Virgin Media Sucks - A Continuing Saga of Disappointment and Frustration
We were customers of NTL / Virgin Media from November 2005 to March 2008, having originally signed up with them because the landlord of the place we were living in at the time wouldn’t let us have a Sky dish installed. (Fair enough - your house, your rules.)
Had we known then what we know now about Virgin Media, I doubt we would have bothered — and we certainly wouldn’t have spent 2 1/2 years waiting and waiting and waiting to see if maybe THIS time they would fix things once and for all.
———-
After the 3rd occurrence of signal loss and the resulting tech dispatch to resolve the issue, I started keeping written logs of all our dealings with NTL. I would never have believed that a company could so consistently fail their customers, until it happened to me.
December 1 2005: Called NTL to report yet another signal loss issue & to cancel our Family Pack free trial. Faults Rep sent a ‘push’ to our set-top box, to see if this would fix things. It didn’t fix anything, so we called Faults again. This time, we were asked for the set-top box serial number. If they’d collected this information the first time we’d called, we’d have been able to get them this. We were no longer at home, however, so didn’t have the serial number handy. Escalated this issue to a supervisor, who said that she’d book an NTL tech visit for us tomorrow.
December 2 2005: NTL tech never showed up! Called Faults, no record of booking. Nor were they able to track which “supervisor” supposedly made the booking yesterday. Arranged for NTL tech to come out on Dec 5th.
December 5 2005: NTL tech came out to boost signal again.
December 9 2005: Asked NTL to change phone #
December 17 2005: Phone # still not changed. Called NTL, spoke to Scott 3469 who said there was a fault with their IBM internal systems, and they were waiting for that to be fixed in order to order us a new phone number. He agreed to waive the charge since we’ve been waiting for so long. Also said he’d call us back with more info on when it will be done. Never got a call back.
December 19 2005: Called NTL about signal loss again, they said a tech would be out tomorrow.
Also called Customer Services to ask them if the fault in their systems had been fixed, so we could get our new phone number. Mike said I would need to call faults. Tried to explain to him that it was not a phone fault on MY line, but a problem with THEIR IBM computers in the call center that were delaying the phone number change. He again told me to call faults. I asked for a supervisor, he said his supervisor would tell me the same thing. Asked Mike for his employee #, extension, anything so that I could refer to him when I spoke to a supervisor. He refused, and said that lots of Mikes worked in Customer Services?! I asked him if his supervisor would tell me to call faults to report an issue with the IBM computers at the NTL call center?! He asked me to explain the issue to him AGAIN, and after taking a while to think about things, said that he saw no reason why they couldn’t change our phone number for us. (Had the IBM fault been resolved?) Told him I would get the account holder to ring back.
Ploes called NTL later in the day & spoke to someone competent, who submit a request to change the phone number. (Also added my name to the account!)
December 20 2005: NTL tech came out to boost signal again.
December 21 2005: Called NTL to report signal loss again.
December 22 2005: NTL tech out to boost signal again.
December 30 2005: Phone issue: The caller hears ringing, but our phone doesn’t actually ring! This issue seems to have been happening since the phone number change OVER A WEEK AGO!
January 3 2006: Ploes received a phone call from a very nice lady in Northern Ireland named J. Phone issue sorted – when someone calls, we hear it ring now!
January 23 2006: Called J to report signal loss, box overheating & telephone voicemail notification not working. (IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN WORKING SINCE THEY CHANGED THE PHONE NUMBER ON JAN 3!) Said she’d get us a new box & look into the other issues.
January 24 2006: Mike from NTL called to check about “voicemail not working”. Corrected him & told him that voicemail worked, but the message notification didn’t. Said he would look into that & the signal loss issue. He called back later on in the day to say someone would be out Jan 24 for the TV signal loss, and that he was locked out of the software needed to check voicemail notification, but he would call me back tomorrow and work on this some more.
January 25 2006: Mike never called back. (Sounded like a different Mike than the rude CS rep I dealt with on Dec 19 2005, though.)
January 26 2006: 10 AM:Lee from NTL called about the “voicemail not working”. Corrected him as well, and said it was actually the MESSAGE WAITING NOTIFICATION not working. He said he wasn’t told that this was the issue! He said to give him a few minutes and he’d get it working – and he did. (Seems they disabled & re-enabled voicemail, as when I went to check it I had to listen to the spiel that you get when you 1st get free voicemail!)
3 PM: Signal Loss issue: NTL tech came out, TV signal was fine while he was there, as it’s an intermittent issue. He didn’t check the levels or anything, just said they’ll need to run more cables from the green box across the street & that this would be done sometime next week. Was supposed to replace PACE box, but didn’t.
