Help with NTL / Virgin Offer

[zeozhane]

Evening,

I would like to know if anyone on the board is able to provide me with contact details for the CEO of Virgin Mobile and/or NTL as i want to make a complaint in relation to my 'attempt' to take up the £10 per month offer.

Basically as like others on the board Virgin stated that i failed the credit check process. I then retrieved my credit file from Equifax which shows i have a 4-Star rating (out of a maximun of 5).

I therefore contacted Virgin again on Monday 30th November and spoke to 'Stuart' in the sales team, He advised me that he was aware of the problem, which according to him is down to NTL, and that he could put the order through for me. I advised him that i had failed a credit check and that i had retrieved mt credit file as i stated before. He said that that wasn't a problem and asked me to pay 99p delivery charge via a credit card, which i did after confirming with him that the offer had gone through. He assured me that it had.

I then passed the phone to my partner who was in the same boat and Stuart advised that he could do the same for him. Now my partner is already a Virgin PAYG customer and was looking to keep the same number. Again Stuart advised that everything had gone through and that he would have to remove the PAYG bundle to add the pay monthly one. He told my partner that everything had gone through OK and that the bundle should appear within 2 - 4 hours.

Guess what he checked this morning and the 300 Mins and 300 texts were not there. So we phoned Virgin again only to be told that the order was not going anywhere as it had failed the credit check, this despite Stuarts assurances the night before. I was advised that this would be passed to another department who would contact me within 2 - 4 hours and the girl gave me a £5 goodwill for the hassle.

The 4 hours went by with no phone call and we decided to call again only to be told that i should have been told that it could take up to 72 hours for a callback from the finance department. We then asked about the status of my own order only to be told that they were sending a standard PAYG SIM as the credit check had failed (again against Stuarts reassurances last night). I asked to speak to a Manager but none were available however they got a Sales manager to call approx 15 minutes later.

The Manager, Michelle, called and didn't know anything about the issue. I raised this with her only to be told that 'All the sales department do is take orders. We can't tell you if its gone through'. I then advised her of the fact thatmy partner works for a mobile company and that, if need be, they can change a credit decision if it is found that something was wrong. Michelle just stated that 'We aren't every other phone company. That's not how we work.' We asked her what she could do for us and her response was 'There's nothing i can do it all goes to the finance team' (Was then thinking what the point was in her calling if she couldn't do anything)

I then asked to speak to someone higher and Michelle tried the old i'm the most senior person in this building (which as i work for a call centre know that was a lie). After confronting her on this she relented and said that her line manager was 'on a course' but she still refused to pass my complaint onto him. Every time she kept telling us that 'The finance department will contact you within 72 hours'

I want to complain to someone higher than the team at Virgin as they don't seem to read the previous correspondence i sent. I want to highlight this to both NTL and Virgin as i am considering moving my telephony and broadband services elsewhere due to the incompentence of Virgin Mobile.

Therefore if anyone can suppy the email contact details for the CEO of NTL and the CEO of Virgin Mobile i would be really grateful.

Thanks for listening.
Zeozhane

[Jules]

Like banging your head against a brick wall isn't it :(

Sorry I don't know the details that you have asked for but I am sure someone on the board will.

Oh and welcome to the site :wavey:

[zeozhane]

Thanks for the reply Jules.

I know its like hitting your head off a brick wall but we've just bought 2 Virgin locked D900s so will have to perservere until i can eith a) get the offer or b) get the new handsets unlocked and stay with Vodafone (who i believe you're with from reading your posts)

Its not my fault that they only want customers with a perfect 5-star credit score

[ewan.paton]

if your partner works for a phone company thn he should know that any communications directed at the ceo will probly be handled by similarly tranined call center staff as normal queries just they may have a little more flexibility.

no offence but its pretty unreasonable to expect a ceo earning millions a year to fix a billing issue regardless of how frustrating it is. The cost of his time just reading your corispondance would be enought to provide free calls for life.

he should be speanding his time fixing issues with business processes{1} for all customers, not just specific cases.

{1} like making sales people confirm all spelling and alowing them to change it if incorrect.

[zeozhane]

Any communication direct to the CEO would result in this becoming a high level complaint. This happens all the time with my partners work when customers don't agree with the course of action that the call centre workers have taken.

Also from what it seems Virgin mobile staff can't do anything. Michelle, the manager, kept stating that only the finance team can do anything. How can that help customers if the management are not empowred to make any kind of decision.

Thats why we want to contact the CEO. It will be dealt with appropriately and by someone in their head office NOT the call centre. Their staff cannot tell customers one thing only to turn around and take it away again.Also the CEO will not be happy that they are losing a lot of customers due to this as there are many people on various forums with the same issue.

As i stated before - do you need to have a 5 star credit score to get Virgin Mobile? Seems unreasonable as most of the population will only have 3 or 4 star scores.

