An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hi i just wanted to let you know how bitterly disapointed i am with your company. After 7 years with your company i am now at my wits end,
Since the 28th of October 2007 i have had little or no internet service or TV On Demand service.I have always enjoyed being with Telewest/Virgin or whatever your calling your self this week and thought of your services as part of our family.(Sad i know but true).This all changed on Since the 28th of October 2007.

Since the 28th of October 2007 I have lost count of the amount of times i have rung to try and get help.I,ve be told is a "Regional issue", it,s a "National issue" and several other excuses and promises of "it will be fixed in the morning".MY FAVOURITE WAS "your modems knackered i,ll arrange to post you a new one" (IT NEVER ARRIVED) have been made.My fingers ache from re-starting my modem.

I have tried being polite and i have tried being forceful on the phone everytime i have phoned since the 28th of October 2007 .
Your staff don,t care one man called me a "liar" and said it was working, another was more interested in what the weather was like in the UK today ??????

Finally on the 20 of December i completly lost my internet service and the TV On demand service too, i had been waiting for this to happen since the 28th of October 2007 .One of you enginners arrived on Sunday the 23rd of December and spent three hours cutting cables and generally making it clear she did not have a clue what she was doing in three hours she spent more than two of them on the phone to other engineers asking them how to fix it, After three hours she admited she did not know what the problem was and told me that she did not want to spend anymore time on it as three hours was a long time.When i pointed out EIGHT WEEKS (Since the 28th of October 2007 ) with no real service was a really long time she just laughed it off, and said she would report it as an Emerency.Great i thought then they will be back in the morning HOW STUPID AM I?

I am now told that your people are coming this Saturday the 5th of January (TEN WEEKS SINCE THE 28th of October 2007 to try to fix it again i won,t hold my breath.

I feel that this low level of customer service is not on and it,s with regret that i will be looking for a new service provider for all my TV, Phone and Broadband services in the next week or so.

It,s a shame as i have always reccomended your services to friends and family as the best.If these problems had not happened i would have took up your xmas offer of the half price V plus box instead after 65 days of no service and no help i am thinking of leaving.

I feel very let down i have asked for compensation for the down time i have had and just keep getting told that i can,t get compensated until it,s fixed as i no longer think it will ever get fixed then i am well out of pocket.

I am seriously thinking of contacting Watchdog and Ofcom to see if it,s just me that has been treated so badly since the 28th of October 2007 .A recent visit to the Digital Spy website makes me think that it,s not just me but a lot of people that are not getting the service they are paying for.
Right i have to go next door don,t like me connecting my laptop to their wireless router very much especaily since i have be doing so since the 28th of October 2007.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Try PM'ing one of the Mods here - CF has contacts at various levels.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hi, might be worth posting your letter in the VM newsgroup as well, virginmedia.feedback, employees monitor that site.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hi thanks for the replies i have email Virgin several times Since October the 28th 2007with no reply from them.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

None of the mods (ttbomk) work for VM, they just have contacts that often get things fixed - it may be worth your while PMing one of them.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Thank you i will try that

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

E-mailing VM through their website gets either no response or a patronising, out of the can, not read your e-mail response.

If you post it on the newsgroups (use the virginmedia.support.broadband.cable and virginmedia.support.tv groups on the VM server - for ex-TW areas it's news.blueyonder.co.uk) you will get responses from VM tech support directly - usually fairly quickly and much more up to speed than the "How's the weather" group on the premium rate phone number.

I found these guys to be much much more helpful than the majority of people (not necessarily all though) on the phones.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

In the end if possible, anyone with these messy problems should just leave.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Yes to a point i agree but i really was always very very happy with the services they have provided me with over the last seven years.

The bundle i,m on suits both my needs and my pocket and i love the TV On Demand service as i work mad hours it,s good to be able to come home and catch up on a tv programme with out having to remember to record it.

I would be genuinly gutted to have to drop Virgin but i can,t go on with no service i need the internet for work emails.

