Virgin Media made me howl and cry down the phone

[AnyoneRememberMooncat]

Last weekend I spent 50 mins on the phone to renegotiate my contract which was coming to an end. I ended up agreeing to a telephone package I didn't really want (which I think the agent would get comission on) as it was the best price to get my broadband.

The next day I phoned up and spent another 50 minutes to cancel the package. The new agent put alot of pressure on me to sign up to something else I didn't want but I said no. I got a cancellation number to ensure the telephone contact was not going through.

I was so stressed out that I went into my virgin media account and was seriously thinking about leaving them because of the awful service. It takes ages to speak to anyone and when you do they are foreign so difficult to understand. Then they put you under huge pressure to sign up to something 'new' so they get commission and say you can't sign up to the same thing you already have.

In my virgin media account - I was offered a deal to stay on my same service at the same price. Great. Signed up to this. Got contract by email. Job done. Honestly felt ill at all the stress to basically keep the same service at the same price.

Today got phone adaptors through post and though WTF.

Went into my virgin media account which last weekend was showing the new contract I took out myself for broadband only at £29 per month.
Now my account is showing the telephone package the first agent 'sold' me.

Tried to call them - wait time horrific.
Tried to webchat them - wait time 57 minutes
In desperation phoned the I am moving house number and got through to someone british. I lied and said I was moving house (to my mums house which I have inherited) so I could get away from Virgin. I figured it was easier to do this and just go with someone else.

The man was nice and helpful (and british) and said all I had to do was give them proof of my new address to show I was moving there. At this point I burst into tears and howled down the phone. I admitted to lying and explained why.

I had a flashback to the movie 'The Firm' where Tom Cruise joins a law firm for a great job at a great package and then realised nobody is allowed to leave the firm alive.

Anyway the helpful moving house dept man has contacted IT to get everything sorted (hopefully) and has given me his ID number so I can refer to the phone call we had.

VIRGIN MEDIA - YOU ARE A FUCKING DISGRACE! (Helpful man James not counted in this)

Which accent is acceptable then? Because I hear all sorts of accents and I have hearing difficulties myself. I ask people to repeat themselves frequently. But it's very much a me problem. Someone with a Welsh accent shouldn't have to change it.

Sadly, this is true, and it is NOT bigoted, or rude, or offensive to say so. People are entitled to their opinions, and to post about their lived experience FFS!

Fact is, that someone who has a poor grasp of the English language will be a lot less likely to sort your issue, than someone who speaks very good English.

I speak from bitter experience after a fairly recent experience with British Gas. 9 different people I spoke to over 2-3 days - ALL had poor English, and nothing got sorted! I was tearing my fucking hair out! 😠

As has been said they are often just reading from a script, and anything that deviates from that they struggle with, and they don't know how to handle it. And yes, they will say anything to get you off the line.

And as has been said, the online chat is often no better, and the chat bots are pointless and shite!

My issue with British Gas got sorted when I spoke to a person who speaks very good English.

.

Usual sarcasm on here over accents :(
Lowest form of wit

That's absolutely disgusting. Can you report them to trading standards, that's what I'd do!

It doesn't matter what nationality anyone is.

What does matter is being able to understand what the person is saying.

I'd say that's customer service 1:01

Virgin are one of the worst for their inability to help.

I'm relived to have left then, they were shocking.

They are awful. Sadly I am stuck with them as they are the only providers of high speed broadband here and I wfh

It has everything to do with it when you are trying to deal with something that involves money. You understand them, they understand you!!!

True, they could - but it's usually a very big clue in many cases.

It's not even just the accent, as you can usually tell if somebody is in and/or has experience and knowledge of the UK, whatever their accent.

I once worked in a (UK-based) call centre which also helped customers from Ireland (RoI). Obviously, there was no language barrier, but there were still numerous times where I could tell that their cultural references and nuances were different from mine - and they were trying to mention or explain a particularly Irish circumstance that they knew I wouldn't be familiar with.

Most of my colleagues would instinctively and unconcernedly default to telling them prices and figures in pounds, rather than in Euro, which I'm sure they must have found very irritating and another barrier to full understanding.

I recently left them after 10 years and have gone with a new, better provider. It did make me laugh that within a couple of days of leaving they sent me this box to send back their equipment (which consists of a 6 year router box and cable), then several texts/emails to let me know said box had been delivered, along with a table of how much equipment costs (router £40 apparently.) I've sent it back to them but do wonder what their urgency is to have back a 6 year old well used router 🤔 It did come across like they were making a point 😅

Virgin were a bloody nightmare when FIL died. Four times on two calls MiL or DH were asked to pop him on the phone to confirm he was happy with the changes

Plusnet are excellent. Around £28 per month for unlimited fibre BB, BT line rental, free landline calls evenings and weekends. We have 3 people working from home most of the week, no problems. Website is easy to navigate and their help line people are in Yorkshire and very friendly. Everyone I know who is with Virgin has loads of issues.

Yes. So why bother mentioning their nationality

We left Virgin once years ago, and I remember them hounding us for ages afterwards.

It was in context of not being able to understand what they were saying.

They're great but I think they are stopping their broadband packages in the next year. They stopped their mobile service recently.

I have no problem with accents, my husband is foreign and has one! But the fact is people find it easier to understand accents they are familiar with. So they rather deal with someone that has an accent they find easier to understand. I once watched a Scottish film in the states and they’d added subtitles for example….

I left VM after trying to renegotiate my contract and having to deal with poor English from their operators. I don’t know why telecoms companies use foreign call centres, they must know it puts customers off.

Had exactly the same carry on when my Dad died.
They weren't going to let me cancel because they wanted to speak to him.
Had to tell them at least 5 times that he was dead and wasn't doing any speaking to anyone any more.
Horrendous when you're going through a bereavement.

I ended up saying they could do what they hell they liked but he wouldn't be paying for the service any more and the direct debit wouldn't be going through because the bank account had been frozen.

Don't know what happened with it in the end really. I don't know if they actually cancelled the bloody contract or not.

Agreed -Virign customer service is appalling. I don't mind calling people in foreign call centres, but I DO mind if they don't have a basic grasp of English. A poor ability to understand means that you have zero hope of getting any issue sorted.

Iould love to leave but after having them for so many years, I have several key emails (not to mention many websites I use have their email as a username) that I want to keep.

Does anyone have a good guide how to transfer emails across from Virgin media to something like gmail?

There's a lot of instinctive nuance in being in and knowing the same country that transcends accent - whether that accent be Welsh, Cockney, Jamaican or whatever.

We once had a caller who lied that they were in the UK and then, when we mentioned working for the NHS, asked what the NHS was!

I think another problem is that companies who use foreign call centres to save on the wage bill will then see it as a low-skilled, minimum wage, minimum training-required job - and, before long, see the role as a waste of their money rather than as a necessary, legitimate, important cost to their successful business.

It's the difference between seeking the best value for your needs to be covered and paying the absolute minimum you can possibly get away with.

I assume she was trying to express the fact that she could understand what he was saying

I think they will be transferring special rates over to EE. They did with my mobile. £6 a month for a really good package. I must ask them about the broadband.

The problem with Virginmedia's remote support staff is that they are not trained about broadband.
They have a screen in front of them with a limited number of customer questions and the answers to them. If your question is not one of them they are lost and just say anything to close the call.
And yes, having English only as a second language is an additional difficulty.

And I completely agree with VM having workers with heavy accents. I’m assuming the call centre is out sourced to India from the conversations I’ve had. I spent nearly 20 years working for the nhs, I’m very used to understanding Asian accents as worked with colleagues from many countries but I find VM call centre a nightmare from this pov.