VM Community Forum Move

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by newapollo

The latest changes are:-

The Community Forum manager (Kei_M) edited the following Digital Life (which is part of the community forums) article on 24th April.

https://community.virginmedia.com/bl...s-died/4018511

Also if you are signed in check your community forum profile.
There are two new tabs "Under Review" and "Rejected", so it looks likely that some kind of backup or moderation is taking place, maybe preparing for, or in the process of transferring threads to a new combined VM O2 community forum.

If you're a 'VIP' community member, you'd have the first to be informed, surely.....

[adduxi]

Still showing Certificate errors for me, but I've given up waiting. Logged in anyway and, yes as Newapollo says, there are changes in the Users Profile section, but still nothing else.
I'm in the dark the same as everyone else and my VM contract is due to cease in a few days, but will still "pop in" now and again to see how things are looking ...

[jem]

Originally Posted by Mr K

If you're a 'VIP' community member, you'd have the first to be informed, surely.....

The ‘VIP’ member status has long since failed to mean anything significant to VM. In the dim and distant past VIPs were chosen for their obvious knowledge of the systems and willingness to assist others. In return they were given some perks, reduced fees etc. During my brief status as a VIP, I declined any such perks as a felt that doing so might compromise my giving an honest opinion - not surprisingly I was ejected from the programme after a year, so, presumably I did something right (or wrong from VM’s perspective)!

Over the last year or two, the VIP status has become meaningless, they were treated with the same degree of respect (ie none) that every other poster was on the forum. And especially over the last year, the forum itself degenerated into a means of complaining about graffiti on a cabinet, a broken omnibox on the wall. Inevitable most threads ended with a member of the forum team posting a ‘let’s take this to a private message.....’ and then radio silence. So as a forum - a means to share information, and fixes, and help, it sort of ceased to exist.

I’m going to make a prediction, it’s not coming back, ever, neither is the O2 community forum - it’s now been three months into their ‘brief downtime while we migrate....’ timeframe.

Two possibilities,

a) the forums has become too toxic, allowing disgruntled customers to share similar stories of bad customer service. Better to shut that all down and have a more one-to-one, social media, connection where they can isolate each customer from others and tell them that their issue is unique.

or

b) VM and O2 did intend to merge their forums but their IT people were too incompetent to do so.


Either way is not a good look.

[Itshim]

I must say I found it pretty usless, using Facebook was better, not tried for sometime, so it could be rubbish these days

[daveeb]

Originally Posted by Itshim

I must say I found it pretty usless, using Facebook was better, not tried for sometime, so it could be rubbish these days

Back in the day it was really useful and was a lot better than trying to sort issues over the phone with the woeful CS. In more recent times, as mentioned by Jem, the dialogue became more copy and paste answers to issues and the scope of problems that could be dealt via the forum declined. In short VM have been quietly winding it down for years and I can't see it coming back. It was one of numerous reasons why I jumped ship from VM when I did.

[adduxi]

Originally Posted by daveeb

Back in the day it was really useful and was a lot better than trying to sort issues over the phone with the woeful CS. In more recent times, as mentioned by Jem, the dialogue became more copy and paste answers to issues and the scope of problems that could be dealt via the forum declined. In short VM have been quietly winding it down for years and I can't see it coming back. It was one of numerous reasons why I jumped ship from VM when I did.

The main reason I left VM a couple of times was down to cost. I really, really detest the "yearly dance" to get a deal. I've left again as the costs were going from 34 to over 70. Funny enough within a few days of cancelling, a deal arrived for 21. Go figure. Why they can't just give users a proper price in the first place?
However, since Openreach cabled the area a couple of years ago, VM are no longer the only supplier for reasonable speed broadband. so at least I can shop around.
As for CS, I've never needed them, thankfully and I've always said the VM broadband service I've had is very, very good over the many years I've had it.
Perhaps the Forum is not returning, and as more and more areas are upgraded to fibre, the need for the "old cable" knowledge will no longer be needed.
As for social media, AFAIK Twitter/X was being used for over 50% of the users queries recently, so if that trend continues, it's another nail in the coffin for a Forum.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by adduxi

The main reason I left VM a couple of times was down to cost. I really, really detest the "yearly dance" to get a deal. I've left again as the costs were going from 34 to over 70. Funny enough within a few days of cancelling, a deal arrived for 21. Go figure. Why they can't just give users a proper price in the first place?
However, since Openreach cabled the area a couple of years ago, VM are no longer the only supplier for reasonable speed broadband. so at least I can shop around.
As for CS, I've never needed them, thankfully and I've always said the VM broadband service I've had is very, very good over the many years I've had it.
Perhaps the Forum is not returning, and as more and more areas are upgraded to fibre, the need for the "old cable" knowledge will no longer be needed.
As for social media, AFAIK Twitter/X was being used for over 50% of the users queries recently, so if that trend continues, it's another nail in the coffin for a Forum.

They do this to extract as much money as possible from those not savvy or capable of negotiating, these will be often be elderly, confused or have learning difficulties. Inertia or a busy life also come into play.

The 'reduced' prices are what they expect people to pay, made to look good by reducing artificially set high prices. If people pay the artificially set high prices, all the better for Virgin.