toastiest
21-08-2008, 11:07
I would like to begin by saying that I have had broadband with Virgin in Nottingham without big problems for 2 or so years that's why I chose to be with Virgin again.
I was first on a 2 MB package and it'd worked without a hitch for about 6 months - then we decided it was time to upgrade and we got ourselves onto a 20MB package.
The engineer arrived for the £30 "installation" - all he did was replace my modem (which I find out later from another engineer that it did not need replacing) and have a poke around the box in the hall.
Immediately after he left, my phone line stopped working and I had to wait another 2 days before another engineer could come out to rectify the crossing of exposed wires. At the time I also asked the engineer why a speed test showed I only got 2MB speed when I should be getting 20MB. He double checked and confirmed that they had not upgraded me and I would need to call customer servers, who changed it straight away - fine.
One month or so later (last April/beginning of may), we started having a problem where we would be disconnected intermittently for a day or two on a weekly basis.
Every time, I would call broadband support and tell them that my sync light is flashing and ready light is off, after the ritual of unplugging and replugging the modem in, they would issue out an engineer.
For several weeks straight the connection would reestablish before the engineer was to arrive and I would call to cancel as I did not want to be charged for calling out an engineer when the service was up - yet no support agent could shed light on why my service kept cutting itself off.
Eventually, 1 month later, when I called the support team to cancel the engineer again as the service was up, he asked me to power down the modem and when I powered it back up the connection was lost. YES! Finally an engineer was coming out!
The engineer eventually checked my signal strength, which any support agent could have asked me to do and said it was very week and he said that they would need to replace the line outside and do a repull. I have read several threads today where people have had intermittent services like me and it resulted in a repull. Why are the bb support agents not savvy to this?!?!?! They just needed me to check the signal strength on the computer!!! The engineer also said that the guys who made the installations should have checked the line!
This was at the beginning of June and the engineer said they would come to fix the problem on the 24th June.
I thought, ok I cannot live 2 weeks without the internet so set about trying to see if Virgin could organised complimentary dial up. Disaster - I wish I never tried...
It was a marathon phone call
first to BB support to confirm that downgrading to 2MB again will not make a difference,
he put me through to customer services who did not know what to do about setting me up with dial up,
he put me through to broadband support who told me he could not help me as it was not broadband - I asked him to speak to the them before putting me through to customer services and he promised he would,
of course he didn't and this agent tells me that he was the billing department who could not help me (I know now that customer services dept and billing are one and the same!),
he put me through to sales who said that customer services should be doing it,
the next agent told me to dial something like 151 and that was all I needed.
At this point I do not know much about dial up so rang the premium number to help get it set up. She told me that they have been talking rubbish and to set up ntl dial up it was just dialing another number - after quite a few minutes of set up (racking up about 8 pounds of charge) we found out that my computer did not have the dial up/modem driver installed!!
I was just so angry about the incompetence of all the support agents I'd spoken to I called through to customer services again to complain, she AGAIN put me through to sales where I ranted at a woman called Kelly and I said that from now on she will be my point of contact because I was desperate for someone to take ownership of my problem. She said in a tired voice "hold on" next thing I know, the call was disconnected. ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!
I went back to customer services and spoke to customer services' floor manager. He apologised and said oh sorry nothing I can do, nothing we can do - you will just have to wait and they will refund me after they fix the broadband. I said are you going to talk to these departments who did not know what was going on and speak to Kelly's manager and sort this out so that I never have to go through this again!!! He said yes, but I did not expect him to do so.
Come 24th June, two people in a van turned up outside and when we saw them from the house, they were stood there scratching their heads. We eventually went out and asked them what the problem was - they had not pulled the line through so they could not do anything. We went back inside briefly and when we came back out they had disappeared without a trace. No explanation or info on when they are actually going to fix anything.
I called up virgin again and they promised me it would be fixed in the first week of July and of course no one turned up to do anything. FUMING I asked to speak to customer services supervisor and it promised me, PROMISED ME it would be fixed on the 15th July, I asked him whether he was sure it was going to be fixed several times and each time he said YES!
On the 15th of July no one turned up. I called customer services and he said oh.. they'll be out within 2-3 days. Those days pass and nothing again.
Eventually I am told the truth where they have not been able to do anything because they have been waiting for permission from the council to cordon off a section of the road and it will be taking weeks before anything can even be organised because the planning department has no SLA. Grrrrrrrrrr.......