5 PM: Service Manager for Reading called, said the same thing, and that replacing the box wouldn’t help. He repeated to me the “issues in the area” thing that the tech this morning explained. Told him there was ALSO an issue with the box overheating, and that we were told by J that the box would be replaced. He said replacing the box won’t fix the signal loss issue – I agreed, however it would address the BOX OVERHEATING ISSUE THAT ALSO EXISTS. Told him that HE called ME at home and I was not in the mood to argue or debate THEIR service issues. Said I understand that there are issues in the area with the signal, BUT that I was ALSO told the box would be replaced because it was overheating, and IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN YES OR NO? He said he could do that & said someone would be out tomorrow morning to replace the box.
January 27 2006: Chris from NTL came to replace the box. Said they would check in next week after the new cables were run to check the signal again. Lee from NTL called in the afternoon, told him the overheating issue seems to be ok (as box was left on since Chris was here, and no issues a few hours later!)
January 28 2006: On Demand not working! Gives error M010? and then IS002
January 30 2006: Ploes called J to report that VOD is not working.
12:45 PM: Al from NTL called, had me turn power off at the mains for 5 min, then turn it back on.
1:00 PM: Al called back to see if it was fixed – no. Said he’d run more tests and call back.
1:10 PM: Al called back, had me check again. No “M” error this time, just IS002. Said he’d look into this further and call back.
1:50 PM: Al called back, needs to send a tech out. Next slot was Jan 31 between noon-6pm, but we will be out. “Booked & confirmed” for Wed Feb 1, between 8am -12.
February 1 2006: 11:50 AM: NTL tech came out. He power cycled the box, checked settings, said ABSOLUTELY NO REASON ON THIS END WHY ON DEMAND ISN’T WORKING. Told tech that Al from Faults troubleshooted this from their end for over an hour on Jan 30. Al said it was necessary to send a tech out, as there was no problem on his end. So no issue on NTL’s end, and no issue on our end.. but still no On Demand? He said since the interactive works, internet works, & the green light on the box is not flashing, there is no reason why VOD doesn’t work. Tech took Smart Card # & said he’d get the IT Dept to resend package & other info to the box. He said he would ask the IT Dept to call us when everything is fixed but “I don’t know if they actually will call or not.” Great vote of confidence there from a colleague, but you can hardly blame the guy for saying so!
NTL techs working in backyard & drilling at connection box behind flat.
10 AM: Phone line stopped working.
11 AM: Internet & TV stopped working.
11:45 AM: Internet & TV back. Still no phone line.
12:40 PM: Still no phone, and both NTL vans are gone. Box in backyard is a mess, discarded grey plastic box covers have been left on the lawn. Took photos of this.
1:10 PM: NTL tech back (different tech, I think) on site, working on cables at the back.
1:54 PM: Missed call. They did not leave a voicemail. I get a dial tone on the phone & can call out. (Called Ploes to let him know what was going on.)
2:30 PM: When I call the land line, (from my mobile) I hear 3 beeps and the line disconnects. So currently, no one can ring in, and they don’t even get put through to voicemail.
2:50 PM: Land line phone now rings when called.
3:30 PM: NTL van gone.
On Demand still not working, even after (if) the IT Dept ‘reset/resent package info’ to the box.
February 2 2006: 12 PM: Andrew from NTL called. Verified it was a silver Samsung, and light was solid on the front. Told him error IS002 comes up right away after On Demand button is pressed. He confirmed that the tech yesterday said that Interactive was working alright. (This is ALL information they SHOULD HAVE ALREADY NOTED. Andrew said he’d work on things and call me back later with an update.
5:15 PM: Joanne from NTL called to verify the error message yet again. Confirmed that as soon as I hit On Demand the error is IS002. She asked me to disconnect power to the box for 5 min, then plug it back in and try again, as more work has been done to the account. Done – VOD works now.
Week of March 6 2006: Ploes contacted J to arrange a house move. She contacted House Moves on our behalf. Disconnection was arranged for March 24th, reinstall at the new flat was scheduled for March 25th between 8am – 1pm.
March 24 2006: Got a text message from NTL confirming the appointment for the new install tomorrow.
March 25 2006: 11 AM: 2 techs arrived. Installed broadband, phone service, and TV in under an hour! TV and phone were fully working when the techs left. (They even waited ON SITE until channel 105 came in, something that no other techs have bothered to do!) Very impressive!
Noticed an issue with broadband later in the evening though: Couldn’t connect to the interweb with either the old or the new modem. Phoned (the overseas) Broadband Support, who activated the new modem and got things working for us in about 20 minutes. Tech wasn’t script-monkeyish, and didn’t waste time having Ploes troubleshoot silly things (like whether the computer was actually on).
At this point, we were the happiest with NTL that we had ever been. Ever!
