Is there life after Virgin Media?
24 June 2009, 10:25 AM
#1
Is there life after Virgin Media?
Whaaaa help me 
Yesterday i decided to end my contract with VM. I have been with cable for about 17 years. I have fallen out with customer services after speaking to a call center with a 5 second delay on the phone.
I have no phone line atm and the soonest they can fix it is 8th July, it broke last week
Nearly 3 weeks to fix a phone line is just wrong.
Anyway, i have the full set with VM (telephone, broadband and tv) and my contract ends in September.
My VM bill was around £50 a month. I have never changed services and have no idea whats out there and what its worth. All i keep reading is that VM offer the best deal anywhere.
Can anyone please help me make an informed decision?
Yesterday i decided to end my contract with VM. I have been with cable for about 17 years. I have fallen out with customer services after speaking to a call center with a 5 second delay on the phone.
I have no phone line atm and the soonest they can fix it is 8th July, it broke last week
Nearly 3 weeks to fix a phone line is just wrong.Anyway, i have the full set with VM (telephone, broadband and tv) and my contract ends in September.
My VM bill was around £50 a month. I have never changed services and have no idea whats out there and what its worth. All i keep reading is that VM offer the best deal anywhere.
Can anyone please help me make an informed decision?
24 June 2009, 10:43 AM
#5
Scooby Regular
I can't help you with where to go next but I sympathise with regards to dealing with Virgin Media.
A work mate is with Virgin and was 6 months into contract when he moved. OK all good that they allow you to move - not so good that they put you into a new 12 month contract. This happened in June of last year.
He then realised that they had given him the wrong package and called to complain. They put him on the correct package and all is seemingly well.
He rang yesterday to cancel as he and his wife are splitting up and he was under the impression that as it was now June his 12 months were up and they said his contract doesn't end until December 09. They'd restarted his contract when he called to complain about being on the wrong package.
They are truly shocking. Richard Branson should be ashamed of himself for a the level of service his business interests offer. They screwed me when I had my broadband with them. They pi55ed about with the DDM, we agreed over the phone a payment to make up the shortfall due to their ineptitude and then blow me they take more than I agreed and my card gets suspended!!! Not what you want to hear when you hand over your card to pay for your cars service and its declined.
I never got my money back.
A work mate is with Virgin and was 6 months into contract when he moved. OK all good that they allow you to move - not so good that they put you into a new 12 month contract. This happened in June of last year.
He then realised that they had given him the wrong package and called to complain. They put him on the correct package and all is seemingly well.
He rang yesterday to cancel as he and his wife are splitting up and he was under the impression that as it was now June his 12 months were up and they said his contract doesn't end until December 09. They'd restarted his contract when he called to complain about being on the wrong package.
They are truly shocking. Richard Branson should be ashamed of himself for a the level of service his business interests offer. They screwed me when I had my broadband with them. They pi55ed about with the DDM, we agreed over the phone a payment to make up the shortfall due to their ineptitude and then blow me they take more than I agreed and my card gets suspended!!! Not what you want to hear when you hand over your card to pay for your cars service and its declined.
I never got my money back.
24 June 2009, 10:44 AM
#6
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For broadband they are unfortunately the best there is in this country....
I think your best bet would be to try to cancel and then when their customer retentions department call (when your phone line is back up
) begging you to stay express your dissatisfaction and thrash out the cheapest deal possible for all your current services plus any upgrades you can get thrown in. They will call as losing a regular £50 customer is bad news for them.
Sounds like customer service has gone down the pan since Virgin took over. My phone line packed up when it was Telewest they fixed it next day IIRC. Even then it turns out I was the only person connected to the line card that had packed up as it may have been fixed sooner if other customers had rang to report it as I don't think I noticed for a good few days, don't have many friends
I think your best bet would be to try to cancel and then when their customer retentions department call (when your phone line is back up
) begging you to stay express your dissatisfaction and thrash out the cheapest deal possible for all your current services plus any upgrades you can get thrown in. They will call as losing a regular £50 customer is bad news for them.Sounds like customer service has gone down the pan since Virgin took over. My phone line packed up when it was Telewest they fixed it next day IIRC. Even then it turns out I was the only person connected to the line card that had packed up as it may have been fixed sooner if other customers had rang to report it as I don't think I noticed for a good few days, don't have many friends
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24 June 2009, 10:46 AM
#11
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I've had Sky+ and have Virgin's V+, and I personally prefer Virgin.
