Exceptionally Angry at VM - Help Required

[philce]

Dial 150 and select the option. Thinking of leaving if I remember correctly.

If you need the CEO then send an email to neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk they will call you back.

But as everyone else has been telling you the £30 is a activation fee not a upgrade fee.

You may get the hub for free, but they wont turn it on!

[Stop It]

Well then, a little update.

After deciding to try to order the Superhub online to see what happens (the going on Holiday for a week), I come home to an email from VM asking me to ring regarding the order.

Turns out (And it took the web order team to tell me) that because my account has a special discount flag on it (Because of issues that occurred when I first got VM installed here), any online orders will not work unless I speak to customer services (Note a pattern here?). Funnily enough CS didn't tell me that a couple of weeks ago, and insisted that there wouldn't be a problem with me ordering online, oh dear.

Anyway, I spoke to CS, again, and got a nice chap who, once I explained my issues, confirmed (after speaking to a manager) that my account had some weird stuff going on and sorted out a manual order for a VM superhub, for free no less (he also mentioned 30Mb, but I'm not expecting that to be thrown in for free).

He also promised to get my account reviewed by higher ups as he agreed that being told that my account didn't have any issues a couple of weeks ago was blatantly false and that if the CS team then actually looked at my account properly (As I suggested) that they would find out why I was unable to order online in the first place! All I want now is an apology regarding how I was treated, I was basically called a liar by someone who frankly didn't do his job properly, and to make things worse all it took was to actually check my account for being flagged, something I even mentioned at the time.

Ah well, I'll be getting my hub FOC after all, I guess it really does depend on who you speak to.

[Skie]

VM have had these issues for years. One part of the site will say one thing, another part another and yet another part will claim something entirely different. And then CS will tell you none of these are correct, or that the deals over the phone are different and to order online if you want the price you are seeing (though how that helps when the prices are all over the show I'll never understand).

Check your bill to make sure the SH has indeed been given to you for free, too. Thats another part of VM's shoddy systems and CS that can regularly fail and end up charging you full whack until you eventually get it sorted out.

[jodash]

that seems to be about par for ALL Virgin's companies,have same problem every year with the holidays

[Billy-Bob]

The take-home message from this (and many other) thread is this:

Virgin Media'a website is shockingly bad; it is fragmented, badly-designed, contradicts itself in several places, and makes it virtually impossible for a customer who wants a specific piece of information to find that information quickly and easily.

There are two possible explanations for this:

1) VM are ludicrously incompetent as a company;

or

2) It is part of a deliberate business practice of opaque and confusing pricing in order to confuse customers into paying more for services than they have been led to believe those services cost.

I used to think it was probably a case of 1), but recently I am beginning to believe 2) to be more likely.

I went onto the VM site a few days ago to try to find a very simple fact about one of VM's services, and gave up after stumbling around from one badly-designed page to another for 20 minutes or so. As luck would have it, before I gave up, the muppets invited me to complete a user survey about my experience on the site. So I let them have it with both barrels.

Which is all a great shame, as the technical quality of the broadband service I have received from VM for the past 6 years has been superb.

[browney]

Originally Posted by Masque

But it does say so here http://shop.virginmedia.com/existing...broadband.html

Also even staff have to pay the £30 to upgrade below taken from my KANA email.

I didn't

Main services (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd or Virgin Media Payments Ltd) £33.95
Description Date/period Amount
Telephone Line Rental 08 March - 07 April £12.24
Talk International 08 March - 07 April £1.50
Talk Mobile 08 March - 07 April £1.50
Talk Unlimited 08 March - 07 April £8.00
Retail Partner Offer 08 March - 07 April £-33.95
Free Voicemail 08 March - 07 April £0.00
TV Size: X L 08 March - 07 April £25.00
1 Additional V Box 08 March - 07 April £15.00
V HD Box 08 March - 07 April £0.00
V+ HD Box 08 March - 07 April £10.00
Add Set Box(es) Discount 08 March - 07 April £-9.40
Phone, TV & BB Saving 08 March - 07 April £-32.94
Broadband XL(30) 08 March - 07 April £37.00
Other charges £0.00
Charges and credits (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd) £0.00
Description Date/period Amount
30Mb Activation Charge 11 February £30.00
30Mb Activation Charge Refund 11 February £-30.00
Manned Installation Charge 11 February £40.00
Free Installation Credit 11 February £-40.00

[Mick Fisher]

I'd go with 2) as well, and it's not just VM either.