..and this made the Cable Gods very angry.
March 29 2006: Got a text message from NTL confirming that our house move new install will take place on March 30 2006 between 8am – 1pm. Assuming NTL would realize their error and not actually dispatch technicians to perform an install where a new install had just taken place 5 DAYS BEFORE, we didn’t contact them about this.
March 30 2006: We were out most of the morning. Came home to find a card from NTL saying they were sorry to have missed us at 11:58am for our install. TV and phone line were no longer working.
Ploes phoned J right away, explained the issue and were told it would get sorted.
7 PM: TV service restored. Still no phone.
March 31 2006: Still no phone service, and now (after having given out our new phone number to everyone) we are told that we will have to take a new phone number.
This is not acceptable, given our lengthy issue history with NTL. If we’re not able to retain the phone number, we will cancel phone, TV and broadband.
2:18 PM: Someone from NTL called to ask us to check the phone line – still not working. We were told to expect a call back from him to arrange for a tech dispatch.
3 PM: We go into Town Centre to compare prices on freeview boxes.
3:45 PM: Marion from NTL Complaints called, said that she was looking into the issue. Another phone number has been assigned to us in the meantime, and rings on the caller’s end. Marion needed us to be home to test the line. We suggested she try back in an hour when we’d be home from shopping.
4:30 PM: Still shopping. Colin (?) called again, following up on his call to us at 2:18 today. Said he was still looking into it. Informed him that Marion was also looking into things and trying to make sure we retain the original phone number we were assigned on the 25th. He said he was not made aware of any of this, but that he’d leave things to Marion then.
4:45 PM: Marion called again, we were home. Tried ringing the new number assigned to our flat.. that one’s not working either! The cheapest freeview boxes we found at Argos were about £25. She told us that a tech would be out this evening.
5:50 PM: NTL tech arrived at our flat, checked the line, still not working. Said he was unable to fix anything because the lock on the NTL green box was broken!
April 1 2006: 11 AM: NTL tech fixed phone line at cabinet. Yes really, even on April Fool’s Day! Still currently assigned the newest number, but at least we have a working phone line. Apparently we can expect a call on April 3 2006 with regards to getting us back the number they gave us on March 25.
..and all this is WITH the help of our high-level contact, J. I shudder to think what would have happened to us if we had to deal with NTL through the usual methods with regards to this mess!
Back home in Canada, I called the cable company (Rogers) and they sent a tech out to install my cable internet. Then, I never had to deal with them again, except for once 3 years later to arrange account cancellation as I was moving to the UK. Previous to that, I dealt with Shaw cable for 4 years.. they had midday outages too often for my taste, but that was the extent of my frustration with them. Seems that UK companies like to hear from their clients a lot more often?! Talk about culture shock!
On the bright side, if NTL changes our phone number every 5 days.. telemarketers won’t be able to track us down, right?
April 3 2006: 5:30 PM: Marilyn in Complaints has not called us as she’d promised to do on Friday March 31.
The phone number we were assigned March 25 still gives a “number unattainable” message when dialed.
4 days now since NTL created this issue!
Ploes left a voicemail for J.
I’m thinking I should send NTL my CV..
April 4 2006: 9:50 AM: Marilyn called this morning to let us know the issue was still being worked on.
10:15 AM: Marilyn called again to let us know the number we were assigned on March 25 that NTL took away from us on the 30th has finally been REassigned to our line.
Finally got things sorted! Yay!!
Hopefully there will be no more problems with this! We’ll also make sure to check the bill when it arrives to make sure we’re not being charged for 2 phone numbers, or both addresses or something!
April 5 2006: It never ends with NTL, does it?!
1 PM: Got a note slipped through our door today that reads:
NTL & Kelly Group
We called today as arranged!
You now have 24 hours to call to re-arrange an alternative appointment or a charge of £150 may be applied to your account for each set top box outstanding.
Please telephone us on 0800 389 0959 or email us on: pickups@kelly.co.uk quoting your account number.
We thank you in advance for your co-operation.
Stage 2
It’s not addressed to anyone in particular, so it may not even be meant for us. Unless they think that because of their screw-up on March 30th a 2nd set top box was given to us? But then, why the “as arranged” bit? Who arranged this? When?
I called the phone #, confirmed our address and account holder’s name. Turns out they DO mean our account. The lady on the phone said that she works for Kelly Group, and that they handle the collections of set top boxes. She said she shows that we have 2 set top boxes, and they want to come collect the extra one. I told her we actually only have one set top box, and since we still have an active NTL account, we’d like to keep it so we can watch TV.
Right away, she asked if we’d recently moved house. I confirmed that we had, and that the techs gave us a new STB on March 25, taking the old one with them when they left. She said the old box was what they wanted to collect “but apparently the techs have been taking them instead”. Nice!
