Jaw vs. Virgin Media

Never had a complaint in 6 years with NTL/Virgin Media until last week.
Haven't had an internet connection since 22 October and didn't manage to get through to them until 24 Oct. Already pissed off with them I gave them a piece of my mind in a half decent way (no swearing/abuse). The support team said they couldn't check my line and I had to call back the next day. On Sunday after being on the phone (mobile as I've got no land line, the reason why I joined them is because I didn't want to deal with BT) to them for 30 minutes the chap tells me they can't analyse the issue remotely and I will be given a call back on Monday.

Monday - No call

Tuesday - No call (I call 5 times but can't get through to the fuckers, technical difficulties on their side).

Wednesday - No call from them, but I manage to get through to them and they say they will assign an engineer and give me call back on Thursday 29 Oct. to confirm.

Thursday - Haven't had a connection for 8 days now, massively pissed off about the whole situation and again no call from Virgin Media.

Friday - Another day with no news from Branson's company, once again the broadband team can't be contacted due to technical difficulties.

Saturday 31 Oct - On the phone to the most inept tech support team member explaining my issue to 4 different people and numerous phone calls later I told them I'm fed up paying for calls to them and want them to call me back. To their credit they did.
After a very long conversation they tell me the earliest an engineer can come out is on November 11th between 12 and 4pm. I ask the tech support supervisor if that's a bad joke and he/she says it's the earliest they can do. I told them I can't be back home until 4pm at the very earliest and to find me an alternative time slot, this is on 22 November.

So I will be for one month without internet and I ask her what the compensation will be, she says £20.00, I go nuts in the most polite way I could, spitting in my phone I tell her I pay £20.80 a month a £20 credit is not going to cut it. I've spend £20 on mobile internet that's slow as hell, £15 in phone calls to the useless bastards and not going to have internet for a full month. So £20 is not good enough.
I demanded to be put through to a manager or someone with more authority then the person I was speaking to and all I got was "Sir, I am now going to hang up".

It took me until now to calm down and I'm trying to prepare for round three of
jaw vs. Virgin Media. Any suggestions on how to prepare for battle are welcome.

*Rant over.

Seperate out the costs that are directly attributable to them, i.e. phone calls to them and write a very polite letter outlining both your points above and the direct costs to you.

Or have a look at your contract and see if they have any clause outlining service issues/lack of service and instead of speaking to the fix it dept. speak to billing and ask to cancel- Orange fixed my parents connection in 40 minutes when I did this.

Or have a look at your contract and see if they have any clause outlining service issues/lack of service and instead of speaking to the fix it dept. speak to billing and ask to cancel- Orange fixed my parents connection in 40 minutes when I did this.

+1

Virgin are shitters when it comes to service and complaints. We've had cable for over 10 years, when it's working it's great, on the rare occassion there's a problem you tear your hair out trying to sort it.

Seperate out the costs that are directly attributable to them, i.e. phone calls to them and write a very polite letter outlining both your points above and the direct costs to you.

Or have a look at your contract and see if they have any clause outlining service issues/lack of service and instead of speaking to the fix it dept. speak to billing and ask to cancel- Orange fixed my parents connection in 40 minutes when I did this.

Thanks for the above Dammit. I will definately go ahead and do this.
Do you require a BT line for Orange?

Unless it is cable, every provider will require a BT line.

Given how much Mr Branson likes a publicity stunt, why not stage a dirty protest in his office, having notified the major news channels of your plan in advance?

On a serious note, I empathise. Trying to get through to someone in Virgin who can own a problem and rectify it is a difficult task. I like Neil's suggestion of calling the billing department and seeking to cancel your contract, they'll be incentivised to retain customers so will be very keen to help.

Unless it is cable, everything will require a BT line.

Not true. Lots of operators provide phone lines these days - Carphone, Opal, Bulldog, Tiscali, C&W, NTL, even Virgin if you're in the right area.

At the OP, if you're on data-only from Virgin and phone service from BT, let me know. I work for the company who supply Virgin with their data-only service and if you're on our footprint I can probably find out exactly what's wrong with your line within a few clicks. Safe.

Thanks for the good advice people.
I've got broadband only from Virgin and don't have a BT line. Trying to keep communication costs to a minimum. Might be time to revise that though, such a shame though as I had broadband through a BT line and it's just so slow compared to cable (still slow but it's the fastest I know of in this country anyway).

Not true. Lots of operators provide phone lines these days - Carphone, Opal, Bulldog, Tiscali, C&W, NTL, even Virgin if you're in the right area.

All of the above provide an analogue line- from BT Openreach.

The companies above simply bill you for it.

