Getting Virgin Media to actually sort things instead of making you run in circles...

[Firenze]

Anyone got anything on this?

I've been on their XXL BB, XL TV (X2), and XL phone, for about 7 months now, and through 2009, I was happy, their connections were solid and any faults were sorted in a short space of time (ie, a day or two). However, being students we all went home over Christmas and returned to the poorest internet connection I've ever used... and thats saying something...
We had packet loss on the line nearly all day, and this obviously lead to horrendous surfing/downloading/gaming/chatting conditions...

I thought, well I'll give them a bell and they should sort it fairly quickly, boy was I wrong!
I'm now nearly a month down the line, have been told that there are issues in the area that are being fixed, told those issues have been fixed and that it may be an issue between the modem and the router, (have replaced the cable and the router to no avail), have been told it may be a different issue with Upload Utilisation in our area, given a fault referrance and told to visit the newsgroups for better updates on the issues. I query on the Newsgroups and I'm told that the issue is that the UBR is being upgraded and asked to wait till that has been completed, I ask how long this issue is currently planned to continue, and told "the End of April".
This obviously infuriated me, that I would be without a decent connection for nearly half of my contract. I leave an angry, but fair, message to that effect and threaten formal action.
I get no reply and so ask again as to any further updates. I get told that the fault referrance I left them with is incorrect and that this is not possibly the fault to our line.
I then provide them with all of the information from my modem and ask them what they think the issue might be. I get a reply telling me that the issue is caused by High Upload Utilisation on the line and given the same fault referrance as before. A call to their support and I end up speaking to various foreign call centre members, who tell me that the problem is to do with my wireless settings on my router. (WHAT?!)

So here I am, thoroughly hacked off and ready to start putting pen-to-paper to get in touch with Ofcom and the CEO of Virgin Media as this issue is just running round in circles.

does anyone have any tried and tested methods for getting a resolution from Virgin Media, or am I best just making a formal matter out of this?

 

[Rabtech]

Post on the newsgroups asking nicely, that a note be put onto your account explaining that your speeds are not attainable due to a network issue.

Ring customer services after this note has been added to see if they can lower your package/bill until the issue is resolved, confirm that you wont be entering a new contract by doing so either.

A few years ago I managed to get out of my contract early as they repeatedly put off UBR relief work, resulting in a poor connection for months. I came back to Virgin Media due to a staff offer and would have cancelled with the 30 day period if the speeds were still poor - fortunately it looks as if they finally did the work in my area and speeds are good at all times again.

 

[wij]

I gave up in the end.

Service has been abysmal in my area for the last couple of months and nothing but empty promises of fixes for VM.

Their newsgroups weren't that good either IMO if it's something they can't fix you invariably just get a generic "utilisation issue on your UBR" response... Though still a damn sight better than dealing with the foreign morons in their call centres.

In the end I got my entire package cancelled without penalty and I'm going back to using a business grade ISP at home (A&A Phone line + service over Be's backhaul) who can deliver what they sell and will also do a damn sight more to fix it if there are any problems.

 

[chowks]

you're not in Exeter perchance are you?

I've been having exactly the same issue as you and it started when I got back to Uni after Xmas. During the day its usually okay, but between 5pm - 12pm its impossible to play online games. (I have 20mb)

I've also phoned up Virgin about 5 or 6 times, each time they fob me off or disconnect me. I even went into the newly opened Virgin Media shop to complain, only to be handed a phone saying "ring customer service".

Honestly don't know what to do next....

 

[ennogs]

I used to work for Virgin/BY doing tech support. I agree you with you that it is unacceptable but count yourself lucky as well. I would get customers call in complaining of speed issues that had been going on for months and when you would look it up on internal systems you would see the upgrade/fix is sometimes as long as 6 - 12 months away. The worst thing you can do when you phone in is get angry or be snotty. It will get you knowhere. The poor sods on 1st line who answer your call can't do anything about it. They can only tell you the bad news. I would write a formal letter of complaint stating you find the situation unaceptable and enquire why a known fault with the UBR is not going to be fixed until the end of April. I would ask for a discount on your bill until the issue is fixed.

 

[wij]

@chowks - No Liverpool, and round here I'm convinced it is the student population causing the problem, for 2 weeks over Christmas all was well, they started returning and it all goes down the tubes. For the last 2 months or so from around 09:00 to 03:00 the following morning you can't really do anything online.

Ennogs - the "poor sods" on the first line (and AFAIK the only "line") of support at my new ISP wouldn't repeatedly lie to a customer or make up BS excuses for the poor performance of their network. They also employ competant staff who understand the technical issues - the useless sod of an engineer that was sent to my house didn't even know what packet loss was nor could he understand a very simple graph from Cacti showing exactly what the issue was.

That is the difference between a good ISP with a well designed network and a policy about not becoming the bottleneck for the customer by overloading their infrastructure and a company like VM who are only interested in the bottom line and profit margins rather than a good quality of service to all their customers.

 

[anything I don't mind]

yea i preferred BE they had such a great service. no problems.

recently my virgin box went out of sync on a friday night, i had to wait till tuesday for an engineer to arrive. it started working again on monday night at 12 exactly. very odd. it just kept cycling through the frequencies and would not accept the config. it was almost like when someone sends a few gigabits down my pipe. once that happened and they had to replace the modem. cause they can't gen a new ip.

but the reason i left BE was due to the £120+ BT installation costs, (also i just hate bt, for being semi socialist and other reasons) when i know there is a bt line coming to the house cause the neighbours have it., far too expensive to run some copper and do some switching, taking the ****...

so i went back to virgin, apart from the 3 day outage it has been fairly decent 50mbit