virgin poor service

flexeh · June 6, 2014

Hi guys wondered if you can advise

i was with virgin for just over a year and a half and had alot of issues with the service. I had my Tivo replaced about 4/5 times and had at least 15 engineer visits with issues with the TV. The box would keep freezing and we had to pull the plug to get it back on, there was other times it was so slow that if i pressed a button on the remote i would have another birthday before it did anything.

i raised numerous complaints about it and it was always we will get an engineer to attend. eventually after about 15 months they then said we think we found the problem water was leaking in the cab and we have no switched the cab your on, and you should have no problems, however it continued. I ended up having an engineering manager to attend and he tried various things and said any problems get in touch with him, problems continued and he never answered the phone. In the end i managed to get them to cancel my contract over all this issue, the guy offered me a discount of £12 a month to stay but i told him why do i want a discount on something that isnt working correctly. he then said the final bill would be generated and i would get a refund due to paying ahead.

i emailed him a couple of times afterwards trying to get info a about how much my refund was and when it would arrive. however i was ignored. the cheque arrived and lovely virgin media gave me 20£ which to be honest with all the problems i had i find insulting, so emailed again and i asked for their CEO address on where i can send it back to however a few more emails passed still being ignored. In the end someone got in touch " stating, we are sorry you have felt our service was blah blah" no apology for their service being crap just sorry that i feel its crap.

i emailed back explaining this while on holiday and a guy called me about an hour later form the CEO office asking why i wanted to return the cheque etc and also what did i want to happen. I asked for a formal apology on paper actually apologising they gave me a poor service and not an apology for me feeling they gave me a poor service, he said that he would be in touch in 2 weeks however its now 3 and a half and ive had enough.

would i have grounds to demand a small percentage back of all the monies I paid them for the below par service i received , something like 11.5% (which works out over all bills 12% less than if i took the £12 a month option) EDIT decided to match what was offered initially to stay 20%

or do you think i'm being unreasonable? all i wanted initially was a proper apology but they haven't even done that!

Cheers

Steve

citizenB · June 7, 2014

Your complaint should include what you would consider satisfactory to resolve the matter.

Why dont you tally up the time and cost involved making the complaint so far.. then send them a letter saying you will accept £X amount and an apology to make this go away.

flexeh · June 7, 2014

Ye I'm gonna do that I just wanted an apology initially however they cannot even do that!

Do you think from what I've said I've got a chance of them accepting ?

citizenB · June 7, 2014

We have seen success stories previously so nothing ventured, nothing gained. I guess you can always escalate your complaint to the Ombudsman if they dont offer an apology and some compensation.

I am not quite sure what it will take to jump start proper Customer Service in this country, hopefully with people like yourselves chipping away, it will happen (hopefully in my lifetime! )

flexeh · June 7, 2014

well ill email over a letter in a bit will post it here first to see what you think. in the letter i will state i will SAR if needed to get more info etc.

flexeh · June 7, 2014

citizen B what you think of this, decided to change the percentage based on what i was offered to stay

i havent mentioned SAR yet as if they dispute what im saying i will then say ok ill SAR.

Dear VM

REF: XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX

I have decided to write to you again over a number of failings that I have had with your company Virgin Media. These failings are not just with the product and service I was supplied with, but it also extends to the level of customer service I have received from: your customer relations team, your faults department and also members of the CEO complaints team.

I was a customer of yours for approximately 20 months. I had looked forward to receiving Virgin Media when myself and my partner moved into a virgin media cabled area. However pretty much from the first month we started to have little problems. These problems finally escalated to having our TiVo replaced round 4 times and having numerous engineering visits. The purpose of the TiVo was to record and for me was to ensure I was able to enjoy the shows I liked when I returned home from work. When my TiVo was replaced each time, I lost numerous shows I had not seen and was told each time to ring “customer services and tell them you are not happy”.

Eventually my complaints and about 10+ engineer visits prompted someone to look in the cab where my service was going to, they then claimed water had been getting in causing me these problems, this was about 18 months after receiving a service from you. However problems still persisted and an engineering manager was asking to attend my house to try and find what keeps causing the fault. He changed a power wire and said try that, even though each new TiVo had the wire changed previously. This engineering manager gave me his contact number and told me if there were any more problems to give him a call or drop him a text and he would be round to fix my problem. The problems continued and this person never got back to me.