When the house move was being arranged and the dates & times were being confirmed, why were we not told that the techs would leave the extra box with us, since that’s apparently their standard procedure? Communication issue?
Since Kelly Group is in charge of set top box collections, and are supposed to collect any extra/old boxes, why did the install techs take the box? Why were they not made aware of the fact that they weren’t supposed to? Training issue?
Lucky for us that NTL techs must walk off with boxes meant for collection on a regular enough basis that the woman at Kelly Group believed me when I told her the techs had taken the box. How absolutely lovely that we might have had to pay £150 if she hadn’t!
How the lack of communication between NTL, their install techs, and Kelly Group becomes MY problem is beyond me, but I confirmed again that we only had the 1 box. The lady said that she’d update their files and mark the old box as already collected, and this should be the end of it. (Famous last words, eh?)
What if the install techs had noted on their call-out log that the old box was left with the client? (I’m not insinuating they’d be dishonest, just that innocent mistakes can happen.) What would have happened with this £150 charge then?
Or, what happens when techs DON’T take the old boxes with them? Would a dishonest client be able to contact Kelly Group and lie that the techs took the box?
If a piece of equipment is worth £150 to NTL, one would think that they would make VERY clear who is in charge of it during every stage of its usage. While there seems to be a procedure in place with regards to the boxes — why is it not being followed? Why is there such confusion about where their property actually is at any given moment?
Why have I had to call and settle this – under threat of a £150 penalty if I didn’t – and effectively do NTL’s job for them?
If they’re going to toss around possible account charges so easily.. Seems to me that SOMEONE needs to start keeping track of what equipment comes in and out of my home, and if this is the way NTL handles it.. *shrugs* I don’t know what to think anymore.
From now on, should I get a receipt from NTL techs any time they try to add or remove NTL equipment from my residence?! Sounds a bit much to have to resort to, but if it will prevent us from having to sort things out that we shouldn’t have to — and stop their lack of inter-departmental communication skills from creating charges on our account for equipment we don’t have, I’ll try anything!
Currently, our phone, TV, and internet are all working. We do not need yet another install, and don’t have any equipment we shouldn’t have. Please, NTL, leave us in peace for a while, ok?
April 6 2006: 10:20 AM: Internet died. Power cycled modem, ready light flashing. VOD screen comes up, but is empty where the show listings should be. Network fault in our area.
1 PM: Internet back! VOD back!
April 9 2006: Today we discover that our free voicemail hasn’t even been setup. Nor is the anonymous caller rejection on. We’d specifically asked them to keep that on the line, too.
Both were working just fine after the first install on March 25. Then they decided to make a mess of things, and it looks like they didn’t bother putting things back to the way they were when they had to re-assign us the phone number on April 5. Ploes left a voicemail for J.
April 10 2006: 10 AM: Got a phone call from J. Voicemail system changes can’t be done till earliest lunchtime today due to maintinance. So we just have to wait.
Hate to think how much time would have been spent on hold without her help!
April 12 2006: 11:58 AM: Got a call from Marilyn in Complaints, saying that the free voicemail has been put back on the line. She also said that anonymous caller reject has been put on the line.
Called our line from our mobile, making sure to withold the number. It rang through. Anonymous caller reject has NOT been put back on our line. Dialing 1471 confirmed that the last call was from a withheld number.
Rang our line again from our mobile, to check if the free voicemail has been put on. It just rang and rang. Free voicemail has NOT been put back on our line.
One wonders if Marilyn actually tested our line before saying these issues were fixed.
12:30 PM: Called J, who checked our file. It seems that Marilyn had put PAID voicemail on our line, not the free voicemail we’d asked for. Seems that the charge for the paid voicemail was ready on the account, meaning that if we’d not chased NTL to doublecheck their latest work, we’d have seen a fee for voicemail on our next bill. How lovely!
We now await yet another call back.
It’s been 13 days since they caused this issue. Even taking into account the 3 days’ delay for the voicemail system upgrade, it’s taken 10 days (and counting) to fix a problem THEY created.
Since our original install, a mere 18 days ago, we’ve only had 5 days where all 3 services were working properly!
2 PM: J called, said it should be setup & working within 24 hours.
3 PM: Tested Anonymous Caller Reject, it works now! Tested voicemail, it’s working too.
April 18 2006: We now get Assisted Speech for the Blind descriptive voice-overs when trying to watch UKTV Gold (channel 300). It makes the channel unwatchable to hear a constant stream of commentary as to what’s visually happening on the show. (Delboy sits down, waving his hands in the air. Rodney looks confused.. etc.!).
