I thought it’d had all been sorted out after my last set of ranting.
But it would seem not. I’ve now been cut off. Or at least TV and phone have, broadband (oddly) still seems to be working. As before I’m not going to let this rant pollute my main blog, so you’re going to have to click if you want to read more.
But Virgin Media really do suck…
Broadband’s been working, the TV’s been OK, we’ve not really used the phone.
But I’ve had a couple of snotty(ish) letters saying that I’ve not paid my bill. This is really strange as I’ve set up 2 direct debits to pay for the service, I’ve got letters from Virgin that show this, and they’re showing up on my bank account:
Last week I got a final demand pointing out that my credit rating might be at risk. This made me a little cross and I didn’t want to have my credit rating ruined so I got ready to pick up the phone again. You might have read how much I don’t like being on hold to Virgin before, for me it’s really a last resort…
Anyway conversation goes a bit like this:
Me – I’ve got bills, but I’ve got 2 direct debits set up, why?
She – There’s no direct debits on the system
Me – well how come I’ve got these letters? Were they done by hand on a typewriter? And who set up the direct debits I can see on my bank account?
She – I’m sorry sir they’re not on the system
Me – They must be on a system somewhere, or at least have been on a system somewhere at some point. I’m sorry I can’t tell you where. Would you like me to send you the letters so you can see them?
She – But they’re not on the system, you can pay by debit card now if you like
Me – I would not like, I don’t want to pay twice
She – has money come out of your account yet?
Me – not sure
She – well can I suggest you check
Me – good idea, but can you put a note on my account to say that we’re looking into this so that I don’t get cut off, or get a bad credit rating
She – of course
Me – fine, I’ll look into it and get back to you
So, nothing solved, and 2 mystery direct debits floating in the ether…
Last night I went back through all my paperwork and realised that Virgin Media have given me 3 different account numbers. All in the same name. All at the same address. At last I though, I’ve managed to figure out why Virgin can’t sort out my bills. I’ll give them a call and try to clear it up. I wish I hadn’t bothered.
Offshore call centre, so the call was trickier anyway. But basically the upshot of the conversation was that it’s my fault I’ve got 3 numbers. 2 of the numbers aren’t Vrigin account numbers they’re NTL numbers. When I pointed out that NTL doesn’t exist any more I was told that they’re ex-NTL numbers. Anyway the guy was useless and pretty rude. He also told me the account was due for disconnection. I was pissed off and realised he couldn’t do anything to help so I gave up.
Saturday morning I called again. Again through to an offshore call centre. I did start the call by asking if there was a UK call centre open as I thought my problem was particularly complex. The lady assured me that she’d be able to sort it out (I guess they hear that kind of request all the time) – anyway after 15 minutes of repeating the stuff from last night she puts me through to the UK call centre.
35 minutes on hold. I managed to make breakfast, eat it. Go to the loo and write up all of the above. A pretty productive 35 minutes I thought…
Ultimately I got through to someone who seemed to know what they were doing. They could at least get access to all 3 of my accounts. I’ve got 2 broadband ones and a TV and phone one. I feel honoured. Upshot is I had to pay with my card to get reconnected. And I now have 3 direct debits set up with Virgin Media.
The customer experience is just really bad.
Hey I used to work for Virgin so thought I’d leave you some advice.
Sorry you had such shit service, sounds to me like they duplicated your accounts – if you need to get through to them DON’T give your account number, give your postcode and house number – this way they will see there are 3 accounts in your name.
if you call before 1pm you’re likelier to get through to a uk centre. To be honest you’re better requesting a manager callback right away with tricky things (or lie and say you were promised one) as all the managers who do these are English and they will be calling you.
Cancel your direct debits at the bank and pay via card for a month or two. This gives the unused accounts time to become inactive. Then set up a direct debit.
Hope this is of use.
Iain Tait – I got a strong sensation of deja vu when reading your piece on Virgin Media. Apart from the bit about direct debit – I didn’t the b******s near my account – it is all pretty close to my own present experience, right down to the three account numbers and the stupid conversation with a lady in India. A pox on Virgin Media.
Hate them. And finally snapped. They are such imbecilic goons I’ve resorted to getting an aerial socket fitted so I can bypass the need for them entirely.
http://ewarwoowar.typepad.com/25letters/2008/12/virgin-media-really-suck.html
Shit Virgin media Indian call centre, called to ask my telephone charges. He said there was a error and will be corrected on my next bill. He f****** changed my contract under the name that I wanted to.