Eventually I spoke with Andy on CEO complaints about cancelling my service. Andy tried his best to keep me as a customer offering me almost 20% off my monthly bill, I told him there was no point staying as 20% off something that isn’t working correctly isn’t going to exactly be beneficial to me, and to be honest I lost all faith in Virgin Media. I cancelled and Andy advised I would receive a final bill and be given a refund if I had paid ahead.

A few weeks had passed and I sent a couple of emails with the following questions to Andy asking: What was my final bill? Was there a refund? And Could I have a breakdown of all bills paid.

However I never received a response back and was ignored not the first time I might add. I finally received a cheque for £26.45 refund which I had overpaid. There was no offer of a gesture of good will or apology for the service I had received. I emailed back asking for the address of the CEO team to return the cheque to them and to express how I felt I had been treated since being a customer. When I did receive a reply the person couldn’t understand why I wanted to return the money and told me not to, after a couple more correspondence by email and one phone call I was finally given an address, which wasn’t the one I wanted, I wanted the CEO and I was just given the return address for the cheque. Also in this response by an individual called Ian, he stated and I quote

“I am sorry you feel that you haven’t had the best level of service from Virgin Media. Virgin Media prides itself on delivering the best possible service and is disappointed when we fail to meet our customers’ expectations.

We will use the feedback you have provided to implement the necessary changes, in an attempt to improve the level service and customer service we deliver going forward.”

At no point in that paragraph was Virgin media apologising for providing me such a poor service. They were only sorry that I felt it was poor. I responded to Ian over this and again I was ignored. I then emailed 5 days later asking if the email had been received and again no response.

Two weeks after my response to Ian, I had still not received a reply, I was now on holiday with my children and still annoyed that it was dragging on. I again email and advise I’m tired of being ignored, I provided dates of emails and references and told them I want it resolved ASAP. I received a call about an hour later from someone who claimed he was team leader on the CEO team, and had looked into my emails, he didn’t know why my emails had not been responded to but could only imagine in Andy’s case it was due to a restructure, but didn’t actually say why Ian had not got back to me. This person asked me what I wanted to sort it out, and I told him an official apology recognising that VM had failed me, an apology that they noticed the service was poor and not an apology for me believe the service to be poor. He said I should receive something within 2 weeks. It’s now over 3 weeks and I’m still waiting.

It appears yet again I have been ignored by Virgin Media, I felt an apology would have been a great start however that has not materialised. I believe the only way to resolve this would be an internal investigation on the problems I had faced, both on the product and the customer service. I believe due to the amount of problems faced , time I have spent on the telephone, sending emails and having to be in for engineer visits myself and my family should receive some form of compensation for the below par service.

I feel that the offer from Andy about 20% off all future bills should extend to the previous bills I had paid, and should be reimbursed 20% of all monies paid, along with a gesture of good will from Virgin Media and an apology which i believe to be fair. I am being reasonable given the amount of issues faced and the fact I wasn’t able to enjoy a TV service I was paying good money for.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

rebel11 · June 7, 2014

Hi flexeh

You should have asked the management of the company to intervene a lot sooner. Even after the first call out, you've been too tolerant regarding their poor service.

Make the employees of the company take ownership and responsibility of your problem. Take a name, extension number, record the call, make notes, you want to speak to the same person. Ask for their bosses name, the pressure is on them to sort it out.

flexeh · June 7, 2014

mate i did escalate it to CEO team ages ago it then got passed back down. would you agree by the email they sent they wasnt actually apologising for the crap. they were just sorry i felt that way

also after reading my letter can you suggest any changes or does it read ok? may change the 20% bit and say just a percentage and see what they offer

flexeh · June 9, 2014

So guys is that letter/email ok? Or any thing I need to add/change

rebel11 · June 9, 2014

Hi flexeh

I would focus less on getting an apology, more focus on compensation for the poor service and a paragraph on what further action you intend on taking. If you've got copies of any engineer reports, send them, this would be a good one to send:-

'they then claimed water had been getting in causing me these problems '.

So guys is that letter/email ok? Or any thing I need to add/change

flexeh · June 9, 2014

Hi flexeh

I would focus less on getting an apology, more focus on compensation for the poor service and a paragraph on what further action you intend on taking. If you've got copies of any engineer reports, send them, this would be a good one to send:-

'they then claimed water had been getting in causing me these problems '.