[Stuart]

I can't give you the addresses for either the CEO of Virgin Mobile or NTL, and I can't guarantee they can do anything, but if you PM me your account number, name, address and contact phone number, I'll refer your problem to the site's contacts. They are highly placed, and employed to sort out problems like this on NTL (not sure about Virgin Mobile yet). They will hopefully be able to help, and if not, hopefully be able to send you contact details for the CEOs.

[zeozhane]

Thanks in advance Stuart C. Just PM'ed you.

[mmm]

It is common knowledge that Sir Richard Branson has a house near Kidlington (North of Oxford) i.e.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4598211.stm

when he isn't on his 'Necker Island' in the Caribbean:-

http://www.virgin.com/subsites/necker/

do you need a higher up address?

[zeozhane]

Well seems that Virgin can't be bothered to try and sort this out so have asked for the unlock codes.

Once i get em i'm going to call Vodafone and move onto one of their SIM only deals.

So thanks to all who replied and especially to Stuart C for his help with the issue.

[zeozhane]

Just a quick update for anyone following this thread. It's broken down into Good News / Bad News.

Good News

They're giving us the unlock codes for our handsets
They recognise there is nothing wrong with our credit score

Bad News

Still won't give us the deal despite recognising that there is nothing wrong with the credit score
Haven't refunded the bundels that there sales agent removed

Good News (For Vodafone)

Going to signup for another year with them instead.

Bad News (For Virgin & NTL)

Just lost two customers who could've £50+ per month with their service.

Thanks for all who helped.

Zeozhane

[lauzjp]

I have been on virgin mobile for years, but now also have a couple of vodafone phones - I can say that voda is much better. :tu: signal better, better customer service, better packages - signed up for free texts and free weekends (spend £2.50 for free texts, £5 for free calls during a week), smartstep, passport, mobile tv - great! :D I learned more from watching the 2 minute episodes of 24 than the tv show... oh and signed up for that new 'family' package - £5 a month and free calls to 3 other people on vodafone. Excellent stuff. saving a fortune! :)

[Jules]

We are on the family pack as well :D

[Stuart]

I got some news from our site's contact. Zeozhane's issue has been referred to the Ops Directors office of Virgin Mobile. Hopefully, they should get in touch with him.

[UncleBooBoo]

It seems Virgin is made for NTL as they both suck!

[floppus]

To contact Virgin Mobile.......


F.A.O. David Foster Customer Service Director

Virgin Mobile Telecoms Limited
Willow Grove House
Windsor Road
White Horse Business Park
Trowbridge
Wiltshire BA14 0TQ

I won't go into my discussions with them at the moment but they wereback to me in 3 days after I sent my complaint recorded delivery.

I got a reply from a lady called Annette Morrison who said she had been given instructions from this David Foster.

The whole organisation (Virgin Mobile) seems have gone boobs up since my pal Richard sold it on.

Watch this space for the outcome of my complaint.

[rumpole69]

I too failed a credit check when I am in tip top financial health.

However, this did lead me to PREVENTING A FRAUD. :Yikes: I use Experian Credit Check and Virgin use Equifax. If you sign up for a year with Equifax you get 30 days free and INSTANT access to your details. You must then cancel with 30 days to prevent any charges!

I received a letter stating I had ordered a mobile phone the other day. There was no address and so I discarded.

Had I not checked out Virgin's check I would not have discovered that someone LOCALLY tried to use my correct credit card details to open an O2 contract account. Of course I have had to cancel my card(s) which is an inconvenience, but nothing major had happened.

Nobody is safe from identity theft. This was not from discarded information but from someone with access to a reputable telephone transaction.

Maybe you should all take a note and check your own details. FOR FREE!

If anyone does get any sense out of Virgin, let me know.

They were happy to take my money to purchase a telephone on pay as you go but NOT as a meagre ten pound a month NTL customer!

Maybe it is just an excuse to avoid giving out half price sim cards?

I would like to hear from anyone who has had such a decision overturned. They suggested I tried again before the end of the month, and then ("attempt" my words)to contact their finance department who may be in a position to overide the decision. Having worked in call centres in the past for ten years, I know bull**** when I step in it! :mad:

[UncleBooBoo]

I have checked my credit report via www.garlik.com (http://www.garlik.com) as it is free!

Guess what I am crystal clear no defaults or bad credit listed, yet Virgin failed me!

Funny thing is I passed a credit check with another mobile provider and I now have a Nokia N80 on a pay monthly tarriff!

[peaksoft]

I'm already with Virgin, paying £15 for 300 minutes/300 texts.

So when I read about the £10 offer for the same package for NTL customers on Saturday night, I called Virgin.

They said I had to call back on Sunday, as only customer services, and not sales, were working.

On Sunday, sales took me through everything, then asked for my NTL account number, the only record of which was 100 miles away. My phone number wasn't enough.

So I rang NTL customer services to get my account number (at 10.15am) only to get a recorded message saying that customer services were open only from 9am on Sundays. It seems they were, in truth, closed all day on Sunday.