Changing the Audio Description from off to on to off again makes no difference either. This has only happened since we moved house and went from the 2100 to 2110c Samsung boxes.
April 29 2006: Like a bad curry, NTL just keeps on coming back. Got a letter today, postmarked April 26 2006, sent to our old address (we set up mail forwarding with Royal Mail) that reads:
NTL & Kelly Group
Dear Sir/Madam
NTL have been unable to contact you to arrange the collection of your Digital Equipment.
Please could you contact us on either our Freephone number 0800 389 0959 or email us at pickups@kelly.co.uk to arrange a convenient collection date.
As posted previously: We’d already gotten a letter like this on April 5th 2006. I’d called Kelly Group to let them know that the install techs had taken the box with them when they did our house move install on March 25th 2006.
Ploes called Kelly Group AGAIN today to let them know that we don’t have the old STB.
How long is NTL going to insist that we have this equipment?
Should I call NTL to report the theft of the old set top box on March 25th? The techs weren’t supposed to take it, so why should WE be held responsible and further inconvenienced by their absolute inability to communicate with either their install techs OR the company in charge of the collection of extra equipment?
It’s pathetic. Beyond pathetic now, really.
Keep in mind that all this has been done with the help of our high-level contact J, who had gotten the person in charge of house moves for our area to handle everything!
No matter how many wonderful people there are working for NTL, as long as there are some who continue to sabotage things from within the organization, things like this will continue to happen, and ultimately, the customer suffers for it.
We’ll be calling J on Tuesday to sort this out and hopefully stop NTL from continuing to send notices that we have equipment of theirs when we actually don’t.
Seems like they’ve also managed to screw up our billing again this month, so that’ll need looking into as well.
We should take the people who keep dropping the ball, and stand them out in a field full of horny clues, drenched in clue pheromones, at the frenzied height of the clue mating season.. but I’m not sure it’d make any difference anymore!
May 2 2006: Ploes called J, and she made a note on our file that the box was collected by the install techs on March 25 2006. Hopefully NTL will stop saying that we’ve still got the extra STB! The billing was OK after all, it just looked odd because of the adjustments made because of the house move.
Dare I hope that this is the last bit of trouble that NTL causes us?!
May 18 2006: 10:25 PM Channel 105 picture freezes, than says Unsubscribed Channel. Funny that, since that’s not an aerial channel, not one that needs to be subscribed to! 
Power cycled STB, channel came back up at 22:35
May 29 2006: UKTV Gold (channel 300) has the Assisted Speech for the Blind descriptive voice-overs happening again. Apparently a software update is needed for the STB.. but NTL doesn’t seem to know WHEN this update will actually be rolled out. *rolls eyes*
May 30 2006: 4:50 PM: Ploes called NTL Customer Services today and spoke to Ian. We’d been overcharged by £5 on our May bill. Turns out that we’d been getting Talk Unlimited for free, and no bundle discounts at all. We switched to Talk Unlimited Local so we can get a bundle discount again. Our monthly service bill should only come to £48.99 from now on.
It’s a good thing we spotted this, as NTL has been backcharging people (up to 3 months’ worth!) for services they may not know they even had (and presumably didn’t even WANT)!
Ian said we should get a call back later on this evening to confirm that the package change had been done.
*holds breath*
May 31 2006: No one bothered to call us back last night. Typical NTL “customer service” there!
June 13 2006: When checking voicemail, I have to listen to the “Welcome to NTL voicemail” spiel that you get when they first activate your voicemail service. Seems like someone’s been messing around with our telephone line again. Way to go NTL, glad to see you don’t let us go too long without screwing around with something!
September 18 2006: AGAIN, when checking voicemail, I have to listen to the “Welcome to NTL voicemail” spiel that you get when they first activate your voicemail service — just like back in June. I wonder why they reset it every so often..
* Insert a year of peace and quiet, and a name change from NTL to Virgin Media.. *
October 31 2007: Virgin Media have changed billing systems. This (of course) means that our October bill contained exactly zero bundle discounts anymore. Called VM, got them to sort that out.
November 2 2007: Presumably because they corrected our bundle discounts, we got a letter in the post today saying that we have now entered into a new 12 month contract with them, and have 7 days to cancel this. Wait.. what? Called VM, who said that the letter was sent out in error, and that we should disregard it. They were unable to confirm, in writing, their instructions to ignore the letter. UNACCEPTABLE. We are seeking to move house in the next 6 months or so, and past experience with the relocations department has proven that changing your VM service address is going to be the most stressfull part of the move! If they can write to us saying we’re in a 12 month contract, they can bloody well write to us AGAIN saying that the previous letter was sent in error, and confirm in writing that we are NOT, in fact, entering another 12 month contract with them. (Which you can’t get out of, so if we move to an address that VM doesn’t service.. you’re screwed.) Apparently, there are no supervisors working in the customer care centre at 11:45 on a Friday, because repeated requests to speak with one were denied. Left a voicemail for our high-level contact J, to see if she can kick some ass and take some names on our behalf. 