---------- Post added at 16:49 ---------- Previous post was at 16:46 ----------

Thanks for the reply i am currently working out how to get newsgroups in my Outlook Express.I,ll be sure to let you all know if there are any devolopments

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

This link should help you out there.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

You know, the service we get is pretty good for the money, the problems arise of course, when things go wrong. Anyone who has tried to get help from the "robotic responses" of the Indian call ctr will know. VM`s problems lie with its customer services department. If they had a team who can be understood clearly, based in the UK, who had access to the various departments instantly, then most of the problems could be rectified immediately.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hey :)

When has good customer service come before profits ? When they can get a untrained phone person to do it for 5 shekels in India

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

In India, it would be five rupees actually.........:D

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

I,ve found the overseas bod,s were more interested in trying to solve my problems than the Uk bod,s one chap was V rude and another scotish fellow well i could not understand a word that he said apart from "have you tried re-starting off your modem" at least i think thats what he said.

Quick update: Yesterday i sent a copy of my letter to someone called Mr Birkett (whoever he is).I awake this morning to hijack next doors router and find an Email form Mr Birkett apologising for my service issue,s and promising someone from his office will contact me!!



How exciting i just hope they don,t do it by F***ing email !!!
:D

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Is one of the top men you should be telling all about this. If he gets involved someone will be told to FIX it.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

You don't happen to live in Bracknell/Reading do you as we had the same problem, even the service outage dates match.

At the end of October we upgraded to the 20MB connection as the TMS cap on the 4MB was too low but otherwise trouble free. Between October and the end of November we got between 4-8MB on the connection which is sort of OK, but from the beginning of December we were frequently disconnected during peak times. Come the week before Christmas when we had both taken off two weeks for some quality MMO gaming our connection dropped to at best 128k and 50% packet loss. Frequent calls to VM BB Tech Support to try to report the problem and the usual muppet like responses (on the last occasion the VM CS lady tried to ping my internal IP and wouldn't listen when I told her 192.... was an internal address!!).

Now the strange thing is that around 3-5am each morning we got around a 512k connection, but this died as soon as other users hit the system.

The engineer is due any moment now, so fingers crossed that something will actually get fixed. In the mean time all I can do is wait and hope, and get more info on ADSL suppliers.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

The engineer came only 15 minutes late! The NTL 200 modem we had was the issue, he couldn't see any faults but changed it to check and now the interweb works. He thought the 20MB connection may have shorted something.

Still not convinced though so have just signed up for BT ADSL and bought a load balancer.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

I have read all the comments, in this thread, and as l have said all along concerning VM, they give two monkeys about there customers, all they are concerned about is the revenue from us the customers, that keeps the company going, the CS is pathetic, it took me once, FIVE times to get someone, who could help me, l have been transferred to Delhi, more times than l can remember, and they cannot help you, so what is the point of having the CS out there, and until the CS is kick up the +++, we will get treated the same way, even there engineers, can't tell you anything, as VM don't tell em, some bloody company.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2010/02/44.jpg

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hi no i am in Liverpool i do hope your all sorted now.

Update for anyone still awake.


Received a call from a V.nice man in Mr Birkett,s office the very next morning.A general plan of action was agreed and on Thursday a a senior engineer came to see if he could get to the root of the problem.
Now this guy is possibly the nicest bloke i have ever come across in all the days i,ve been with Telewest/Virgin i never for a moment imagined that they actually had someone working for them that actually knew what they were doing the big bonus being he really cared about his job and it showed a rare thing these days.

Lots of jargon was spoken (yes it all went over my head).Whole house rewired back to the street,new modem installed,still no joy but i,m a reasonable guy and can see they are trying.Today (Saturday) i,m awaiting the arrival of the chaps from Virgin who are going to replace the cable right back to the main box,no promises have been made by V.nice man (who to his credit has kept in touch everyday) or Senior Engineer but i,m hopeful my nightmare is close to being over and i will be able to teleport a few episodes of Hollyoaks tonight right after i,ve checked my email. Am i kidding myself and being naive ? I will let you know later.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Geez how studip am i 10.51 this morning i,m in work mobile rings "Hello it,s Dean form Virgin media i am at your property now but i don,t understand what the job is"

Me:"It,s a repull to the box at the top of the next street "

Dean; "I won,t be able to do that i,m on my own it,s a two man job"

Me: F*** C))) ECT

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that"

Me: No your right get your boss to phone me i,ll speak to him like that instead"


You just could not make it up.I give up off to contact Watchdog.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that" :tu::tu:

He's absolutely right, you have no right to talk to him like that.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Yes i do his attitude was appalling he was simply V.rude and unhelpful if i had been at home and not on the phone i would have asked him to leave the house.Lord knows i have tried the polite approach with Virgin it does not work.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Its being disorderly and rude. I believe using language like that can actually get you into trouble with the police for antisocial behavior.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

So lock me up ! I hear the internet and tv service in Walton nick works they must be with Sky ! :D

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

So you are abusive to him and you think your in the right and he is in the wrong. You sir or madam are an idiot

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Lol thanks no i,m very very frustrated by the lack of service.For the record as i did apologise.You do take yourselves very serious here don,t you .