And the offer expired at midnight.

[AndyCambs]

I'm already with Virgin, paying £15 for 300 minutes/300 texts.

So when I read about the £10 offer for the same package for NTL customers on Saturday night, I called Virgin.

They said I had to call back on Sunday, as only customer services, and not sales, were working.

On Sunday, sales took me through everything, then asked for my NTL account number, the only record of which was 100 miles away. My phone number wasn't enough.

So I rang NTL customer services to get my account number (at 10.15am) only to get a recorded message saying that customer services were open only from 9am on Sundays. It seems they were, in truth, closed all day on Sunday.

And the offer expired at midnight.

It's highly likely to be extended...

[Stuart]

Funny thing is I passed a credit check with another mobile provider and I now have a Nokia N80 on a pay monthly tarriff!


This is actually quite normal, and probably a result of the Credit Reference agencies not synchronising their records properly.

The same happened to me when I first got a Mobile. Went into "The Link" on Charing Cross station, and failed a credit check, so was refused a contract. I then went straight to "The Link" in Bromley, passed their credit check and was given a contract straight away..

[peaksoft]

Just in case the offer had been extended, I've tried twice to call NTL customer service for my account number.
Each time, immediately after the message telling me how valuable my call is, they cut me off.
I finally got the number, called Virgin, and was told the offer had expired.

[UncleBooBoo]

This is actually quite normal, and probably a result of the Credit Reference agencies not synchronising their records properly.

The same happened to me when I first got a Mobile. Went into "The Link" on Charing Cross station, and failed a credit check, so was refused a contract. I then went straight to "The Link" in Bromley, passed their credit check and was given a contract straight away..

I doubt it, I tried three times over several weeks and virgin failed me!

I contacted Virgin and was informed they were aware of a problem where people were getting refused due to the way they credit check and a fix would be in place soon!

And even if it was as you said it is still Virgin's fault as they choose to use a company who provides false or incorrect information!

I have had contracts with Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and three and have never failed or been refused!

Well stuff Virgin I am happy with what I got even though I pay more than £10

Their loss not mine! :tu:

[paulusrevelus]

i dont know F all about working this email forum yet as i use hotmail but am very impressed by your members depth of nolledge.
I have also been trying to access the famous half price virgin deal (with cheap lobster - Zoidberg perhaps?) with precious little luck so far.
I keep you apprised of my adventures as they happen

PS this is my first message on this e-mail site so-
'ALLO EVERYBODY' FROM THE REV. PAULUS

[1701-e]

http://home.ntl.com/html/bundles/virginmobileoffer.html offer on to 31/03/2007

[sct1l8]

You're certainly not the only one to fail the credit check on the "special offer" £10 a month SIM.

To start with, clicking on the link from the Telewest home page ("existing customers click here") to go to the Virgin website takes you to a page where you have to enter your account number, postcode and house number. Needless to say it is not possible to continue because a Telewest account number is ONE DIGIT MORE than the page allows you to enter.

Ringing Telewest does not offer much help (as it's a Virgin offer), however they will put you through free of charge to 0845 6000 789 to speak to someone at Virgin. Apparently they try to do it there and then for you, tell you "you're entitled to two deals per household" and that your order "has gone through" blah blah blah. A few seconds later you get an email saying "unfortunately we can't accept your order at this time" - followed about a minute later by another message saying they received your order (Virgin must be using some sort of a time machine as the message with the order arrives after the order has been declined).

Although Virgin did ask for date of birth and address, it mysteriously asked for your bank details again (I was under the impression that this would be billed on my Telewest bill but apparently Virgin would like their own £10 a month direct debit). Calling back you get a very grumpy operator (listening to a radio in full blast at the background) who finally tells you to contact Equifax. Needless to say there is nothing wrong with your Equifax report.

It all sounds to me like a marketing ploy by Virgin to get customer details (why I do not understand as since they've now control both ntl and Telewest they already have those details).

Previous experience with "free SIMS" seems to indicate that if you live in a block of flats you'll likely never get one (1 per household, or, according to Virgin, two per household, is no good in a building of 10-20 flats - and everyone has a mobile those days). If Virgin were serious, first they'd know how many digits a Telewest account number is, and second they'd send the SIM cards to cable customers no matter how many people have mobiles in the building!

In the end of the day, it's Virgin who will lose business with customers flocking to other networks blaming Equifax for what is just Virgin's lack of market awareness!

[lil_phil]

There appears to be alot of intelligent people on here that reply with some valid answers, however we all have to respect the way a corporate firm works. Unfortunatley the call centre staff will not be provided with every little peice of information in the whole company as this would be impossible to communicate every day! If there are issue with the credit check information, maybe we should bear with it to get the offer. No staff should guarantee anything, however they should be able to re-assure you based on the information they have in front of them.

There are alot of things for Virgin to fix, maybe we could give them a little longer than 18 days to sort NTL out?