Ever tried to work out what you are being charged per unit for your Gas. There's metric meters that equate to Watts as well as Imperial meters that equate to Therms. Conversions are a nightmare.

And lets not forget trying to compare the prices of similar package holidays from different companies.

[techguyone]

Anyone with half a brain would have known the superhub upgrade meant you had to part with £30, there's been threads galore about the hub. Frankly anyone who wants to talk to the CEO about such a trifling issue obviously has issues of their own, talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

If VM is such a terrible terrible company and so obviously incompetant that you're feeling so bad about it, why don't you discontinue service and ... be a pain in the ass to a different media company ?

'Exceptionally angry' God how old are you. 12?

I've been with VM for some time now, I've had updates and add ons, with zero problems, but I see from reading through your posts, you had issues with a V HD box, and something else that meant your account had a 'special discount flag' on it. (Yes I do see a pattern indeed)

Maybe just maybe. The problem is... you?

Ah well, I'll be getting my hub FOC after all, I guess it really does depend on who you speak to.

Says it all really. You couldn't get your way, so you threw your teddy out of the pram, and now you're all happy.

[IDrummed]

I'm having an issue very similar to the OP's.

I've been lurking these forums for a few months now but decided to register now for some advice after seeing this post.

I'm currently on 10mb broadband but I fancied upgrading to 50mb, including the superhub.

I logged in to VM site and used the link
http://shop.virginmedia.com/existing...broadband.html

It states that there is free activation and installation but there is no mention of the price increase. When I continued to complete the order there was still no mention of the additional monthly fee.
The site said something along the lines of "If you have not had a confirmed price yet, don't worry. One of our advisors will contact you before your installation date to confirm you are happy with any price changes."

Ok, I thought, however I have still had no contact apart from a confirmation email to say that the engineer will be out this Friday to install.

I had called VM before ordering online but got through to a fairly unhelpful agent who seemed more interested in selling me Virgin Mobile than getting me the most suitable broadband deal!

Any suggestions?

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by jb66

Superhub is free going from L bb to xl, if your on xl it's £30

No it's not. It's £30 for all existing customer upgrades to 30Mbit

[slef2003]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

No it's not. It's £30 for all existing customer upgrades to 30Mbit

Twas free for me!!! (oops on rereading post i conveniently forgot i upgraded to 50mb) never mind rest is corrrect

Mind you I am getting a bit miffed at the free latency issues that came with the hub and even more miffed at the appalling line quality that i have experienced trying to get through to tech support (in india) needing to redial at least five times to be able to get a line clear enough to hear the person at the other end of the phone! and the porky pies that i have been told including if they cannot sort out the latency issues they will send me a separate hub and router for the 50Mb service!!

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by techguyone

Anyone with half a brain would have known the superhub upgrade meant you had to part with £30, there's been threads galore about the hub. Frankly anyone who wants to talk to the CEO about such a trifling issue obviously has issues of their own, talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

If VM is such a terrible terrible company and so obviously incompetant that you're feeling so bad about it, why don't you discontinue service and ... be a pain in the ass to a different media company ?

'Exceptionally angry' God how old are you. 12?

I've been with VM for some time now, I've had updates and add ons, with zero problems, but I see from reading through your posts, you had issues with a V HD box, and something else that meant your account had a 'special discount flag' on it. (Yes I do see a pattern indeed)

Maybe just maybe. The problem is... you?



Says it all really. You couldn't get your way, so you threw your teddy out of the pram, and now you're all happy.

Your the kind of rude and obnoxious person one should expect to speak to when calling virgin media.

As you seem to like insulting others..... Anyone with half a brain knows what a pain in the arse virgia media are with all the misleading information on the website, but unfortunately some of us dont have many other options.

[techguyone]

There's always options...

I'm not insulting anyone, merely pointing out that all that drama over a £30 fee was somewhat ... excessive?

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by techguyone

There's always options...

I'm not insulting anyone, merely pointing out that all that drama over a £30 fee was somewhat ... excessive?

Theres no options for me, theres no BT line at all, i dont own the property and have no options of having one installed.

I'm not sure i would say it was excessive because ive been in many similar situations and usually its the principle thats important, not the money.