This is a continuation of my previous trials and tribulations with Virgin Media’s business arm in relation to a simple query.
I spoke to a bird called Gemma at Virgin Media a month ago and based on the fact we’d been paying £100 per month too much on our contract with them for 4 or 5 years she agreed to give us a discount on future bills. She promised to send a contract through which we were to sign, and then we’d be saving this £100 a month. Great.
No contract arrived, and we received another invoice for the old amount, which would be taken, automatically by direct debit on the 14th of September. So I phoned them up again.
Initially I spent 9 minutes on hold listening to funky electro jazz. This is quite good for Virgin Media as it is usually about 20 minutes (or in this case, 35 minutes). I spoke to a guy and explained that I would not be paying this invoice and I will only pay £40 a month. He said he could see I had spoken to Gemma about it, and that he would put me through to her again. Fine. 15 minutes later, still on hold, he comes back to me and says Gemma’s not answering and that he would get her to call me. I asked when, he said as soon as possible. I asked whether that meant today and he said it did.
Naturally, I wasn’t expecting them to call, because places like Virgin Media never do. And they didn’t.
After being on hold with Virgin Media for 20 minutes
My day yesterday started with a call to BT about some other telecoms packages we wanted to change to newer pricing. After a couple of rings, a lady with a Yorkshire accent picks up and I tell her I’d like to cancel and change a few of our packages. She says no problem and puts me straight through to the relevant department, where I spoke to a Geordie called Mark (after 10 minutes on hold listening to the 1812 overture on repeat). During our conversation I asked him which ISP he thought was the best, and he obviously concluded BT but he did make some comments about other ISPs.
He said some people don’t realise that when they are with some of these other companies they have a 90 day cancellation notice, so if you’re in the last month of a contract and you want to cancel then you have to take out another contract with them to see out the 90 days. But then you’re locked into a longer contract, whereas with BT you carry on with a rolling contract. I commented that it sounded like something Richard Branson’s ISP might do, and he started laughing and said it was.
So anyway after I had dealt with BT, I called Virgin again and spoke to a guy called Phil Jones who in fairness was quite helpful. I gave him the story and initially he said it was simply my word that I had spoken to Gemma and agreed this contract with her. He said that there was nothing in the system to suggest any contract had been agreed or sent, but said he would look into it and call me back in 30 minutes.
He actually did, and said that his colleague had found my original call on their system so it proves that I had been chasing it up for over a month. I was thinking great, at least you’re not going to accuse me of lying any more.
He said it appeared that the contract was £50 per month not £40, so I queried this. Now, I didn’t realise we were currently paying £140 per month for 4MBit downstream. I assumed it was 20. But no, this £50 charge was for an “upgrade” to 10MBit. But I had just agreed 20MBit packages with BT for £25 per month..
I figured that it’s easier to keep what you’ve got and just get them to change the billing, so I said to him look, she said £40, so go and ask her. He said he would, but asked whether I was thinking of leaving and whether I’d like to speak to their loyalty department. I told him there would be no point since if it got to that, I’d be cancelling. He went off for another half an hour to ask about this.
He did phone back again, which I was astounded by. He said Gemma never said £40, and it’s a non-negotiable £50. After I had told him I was not prepared to pay that he again asked if I’d like to speak to “loyalty”. So I agreed to.
I spoke to a woman called Natalie Ash. I explained the issue, and she simply said there’s nothing we can do, that’s the price. Then to back herself up she said, “but we are rated the best ISP in the UK”. My response to that was to laugh and say, “by who?!”.
Apparently it’s on Ofcom’s website, but that didn’t come as much of a surprise given Virgin Media’s love triangle with the BPI and Ofcom. Money talks, as they say.
After noting the cancellation details, Natalie Ash said there is a 90 day cancellation policy, to which I just burst out laughing. I couldn’t fathom what the point was in a loyalty department that wasn’t able to offer anything other than the product, as-is. You would have thought given we’ve paid them thousands too much over the years they could have given us a little discount. But no, nothing doing there.