I only have Internet and cable TV with Virgin and haven't had any cause to call their customer services yet. I did spend time on the phone to customer services with Sky though and they can't be much worse than Virgin.
If you were dealing with a former NTL employee at Virgin though, you will have had the rare pleasure in talking to a being one step up from an amoeba.
I only have Internet and cable TV with Virgin and haven't had any cause to call their customer services yet. I did spend time on the phone to customer services with Sky though and they can't be much worse than Virgin.
If you were dealing with a former NTL employee at Virgin though, you will have had the rare pleasure in talking to a being one step up from an amoeba.
24 June 2009, 11:04 AM
#14
Imo anyone who has a problem with VM speak to Pimmo2000 , had a problem ages ago with my broadband not working after 3 days of being told the fault was at their end (no **** sherlock
) pm'd him he found out that **** all was being done about it,put a works marker (or something like that) against it and within 24 hours ish my internet was working again.
We all complain about dealing with foreign call centres ,speak to him keep him in a job (alright he may hate it) but at least you get some bloody sense out of him and ,in my case,the problem sorted quickly
) pm'd him he found out that **** all was being done about it,put a works marker (or something like that) against it and within 24 hours ish my internet was working again.We all complain about dealing with foreign call centres ,speak to him keep him in a job (alright he may hate it
) but at least you get some bloody sense out of him and ,in my case,the problem sorted quickly
24 June 2009, 11:20 AM
#15
Imo anyone who has a problem with VM speak to Pimmo2000 , had a problem ages ago with my broadband not working after 3 days of being told the fault was at their end (no **** sherlock) pm'd him he found out that **** all was being done about it,put a works marker (or something like that) against it and within 24 hours ish my internet was working again.
We all complain about dealing with foreign call centres ,speak to him keep him in a job (alright he may hate it) but at least you get some bloody sense out of him and ,in my case,the problem sorted quickly
) pm'd him he found out that **** all was being done about it,put a works marker (or something like that) against it and within 24 hours ish my internet was working again.We all complain about dealing with foreign call centres ,speak to him keep him in a job (alright he may hate it
) but at least you get some bloody sense out of him and ,in my case,the problem sorted quickly 
I don't remember any of that I'm away from the call centre life now, but I still work for them and will do my best !!
I've been on pretty much every department so ...
24 June 2009, 12:58 PM
#17
Scooby Regular
i had to ring and moan at them when i renewed my contract, i was playing off sky and virgin to get the best deal, short version was if i went to sky it was free install but had to pay extra for the hd service. and had to sort phone line out with BT at a cost of £125 
) and pay bill to sky and a bill to BT. virgin were gonna charge £30 install but full TV including HD, faster internet and free phone so decided to stay with them.
my bill dulley arrived two months later, a month late, and they had charged me the full £75 install fee. so i rang up and played merry hell, i wrote everything down at the time due to wanting to get the correct info between sky and virgin so all i had to do was look back and see what it said.
to be fair they sorted the error out there and then, but y did they **** it up in the first place??? numpty's
) and pay bill to sky and a bill to BT. virgin were gonna charge £30 install but full TV including HD, faster internet and free phone so decided to stay with them.my bill dulley arrived two months later, a month late, and they had charged me the full £75 install fee. so i rang up and played merry hell, i wrote everything down at the time due to wanting to get the correct info between sky and virgin so all i had to do was look back and see what it said.
to be fair they sorted the error out there and then, but y did they **** it up in the first place??? numpty's
24 June 2009, 02:05 PM
#19
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To be fair, I was with BT for my interweb and the service was abysmal. I was paying £30 a month (back in 2006) for a supposed 2mb connection, which was at peak running maybe 0.25-0.30 (done via various speed test sites).
I eventually found that Vigin media had the cables round here, so plumbed for them as there was no way imaginable that they could worse than BT. I was right, since then I've had excellent service. £25 to set up, never bothered with the wireless thing, router is fine, and it was costing me £18 a month for a 2mb connection that was hitting 2mb 99.9% of the time, even in peak hours.