The only lines truly provided by third partes (NTL/C&W/Verizon/Colt/etc) are full dress ISDN30, and the majority of the time they end up using BT tail circuits.

it took over a month for virgin to send a technician to instal my internet and phone line. Then when the technicina came he didnt know how to instal the router for 16gb broadband so left another less powerful router which he said someone would come and collect, noone ever came (i waited indoors for 10 hours) and they said that id be charged for both routers. It took about ten calls and they hung up the phone five of those times just to sort it out. Finally they removed the charges for installation which they hadnt told me about before the tech came and are giving me both routers. Im still waiting for our first bill but wouldnt be massivly suprised if i end up getting charged anyway. Some of the worst customer support ever.

Having said nobody could possibly be worse that bulldog broadband who have since folded that took six months to sort out and inumerable calls to them and traiding standards.

I assume that BT lines are all copper lines and the maximum download speed that I can get is 11.mbps :(

it took over a month for virgin to send a technician to instal my internet and phone line. Then when the technicina came he didnt know how to instal the router for 16gb broadband so left another less powerful router which he said someone would come and collect, noone ever came (i waited indoors for 10 hours) and they said that id be charged for both routers. It took about ten calls and they hung up the phone five of those times just to sort it out. Finally they removed the charges for installation which they hadnt told me about before the tech came and are giving me both routers. Im still waiting for our first bill but wouldnt be massivly suprised if i end up getting charged anyway. Some of the worst customer support ever.

Having said nobody could possibly be worse that bulldog broadband who have since folded that took six months to sort out and inumerable calls to them and traiding standards.

Sounds like they haven't lost any of their NTL quality, back then they made a terrible name for themselves. I really hoped with Virgin owning it things would improve.
Suppose I'm just naive.

All of the above provide an analogue line- from BT Openreach.

The companies above simply bill you for it.

The only lines truly provided by third partes (NTL/C&W/Verizon/Colt/etc) are full dress ISDN30, and the majority of the time they end up using BT tail circuits.

Oh come now, you're being unfair here. Almost every voice provider in the UK makes use of Openreach infrastructure to one extent or another, but that doesn't mean they're all just re-selling BT lines. LLU DSLAMs require significant investment and maintenance.

Not sure of the point you are making here?

With LLU it's still a BT Openreach analogue line, it's just connected to a (for example) Easynet DSLAM at the exchange.

Easynet (in this example) pay Openreach for the line, then bill the punter for both line and broadband.

The broadband is then entirely delivered by the ISP, but they are still depending on Openreach for the last mile(s) access to the home.

Point I'm trying to make (maybe badly) is the fact that independent ISPs who make use of the Openreach infrastructure are usually doing far more technically than just re-selling BT lines. It's unfair to paint them as middle men just taking a cut.

I accept that fully- the service they are providing is the broadband, and they do a good job, for a given value of good.

It is impossible to offer a credible UK wide service without using the BT infrastructure, even with Satellite as you need backhaul.

Just reading the OP has ingnited a flash of rage - flashbacks of my similar experiences with 3 mobile, HSBC etc etc. I fucking hate dealing with technical issues over the phone with wankers who talk politely but are actually calling you a cnut in sales speak code.

I assume that BT lines are all copper lines and the maximum download speed that I can get is 11.mbps :(

a quick speedtest gives 14mbps from a theoretical 21mbps maximum.
depending on where you are you may be able to get onto the new 21C service.

Totally. It's actually pretty galling as someone who works for an indie ISP that we're so reliant. In an ideal world we'd own our own infrastructure instead of hiring it.

a quick speedtest gives 14mbps from a theoretical 21mbps maximum.
depending on where you are you may be able to get onto the new 21C service.

Checked on the Orange website at my postcode only a up to a maximum of 11.5 mbps and from previous experience that works out at an average of 5mbps if I'm lucky.

Sounds like they haven't lost any of their NTL quality, back then they made a terrible name for themselves. I really hoped with Virgin owning it things would improve.
Suppose I'm just naive.

You should have tried Cable and Wireless and Bell Cablemedia as it was before NTL. Absolute cunts.

I don't understand such behaviour, they're operating in a cut-throat industry and still they seem to get away with it. I've googled Virgin Media complaints for a bit and now have the CEO's email address think I'll give that one a go next.

Issue is you are signed into a contract (I imagine? if not then happy days!), and the contract will probably not allow you out unless Branson himself has a poo on your doorstep- and you can prove it was him.

Look for beardshavings in the stool, dead giveaway imo.

I've been with them for nearly 6 years so I assume a 1 month notice period is in place, no idea where the contract is though. Don't fancy going through anyones stool samples BTW.