The cancellation letter is in the post, and hopefully this will be my last ever dealing with Virgin Media.
Dealing with big companies is always frustrating. They just don’t care about customer retention. And the staff feel they’ll get paid whatever unlike smaller companies where they know customers are hard to get and easy to lose.
Oral contracts are only worth the paper they’re written on – so if they say you agreed orally deny it and tell them to take it to court and prove it. If they have a recording then the £40 will come up so it’s win, win.
If customer service is shocking you should always switch. The time spent dealing with all the problems is not worth the difference in price.
I agree with that, that’s why the cancellation process has begun. Shame I have to wait 90 days to get rid of them permanentlty though.
I have to say I was reasonably impressed with BT’s customer service. They picked up straight away on the initial call, although I did have to wait 10 minutes to speak to someone that could actually help me. That’s one of the main problems with Virgin Media – you can never get to speak to someone that can do anything.
I made a comment to BT that I expected to be routed to Asia rather than Newcastle and the guy said all of their business call centres are UK based, and the only time you’d get routed to the Philippines is under extremely busy circumstances.
This isn’t the case for residential customers, though.
Ah – been a victim of BT for residential purposes a decade ago and I’m still annoyed about all the hassle (though a did get about £30 off what I should have owed in the end I wasn’t pleased because of all the hassle).
I’m afraid I’ve yet to find a really big company with good customer service – and it’s a real shame as that’s the only sort of company that seems to be surviving.
Anyone know what’s happened to NQH and BTNL, the site has just disappeared?
cant help there guys – maybe the bad people got him. Tends to happen when you champion free speech i guess.
they will need to travel a long way to get me.. Im lying on a sunbed at a spanish villa right now! Woo!
I’ve just spotted that too this morning TB. His Twitter account is removed as well. Is he ok?
Very strange re NQH his googlemail is bouncing as well which means he must have deleted the account.
Shame his blog was starting to become a focal point for Blackpool!!
i logged on before to see what was happening on btnl too… yeah all of his accounts have dissapeared.. tis rather very strange.. not sure how they would have actually got to him because he stayed very anonymous. thats pissed me off i enjoyed reading that blog
Only thing I can think of is maybe the Callows got to him. Some of Herbert’s comments were s bit close to the mark to be honest and if it was me I would have moderated them.
Bit of a a sledgehammer though to delete the whole blog and drop off the face of the earth.
Even a one line explanation would have been better than the current silence!! We could have drawn our own conclusions.
I’m sure he will be back, but it’s such a shame as it was a great blog and a focal point for everyone.
Phil, it looks like you or Geezer will now have to lead the charge.
NQH if you are reading this, email me to say hello and let us know that you are OK.
By the way, forgot to add if anyone wants to keep in touch with me, you will find me on here: http://www.bpbforum.co.uk/index.php
You are all welcome to join. It started out as a pleasure beach project but is now very much a Blackpool one.
Beyond the Neon Lights: http://herb1.wordpress.com/
Herbert’s blog has disappeared too, along with Sir Colin Ireland’s comments on the Gazette. What is going on?
Herbert will be back but more abusive than ever.
Ok you can post here:
http://frustratedoflythamstannes.blogspot.com/
But please don’t insult people – I’d like not to have it taken down, rubbish as it is so far….
I have commented on your blog frustrated under “anonymous”, good blog mate!
I’m still here, fear not. Not heard anything from NQH though.
Currently sat in a bar in Puerto Cabapino.. back to UK on Saturday, then my reign of destruction will begin.
sounds good, these blogs make great reading, especially yours Phil.
You won’t have missed the weather round here!! Cold wet and windy this last week!!
Yep – looking forward to you being back. Enjoy your holiday though!
We need to set up a blog on a personal server, that way nobody can be bullied into it being taken down. This is rediculous
This one is.