Haven't got them anymore suppose SAR if there is any dispute

rebel11 · June 9, 2014

They can check their records, make the amendments as suggested, tell them 'if the matter is not resolved I will take further action'.

[QUO'TE=flexeh;4550769]Haven't got them anymore suppose SAR if there is any dispute

flexeh · June 10, 2014

They can check their records, make the amendments as suggested, tell them 'if the matter is not resolved I will take further action'.

[QUO'TE=flexeh;4550769]Haven't got them anymore suppose SAR if there is any dispute

how does this read now, ive tried to slim it down and added changes, let me know if its no good

Dear

REF: XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX & XXXXXX

I have decided to write to you again over a number of failings that I have had with your company Virgin Media. These failings are not just with the product and service I was supplied with, but it also extends to the level of customer service I have received from: your customer relations team, your faults department and also members of the CEO complaints team.

I was a customer of yours for approximately 20 months. For the duration of being a customer I had multiple failures on my TiVo, countless engineer visits and spent hours on the phone. Every time the TiVo was replaced I lost all recordings I had stored on there. The TiVo did not work correctly and I don’t believe my problems were investigated as well as they could have been. It took almost 18 months for someone to find one fault and that was water penetrating the cab affecting the equipment, they were confident this would solve my problem, which to be honest it didn’t. I then had more engineer visits and had an engineering manager called Craig attend who tried doing things previous engineers had tried, however he left me with his number and told me to get in touch with him if problems persisted and he would re-attend, I called and text him however no response.

I spoke with Andy on CEO complaints about cancelling my service as I had enough of the poor service I was receiving. Andy tried his best to keep me as a customer offering me almost 20% off my monthly bill, I told him there was no point staying as 20% off something that isn’t working correctly isn’t going to exactly be beneficial to me, and to be honest I lost all faith in Virgin Media. I cancelled and Andy advised I would receive a final bill and be given a refund if I had paid ahead.

A few weeks had passed and I sent a couple of emails with the following questions to Andy asking: What was my final bill? Was there a refund? And Could I have a breakdown of all bills paid. I never received a response back; this was not the first time I had been ignored. I finally received a cheque for £26.45 refund which I had overpaid. There was no offer of a gesture of good will or apology for the service I had received.

As I felt Virgin Media didn’t care and I wanted to show how hurt I was, I emailed CEO complaints again to ask for the address of the CEO team to send the cheque back to. A man called Ian responded and would not give me the address, after a few more exchanges, Ian sent an email containing

“I am sorry you feel that you haven’t had the best level of service from Virgin Media. Virgin Media prides itself on delivering the best possible service and is disappointed when we fail to meet our customers’ expectations. We will use the feedback you have provided to implement the necessary changes, in an attempt to improve the level service and customer service we deliver going forward.”

That extract from the email gives me the impression that Virgin does not care at all, that is not an apology from Virgin, you are only sorry I feel I’ve had a bad service and not acknowledged I was provided with a much below par service that was promised to me. I contacted Ian back and again the emails went quiet and I was being ignored. I gave it a couple of weeks and emailed again whilst on holiday with my children, within an hour I received a call from a team leader who I forget the name of, he was unsure why I had not received a reply from Ian, After a half hour discussion on the phone he advised me I should receive an official apology through the post within a couple of weeks however it’s now almost 4 weeks and It appears yet again I have been ignored by Virgin Media,

I felt an apology would have been a step in the right direction to show Virgin Media are willing to start to try and resolve my complaint, however that has not materialised. I feel I should be compensated for not getting the service I was paying good money for and for the poor customer service I have received throughout, if the matter is not resolved quickly I will seek to take further action.

Regards

Steve

flexeh · June 11, 2014

Also out of curiosity in this case would soga apply under

Not fit for purpose

Not as described

And not of satisfactory quality?

rebel11 · June 11, 2014

The first letter was fine, it just needed the changes as suggested. In this letter again you keep on going on about an 'apology', an 'apology' has no value as they've probably said sorry each time you've contacted them, so they've probably said 'sorry' at least 20 times. Concentrate on poor service and compensation.

Do they really care if your 'hurt', no. Remove the following, 'As I felt Virgin Media didn’t care and I wanted to show how hurt I was '.