To think virgin media are massive scammers?

[PlainJaneSuperBrain99]

Im on the cusp of a Falling Down type moment, all because of Virgin bloody media. Ill be interested to hear other's experiences, and whether any of the other providers are any better.

We have VM TV, broadband and landline. I'm on the basic package. It's fine. Anyway, I'm basically being hounded by VM. I get at least one call a day, always trying to convince me to upgrade.

That is annoying enough, but what really boils my blood is that I feel they are being purposefully deceitful and trying to lock me in to contract paying more, but without explicitly telling me so.

Example: call centre dude says "i see you are currently on blah blah package with sleventyblahteen megabytes (i cant remember the correct numbers/terminology) per month. As you're such a loyal customer, I'm going to go ahead and boost you up to fliftyflooflah megabytes." He phrased it as if this was a gift from them, but as I've been caught out by them using this technique before with movie packages, I clarified "are you telling me you are upgrading my broadband at no extra cost?" ...Akward pause..."I'm not in the billing department so I can't tell you if it will cost more than you pay right now. I can't call through to billing and find out... there's no one in billing available right now...So I'll go ahead and boost your broadband ok?" "Er no you won't pal. Leave my package as it is and stop calling me".

Just had another call now, this one to upgrade my whole package. Again phrased as "because you have been such a loyal customer, i am going to upgrade your package for you today." Again, I said "will that cost more money?" Again awkward silence. This time some honesty "well, it is an upgrade, so it will cost extra, yes..."

If I don't ask if it will cost extra, they won't tell me. I've learnt my lesson after being told I was being "given" extra movie channels that were all rubbish and I had to pay for it!

Which makes me wonder how many people are being duped by VM. Surely this is illegal/against some kind of trading rules?! They're a huge company and using really dodgy sales techniques.

The persistent calling is also Really annoying. I keep telling them to stop calling but it makes zero difference. I'm looking at leaving my contract but am worried the other companies might all be the same.

They have always, always been a terrible company in my experience (since before they adopted the Virgin brand).

Yes dodgy. My husband had one of these calls and unknowingly agreed. Tied in for another 24months from that point also! As soon as that contract ends we will be leaving them!

They keep ringing me because I'm out of contract, but I don't answer the landline.

What you do is take out the free landlines option change your account contact to that number only then pull the plug its been blissful silence for years

YANBU and they’re the only supplier in our area so we’re well and truly stuck.

I'm getting the same calls, sometimes 2 or 3 a day. I've stopped answering their calls.

I've been with Virgin for over 15 years and I've literally never had this.

I did have terrible trouble with BT when I briefly lived in an area where VM couldn't connect me, and I literally couldn't wait to get back to Virgin when the first opportunity came up.

These days I just have broadband with Virgin, my mobile number is on their file and I can't remember the last time they called me. Can you check your contact preferences and make sure you don't have "give me all the offers" checkbox ticked?

Virgin here, I only have 100mb broadband and was persuaded to keep the land line when I rang to haggle a new deal when my old one was up only because they said they could keep my package cheaper with it included, so currently £22 a month.

They never ever call because I don`t have a house phone 😂

We went through spate of scam calls of claims that the caller was from Virgin but when I called customer service directly, they checked the records and told me that they hadn't called. All the scam calls were at the same time of day, the accents all from a certain part of the globe. I had a list of the numbers allegedly calling me and they have now been blocked.

HATE these bastards. I'm currently in the process of what I fear will be the longest whatsapp conversation of all time trying to cancel. They know I want to cancel. I've told multiple advisors I want to cancel.

Agent sends a message.

I reply.

Auto reply "we are very busy so feel free to go about your day while we respond"

So you go about your day, only to find that the agent has replied but if you don't read and reply within 10 mins it kicks you back to the start.

I've stayed with them for years now because every time I've tried to cancel I've given up but I'm determined now because it's £54 a month for basic internet (no TV or Line) and their service is shit anyway - 10 year old box which I have to reset multiple times a day and the nightly loss of internet for half an hour while they do their updates.

I absolutely hate this vile company.

The law needs to be changed so that if you can sign up for something online without talking to anyone, you can cancel online without talking to anyone.

I remember when i tried to leave Virgin because I was moving house and they didn’t cover my area.
tried to convince to keep the contract going in case they did cover in the future!… stupid arses.got through to the retentions team in Scotland- told them they don’t cover my area and all cancelled within 2 minutes.

I read this and thought I’d never had a call from them… then I remembered I’ve never plugged a phone in 😅

YANBU though, I imagine this is a “semi Virgin call centre” as in, they get kickbacks and incentives for every customer they “retain” and hence there’s a lot of shady tactics.

Could you contact Virgin directly and request they remove your contact details from all marketing etc? That might sort it out?

I managed to get my price decreased with them but I did have to cancel. No other broadband round here compares and we are heavy users. Block the number. If you need them you’ll call them.

We did similar last year! It’s been amazing. We were getting 2-3 calls a week from scammers (pretending to be Tax office and Virgin), VM trying to upgrade us and a charity trying to get me to up my donations.

Since WFH it became unbearable so we unplugged the thing and never looked back. The family know we only answer the mobiles now.

Virgin also like to shuffle the channels around in different packages every few years.

We had a letter through saying our package would be going up to £70 odd a month. DH called and threatened to get rid of the lot and suddenly it dropped to £40 odd (basic TV, highest level broadband and basic landline- it would have cost more to remove the landline bit?!)

Years ago we had our mobile contracts with them too as they said it would be cheaper. Agreed a price and first bill was an extra £10 on one and £12 on the other. They denied all knowledge of the agreed price and kept adding a few £ on every few months. It was an absolute nightmare.