November 6 2007: J called back, but as she longer handles these kinds of issues, she has passed on the information to the person who DOES, and he called us to confirm that we did not re-enter a 12 month contract, and that he would send a letter confirming this in the post.
December 9 2007: Over a month later. No letter in the post yet. Called J back to get the contact info for her replacement, but she said to leave the issue with her & she would get it sorted out.
29 December 2007: Got a letter today confirming that we have not re-entered into a 12 month contract. The letter was dated November 5 2007. It took almost 2 months for J’s replacement to get that letter from the printer to the outgoing mail tray?! Virgin Media’s CEO’s office must be HUGE!
29 January 2008: Sent the following cancellation request letter today, via recorded delivery:
Virgin Media Ltd
PO BOX 333
Swansea
SA7 9ZJ
FAO: Cancellation Department
To Whom It May Concern,
Please note that we wish to terminate ALL our Virgin Media services. (TV, Broadband, and land line telephone.)
Our account number is: [Account number]
Please accept this letter as the required 30 days written notice of cancellation, and ensure that ALL our services are cancelled on 28 February 2008.
The direct debit will be cancelled on 11 March 2008.
Please note, this cancellation request letter has been sent recorded, and we have retained a copy of it to ensure that we do not continue to get billed for the services after we have cancelled them.
Thank you,
[Account holder's name]
[Account number]
Will they try to keep billing us after the cancellation date? Stay tuned!
February 2 2008: Got a letter back from Virgin Media saying that they can only disconnect us on February 29 instead of February 28 as we’d asked for. I guess they got the letter a day later than we expected, which isn’t surprising, given that Royal Mail is just about on the same level as Virgin Media when it comes to being able to do things right the first time. At least we have a response in writing from them as to when the service will be cancelled, which will come in handy if (when?) they try to keep charging us.
The letter says that our final bill will be generated between March 21 and March 24.
The letter also said that they would have a technician in our area on March 4 2008 who would be able to collect the set top box. When we contacted Virgin Media to let them know we will have moved out of the area before that time, they said to contact them again once we were settled in the new place, so that we could get the STB back to them. When we explained that we were moving to a non-cable area, and asked if we’d be able to return the modem and Samsung set top box by post with a shipping label or something at that time instead of having to wait for someone to collect it, the call centre agent assured us that it wouldn’t be a problem.
February 5 2008: In the past 2 days, we have received several silent phone calls from phone number 08000135333
When I ring the number back, a recording answers: Hello, you had a call from the team here at Virgin Media. We’ll try to reach you again in a few days.
In a few days? No, they meant the next day, and the day after that, and the day after THAT, and..
Calls received:
Feb 4 at 11:40, 18:23, 18:24
Feb 5 at 11:32, 11:33, 16:27, 16:29
Feb 6 at 11:30, 16:31, 16:33
Feb 7 at 11:28, 11:27, 17:05
Feb 8 at 9:22, 13:48
Feb 11 at 13:31
Feb 12 at 11:28, 11:29, 16:30 — for this last call, Hubby answered it, and waited a good 2 min of dead air before someone came on the line. He told them that we are not moving to a Virgin Media services area, and to stop calling here. Since his name is on the account, you would think that they would honour his request, right? Not a chance.
Feb 13 at 11:14, 15:43, 15:45
Feb 14 at 11:19, 16:00
Feb 15 at 10:44, 14:22, 14:23
Feb 18 at 11:15, 16:18 — on this last call, someone was actually at the end of the line when I answered, instead of the usual dead air. Hubby was home, and told them ONCE AGAIN that we are not moving to a Virgin Media serviced area. He requested ONCE AGAIN that they stop ringing us.
Dear Virgin Media,
Silent calls won’t win us back. Also, it’s kind of creepy. Stop it.
Even if you stood outside our window in the pouring rain, holding a radio over your head playing a mix tape you made just for us.. There’s no way we’ll change our minds about leaving. I’m sorry.
It’s not us.. it’s YOU.
Really now. If anyone at Virgin Media kept HALF the details I did about all the trouble we’ve had with them, they wouldn’t be so stupid as to think we would decide to stay with VM after all.. would they?
February 25 2008: Called Virgin Media to try to block outgoing calls on our line, to prevent any dubious charges on our line for the few days that the phone line will be active in the vacant flat. The call centre agent told us that they can’t block outgoing calls on closing accounts.