They cant even understand english!!!!
man, i can so relate to your problems with virgin. they are one disgusting lot. we had so much problems with getting our router, in the end we had to buy the router ourselves. but now we have the hassle of getting the money back from them – of course they’ve given us the wrong address (why would we expect them to get anything right???) to send the letter to reclaim our money.. ugh i feel like i’m going mental everytime i call to speak to any of them. they suck big time!! everyone should stay away from virgin – they are totally clueless about customer service!!!!
well this just make me so angry i have been with virgin media for 2 weeks now and i have a bill already and the amount is very shocking £448.74 OMG so i rang them up and they said it is for the connection fee? um hello i already paid £25 for the connection what the hell is going on. The gave me no reason for charging me the amount so i am now taking them to samll claims court i have stopped my direct debits my budle plan is £47 per month seems like they have charged me 2 years upfront can i get out of the contract or i am stuck with it????
and now they charge £1.25 for send the fffing bill! wtf is going on with this planet!
We had problems with Virgin too – they are absolutely rubbish,. Rude and braindead. We initially signed up for a package that was 24pcm – in which we got a TV package no better than free view which we already had – so we were paying 24pcm for broadband and a phoneline we never use. We trying to ring up about getting a different package that we’d seen advertised – TV Large and Broadband with no phone we were put through to three people one after the other and had to re-explain our situation over and over.
Finally we reached a rude woman who didn’t even know about the deal and I had to talk her through the steps to find it online!!! Then she told us we couldn’t have that deal as we weren’t new customers! Even though the deal was 6quid more a month than the deal we were on! I then asked, that asked if we should then cancelled our service (we were within the first 28 days of our contract) and then re-sign up for this deal. She said ‘If you wish to leave Virgin that is your choice but I will not advise you to do so.’ – Yeah I bet you wouldn’t!
We got so fed up we decided to cancel – but nearer the end of the 28 days to get the most out of the bastards before disconnecting. Then when I went to cancel, low and behold the idiot on the end of the line said I COULD have that package deal and that he’d sort it out for me. I double checked everything this time – is it TV package Large? Yes. Is it unlimited broadband? Yes. No phone? Yes. TV choice On demand service included? Yes. So we decided to do this.
2hours later there were increased channels but no access to TV choice on demand. We rung up AGAIN and were told that Ondemand used to be available on this offer but is no longer. We checked the website for the 100th time and absolutely no where did it say ondemand wasn’t available on this package – it clearly said ‘with TV choice on demand’. We rung up to cancel our package again – absolutely seething – and were told, after having to guide the stupid woman through the system again (she also wasn’t aware of this package) that Ondemand wasn’t included. I pointed out, and read out, that it said on the web page that it was and there was absolutely no where that said otherwise. She then put me on hold so she could ask her collegue and after a while came back on to tell me that this package meant that you could have ACCESS to ondemand but for a FEE!!!! It didn’t say that at all anywhere! And why advertise ondemand as included on this package when it isn’t – it was the same set-up as TV Medium which advertises as no access to ondemand. She told me that to get ondemand I’d have to pay an extra 7pcm! When I said we weren’t willing to do this and said that this was false advertising she said I’d have to take it up with marketing! She then had the cheek to ask if there was anything that could convince us to stay with virgin, I said ‘yeah, include ondemand like your website says you do’ and she said she couldn’t do that. So we cancelled and advised our friends not to go with them too.
Now they have lost out on our 31pcm plus any extra costs for the films we choose to watch each month and potential revenue from word-of-mouth. We’re also still waiting to hear from them as to when they’re going to pick up the boxes – we’ve left them all wired up still, the morons can sort it out themselves.
The most infuriating experience I have ever had with any company ever!
PS – if you are still in the first 28days of your new contract you can cancel and get your first month back and your installation fee back.
The idea of friend upstairs is reasonable, maintaining a healthy body is very important, I bought a few pieces of XX particularly recently,it can help keep our body healthy, let us feel fit as a fiddle every day, I was alight it in this store!! http://www.canno-tmake.com/
It’s very nice! I love what you wrote.
I think we can make friends.
Virgin are complete wastes of space, gonna take them to the cleaners for what they have done. They ruined my credit rating by putting 2 missed payments on my credit report. 1 where I wasnt even the bill payer, The other was when I gave them my details to set up a direct debit and they didnt take it. Now cant get credit at the banks because they have stamped it with 2 late payments. They are gonna get a shit storm from me. Last year had a similar problem with BT got £1500 of them when I refused to back down and went through the omnisman.
Ok, so our current package is £39.24 a month for XL TV and medium phone. I rang and asked for prices – current XL TV is £24.50 per month, large TV is £12.50 month. 10Mb broadband is £11 per month. So, I said, downgrade me to large TV, that’ll save me £12 per month, right? Yes, they said. Cool. Now add me 10Mb broadband, which’ll be £11 per month, right? Yes, they said. So, I said, that will reduce my bill overall by £1 per month? Like, the difference between the £12 saving and the £11 pound increase? No, they said. The “package” I want will be £49 per month, an increase of £9.76
What? I said.
In the end, the suggestion is that we first downgrade the TV package, wait 2 or 3 days for their system to register this change, and then they’ll call us back and be able to give another quote for adding broadband. This is from a company that specialises in providing TV, phone and internet services.
Yeah, right.