Fucking Virgin Media strikes again

[mandragora]

So, what have those fuckers done now, I hear anyone who's with Virgin-fucking-media ask?

I've just received an email from the bastards.

From 1 July the broadband helpline number is changing. Which, okay. But what is most definitely not okay is that we're now going to have to pay 25 pence per minute, plus a 10 pence connection charge, to talk to them when we have a problem with the service. That's from a Virgin Media line, BTW. Phoning from some other line could cost even more.

Yes, that's right. The service that was previously free (when connecting from a Virgin Media line) is now going to cost us what could potentially be a large sum - I mean, have you ever tried to sort out a broadband problem? It can take forever.

I phoned up to complain. Person I spoke to knew nothing about it, but could - and did - sympathise. I mean, it's not as if I'm paying a small amount for my bleeding broadband as is, let alone have to pay for it to be fixed when chances are it's their fault it's gone wrong in the first place.

I shall be writing a letter of complaint.

The address is:
Virgin Media
PO Box 333
Matrix Court
Swansea
SA7 9ZJ

Christ! Every piece of news since Telewest was taken over by Virgin-fucking-Media has been bad. But this is plain insulting.

*hates*

Comments

[the4ts.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. I will be writing to complain too.

[seiyaharris.livejournal.com]

*pets* God, it just goes from bad to worse! I haven't been sorry we don't have the snazzy new cables that allow us to get cable since Virgin Media lost Sky One, but along with Sam telling me the other night there's freeview channels you don't get on cable (which we get through our Sky box, regardless of whether we're connected to Sky or not), the continued changes Virgin Media have made makes me very glad to be keeping Mr Murdoch in gold bathroom fittings.

[liresius.livejournal.com]

I sympathise entirely! Though I'm lucky to be in Japan where service is pretty damn good (still). I dread (and it's one of the reasons why I'm not prepared to let go here) going back to Oz where there isn't even decent bb speed yet in the outliers. It's the damn cheek - to charge us for their systemic problems. It incenses me like the bank charges where we pay them for the privelege of holding our money... grrh!

[askance.livejournal.com]

Gives them real incentive to solve your problems quickly, doesn't it?

[zellieh]

Oh, thanks for this! I'm a Virgin Media customer too, but I don't get email from them, and I don't usually read the leaflets, so I would have missed it completely without your post.

25p/minute is steep for a helpline, and the 10p connection charge is just insulting. (Although I've just checked my bill, and the Dial-Up helpline charges 50p/minute, which is even worse!) But I picked their Broadband service in part because their helpline was a local-rate call, so I'm really annoyed.

I shall complain forthwith!

[lost-house.livejournal.com]

el reg reported this & some of the commenters seemed to think that if there was a genuine problem on their part, they would refund the call cost (though if you cal via anything but their own phone lines, that process might be quite painful).

of course, if you get a refund when the trained support monkies decide that your problem does not match anything on their script (like, for example, all of the cable in your area is out for maintainance but they don't know about it. yes, Tem, i'm looking at you:) and therefore the problem *must* be with your computer, i don't know...

[temaris.livejournal.com]

I never bothered complaining about that in the end. I'm throwing it into the letter about the call charges though, just as 'and another thing!'

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Ummm,. so they view their screw ups as a profit amking opportunity? Yeah, that's good customer service!

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

I found myself with Virgin Media without knowing it. We used to be with NTL, I have no idea if we were even warned about the change or not (a housemate is in charge of the phone/cable/broadband stuff, and she isn't very communicative about it...)

thanks for the info, I'll write as well.

Final Straw

[gloria1.livejournal.com]

This is a sodding disgrace. I'm beyond disgusted with these twerps. That's it, I'm getting Freeview, binning the cable all together and going back to a BT phone line so I can get broadband from someone who doesn't treat their customers this way, ie: anyone who isn't VirginMedia.

[klo-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

Christ! I was in the middle of signing up with NTL when it switched and I abruptly changed my mind and went with a different company.
You should rise up. Pitchforks and flaming torches and all that. Fucking disgrace is that.

[fruufoo.livejournal.com]

I have no idea whether you get things other than broadband through virgin media, but we use Eclipse broadband, and they're generally very good compared to the other companies that I've used (I can't even begin to describe how horrific it was having NTL). There's no download cap (there's a fair use policy, but I've been pretty greedy without problems) and they're usually prompt and good at responding to problems. I think they're also extremely cheap, but I haven't looked into internet prices for a while.

[keletkezes.livejournal.com]

My one experience of NTL was really bad anyway, but this is ridiculous.

Having said that, PlusNet have ALWAYS charged for the customer service phoneline I believe, but have a very good and very useful Internet based one, where you pop round a mate's house/down the library and get it sorted within a week, usually. Better than nothing! Still, they got taken over by BT so I don't expect all the good stuff will last very long.