Wait until you try to leave them and try to get that actioned. I’ve never come across so many tactics to prevent leaving, including simply carrying on billing.
Then they threaten you past the contract end with debt collection, despite having collected your bloody box and no longer providing the service. Then they decide to get the money back from them it can only be in the form of a cheque, which they won’t automatically send despite having all your details. You have to call for it. They will for each of these many calls have you on hold for 30-40 min to try to make you give up.

I never had Virgin wanting me to upgrade but I would NEVER EVER use Virgin Media again. My problem is their terrible communication with getting the internet initially installed and then whenever there was any problems.

I lived on the 2nd floor and you'd think it was first time anyone above the 1st floor wanted the internet. They sent a normal engineer who said he couldn't install my internet because the Special Heights Crew needed to do something on the outside of the building first. Fair enough. I booked an appointment with the Special Heights Crew.

But they sent a normal engineer again, who said he couldn't install the internet because I needed the Special Heights Crew.

I booked another appointment with the Special Heights Crew. They sent another normal engineer. This all happened over a period of weeks, with me burning through mobile data.

I complained and they sent a letter which honestly felt like they were deliberately trying to wind me up, saying "we're sorry we came at a time that wasn't convenient for you."

Eventually after I insisted on speaking to a manager, I booked an appointment and it really was with the Special Heights Crew. They didn't work Saturdays and I was out of Annual leave by this stage.
"You don't need to be there, they're only doing something on the outside of the building." We booked an appointment for a random Tuesday. I double checked twice I didn't need to be there.

Then on the random Tuesday I get a phone call from the Special Heights Crew asking where I was as they were outside my flat and needed me to let them in. I told them that apparently I didn't need to be there.
"Of course you need to be here! You shouldn't have believed them!" The engineer said.

I managed to convince my boss to let me go and raced across the city to meet them. There was one very competent chap and his assistant who seemed like he could've been stoned.

Every time the internet went down (which in fairness to them, a couple of times it did and it wasn't their fault, another time it was)
it was a similar story. They'd come at a different time to what had been booked and lie about it.

Never again.

Virgin media are wankers. When we moved out of our rented flat to sofa surf before completing on our first house they refused to cancel our contract unless we gave them a forwarding address. Just refused. We explained the situation-they didn't care, nor could they explain why they needed our new address. They then started pestering us for the details of the new tenants! How the fuck would we know, and if we did, why on earth would we tell them. This was 5 years ago and I won't use them on principle ever again. Ridiculously hard to deal with.

hmm I had similar. Rang to cancel the TV and phone package (never used them!) and she said they were giving me a “free SIM card” for £30 a month…I queried the price because it wasn’t what I was paying for the broadband..”free” but £30 a month! I sounded like Gavin in the Christmas special of Gavin and Stacey when Dave says he’ll get a gift and Gavin says “I don’t really want the free gift”! They don’t call now I don’t have a landline.

I've still got a landline as it's cheaper to have it & pay line rental than to get rid of it due to how they price the bundles.

But I unplugged it several years ago. I've only got my landline as my contact number on their records so thankfully I get no calls ever from them. I recommend you do the same!

VM are the worst company ever.

Changed to Plusnet in 2012. Would NEVER go back.

VM used to be Telewest Communications in my area. VM took over circa 2005/6 and they were OK for about 2-3 years then when they changed to Broadband, they turned to shit. Total shit. Tolerated them for a couple of years, with the internet AND Virgin TV package going off for 2-3 days at a time once or twice a month, and never getting any recompense.

Then we moved somewhere that didn't have VM. DH wanted to stay with them because of some kind of Stockholm Syndrome/it was all he knew etc. But he/we were forced to switch to Plusnet. Best thing we ever did. Barely a single problem in 10 years. Lost the internet twice in that time. For 5 hours and 9 hours. In TEN YEARS.

Just switch provider. VM will NEVER be good and will never improve.

This. ^

They are weirdly possessive about their modem/TV box too.

We gave them up in 2012 - as I say, because they weren't in the new area we were moving to, AND they were/are shit, and they insisted we meet the Virgin Media man at our old house, which was empty as we had MOVED, to give them back the modem and TV box etc... SKY let you keep the 'TV box' and keep your dish etc, and other companies just let you keep your modem. It was most odd.

The Virgin man went to take the stuff, and me and DH refused to let him take it without a receipt. He said he had no receipts/receipt book. So I drafted a letter/receipt quickly, and printed it, and said he wasn't getting it unless he signed to say he had taken it.

Fucking twats.

I've been with Virgin for years and I've literally never had a phone call. I'm surprised.

Yes, in our case the switch was to BT. Just normal. Pay bill as agreed, internet as agreed. Once we had an issue with a line, sent someone round who was very friendly and knocked £10 off the (only £27) bill as a sorry.

They are truly awful. We had the same issue. Next time they phone you, tell them you're actually thinking of leaving them as a result of the continuous calls and also because you don't feel you're getting good value. They will transfer you onto their retention team. You may end up actually paying less than you are now, and the upgrading calls will stop too.

They are the worst company for rewarding customer loyalty perhaps with the exception of O2 although they have merged now, which is quite fitting!

Omg! This resonates with me! I left them when my contract came to an end as I had moved house and the service was crap. I had a very long WhatsApp conversation with an absolute arse of a guy. First he asked the reason why I wanted to leave. I said I wasn't going to tell him. Then he told me he couldn't end the contract until I told him why. I then called bullshit and he just kept on and on. I just kept texting "just end my contract". He then said "just let me have one final go to convince you!" I then accused him of harassment and told him I was ending the conversation and if he didn't end it as per my wishes I would report them to Ofcom. I actually felt violated in a weird way because he just would not take no for an answer. Horrible company. I kept the WhatsApp conversation as keep meaning to write to Which? about them but not got round to it yet. They are awful.