When asked if customers were expected to just rip the Virgin Media box right out of the wall to make sure no calls are made on their line, the agent said to go ahead and do that. Seriously?! (Obviously we didn’t, but it was more than a little disturbing to have received “permission” from Virgin Media to destroy their equipment!)
We left a voicemail for J, asking her to either relay the message to her replacement, or to actually give us his contact information so that we don’t have to keep going through her.
She never called us back to give us her replacement’s contact info, so I can only assume she passed our message onto him, and asked him to look into things. He never bothered to call us back. Nice. Small wonder it took him almost 2 months to mail us a letter.
March 2008: No final bill received this month, despite the written confirmation from Virgin Media in their letter datd Feb 2 2008 that they would generate our final bill between March 21 and March 24.
April 4 2008: 6:42 PM Since we’re not always home during the day and have wasted too many days in the past waiting for Virgin Media technicians who never turn up, we decided to see if we could return their equipment to them in person. We sent an email to Virgin Media via their website form asking if we would be able to return the set top box and modem to their office at the Strathclyde Business Park office Glasgow.
April 16 2008: Oh look, we received a bill from Virgin Media. Is this the final bill we were told would be generated LAST MONTH?
April 19 2008: We received a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery, requesting payment for the bill we got 3 days ago. We paid it right away, but this is a perfect example of Virgin Media logic: Send us a bill 23 days later than you said you would, but then pass the bill to debt collectors after 3 days? Classy.
Apr 26 2008: 12:47 PM Received an email back about our request to deliver the STB to Virgin Media’s offices in Glasgow:
Hi [Accountholder's name],
Thanks for your email to Virgin Media about returning the Virgin STB and Modem.
We wish to inform that currently we do not provide collection of the modem. It should be retained at your premises in case you wish to reconnect the services in the future. If you do not wish to retain it, you can dispose off [sic] the equipment in an environmentally friendly manner.
We request you to reply us with a convenient time so that we can arrange the collection of the STB.
In order to maintain the security of your account, please mention the customer verification password (CVP) in all you future emails.
If there’s anything else we can help with, please send us a letter, email or call our team free on 150 from your Virgin Media phone. Or on 0845 454 1111* from any other phone. You can call us Monday to Sunday from 8am to Midnight.
Kind regards,
[CSR's name]
The Customer Concern Team
Virgin Media
Apr 26 2008: 1:12 PM Contacted Virgin Media again via their website form.
I wish to return the modem to you (Virgin Media) so you can dispose of your equipment in an environmentally friendly manner.
I will not take a day off for you to collect your equipment.
I will not leave the equipment unattended outside my residence.
This is why I requested to return it to your Strathclyde Business Park office in Glasgow.
Please escalate this request to a supervisor who can authorise this to be done, or who can forward me a prepaid return envelope for the box.
Regards
[Accountholder's name]
Remember, back in February when the Virgin Media call centre agent told us that returning their equipment to them by post instead of having it collected wouldn’t be a problem? Yeah, me too.
We were told to expect a response within 48 hours.
April 30 2008: No response within 48 hours. In fact, it’s been 4 days now with no response. Contacted Virgin Media again to request that they either send us a shipping label, or give us permission to return the modem and STB to their office in Glasgow.
May 1 2008: 3:42 PM Received an email back from Virgin Media:
Hi [Accountholder's name],
Thanks for your email to Virgin Media about your previous query.
I am sorry for the delay in our response and would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I can see your original query has been passed onto our complaints team.
You should receive a personnel response from their team within 28 days of your original query.
If there’s anything else we can help with, please send us a letter, email or call our team free on 150 from your Virgin Media phone. Or on 0845 454 1111 from any other phone. You can call us Monday to Sunday from 8am to Midnight.
Kind regards,
[CSR's name]
The Customer Concern Team
Virgin Media
Within 28 days of our original query that we made on April 24 would be by May 22, right? Right.
May 13 2008: Received a blank letter template from Virgin Media, postmarked May 9 2008. No reference number, no details of our actual complaint, nothing.
It looks like someone just printed out one of their letter templates and stuck it into an envelope without even bothering to attach their own name. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it!
The second image is blurry, but you should still be able to make out the total lack of any kind of personalized information added to the template. Weeeeeird.
May 23 2008: Do you think we ever got that response?
Maybe the blank letter we got in the post was the response??
June 2 2008: 4:47 PM Emailed Virgin Media AGAIN, requesting an update on the situation, and got an auto-responder email back a minute later:
Thanks for the email you sent to us on 2 June 2008. We’re on the case and a member of our team will get back to you as quickly as possible. We’re a little busier than normal at the moment, but you can expect a response from us within the next 2 to 5 days.
