use VIRGIN & VIRGIN MEDIA and lose your sanity!

[smotheroffive]

A Virgin mobile, landline and media customer for countless years, these last few have been hell. Am i alone in this?

The broadband drops out frequently, no answers
The customer service is unintelligible, i don't understand them, they don't understand me.
If you are lucky enough to reach an english speaking customer service the relief is palpable. The rest is circles.
I don't think its fair on either customers or those put in positions of trying to resolve these queries, it seems, without the resources to resolve.
Virgin Mobile are the worst of all.
I don't know about the rest of Virgin, but if this is anything to go by i won't go anywhere near any other Virgin branding. I have lost count of the lies I've been told, and regularly just sitting in extremely lengthy queues.
If anyone out there reading this is considering using them and hasn't before, just don't!

Before I jump out of all the services, are they all the same? Its a massive upheaval to move everything. I hate having to ring them, its becoming a real 'thing' now!! I know others that hate ringing Virgin.

If I'm going, is anyone else coming with me !!!??? Help me save my sanity!

We only got the tivo box at christmas, the dame week we got a new fangled tv
The tivo box tales s bit of getting used to. I wish i could set a simple rather than having to record, but other than that i am getting to like it.

I've not had a need to use TiVo other than watching programmes or catch up on iPlayer. I have paused programmes though and that seems fine. I find the list of On Demand/catch up programmes less easy to navigate than the ancient box I had before but that may be because I haven't read the instructions!

i have to say i don't find the navigation as easy with Tivo as the ancient previous box, but i really like that you can find a programme by using the letters to search for it!! thats a relief.

Its slower and too busy on-screen, and i don't like that you can't see where you are forwarding or rewinding to, thats really pants!!

but i wouldn't say 'hate' it.

but i am still desperate to go to another supplier because i now dread having to call them, and very rarely does the call go to a UK centre.

There are many incidents of overcharging and refusal to be straight with their customers, but are they all the same?

Our Internet kept dropping out and they kept saying they would send an engineer but then cancelled them because they had detected a network fault. Eventually when we did get an engineer he worked out that we needed a plug in signal booster. Since then it has been fine.

There are many incidents of overcharging and refusal to be straight with their customers, but are they all the same?

Yes, I think they are. You'll find people who have had nightmares and people who are completely happy with any company and I suspect there is luck involved as to which you are!

My biggest problem with them is their [fraudlent] sales and their --overseas- customer services who cant understand me and i can't understand them and talk in circles, and are so far removed from teh customer as to be rendered completely useless.

Many companies now boast of having a UK call centre!!! What craziness is this. However, i don't know if any ISP's do? (mobiles/tv/l.line)

They do have customer service in the uk if you call during office hours.

Pipbin very rarely IME, very rarely, there is limited capacity, most will head overseas [even during office hours]

can anyone recommend other services based on the awful experience that i and others are having with Virgin?

and about the Tivo box? love it/hate it?

I'm having a hellish time with Virgin Mobile at the moment, like you OP I am so fed up with staff who cannot speak English/cannot understand me/are clueless as to what is happening.

I am just as I type on hold on yet another call to try and solve an issue that seems pretty simple to me: I have two mobile contracts, one for me, one for DD. At the moment I cannot access the online account for one of them, am not receiving any emails, it's a nightmare and noboty at Virgin Mobile is able to help. I've lost count of how many phone calls I've made and how much time I've wasted trying to sort it. Half the time they don't even listen properly and I have to explain the same thing again and again until they get it. But still can't help.

So no I won't recommend Virgin Mobile. TV and broadband are OK at the moment but we've had issues in the past...

Will be watching this thread with interest for good alternatives!

Plus their answering message is so fucking annoyingly perky especially when you're repeatadly unsuccessfully to try and solve a problem

Agree so inefficient

so now apparently according to the very irritatingly patronising agent they can no longer link two accounts, I have to create a new email address... why is it so fucking hard?

Update: as the agent has checked my account he now says he doesn't understand why I can't link the two numbers in one account as it be possible and is escalating my complaint. Fingers crossed...

Why it's taken so long to get there I don't know...

Nope, my hopse were dashed. Linking accounts will not be possible for another month. What a bunch of incompetents!

i wonder how many hours and days of your life you have just frittered away trying to 'resolve' issues with virgin?

I have spent some more recently.

How has someone got a virgin bundle with everything for only £9 pm?

Whilst i am being heftily overcharged for the same, as in, they quoted me one figure but are charging me a much higher monthly one?? exactly the same as they have just had to be ordered to pay back to me recently by the OFCOM modders.

virgin mobile and virgin media are 2 separate companies. they are only branded by virgin not owned by them. British call centres open 8 am to 10 pm mon fri and 8 till 8 at weekends.

just to add they would never only charge £9 a month as line rental alone is 15.99.

hi pennygirl another poster said it ^thread.. but not substantiated anything... whatsall that about then? a troll?

yes, bout the different companies, totally,although now i notice that they have sort of tried to gather them under the same roof. Althought they were one when i got mobiles from them, and then quietly signed it all off pre-branded to crap support services around the world

virgin mobile and virgin media have never been the one company. however are owned by the same people so are linked and as all are in communication its easier to link them. however each company has no information on services provided from the other. just what is online and within marketing.

the package will more than likely be 9 pounds for tv and broadband with 15.99 line rental and even at that it is a push. tv will be on a freeview service so very limited content and not actually paying for it.

do you work for Virgin Penny ?

where's the phone charges in that though? apart from line rental i mean, as they don't give them for free.

i had virgin phones first. I went into one Virgin store, it was full of media and i bought my first virgin phone there. They weren't called Virgin 'Mobile', just Virgin the same as everything else,and then they separated and rebranded to Virgin Media and Mobile. They do come across as completely separate and do not interface with each other at all, well they do a bit now and even have their own option on the Virgin Media call receiver now! but that still syphons you off and all their systems are separate.

Plusnet are very good. The only issue is their superfast broadband router (the BT infinity equivalent) is low quality. When you call, the queue is not too bad and then someone answers the phone in Yorkshire.

Hate BT... moved to them for BT infinity and I can't wait to move back. Its ok, until you have a problem. IME once you have a problem with a BT service, you will have it for a long time (which is probably why the queues are so long).