Customer's Really Bad Experience with Virgin Media Scam

Introduction

Either I am really unlucky or Virgin services are really really bad.

Connection request one - problem 1

I signed up for virgin broadband on-line[on the 12/04/2007] and waited.... after [more than] two months I realised these guys have no intention of connecting my internet. Here is a screen shot of my first virgin on-line order which includes the order ID.

Connection request two - problem 2

Eventually[03/07/2007] I signed up on-line again and still nothing!!! Even though I got an email saying they are dealing with it. Here is a screen shot of this second order .

Connection request three - problem 3

So finally I phoned them up and asked what is happening? They said they are unable to trace the order because it is in a different department so I signed up for the third time, but this time over the phone and finally my internet was connected and I thought everything would be good and cheap, but boy was I wrong?!!

Internet connection

Contract - never a problem

Entering contracts are never problematic, it is what happens afterwards that is problematic. Once you are in the contract there is no way out. It's like a fishing hook. Only here the customers are the fishes, Virgin Media is the fisherman and the cheap contracts are those filthy little worms. Damn worms! they've made me suffer :(

I signed up for a 10.00 pounds a month cable internet service.

On 28^th August 2007 15.00 pounds installation fee was deducted by direct debit from my account.
The direct debit reference is (Ref: 604569903001).

So I was happy and everything seemed fine.

First financial issue - problem 4

On 06^th September 2007 43.71 pounds was deducted by direct debit from my bank account. (Ref: 105623455323105950)

I phoned[0845 454 1111] them up and asked about this, they said 25.00* pounds was for the installation fee.

* Note I had already been charged for the installation fee.

Anyway... They told me they will credit the 25.00 pounds back to my account. I assumed they meant my bank account. So when this did not happen I rang them up again. The credit on my mobile phone ran out and I went and bought more credit for my mobile phone and called them and queried about the situation. They told me what they meant was my Virgin account would be credited not my bank account so that I would not have to pay anything for the next two months or so. I had no choice but to accept. i.e. in Mafia terms They made me an offer I could not refuse

Technical issue - problem 5

Anyway... I used the internet for while till it stopped working. After phoning them up on a few different numbers[0845 454 1111, 0800 561 0061, 0906 212 1111] and wasting another 20.00 pounds on my mobile phone credit. Eventally I got them to send an "engineer" to fix the problem. They told me the "engineer" will turn up between 12:00 - 16:00 on Monday which meant I had to take a day off work hence one less day for my holidays :( My internet was disconnected for 4-5 days. Anyway... the "engineer" turned up at 16:00!!! Apparently the modem had burnt out(it was made in china[cheap Virgin products]). The "engineer" changed the modem and decided that the signal was too strong, so he placed a filter before the modem to attenuate the signal. The engineer said I would have to wait for a few hours for his call and then I will have to call the customer support team and give them the MAC address of the modem and the customer support team will ensure that the MAC address on my new modem will be allowed to connect to their servers and use their services. Far more technicality than I would like to know. So I received the "engineer's" phone call and he repeated everything he said before leaving my house.

So I rang up the customer service and told them the story. They said everything is fine from their end and that my internet should be working. Once I told them it doesn't work they gave me another number to phone. I tried phoning that but an automatic answering machine told me that they are upgrading their system and that I should phone them on some other number. So I phoned them on their new number[0906 212 1111]. The new number rang for a bit and then went dead. I tried it three times, but no luck. I phoned back the customer support and they told me the new phone number is correct and that's what I should be dialling.

By this time I was furious. I phoned the new number[0906 212 1111] again but like before it rang a few times and then went dead. So no music or being held behind the line neither. There was no other number I could phone any more. So I could do nothing. [I was really angry / upset] I remembered that the engineer said he does not have the correct filter to attenuate the signal and that the one he has placed is slightly stronger(10 dB) than it should be(6 dB). So I removed the filter altogether and voila! my internet was working. I left my house and went to the Gym and thought to myself what a bunch of incompetent staff are working for Virgin. But my problems were fixed by myself and since things were working I was in a better mood by now.

Second financial issue - problem 6

The next morning I went on internet since I now had what I had been paying for... internet!!!
When I checked my bank statement on-line I saw that on the 04^th October 2007 18.68 pounds had been deducted from my account. I was upset as I thought I was not supposed to pay anything for over two months. Besides my contract is only 10.00 pounds a month.

So back to calling the customer service again, again;
I explained the situation and some "lady" rudely implied that I was lying and no such payment has been taken out of my account. Eventually after a long conversation and some arguing the "lady" realised that she had made a mistake and started apologizing for being rude. But I was already angry and upset but she made me feel good by saying that she has now fixed everything (Apparently I was being charged twice because they had registered me twice for everything and 18.68 pounds per contract instead of 10.00 pounds so I was paying almost four times as much as I should be paying). At this point I was very happy because I was under the impression that everything was fixed and she offered to credit my Virgin account with 2.50 pounds due to the internet outage I suffered. She asked me if I was happy and I replied no, I have spent about forty pounds on my phone credit, so she offered me 5.00 pounds instead of 2.50 pounds, and assured me that I will not have to pay anything until early January 2008. By now even though I had lost about 30.00 pounds in two days on making phone calls, I was still happy as I thought it was the end of all problems.

Until...

