Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Hi Folks,

Apologies is this is the wrong section. It has been sometime since I have been on this forum due to familty, time etc.

I am hoping for some advice on what to do with my Virgin Service.

I will cut a long story short, been with virgin for many years, but for the last 3 years, I have had signal issues with my service which has led to sevre pixelation problems with my HD channels mainly being unwatchable.

The issue was first reported back in 2011 (which VM has confirmed recently) however they did not follow the fault though and basically I have lived with this for some years now. They sent tech's out, and they more or less pinned it ot the the tivo box iteself, but again did not follow it though with me.

Most recently, I upgraded and renewed my service and raised the issue with them again. Senior tech came out Saturday and has authorised with a cable repull for my property which is happening next week.

I have not had any issues in my view the internet, but the tech said that it would have been affected all this time as its a signal problem (something like 11 errors every 0.5secs)

Virgin said they would compensate me, but nothing specific at this point until after the repull. Do you guys think it reasonable for me to ask for 50% of my bills dating back to when the issue was first raised?

Any feedback would be appricated?

Thanks
Liam

p.s. good to be back on the forum :)

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Wouldn't hurt asking. There is definitely a case for you cancelling the service with no charge due to the issues you said I would say. But those who work for Virgin that post here would be best to answer this.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Thanks. Yeah I am hoping VM don't try and put me in a corner where they tell me to cancel or lump it.

Personally, I like VM and my services (minus HD anyway) and don't want to go through the hassle of moving.

Thanks

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

There's no harm in asking.

But get it resolved first. It is standard practice to only give compensation after it is resolved, so they know what period they are compensating.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Yes I had a more minor problem with the signal and they said the same as Spiderplant says above... the compensation was very fair.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

thanks folks.

Reason i ask is I am potentilly asking for £750+ compensation lol.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Think you may need to lower your expectations a little !

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Noted...I thought that myself.

But what is reasonable in this case where I have had partial services for 3 years?

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Have you really had partial service for the entirety of 3 years? I would have complained after 3 days and be cancelling by 3 weeks.

If it dragged on for 3 years I think you need to take a bit of the responsibility along with VM and be reasonable as to how it has TRULY impacted your service.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Forget the time span for a minute ....

My first thoughts were that the only problem reported was the HD channels are mainly unwatchable.
This does mean though the SD variants are fine.

I'm not normally one to complain to any provider, but the time span to resolve would have been the one thing I would argue about, not so much the lack of HD.

Be interesting to hear of the resolve

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

As much as I would hate to say it, I do agree that perhaps I should have been at there heels a bit more.

However, I can only say that it was reported them at least twice, back in 2011. Had a couple of engineers out, they said they would be back in touch. No contact.

I got the automated call from VM advising "Press 1 if problem still exists" , etc. I remeber pressing that and again nothing. No further contact. Called back up presviously, and no disrespect and I am not being racist, but when you get connected the idian call centre try explaining this perstant problem to them. I did try and got no where, they kept asking if I wanted to remove channels. Plus I have a deep Scottish accent which doesn't help :).

It got to a stage where I got fed up with it and lived with it. They do have my call records on there system and according to one of the advisors the repair ticket back then doesn not have a resolution agaist it.

From a customer service point of view, I did try with them, I lft in there hands multiple times to resolve and they did not.

As for service disruption, I have not been able to watch serveral HD channels and slight pixelation on normal SD channels now and again, but nothing I can't live with.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I not done something like this before.

---------- Post added at 14:37 ---------- Previous post was at 14:35 ----------

Exactly, again, another reason I lived with it cause I could watch the SD variants.

Again, got sick of calling up, taking time off work etc. So gave up on the issue.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Whilst you should have been more proactive let's not lose sight of the fact that actually you're the customer and shouldn't really have to be chasing them to resolve an issue that has been reported to them. Once really should have been enough. What people regard as acceptable customer service never fails to amaze me. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

I agree it's not acceptable service in this case, but it's a fact of life that you have to chase people sometimes.

Personally, I don't like the compensation culture that has grown like topsy in this country in recent years. All it does it put the costs up which translates in price increases for all of us. Is that really what we want?

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

It is perfectly reasonable for a company to presume that the issue has gone if they do something then we don't report it again. How are they to know that the issue is persistent if we don't let them know?

Whilst I don't think this is the case with the OP here I think there is a terrible culture rising where people always think it's someone else's responsibility. It's my responsibility to do something if I'm not getting the service I want.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

It's the company's responsibility to provide the service they advertise, and I don't think it hurts any company to actually follow up when they've undertaken engineering work, rather than just "presume that the issue has gone away". I genuinely find it incredible that people consider either of these things acceptable. I don't. Provide me with the service you advertise, if you can't the onus is on you to ensure it's resolved. It's because people accept less than these very basic standards that we get such poor customer service from companies.

I agree, Old Boy, that we don't want to live in a compensation culture where the average customer has to suffer increased bills because their service provider is always paying out. If the service providers get the basics right first time then we won't have to.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Well got home from work last night and 2 VM vans outside drilling into my garden wall lol. They said they were here to do the repull. They were supposed to be doing it on Tuesday "4th of this month.

Looks like they are dealing with it as a priority as the senior tech had to make about 3 phone calls during his visit last Saturday. He did say to me then that he would raise this with a senior figure so thats been good :)

All good on the TV front though...no pixel problems. Nice clean signal. Everything seems good now.

Rang VM, they advised they would get a senior manager to call back today to discuss the situation. Oh and she women tried to offer £20 goodwill gesture lol. I said no in a calm and polite manner. .Unfortunately, no call back today.

On the compensation front folks...not looking to bleed VM to be honest but if the offered to pay my services for the next 3 months, I would be satisfied with that which personally I think is reasonable. (bill is now £57 p/m)

Fair enough If I was a newish customer, but I have been with them since the telewest days. I've paid them thousands over the years. But we see what happens.

Now have the pain of deleting about 30 series links to HD channels lol

Thanks for the feedback guys...will keep you posted.

---------- Post added at 20:53 ---------- Previous post was at 20:42 ----------

Fully agree that you do need to chase people, but I think I just got too use to it. As much it sounds weird and that VM probably think I am some nut job :) .

Only when I my contract expired back in June, that the guy who understood me and took it seriously, made the calls and made it happen, before continuing the upgrade.

Plus also that BT sport came to town for free was a given :)

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

50% probably too much to ask. £20 offer is taking the mick. At the end of the day you were out a partial service that you were paying for though you were 'satisfied' Enoch to not be too bothered to keep chasing them. I would think a couple of months would be reasonable. I don't view your case as compensation so much as just getting back money for service not provided. And I think that's a reasonable expectation.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Bit of an update folks.

Rec. call today from a team manager to discuss my case. Bottom line he said that he could see that reported these issues before but was not resolved and length of time is unacceptable.

We have agreed that VM will pay my bills for the next 3 months and have also gave me the sky sports collection free for 3 months too. Have to say very happy with the outcome and that they have treated my like a valued customer rather than a number.

Thanks for the feedback guys on this.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Glad you got it sorted :tu:

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Great result.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

I'd agree, seams a reasonable refund to me

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Andy,
Does this mean that every time you have your car fixed,tyre mended,washing machine repaired etc that you expect a call to see if everything is working?,surely not,my view is report the fault,allow a repair then if it is still not working report it again stressing that it is not the first time.

Re: Some Virgin Compensation Advice
 

Dunno - but Quickfit were pretty good at following up when I purchased a new tyre the other day ... they wanted to sell me everything under the sun ... you name the insurance policy, and they tried to sell it.

Shame they never asked how the new tyre was bearing up!