Avoid if at all possible

Virgin Media wanted to know why I’d given them such a low score on their feedback form so I thought I’d publish the reasoning in the hope it might help future customers. The review is long so if you don’t want to read all of it skip the first paragraph.
I have had nothing but trouble when it has come to dealing with Virgin Media and I do my best to make sure I never deal with them again. Under my last account I had arranged for the cancellation of the service to coincide with the end of my University term, I was assured on numerous occasions that this was organised, I then got to move out day and with a hub and no idea what to do with it! Upon inquiry, I was told there was no record of a disconnection and so began a farce of being transferred from movers department, to customer services, to billing and all round again and again until it was finally sorted. When I moved to a new property and commenced a new contract, this time a 9 month Student Contract, I was adamant that I wouldn’t have the same experience again, we had been offered a speed boost to our broadband at no extra charge and all was positive. This speed boost was not only non-existent but also completely contrary to the reality of it all. Having been promised speeds of up to 150mb on the “UK’s fastest fibre optic broadband” we were appalled to find an average speed of no higher than 15mb! Upon phoning Virgin to complain about this, not only was I told there was a fault on the line, information not volunteered but rather confessed to because I had complained, I was offered compensation for the slow speeds – but only because I had demanded it not because I was offered it. This was in April, this was also when I first organised the disconnection for this year to happen in July, having learnt from last year I specifically asked for confirmation of the contents of the call to be sent to me in email, “Absolutely sir” I was told but nothing ever arrived. However, I was satisfied that the disconnection had been arranged because I received several phone calls in the month prior to the arranged disconnection attempting to sell me more broadband for my housemates, their home families, my family, my ancestral heritage and anyone else who they might be able to bleed some cash out of. In each call I confirmed that the disconnection was set for July and again, “Absolutely Sir” I was told. I continued on happy in the knowing that the broadband was dealt with until I got another bill that extended into August. Confused, I started with Virgin’s Live Chat service in which the advisor was not only useless but extremely unforthcoming with the information I needed and did nothing but reply with the attitude of “well that’s the way it is,” so I pushed to be call back by someone who could help, the advisor told me this wasn’t possible, I instructed him I knew full well that it was possible and that I was sick of having my phone bills sky rocket because I’ve had to make bi-monthly phone calls to sort this out, most of which have lasted in excess of 20 minutes and each apparently fruitful only to be disappointed at a later date. On this occasion after finally having received a phone call and yet again being bounced around from department to department, I was assured that the issue was resolved and that all I had to do was pay the balance of the final bill. This was the last I heard until recently when I received ANOTHER bill for 45 pounds! Upon phoning to inquire I was told this was an early cancellation fee for ending the contract, I contested this and was yet again met with an advisor with the “that’s the way it is” attitude who had zero use or sympathy for the situation and made no effort to investigate it. After demanding to speak to a manager I was quite bluntly told to hold and after a long wait I was transferred to a manager who was actually of some use and who at the very least had basic telephone manners. I summarised the plight that had been my relationship with Virgin Media and told her about this new bill. After investigating she came back and apologised profusely because we had a student account lasting 9 months and therefore shouldn’t have been subject to this bill because we hadn’t terminated the contract early. She said she couldn’t understand why the bill had been sent because the fact it was a 9 month student contract was plastered all over the account notes and information. She assured me I wouldn’t be charged and the account was now closed but I’ve made sure to cancel all direct debit links with Virgin through my bank account.



I pursued this because I was quite sure of my rights and what I did and didn’t owe but what disgusts me is that the attitude with which I was met both by initial call advisors and by live chat advisors would make a large proportion of people, in particular a large proportion of students, assume they had no further recourse when in actual fact they are either not getting what they paid for or being forced to pay money they don’t owe.
My advice to future customers of Virgin Media is this: their customer advisors aren’t there to advise you, they’re there to deter you from pursuing the matter so if you want something done in a reasonable and polite fashion, always go higher up the chain, they may tell you it isn’t possible at that time but it is – be prepared to hold.
The next is that if you don’t ask you don’t get. In some cases I would word that more as, if you don’t demand you don’t get. That goes for anything from information about faults in your area to compensation for not getting what you paid for.
My advice to future student customers of Virgin Media in particular is this: Virgin specifically target students by advertising speeds which in the reality of a student area, with multiple laptops, phones etc per property, are completely unachievable – so don’t let yourself be sold on connection speed.
Make sure to run a connection speed test every now and then so you can actually see what you are getting and be sure to go after them for it if it drops low because if you don’t contact them they will certainly be happy to continue taking your full monthly payments for whatever sub-par speed they’re providing.
The third and final is to know your deal and keep on top of them, had I not chased them repeatedly then two years in a row I would have been overcharged or just continually charged long after the agreed disconnection date.