but when you’ve only have a choice of two, losing one of them is a big deal). Getting a full HD (1080p) TV was what prompted me to go with Telewest for their TV – HD content! I sincerely wish I’d gone with Sky instead, now. I’m not even going to mention the shambles that was the loss of Sky 1, etc. on Virgin. Now this phone problem…
It must be about nine days now I’ve been without phone. I’ll contact them again today but I get the feeling that they just can’t be bothered to sort it out, that’s certainly the impression I’ve been getting from their customer services people. Very poor. Things are fine with Virgin for as long as you don’t have a problem. The moment you do have a problem (and it will happen sooner or later – and probably sooner, I suspect) that’s when you really realise the rot that has set in.