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Yes we do, those of us who work for VM and offer our help here don't like to see or hear of our colleagues being abused in anyway.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

politeness costs nothing.

The person you so nicely talked to, isnt the person that put the details on the system, he simply picked up a job and went to try and help.

He could have turned up, not been able to help so gone and done one of the other jobs on his list, making you call back get a re-appointment etc.

Your right that he should have known what the problem is, and there should have been enough people to do the job properly. But the fact is it wasnt, speaking to him like that isnt going to make him get in touch with his supervisor and get something sorted, he is more likely just to mark it as failed and leave it, its no skin of his nose.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Thats fair enough sorry if i,ve offended anyone my post was intended to be tounge in cheek i,ve not posted here to pee anyone off just to try to get some help.

I am trying very hard to be reasonable about this but it has been 11 weeks now and it really is getting me down.

I emailed Neil Birkett again at 11.10 this morning he emailed back saying someone would be in touch.Sure enough 12.31pm another V. nice man phones and promises me two people are coming today and the re-pull will be done.

It,s now 5.10pm and still no sign and don,t think they will come now today.The missus has had to stay in all day waiting for them.I,m so looking forward to finishing work at 6PM and having an evening of her moaning about not being able to go shopping ect.

---------- Post added at 17:15 ---------- Previous post was at 17:11 ----------


Alright i get the message! Blimey listen i,m one of the most passive cowardly guys on the planet but i,m starting to get paranoid over this.It just seems that everyone is lieing to me and after 11 weeks it,s getting me down.Maybe i would be better just leaving Virgin after all.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

I get what you mean, it is really frustrating, i think people were just pointing out, that you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Fortunatly you have the chief exec's office on your case so it should be sorted ASAP

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

I understand what you saying but the chap clearly had no idea what the job was.How can they come out to a jobwithout knowing what kit (modem,s ect)to bring ?
I don,t think it,s going to get fixed as no-one seems to know what the problem is.I can,t see i have any other choice but to get someone else in.Sad day all i wanted for xmas was the v+ offer.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

[QUOTE=fitssssy;34464938].

I am trying very hard to be reasonable about this but it has been 11 weeks now and it really is getting me down.


I do sympathise with you on this one, Ive had an issue with VM thats been going on for 4 weeks now, after numerous calls and promises of "things will be sorted out" it really is hard to stay calm..................today was the icing on the cake..........got home to find that not only had our TV package been downgraded, but our broadband gone completely, all we wanted was to upgrade to a larger TV package!!! Its a very long story and to be honest Im totally exhausted with the stress of all the calls and empty promises.......Im astonished that this level of service can be allowed . Finally got a really helpful chap in swansea to get me back online, but only after 2 other techs said it wasnt possible for at least 72 hours, I went ballistic, asked to speak to someone in the uk and hey presto, he did it in 5 mins !! Now just gotta wait and see if the TV materialises.I wont hold my breath:rolleyes:

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Sadly, the work order would have been completed incorrectly.
The result was a one man was sent to do a two man job, unfortunately the tech who came to do the job couldn't continue and had to leave.

I hope you stick with it, I look forward to seeing you post here when your all up and runnning.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

No i think yesterday was the final straw.Someone phoned me from Mr Berkett,s office at 12.32pm yesterday and promised me the re-pull would get done yesterday,No-one arrived.

I did get a call at 6pm from a local Manager saying he had tried to get the job sorted but they were understaffed,he knew nothing about the call from Mr Berkett,s office and promised to pass it on to his boss on Tuesday.

I sick of all the miscommunication and have contacted Bt to come and change the phone line.I would have rather stayed with Virgin but i,ve had enough now it,s 11 weeks today since my problems started and i can,t see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I don,t blame the tech fellows it,s all down to the Customer service or lack of it in my case.It seems to me the tech guys are suffering from being forced in to more work for less pay.I might be wrong but would it not make more sense to have all tech guys working in house so the comms are improved and less money is wasted?