During the waiting period, I would periodically call up every few days to get an update on what is happening and I would call through to the customer services department because I know from experience these are the people who I need to get the update from. Yet every time they would say that they cannot help me and put me through to broadband support EVEN THOUGH I WOULD EXPLAIN THEY CANNOT HELP ME. True enough, when I get through to BB support they say, no we cannot do anything - you will need to speak to customer services.
Having not had internet connection solidly since the end of July, eventually I learned that the magic word was CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT and I would INSIST that they talk to them, and it was only 3-4 times I've had to go through this ordeal that eventually one of the bright sparks told me that I could get through to the construction department myself on an 0800 number. ARGGGGGGGG!
I call through and a lovely Zahid from construction who understood the case and got to trying to find out more right away. Every time I call through to construction, it seems Zahid picks up and as soon as I say my account number - he knows what is happening to my account straight away.
The internet came back last thursday 14th Aug and we thought oh they've done it finally! I call up to customer services and he assures me that they have done the repull but happy times did not last, connection broke again on Sunday and the BB agent also assures me that the repull has been actioned - yet the engineer this Tuesday told us that it was a pile of rubbish and that we would have noticed if the repull was taking place. I just wanted to cry.
We have confirmation that the council has given permission and the plans have been sitting on the manager's desk for the past week and it normally takes 2 weeks so they should start works next week. So it has taken from April to August to finally get to this point....
I understand that faults happen and in cases like mine it can take time for it to be fixed - but the MOST frustrating thing are the support agents who constantly LIE to get me off their backs and have no idea of how to take OWNERSHIP of an issue or to communicate to another department before putting me through. Had any of them actually spoken to the agent before putting me through they have would known that the next person was going to tell me that they could NOT HELP ME.
I work in a support helpdesk enviroment and when I get an irate customer on the phone I find out what the issue is and I take down their details and tell them I will sort it out. After I put down the phone I call up every department and speak to every person that I need to to get the issue resolved. Only when I have either resolved the issue or gotten the right person to take ownership of the issue do I call the customer back. It really is NOT DIFFICULT.
Also, why in the world do they have 4 different customer service centres couple in the UK and couple abroad?!? I am not able to find anyone I have spoken to the last time I called because I get connected to a different centre every time!!!!!
I was first on a 2 MB package and it'd worked without a hitch for about 6 months - then we decided it was time to upgrade and we got ourselves onto a 20MB package.
The engineer arrived for the £30 "installation" - all he did was replace my modem (which I find out later from another engineer that it did not need replacing) and have a poke around the box in the hall.
Immediately after he left, my phone line stopped working and I had to wait another 2 days before another engineer could come out to rectify the crossing of exposed wires. At the time I also asked the engineer why a speed test showed I only got 2MB speed when I should be getting 20MB. He double checked and confirmed that they had not upgraded me and I would need to call customer servers, who changed it straight away - fine.
One month or so later (last April/beginning of may), we started having a problem where we would be disconnected intermittently for a day or two on a weekly basis.
Every time, I would call broadband support and tell them that my sync light is flashing and ready light is off, after the ritual of unplugging and replugging the modem in, they would issue out an engineer.
For several weeks straight the connection would reestablish before the engineer was to arrive and I would call to cancel as I did not want to be charged for calling out an engineer when the service was up - yet no support agent could shed light on why my service kept cutting itself off.
Eventually, 1 month later, when I called the support team to cancel the engineer again as the service was up, he asked me to power down the modem and when I powered it back up the connection was lost. YES! Finally an engineer was coming out!
The engineer eventually checked my signal strength, which any support agent could have asked me to do and said it was very week and he said that they would need to replace the line outside and do a repull. I have read several threads today where people have had intermittent services like me and it resulted in a repull. Why are the bb support agents not savvy to this?!?!?! They just needed me to check the signal strength on the computer!!! The engineer also said that the guys who made the installations should have checked the line!
This was at the beginning of June and the engineer said they would come to fix the problem on the 24th June.
I thought, ok I cannot live 2 weeks without the internet so set about trying to see if Virgin could organised complimentary dial up. Disaster - I wish I never tried...
