Virgin customer service.....OMG what a joke!!! LMFAO!

[glitzyglamgirl]

We've had virgin media for about a year and have no problems with the broadband or telephone, but the TV is doing our nuts in. We had ythe downstairs box replaced about a month ago as it just lost all power, and constantly we have an issue with the menu ie it freezes, theres "no programme information available" when pressing information, and when we want to watch something on demand it will say either "you need to activate your pin to access this area" or "on demand services are unavailable". Its not constant, it happens every few days or so and clears up after about half an hour, so we've let it go and let it go....

So, lastnight I got really annoyed with it and called 150. it ended up being the funniest customer service call I have ever made, and im still laughing about it now

After trying to explain that it wasnt a permanent issue and we didnt need a technician out, I thought she finally understood the problem. But heres more or less how some of the conversation went;

agent - It appears theres some maintenance in your area and this is affecting service.
me - How long has that maintenance been going on?
agent - theres no time scale
me - no, when did it start? Weve had this issue for a year!
agent - theres no time scale
me - ok, but when did it start?
agent - its just maintenance in your area
me - ok.....which area?
agent - your area
me - which area is that?
agent - its your area
me - yes but which area is that?
agent - .....um....b...bromley?
me - no! Im in wales! hundreds of miles from bromley!
agent - the maintenance will be finished in 2008

at this point I asked to speak to a manager as I didnt believe a word she was saying, and was told there is no-one else there and its nearly hometime. I said ok...let me speak to another agent who knows more than you, so she eventually put me through to another girl, who seemed very confident in what she was saying, and explained that when you have cable, the signal loses strength after a while and has to be boosted, and they had boosted the signal for us. She tried to tell me basically, that customers have to call 150 every time they lose signal strength - which happens to everyone probably monthly - so they can boost the signal. I said ok then, we're only getting 75% of the service we're getting, so we'll only pay 75% of the subscription and then YOU can call US to get the rest ok?

If thats true, which I very much doubt somehow, its disgusting that the signal strength isnt maintained automaticaly and we're expected to call them every time we lose signal strength. Plus it happens daily not monthly!

Well they reckon they sorted but the next issue I am calling them straight back.

They know nothing, its a call centre in india and they have no technical or product knowledge and basically read from a script, I thought virgin wer ebetter than that!

ok.....rant over

 

[Tangerinedream]

OMG thats awful. I never realised there were problems with signal strength etc. How ridiculous was tha twoman though!!

I live about 5 miles away from the HQ so never experienced such a problem

 

[Lou]

I do love it though when you get a new box delivered and they have printed little messages on there for you like 'ooo you lucky duck'.

Made me all excited when I opened it!!! I love Richard Branson, he's a
star!

i've never had an issue with their customer services either.

 

[charlie84]

Yep cable is starting to grate on us too.

We have also had problems with the tv freezing, which is a pain when your watching something good.

Everytime OH phones virgin they say the same thing they said to you about on going maintainance.

I have told OH i will be ringing up next time as its unacceptable. They probably wont listen to me as i am not the account holder. I am prepared to move over to sky as sometimes it is really bad.

 

[Rosieroo]

I've found the customer service is absolutely shocking from Virgin, it's really gone downhill over the past year. They never seem to know what they're talking about, don't call you back when they say they will and are just pants really. What annoyed me is that I was looking at upgrading our tv package, so I checked the price online only to find that for what we were paying we could get loads more channels if we were a new customer! DH eventually got them to upgrade us for free, but it took several calls.

 

[jenni32]

Oh God I've had sooo much trouble lately with customer service call centres. I just find it pointless and frustrating to be put through to people who just cant help.

 

[Beany]

GGG you are discribing the exact same problems that we have with Virgin TV in our house! Again no probs with the broadband or phone but the TV is driving us bonkers too - we dont watch much (except for the CBeebies channel it seems nowadays! lmao) but it aways happens when we want to tune in to our fave programs (such as Heroes last night!).

We have had terrible customer service when we have called out of office hours as it goes straight thro to India and they dont have a clue and drive me nuts by calling me Mrs T every other word! (Nothing against India - could be timbuctoo for all I care - its just the language barrier and lack of understanding of procedures/systems that is the problem).

However when we call in the day time I have always got an english person on the line and the problem has been sorted out instantly - so now I refuse to call out of hours.

We are deffo going to move to sky at the end of the 12 months (are on a discounted offer to retain us as customers but we had to commit to another year! ) as we have had enough of it. Totally agree with you re the fact they should make sure the signal is 100% at all times - cheeky mares wanting all the customers to call in everytime it is up the swannie!

Ooooooooooooooooooo I havent had a good rant for ages

 

[poppy160]

We just have Freeview so I have no idea what Virgin are like..but whenever I phone GE Capital regarding the store card I have with them it's rediculous. Their Customer Services are also based in India the agents hardly speak a word of English, or understand it, so trying to talk to them about my account is impossible. But it's not just foreign countries - I used to work for a very well known and respected companies online service, and they had Customer Service centers both here and up country, and I have to say most of the people who worked for the center up country were complete idiots. If a customer had made an order and it hadn't arrived, their answer was to just replace it, regardless of the cost (I'd once had to sort out an order that had been delayed in transit and it was worth £1000+) and refund their bank account with a rediculous amount of money as 'Goodwill.' So the customer would have had 2 very expensive items for the price of one with 10% of the price they paid for the item back into their account. If it was something the agents couldn't sort out by throwing money at customers they would hang up on them or tell them their complaint was being dealt with and they would get a call back from a manager within 24 hours but wouldn't refer it to supervisors (Us), in the end we had to deal with very angry customers (rightly so), because these agents couldn't be bothered to deal with it themselves, or ask for help. I hate customer services!!

 

[Gem & Leland]

im thinking about leavng sky to go to virgin cos im fed up everytime its windy or rain or thunder i loose sky signal !