Good news for Virgin customers.

[Conniff]

The following was received by email:

[FONT='Helvetica','sans-serif']Do you remember filling out a survey for us a while ago? Well, we always try to listen to what our customers tell us, and you told us that you didn’t think the premium rate call charge for our technical support helpline was right. So we decided to do something about it.

That’s why we’re dropping the 25p per minute charge to call our broadband technical support line. From 1st June, we’re replacing it with a number that’s free to call from your Virgin Media phone, plus a separate, local rate number if you call from any other phone. That means that now you can get the help and support you need, totally free, just like you asked!

To call our new broadband technical support number from 1st June, just dial 151 for free from your Virgin Phone Or, you can call 0845 454 1111* from any other phone.

And we’re not stopping there. It’s really important to us that you keep sending your feedback, good or bad! Although we can’t always reply individually, we promise we’ll always listen to what you tell us, and use your comments to make improvements where we can.

And we’ll always make sure that the people in our customer service teams see the comments about them, so they can work even harder to give you the great service you deserve.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I have to say virtually everybody I have known to be with this company compare it as the worst they have ever been with.

I can't get their service-thank God.

[Conniff]

That depends on what part of the service they are talking about.

This was my first broadband, it started as a local company Eurobell and was taken over by Telewest who joined with NTL and is now of course Virgin Media.

In all the many many years I have been with them, I have never had a single problem and there is no doubt that the cable system is far superior to a phone line based one.

As I have never had a problem, I can't comment on the customer services side of the company.

[stroke a badger]

I will admit ntl have their faults, however in the 8 years i have had broadband with them i can only remember one occasion when service was interrupted for more than 24 hours.

WRT customer service, have you tried to phone BT of late. It took me 4.5 hours one night last week to cancel my phoneline with them, hung up on, passed from one dept to another and constantly on hold.

To be honest Virgin aren't great and they do need to improve in some areas, however show me a company that has the same customer base as Virgin/ntl and is 100% faultless!!

[captain_walker]

stoke, it appears that you make the same mistake that many other customers make i.e. so long, as you get it good the world is lovely. This.."...however show me a company that has the same customer base as Virgin/ntl and is 100% faultless!!" is a ridiculous statement, because no company or organisation is perfect - and your challenge is to find one that is. Even if you speak figuratively your position shines through as being pro-VM. I notice that you plug NTL into the equation. Quite interesting in the light of my notice (here) that VM is NTL, at least culturally, in disguise. The ghost of NTL lives on!

I think a balanced approach would be to evaluate other customers' experiences as well as your own. It is also extremely valuable to note the complaints of customers like me who have had difficulty. Complaints and how they are dealt with are really the true test of the quality of a service. Honky-dory times are not a good test.

It's not that you get the stuff delivered, but that when you have a problem you get it sorted in a timely efficient manner.

Assessing the quality of services are normally done against several parameters. The list below is far from complete but represent the 'big bones':

1. Access
2. Communication
3. Credibility
4. Competence
5. Courtesy
6. Reliability
7. Responsiveness
8. Security
9. Standards
10. Tangibles
11. Understanding the customer

EDIT

Companies in Rip-off Britain are happy to have testimonial evidence which says "Hey I've had a great time with...". In means very little practically from consumers' perspectives, because individual customers raving about services are not really true or reliable indicators of quality. The general public reading forums and advertisements will never see assessments of quality and I don't expect them to see such figures either.

There's another story on the grape vine about another bb company that has just ripped off a bunch of students in Sheffield.

So broadband is where the money is at the moment. What's going on is that some companies are making a killing while the killing is good. Because they know eventually legislation will come. But were all part of matrix - innit? You may not be surprised to find out that our beloved politicians know exactly what's going on - but they givin' um' enough elbow room to run with the profits.

I predict it now, there will be a massive investigation of BB companies launched from somewhere in the EU. They will find that there is shameless profiteering and poor service amongst the bb industry.

A few bb companies will be fined, but the fines will not exceed the sum of their profits. I think we saw a classic example of this recently. Did anyone notice the gap between a £270M profits and fines of £116M here? In other words, big businesses profit when they screw the customer in Happy Rip-off Land (aka Britain), even if they get caught with their trousers down!!

I refused to be gagged. Fire away your derogatory adjectives all bb company stooges hiding out here. This means war! The consumer in this country cannot continue to be screwed with callous impunity. I won't have it, and I'll continue to shout loudly as long as there is life in me. I won't be deterred by legal 'smoke and mirrors' via Companies House.