Third financial issue - problem 7

On the 2^nd November 2007, 13.00 pounds was deducted from my account. This seemed to be the 18.00 pounds charge minus the 5.00 pounds that the "lady" had previously credited to my Virgin account. This time I had really had enough of Virgin's bullshit. I phoned them up again as that is the only thing I could do, since they do not have an on-line help system that works. [By now I have spent over 40.00 pounds on my pay as you go mobile phone to call Virgin customer services.] Anyway, I didn't have a choice and phoned them up again after listening to music for a long time and confirming my identity to two different people I finally got talking to some guy. I told him the situation:
I have phoned Virgin multiple times and each time they tell me they have fixed the problems with overcharging me and that I will not have to pay anything for the next few months but every month its the same story all over.

Altogether what he told implied that there is nothing he can do about it[me being overcharged] and I would have to talk to some other department[as usual]. Considering he wasn't the right person to talk to why did the first person redirect me to him then???

I asked him: Can I cancel my contract?
He said: no
I asked him: what if I just cancel my direct debit?
He said: We will send a debt collector around(in Mafia terms, a tough guy)
I said: This is robbery!
He said: no, erm...
this was where my mobile phone credit run out and obviously he did not phone back as it would have cost Virgin a few pennies. I was fuming, big time!

Problem 7 Continues...

I bought some credit again and decided to phone up Virgin. On Sunday 4^th November 2007 at 13:03 I phoned up Virgin Media customer services[0845 454 1111]. As I have been phoning them a lot lately I new the keys to press for each prompt hence I saved myself some credit. I got through to a lady named Kavita Oomnen. She seemed to be the nicest out of the staff I had spoken to so far, so I was fairly pleased with that.
After briefing her on the situation, [at 13:07] she placed me on hold to listen to music while she checks out my account details. After three minutes of listening to music she said the error on my account has been fixed yesterday and that everything should be fine now. So

I asked: Can you call me back so I won't have to waste credit?
She replied: Why? what else is there you want to talk about?
I said: I want the charges that have gone out of my account to be recredit and there is a lot more to it

Anyway after a short conversation I managed to convince her to phone me back. So she phoned me back and I explained the situation that I have overpaid Virgin media by 36.68 pounds and I want it back!(In total I have paid 90.39 pounds when I should only have paid 53.71 pounds so I have overpaid by 36.68 pounds).

[ at 13:15 ] She said: She will look into it and phone me back in a few minutes.

So she phoned back at at 13:34 and said she can credit my Virgin account with 25.68 pounds. So I told her it has to be at least 36.68 pounds in my credit.

She said: we can't credit your account anymore than this, I am already crediting it with 25 pounds.
I said: It's not like you are doing me any favours, this is the money that you have taken out of my bank account. You have to credit my Virgin account with enough points to make up for this.

So I had to do some more explanation and managed to convince her that: she has to ensure that my account will have least 36.68 pounds credit in it. She finally agreed as I did not give her a choice. But she was much nicer than the guy I spoke to the previous day so I was happy with that and also that I will get some credit back and hopefully won't have to pay for the next 3 months or so. Whether my account was credit or not and whether they will take money from my account next month is still unclear to me as I have been told the same story too many times. Hence I have not trust in Virgin or its staff.
She also told me that my bill was printed before the money was taken out or the credit was added. But none of it made sense to herself or to me [thanks to recorded phone conversation there should be some proof for this]. Anyway, so according to what Kavita Oomnen told me, everything should be fine now and my account should have enough credit, so that I won't have to pay anything for the next three months.

Still not being fully satisfied with regards to how muc money I had spent on Virgin and how much they are offering me back(not money, just points into my Virgin account), I tried to push my luck and see if I can get any compensation for all this nonsense. She said they do not give any compensation to anyone. I am not sure whether that is even legal, but from what I understood is that she could have credited my Virgin account with something more as compensation but because she has already credit back so much to my account she can not do it. It's funny how when they[Virgin] credit back my own money* to my Virgin account they act and talk as if they are doing me a favour.
* Note they[Virgin] never give money back to anyone, they only give some points which can be used up for my next bill. The points are similar to what supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's offer they customers. I.e. these points are like vouchers that can only used to obtain something from the company that has given them to you. Hence it has much less value than real money.

I asked: Can I get any compensation for all this inconvinience?
She replied: No, I have already credit your account with too much and we do not pay compensation.
So I asked: Can you spell out your full name for me?
She replied: yes, K-A-V-I-T-A
I asked: and your surname?
She replied: ohh... erm... hmm... O-O-M-N-E-N... that's it
I asked: Can I have the address for writing complaints to Virgin?
She replied: Are you going to complain against my service?
I replied*: Well... Virgin in general but I need to state who I have spoken to.

* Note I replied for the first time, now it was them who sounded stressed.

Here is the address as it does not exist on the Virgin website, or maybe it exists but I could find it. I believe it is against the law in UK not to have details of complaint procedures available for customers.

Virgin Media Customer Concern
Matrix Court
Siemens Way
Swansea
SA7 9BB

Virgin Media
Matrix Court
Enterprise Park
Swansea
SA7 9BB

Today's Outcome of the ongoing problems with Virgin Media

The outcome today was that:

I lost more credit on my phone roughly 3.00 pounds today.(altogether it's about 50 pounds now)
I learnt to ask them[Virgin] to phone me back :)[The only good outcome]
I understood that all the credit that had previously been added to my account has been used up by the incorrect bills and there is no way I can get those back.
[maybe I should send a debt collector to Virgin]
My account should now have 36.68 pounds credit[Lets see what happens next month]
I have lost almost 50.00 pounds on calling Virgin media and I can not get a compensation
I have used up a lot of my time on calling Virgin media and I can not get a compensation
I have been stressed out over all the problems with Virgin media but I can not get a compensation

Am I happy with the outcome?
No. But the situation appears to have improved if everything I was told is correct. I just have to wait until the next month to see if they will take out money from my bank account.