---------- Post added at 08:33 ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 ----------

[QUOTE=susie r;34464984]This is the main part of my problem everytime you phone is a different person telling you something completly different from the last person.It just leaves you going around in circles very frustrating.I do hope you get sorted soon and hope you don,t end up in the eleven week club with me.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

*sigh*. It's i'm not "i,m"

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

*Double sigh*. Actually it's "I'm" not "i'm".

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Last update (i hope).

After one last email to Mr Berkett yesterday a lady called Julie Agnew phoned me and promised it would be fixed today "No matter what it takes".

9am this morning three men,two vans and alot of cable appeared on our street.

Result i now have full service restored and have been offed compensation to make up for the down time and i am a happy bunny.Big thanks to the engineers today and to Senior Engineer Peter a top top chap who went the extra mile to sort this for us today and last Thursday, a really dedicated bloke who clearly loves his job good to see.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

So pleased you are finally sorted out :)

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Good to see its working :D

Hope it doesnt break for you :)

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

:p:

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

woooohhhhwww..you certainly made in-roads there fitssssy,julie agnew is the head honcho at director level,i believe,just a shame she didnt kick-ass earlier :( i just wonder if youd have got there without your nightmare being bared on the WWW.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

You should be ashamed to work for a company who treat their customers the way that is frequently reported in these forums. I didnt see you supply any help to this problem other than to take offence at a comment about your company.

The treatment that "fitssssy" has received is wholly unacceptable from a company that has a branding such as Virgin. Its ridiculous that he has had to have people at such a high level of authority to fix this. Clearly this isnt going to happen for the many. Whereas the final solution was a success for "fitssssy" I dont see VM changing CS to people who have any idea about what the problem is (regardless of the problem). But maybe if we all approach problems not by going via these high level people maybe VM will get the message.

We could start by asking for what we are paying for.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Hi forum members, l in all honesty, think that all staff at VM from directors down to the staff, who call themself CS, must be laughing their socks off, that members on this forum, are fighting each other over the problems on VM, we all know that the service from CS, is pathetic, l have had my fair share of bad PR service, where the staff, don't know their A from B, tell you one thing, and do something else, even there engineers don't know what is happening with VM, l was told by one guy, l spoke to is that they are NOT allowed to discuss matters with customers, as it is more than there job is worth, the only thing that l would suggest, is keep writing to the Directors, telling them that they want improvements on CS, have service centres in the UK, and not have them transfered to India, where they don't know what they are talking about, l was transfered there once and told my service, would be off for a week, and that l would have to book for an engineer the following morning, try not to argue with each other, as it won't get you anywhere:)

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

Actually, if you read a few posts up and actually took in what r00t said to the O/P you may have noticed that he:

A) Offered an explanation as to why an engineer possibly turned up not equipped for the job.

B) Also offered his best wishes to the poster and hoped it would be sorted.

It may not be "help" in your eyes, but that looked like a genuine offer of good will, don't you agree?

Given that some VM employees offer to help on here, often in their own time, perhaps it is you who should be ashamed of tarring a few good CS folk with the same bad customer service brush?

I have had mixed responses and attitudes from some VM CS people, but not everyone is bad, and I applaud anyone willing to help, and can fully understand why they would want to defend themselves and their co-workers when they are abused by frustrated customers.

Re: An Open Letter To Virgin Media
 

1. A job is a job. Unfortunatly i have to put food on the table and dont have the luxury to choose where and when i work.

2. If any employees of VM take customer account details into work to sort out a problem and are caught they will certainly face disciplinary action. Are likely to lose thier job. See point 1.

3. Like any job there are bad employees and good employees. I would hazzard a guess that the ones, that have offered help arnt going to be the former and then spend their own time outside of work on a site like this.

4. The treatement that fitsssy has recieved is unnaceptable from any company, regardless of what they have on the top of their letters.

5. Your right fitsssy shouldnt have needed to go through MD level to get the problem sorted, but your advise frankly is stupid. If people start taking frivolous complaints then it will take longer for the serious complaints to actually get through and get sorted.

6. Finally if your unsure of what you are paying for, may i suggest the first port of call would be your monthly bill.