It was a marathon phone call
first to BB support to confirm that downgrading to 2MB again will not make a difference,
he put me through to customer services who did not know what to do about setting me up with dial up,
he put me through to broadband support who told me he could not help me as it was not broadband - I asked him to speak to the them before putting me through to customer services and he promised he would,
of course he didn't and this agent tells me that he was the billing department who could not help me (I know now that customer services dept and billing are one and the same!),
he put me through to sales who said that customer services should be doing it,
the next agent told me to dial something like 151 and that was all I needed.
At this point I do not know much about dial up so rang the premium number to help get it set up. She told me that they have been talking rubbish and to set up ntl dial up it was just dialing another number - after quite a few minutes of set up (racking up about 8 pounds of charge) we found out that my computer did not have the dial up/modem driver installed!!
I was just so angry about the incompetence of all the support agents I'd spoken to I called through to customer services again to complain, she AGAIN put me through to sales where I ranted at a woman called Kelly and I said that from now on she will be my point of contact because I was desperate for someone to take ownership of my problem. She said in a tired voice "hold on" next thing I know, the call was disconnected. ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!
I went back to customer services and spoke to customer services' floor manager. He apologised and said oh sorry nothing I can do, nothing we can do - you will just have to wait and they will refund me after they fix the broadband. I said are you going to talk to these departments who did not know what was going on and speak to Kelly's manager and sort this out so that I never have to go through this again!!! He said yes, but I did not expect him to do so.
Come 24th June, two people in a van turned up outside and when we saw them from the house, they were stood there scratching their heads. We eventually went out and asked them what the problem was - they had not pulled the line through so they could not do anything. We went back inside briefly and when we came back out they had disappeared without a trace. No explanation or info on when they are actually going to fix anything.
I called up virgin again and they promised me it would be fixed in the first week of July and of course no one turned up to do anything. FUMING I asked to speak to customer services supervisor and it promised me, PROMISED ME it would be fixed on the 15th July, I asked him whether he was sure it was going to be fixed several times and each time he said YES!
On the 15th of July no one turned up. I called customer services and he said oh.. they'll be out within 2-3 days. Those days pass and nothing again.
Eventually I am told the truth where they have not been able to do anything because they have been waiting for permission from the council to cordon off a section of the road and it will be taking weeks before anything can even be organised because the planning department has no SLA. Grrrrrrrrrr.......
During the waiting period, I would periodically call up every few days to get an update on what is happening and I would call through to the customer services department because I know from experience these are the people who I need to get the update from. Yet every time they would say that they cannot help me and put me through to broadband support EVEN THOUGH I WOULD EXPLAIN THEY CANNOT HELP ME. True enough, when I get through to BB support they say, no we cannot do anything - you will need to speak to customer services.
Having not had internet connection solidly since the end of July, eventually I learned that the magic word was CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT and I would INSIST that they talk to them, and it was only 3-4 times I've had to go through this ordeal that eventually one of the bright sparks told me that I could get through to the construction department myself on an 0800 number. ARGGGGGGGG!
I call through and a lovely Zahid from construction who understood the case and got to trying to find out more right away. Every time I call through to construction, it seems Zahid picks up and as soon as I say my account number - he knows what is happening to my account straight away.
The internet came back last thursday 14th Aug and we thought oh they've done it finally! I call up to customer services and he assures me that they have done the repull but happy times did not last, connection broke again on Sunday and the BB agent also assures me that the repull has been actioned - yet the engineer this Tuesday told us that it was a pile of rubbish and that we would have noticed if the repull was taking place. I just wanted to cry.
We have confirmation that the council has given permission and the plans have been sitting on the manager's desk for the past week and it normally takes 2 weeks so they should start works next week. So it has taken from April to August to finally get to this point....
I understand that faults happen and in cases like mine it can take time for it to be fixed - but the MOST frustrating thing are the support agents who constantly LIE to get me off their backs and have no idea of how to take OWNERSHIP of an issue or to communicate to another department before putting me through. Had any of them actually spoken to the agent before putting me through they have would known that the next person was going to tell me that they could NOT HELP ME.
I work in a support helpdesk enviroment and when I get an irate customer on the phone I find out what the issue is and I take down their details and tell them I will sort it out. After I put down the phone I call up every department and speak to every person that I need to to get the issue resolved. Only when I have either resolved the issue or gotten the right person to take ownership of the issue do I call the customer back. It really is NOT DIFFICULT.
Also, why in the world do they have 4 different customer service centres couple in the UK and couple abroad?!? I am not able to find anyone I have spoken to the last time I called because I get connected to a different centre every time!!!!!