Don’t forget - if there’s anything else you’d like to know, just log on to our website. It’s at www.virginmedia.com
Kind regards,
The team at Virgin Media
June 5 2008: 8:34 AM Received an email back from Virgin Media:
Hi [Accountholder's name],
Thanks for your email to Virgin Media regarding the collection of your Set Top box.
We apologise for the delay in reply and inconvenience caused, as the Set Top box is not yet collected.
It looks like the password you gave us doesn’t match the details on your account.
But don’t worry — to get things moving as quickly as possible, just resubmit your enquiry by clicking on the link below. Then simply enter your password again, send us your question, and we’ll get straight on the case:
http://help2.virginmedia.com/assets/html/customer_feedback/customer_feedback_querytype_2.html
You can also visit our website at http://www.virginmedia.com and click on the ‘Contact us’ option right at the bottom of the webpage. This will give you various options to reach us.
You can find your CVP on the Virgin Media welcome letter or on the Digital Service Agreement (contract copy).
If you’ve forgotten your password or cannot find your CVP on the above mentioned documents, just send us a letter signed by you or call our team free on 150 from any Virgin Phone. Or on 0845 454 1111 from any other phone. You can call us Monday to Sunday from 8am to Midnight.
We’ll ask a couple of quick security questions and reset your password for you.
Kind regards,
[CSR's name]
The Customer Concern Team
Virgin Media
June 13 2008: 16:50 PM Dug through our Virgin Media account paperwork and thankfully found the name & telephone number of the fellow at the CEO’s office who replaced J.
Apparently J’s replacement no longer works in the CEO’s office — perhaps because he doesn’t return telephone calls and needs almost 2 months to print and send a letter to customers?
When we asked for the person handling J’s old position now, he was not available. We spoke to a colleague of his, and explained that since we are not always home, and not able to waste a day off waiting for a technician who might not even show up. We asked if they would send us a shipping label like they said they would when we cancelled the account, so we could finally get Virgin Media’s equipment back to them.
She said to leave things with her, and she would go and check and get back to us.
June 20 2008: Since the woman from the previous call never did get back to us, we called the Virgin Media CEO’s office again to explain the whole situation again to someone else, and requested again that they send us out a shipping label, as we’d been assured would be possible when we cancelled our account. Once again, we were told that they would look into doing that for us, and call us back later today.
June 24 2008: We never did get the call back we were promised on the 20th. If people in the Virgin Media CEO’s office can’t even bother to call customers back when they say they will, what hope is there for anyone else in the company? I’m glad J got promoted to a different position, but the people they replaced her with don’t even come close to measuring up.
We called the CEO’s office a third time, and requested yet again that either a shipping label be sent out, or permission to return the set top box to their office in the Strathclyde Business Park in Glasgow. The woman at the CEOs office said that sending out shipping labels wasn’t usually done, but that she would arrange a Virgin Media technician to come and collect the equipment.
Again, we explained that we have waited all day for techs that never showed up several times, and that we had no intention of doing so ever again. We have been storing equipment for almost 4 months now for a company we’re not even customers of anymore — and it was going to stop.
Since Ploes has to go to the Netherlands for work in less than a week, we said that they have effectively run out of time to sort out getting their equipment back. We offered (yet again) to drop the equipment off at their office in the Strathclyde Business Park so that this whole issue could be sorted TODAY.
The Cable Gods must have been in a good mood that day, because we were finally told that we give them back their set top box. The Glasgow office faxed us to confirm receipt of the STB, and it looks like we’re finally, officially rid of Virgin Media for good.
Ploes did actually have to go to the Netherlands in less than a week’s time — for a 5 day training course. 
Virgin Media has thought nothing of making promises they haven’t kept, or of outright lying to us on several occasions, so a small lie of omission in neglecting to mention that he would actually be returning to the UK is hardly a blip on the radar as far as I’m concerned.
NTL / Virgin Media customers from November 2005 to June 24 2008 — and never again.
Look at how many problems we had with NTL / Virgin Media even though we had the help of a high-level contact in the CEO’s office. I shudder to think how much worse our experience would have been if we’d not had J’s help.
One of my favorite memories is when the NTL Service Manager for the Reading area thought he could get away with telling me that repulling cables in our area would stop our set top box from overheating — presumably by letting more air get into the STB?
Either way, it’s a great story that I love to tell to lots of people. Who doesn’t love hearing about a failed attempt at lying and talking down to a customer just because they happen to be female?!
I should probably extend sincere thanks to Virgin Media on behalf of BT, as well. While they might not have been providing us with flawless service thus far, they will still have to try very, very hard to sink to your level.
Virgin Media has, in our case, set a spectacular precedent for incompetence. If BT wants to match it, they’re going to have to do something drastic, like setting fire to my PC through the broadband connection or something.
Each ride lasted a LONG time, so I think it was worth the money!
