The Virgin Saga Continues

Well.  No sign of an engineer over the weekend, surprise surprise, so Monday I came home from work early (costing me 3 hours of billable work) and waited, and waited, and waited.  By 6pm I had not heard from the engineer so I called NTL, whoops sorry I mean Virgin, and after a 30 minute wait I get told that he will be here in 10 mins.

7pm comes and goes so I call again.  This time I am on the phone for 50 minutes and Sarah tells me that he has been delayed but he will definitely  be coming tonight and he will call me to confirm.

8pm no sign so I tried to call.  Guess what.  They have closed for the night!

8am and I am on the phone to NTL.  I am informed that errr..  a, They have no idea why the engineer did not come and B, My phone number is not in the call text and the engineers cannot see the customer record, so how was he to call me?

You would think that after screwing up so badly they would try to make amends, but no.  The best they can offer me is that an engineer will be round from 8am until 12pm.  Hmmm…  I said OK it will have to do.  Five mins later I get a call telling me “Make that 12pm until 7pm”!  Just like yesterday!

I expressed my dissatisfaction and was basically told (by NTL) yes this is rubbish, but we can’t get the staff!

3pm and an engineer arrives and swaps the box in 5 mins.  For reasons best known to himself he moved all the plugs around behind the TV, thereby messing up the energy saver that was installed.  I have just spent 30 mins putting it all back!

So I have spent about 8 hours of my life chasing and waiting for NTL to pull their collective fingers out, for a job that took 5 mins!!!  We have been without cable for 5 days.  Good thing that my internet access comes from else ware.

To add insult to injury I now have to call them, to get compensation.

As before Some advice for NTL.

a, Stop lying to your customers, It starts from a small lie i.e. You can choose your music on hold from a choice of 5 music types.  Problem is that all 5 choices just repeat the SAME 4 tracks!  Since when has “American Pie” been Blues?  and graduates to a big lie i.e. we care about our clients!

b, If an engineer is supposed to call the client GIVE HIM THE PHONE NUMBER!

c, Give your Indian staff post code lists and maps.

d, Man (Woman) the service desks after 8pm!  and at weekends!

e, Give your staff E-Mail!

I am sure I can think of more, but frankly this is getting as boring for me as it is for you.  Is it too much to ask for a little customer service?

Why is it that every time I have to deal with this shoddy company I have to deal with this rubbish?  Get your act together NTL.  You will not be the only game in town forever!

NTL (AKA Virgin) Drop the ball again

There we are, kids in bed, ready for a Friday night of chilling in front of the goggle box....

Ping!!!!

The box packs up. Oh C%^ now I have to talk to Customer Services. Before doing so I did all the usual stuff, reboot the box, attempt to reset the box....

Ok here we go. Call them and navigate the silly auto attendant. Get to support queue and wait....and wait.... and wait... and... get cut off!

Start again. Call them and navigate the silly auto attendant. Get to support queue and wait....and wait.... and wait...

Finally Cherry Jain answers (is that a real name?? Not convinced). Ahh.. Guess what?? She can't find my details Surprise Surprise!

She wanted to transfer me to Customer Services, but I said that I did not want to spend another 20 mins waiting in a queue. Solution? she spends 10 mins in the queue and calls me back. Hmmm... She still can't find me.... We spell out all the details again (letter by letter) and e find that she was looking for FE12 not SE12. Why can't they give them post code lists? Or a map of England may help.

She makes me repeat the same tedious tests before deciding the box is broken! Well Doh!

At least we have made some progress. So when can I have an engineer? MONDAY EVENING!!! between 4 and 7PM! Are you having a laugh? Nope. She is serious. This is clearly not acceptable. I put some pressure on her and she calls the engineering department. Guess what??? They are going home! What about tomorrow or Sunday? Nope, no chance. Can I speak to Customer Services now? Nope. They have gone home too! Complaints Department? Nope... They've gone home.

What kind of Mickey Mouse company is this?

I though that when NTL became Virgin Media things would change. NTL were renown for being rubbish, but I have always thought of Virgin as a company with some customer relations nous that cared about their clients. Apparently not!

A little bit of advice for Virgin.

Most of your clients (especially the TV/Internet users) will be watching TV in the evening at at weekends. Try having some staff on!

Bloody good thing that by broadband is from Demon, so it works, or I would be even more upset! Also a dammed good thing that I do not use the Virgin phone or I could not have called them!

Commentary

NTL had the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I have had run ins with them in the past but, ever the optimist, I was hoping things had improved (and I really do not have a lot of choice. Nothing has changed, well that is not true. They have out sourced the support. Bloody typical. What's my choice? Well I guess we could move to Sky? That is a definite option. We will see.

Do Virgin Media Care about their clients? I think not!

Virgin media

Hello Dear Reader,

Are we sitting comfortably?

Good, Then I shall begin....

Once upon a time there was a company that pretended to offer cable TV service. This company was called NTL.

Unfortunately it was crap!

But one great day they were bought by the Great Richard of the Branson and all the people rejoiced as Virgin was known to give great customer service. And thus was born...

 

 

 

Unfortunately they too proved to be crap. Here is an email I have just sent them.....

Where to start? Here we go................

1, I am paying £31.50 for my service. I have a phone line that I do not want or use and do not have broadband. If I drop the phone line my cost goes up!!

If I get the broadband My cost stays the same, but I have to agree to a 12 month contract. This is madness. Why can I not just have TV service and pay just for that?

2, Your auto attendant is awful!

3, People on your help desk just do not listen to what is being said to them!

I thought things would get better when you became Virgin, but Nothing has changed!