[Conniff]

That's real fighting talk captain, I hope you achieve what you intend, especially as I might get a problem in the future, who knows.

[captain_walker]

Originally Posted by Conniff

That's real fighting talk captain, I hope you achieve what you intend, especially as I might get a problem in the future, who knows.

Many thanks Marc, and when we get going all who join our fight will be carfully screened to ensure they are not stooges of bb companies or any other kind of rip off organisation.

I'm talking about a real fight! Not just the odd case in court. We need a Greenpeace of the consumer world. We need an organisation out there being seen to be kicking company arses constantly. I mean every second of the day. Impossible? I like impossible.

[5layer]

I like it Captain, you got guts.

We need more like you.

You have my vote

[gni03349]

I'm with cabletel/ntl/virgin (all the same!), and my service is great. However, on the odd aoccasion when there has been a problem, it has sometimes been a nightmare, so while I have no complaints about problems on the "wire" (at the moment at least), when it comes to having to call them, they are rather cr*p.

What the original poster didn't mention was the fact that some other charges are going UP!

And to get around the "illegality" of charging for monthly account statements, they simply knock a quid or two off of the bill, if you do it all online.

Great post by the way Captain

Anyway, ciao people, take care

[fofusion]

I miss the days of Blueyonder. Excellent customer service, reliable, fast network.

Unfortunately it has gone down the ****ter.

Not only that recently the head of Virgin Media announced that they will not be supporting Net Neutrality.

Briefly this means that they will charge sites such as yahoo to deliver their content faster than say google. Whereas at present everything is treated equally.

This will cause all sorts of problems for people who use VOIP and sites that stream content like youtube etc will be a nasty experience.

[captain_walker]

The GOOD news for VirginMedia is that they've got rid of me.

I gave them the correct amount of notice on 13th May 2008 - and cancelled all that they provided i.e. 2 set-top digital boxes, one phone line and one 4MB broadband - in total about £60/month (but often times £80/month).

I confirmed that there was to be no penalty charges or any other costs - and I made detailed records.

Well, you could guess what happened next. They began calling me up at home in a rather patronising tone. So, I give um two fingers - with much joy! Yup it felt really good.

You see, the reason why it's good for them that I've left, is that I was causing them too much trouble. Why? Because I demanded to be provided with some reasonable broadband speed not 128kb on a 4mb bb. But hey hey hey.. in their eyes I'm a dimwit who refused to pay 25p/min to call them. Oh yes (and this is not a Churchill advert for car insurance) they're gonna reduce to a local rate helpline service from 1st June and oh yes they offered £10 for me to call their ditsy 25p/min helpline (which I refused).

Yuh know why? Because when I experience poor service repeatedly I give utilities and service providers the hoof. Look mate, I ain't interested in all the lovely stories about this and that company being the best thing since sliced bread. What I get is what I see and that's it. I ain't boverred with who thinks what.

So what did I do? I just put my money with Bethere broadband. Now I'm getting 6 to 9 MB speed for £18/month and if they mess around I can give um 3 months notice and say "adios". Or if I can't stand the pain of poor service, pay £40 and cut um off in 10 days flat - no more to pay!! Now that's the way I like it. No crap (as in pay £25mth for 4mb bb that delivers 128kb/s and then have to jump through '29' hoops to sort out a problem).

But VirginMedia will say that they bent over backwards to help me. And I'm happy - like100% happy to be labelled a difficult customer. Why? Because I'm difficult - and I have real difficulty parting with my money for poor service - so I behave really difficult. So I'm cool with labels. I ain't boverred. I'll do as I like with my money. I have the means to afford 4 separate bb services at a time - but don't expect me to take poor service. No, that's where I'll cut um off at the knees. Value for money, else take the chop!

[theintrepidfox]

To be fair, if there's a genuine fault Virgin Media always reimbursed me the premium call rate and I only call them on these occassions. Besides there's the free status update line. If you experience complete loss of service it helps to check each individual status announcement that is Phone, TV and Broadband as announcements and updates tend to differ.

I'm a programmer and know if something is wrong on my or their end and only call on the latter occassion, making sure I get my fee's refunded. It's only fair to Virgin that they charge for any calls that are related to 'Norton Antivirus and Firewall which I got free at PC World won't display internet pages' are being charged. 25p is very reasonable I say. If you have no clue how to maintain your PC and use it don't ask your ISP. Return it to PC World and you will soon notice that they will charge you too like anyone else will. There's nothing as free lunch and people wanting free tech support are a burden on genuine clients who want competitive prices. Go and sign up with BT. At least then incompetent people will talk to each other.