Just have the internets with them now, and was recently posted a letter informing me of the price increase of £2. Ne bother, as the service was good. But for the lower speed connections (and Pimmo will echo this), they were/are upgrading everyone on the 2mb connection to the 10mb connection. I rang up and queried when this would happen, and they did it there and then (about 1-2 months ago) whilst on the phone. So for £2 extra a month, 5x faster internet, which does work 99.9% of the time.
Never had their TV though or phone as I have freeview box and a Southern Electric phone line.
Definitely the best of a bad bunch imo.
I eventually found that Vigin media had the cables round here, so plumbed for them as there was no way imaginable that they could worse than BT. I was right, since then I've had excellent service. £25 to set up, never bothered with the wireless thing, router is fine, and it was costing me £18 a month for a 2mb connection that was hitting 2mb 99.9% of the time, even in peak hours.
Just have the internets with them now, and was recently posted a letter informing me of the price increase of £2. Ne bother, as the service was good. But for the lower speed connections (and Pimmo will echo this), they were/are upgrading everyone on the 2mb connection to the 10mb connection. I rang up and queried when this would happen, and they did it there and then (about 1-2 months ago) whilst on the phone. So for £2 extra a month, 5x faster internet, which does work 99.9% of the time.
Never had their TV though or phone as I have freeview box and a Southern Electric phone line.
Definitely the best of a bad bunch imo.
24 June 2009, 02:58 PM
#20
To be fair, I was with BT for my interweb and the service was abysmal. I was paying £30 a month (back in 2006) for a supposed 2mb connection, which was at peak running maybe 0.25-0.30 (done via various speed test sites).
I eventually found that Vigin media had the cables round here, so plumbed for them as there was no way imaginable that they could worse than BT. I was right, since then I've had excellent service. £25 to set up, never bothered with the wireless thing, router is fine, and it was costing me £18 a month for a 2mb connection that was hitting 2mb 99.9% of the time, even in peak hours.
Just have the internets with them now, and was recently posted a letter informing me of the price increase of £2. Ne bother, as the service was good. But for the lower speed connections (and Pimmo will echo this), they were/are upgrading everyone on the 2mb connection to the 10mb connection. I rang up and queried when this would happen, and they did it there and then (about 1-2 months ago) whilst on the phone. So for £2 extra a month, 5x faster internet, which does work 99.9% of the time.
Never had their TV though or phone as I have freeview box and a Southern Electric phone line.
Definitely the best of a bad bunch imo.
I eventually found that Vigin media had the cables round here, so plumbed for them as there was no way imaginable that they could worse than BT. I was right, since then I've had excellent service. £25 to set up, never bothered with the wireless thing, router is fine, and it was costing me £18 a month for a 2mb connection that was hitting 2mb 99.9% of the time, even in peak hours.
Just have the internets with them now, and was recently posted a letter informing me of the price increase of £2. Ne bother, as the service was good. But for the lower speed connections (and Pimmo will echo this), they were/are upgrading everyone on the 2mb connection to the 10mb connection. I rang up and queried when this would happen, and they did it there and then (about 1-2 months ago) whilst on the phone. So for £2 extra a month, 5x faster internet, which does work 99.9% of the time.
Never had their TV though or phone as I have freeview box and a Southern Electric phone line.
Definitely the best of a bad bunch imo.
I have the whole package at home (pay very little
) and its spot on ..They don't treat staff any different, if you want to be looked after you need to be a business customer or a VIP ..
Saying that any issues or faults, I'd either sort myself or get someone to do it asap ..
A lot of the time its the communication break down when speaking to call centres..
I'm here if anyone has any problems, the only thing I wont do is break DPA, so resetting passwords etc. If you have a problem with your account, internet speed or whatever, I'm more than happy to try and help.
Worst case I'll raise it to the right people and put my name behind it.
24 June 2009, 03:19 PM
#22
Scooby Regular
My mate has sky + and we have a v+ box. Maybe I am biased, but the V+ box has by far more to offer then Sky +.
I also have the full package and Shy would never be able to offer us the package we have foe anything close to what we pay.
I would never go to sky.....
I also have the full package and Shy would never be able to offer us the package we have foe anything close to what we pay.
I would never go to sky.....
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