to hate Virgin (cable)

[SwearingOnPhone]

I had the misfortune to take out Virgin cable and had to close my account early due to circumstances beyond my control, some of which were pretty traumatic.

Basically they are charging me to the end of the contract, give or take £20.

I wrote a letter to Virgin "Customer Concerns" explaining everything and requesting a reduction.

I got a generic letter back saying thanks for your email, you have to pay almost the full balance of the next 4 months to run, blah blah, terms and conditions, blah, blah.

Obviously they didn't even read my LETTER.

I then rang Virgin again and I was put through to Customer Services, who managed to cut me off half-way.

I rang again and this time the Moving Team told me Iwouldn't get any rebate, it wasn't his fault I'd been evicted!

I rang a third time and the woman refused to put me through to Customer Services, as they would only put me back to her. Then she changed her mind and said she WAS customer services and the answer was no anyway .

Are Virgin the most hateful company in the world? (They tried to fiddle me out of £170 at the start of my contract too, that was another battle).

They are the only company I have ever ended up swearing at on the phone - once at the beginning of the Contract, and now at the end.

I really do think they are awful. ( I had TalkTalk for years and though imperfect, they were lovely if I had a problem.)

Are there any happy Virgin cable customers out there? AIBU?

(And p.s. Is there anything I can do? Do I just have to pay?)

Virgin customer service has gone massively downhill in the last couple of years. We've had no end of bother ranging from rubbish wi-fi to being completely cut off (no telly, phone or wi-fi for two days) for a mistake at their end. Unfortunately, we're locked in for another year as we've just moved house and had to sign another contract. I'm really wishing we went with Sky. We've been with them for over ten years and they don't appreciate customer loyalty at all.

So I guess no, YANBU. They're shit.

Thank you Effin.

I think when I find somewhere permanent again I'm not going to get cable if I can help it, certainly not TV.

I think we seem to live in an increasingly adversarial society. I don't remember my parents in the 1970s arguing with phone companies, TV licensing, on and on ad infinitum. I feel I waste so much of my life on this s*.

I FUCKING HATE Virgin tv/internet/phone with a passion. I once spent two hours on the phone being passed from one person to another (and all over the world too) only to end up back with the first woman I spoke to. To say I nearly ended up in tears of frustration doesn't come near it.

I ended up basically paying them two months line rentals for nothing as it was easier and better for my mental health to do so rather than explain the issues.

I tell everyone I know not to use them. It truly is one company I would like to see go out of business.

As for paying them - well I did as I had to just draw a line and move on.

Yep, me with a passion too. I couldn't wait till the contract ended when it had only begun after the bastards tried to cheat me out of £170 and I had long tearful, Friday night conversations with the 'kers. Arghhhhhh! Yep, I'll move on. But this is my f........ revenge posting on Mumsnet, so stick it Vgn.

(I generally disapprove of swearing, but in Virgin's case I'll make one big fucking exception)

Maybe it depends who you end up dealing with? I recently had some issues with my service and I couldn't fault either the tech support or the customer care, when faulty kit was found to be the problem they had replacements sent out to me the next day.

Virgin are terrible. The have lied to me about their engineers coming to fix our outage leaving us without a connection for weeks. Some of their engineers know less about the equipment than I do, have a very shoddy understanding of basic physics concepts surrounding the work they do and know nothing about good security practices.

Customer service is abysmal, with people who don't understand the service they provide and don't care about sorting your problem out, only about getting you off the phone. We're only with them because of TiVo.

I really do think it comes down to the person you speak to rather then the whole company.

I used to work for a rival company and can honestly say that I genuinely tried to help every single person who I spoke to even the wankers but even I was shocked by some of the stories I encountered about how they had been handled when they'd called before. All I can say is persevere or maybe try tweeting/facebooking them? I have always had someone get back to me fairly quickly and my issue resolved when I have tweeted a company with a complaint.

Good luck!

I have got to be honest- the individual I spoke to when my husband died was fantastic- he changed my mobile tariff straight away so I got loads more texts and minutes- he changed the tv package so that they owed me money- I may be lucky but I have always found them quite helpful and turned up when they said.
My problems were always with npower who were a nightmare to deal with when my husband died.

Without knowing all the ins and outs, we can't know if YABU to hate them or not - ultimately you signed a contract knowing there was a 'fine' to get out of it so on the surface they don't sound like they are being unfair. Obviously you feel your circumstances are exceptional, but we can't judge that.
Generally though, I've had excellent service from them - polite, efficient, do what they say they are going to do, etc., all on a free number (so no spending a fortune on 0845 calls when you need help).
I guess we can all speak as we find.