Virgin Broadband reviews and complaints
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Installation
My first foray into the cable world of broadband will be my last, until someone buys out Virgin.
I moved into a cable property on 18th August 2009. Having paid for installation up front for Virigin 50MB broadband, I was given an installation date of 17th Sept. I thought that this was bloody terrible, frankly, but was told that they were oversubscribed. So I waited for 17th Sept.
On 17th Sept, I waited in all day. At the end of the day, I phoned to see where my engineer was. I was told that I needed to have the cable installed up to the house as well as the technician for the broadband and so they'd changed the installation date. Without telling me. When I mentioned this, they claimed to have tried to leave a message on my mobile number. This was an outright lie. Anyone with a mobile knows that if you are not able to answer the call for any reason, it goes to voice mail. This is one of life's few guarantees. No vm = no Virgin contact.
So the new date was 30th Sept.
I confirmed on 29th Sept. that they were coming. They were.
At 1pm on 30th, a van pulled up and 2 very kind and professional gentlemen laid the cable up to the house and tested the cable. They did a fantastic job and confirmed that everything was ready for my technician. As they weren't connected services, they didn't know when the technician would be coming, but said that everything was ready for him when he turned up.
At 6pm, I phoned Virgin. No technician had been booked. I pointed out that this was the second time I had been screwed over by them. They apologised and then gave me a new installation date of 21st October.
The 21st of October. Over 2 months after I'd signed up, and THREE WEEKS after their latest screwup.
I told them to just send me the cable modem and I'd install it myself. Nope. Can't do that. Needs a technician to perform a 5 minute task. A 5 minute task which would have to wait 3 weeks.
I cancelled the service. My standard 6MB broadband arrives in 3 days' time. It isn't 50MB, but more importantly, I'll have broadband this side of Christmas.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
technical & customer service
Only trouble... i was running out of credit (the built in balance check on the modem showed me I was still ok). Calling into the callcenter I was told I had to check my balance online to get a accurate reading. What is the built in balance check in the modem then good for ? - "no thats a suppliers's fault", they cannot fix it. Eventually I was hung up on on simply asking 'Why is this the case ? '. I must admit - I was asking this question repeatedly...and the poor girl (Natalie) probably wasn't trained for that...
So is the modem right or the provider online ? - Take your pick to who you are paying your money for nothing... What ### is that ? Would you accept Daimler Benz telling you that there is nothing they can do about the suppliers brake system failing ? F...ing ###. I am an engineer and my philosophy is - if there is a problem, fix it - otherwise it's gonna bite you later big time. I cannot accept excuses from "recepionists" - that's the only people I was allowed to talk to - not a single so called "teamleader" or supervisor had the courage to call me back about this issue. On top of that Virgin seems to have some ""technical"" problems whenever I was topping up. Not one of my prepaid vouchers went through straightaway.
If you know a lawyer waiting for stuff like that to make some money - here's my email: [protected]@yahoo.com. I am ready for some a-kicking. Please have him contact me.
Eventually I switched to 3. Half the speed but no trouble so far except in the evenings it's a little bit slow... but I can live with that.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I have been very unhappy with Virgin Broadband, they have been very hard to contact even via their premium rate number. When I do finally get through I just seem to get through to complaints and they put me to any other department to get rid of me. I would never use quick start package again, came late and for me never worked after 4 hours on the phone to them. In my experience the supposed 6 meg runs at best at 1.5 meg...
I am not on virgin broadband. Unfortunately my mum is. Her email has been down more times in the last month than in any other time. My friend (who also has virgin broadband) can't even get connected. Upon phoning technical support, they just say "login to your router. Now type 'admin' as the username and 'admin' as the password"... HANG ON. This feels like you are reading from a script! The first thing anyone does when they have a router is change the login username and password to make it secure. Imaging if we all just left it as admin admin... hell! Anyway, so I log in to the router and then she tells me to click on a tab (which isn't there of course). I explain again that it's not a BT router. "Oh, well that must be the problem then". No, the problem is you don't have a clue about other makes and models of router!
I am with plusnet. They have been brilliant and i've never once had any downtime. Speeds have been consistent with what my local exchange can support, so I don't expect any higher than 4MB/SEC which is what I get (well, 3.8MB/SEC at peak times) but that's as low as it's ever been. I didn't even have to have any special router. I just walked in to a shop and bought any old one. This is a D-LINK. I put in the settings (username, pass, VCI etc) and I am away. No fuss. No hassle. How it should be.
totally agree fradulent rip off merchants...got market cornered where I live in uk...they know BT wont repair the 30year old lines so its fibre optic or nothing at all...neither are worth spit
I'll keep it quick. AVOID VIRGIN BROADBAND LIKE THE PLAGUE. It was great for the first 6 months and then they oversold their service. That was about the time that the television ads that were playing in my area stopped (Central Coast of NSW). I ended up with dialup speed at best and then that would cut out when I picked up the phone.
I know they say it's for home use only but silly me thought I'd use it for my home business as it was such a cheap option. Well that was a bit of mistake as eventually I ended up losing 2 of my biggest clients because I couldn't get online or not quickly enough (or not at all for 3 days straight).
In the end, upon their request, I had to go and get a Virgin sim card to put into my phone just so that I could ring customer support. They did credit this against my account, but I had to go and get it from the local Optus shop 7 kms away.
After what would have been at least 6 or 7 hours on the phone over 3 days the finally stopped trying to tell me it was my fault and/or trying to to convince me that a NEW Virgin modem would fix everything they finally let me out of the contract. Now they made such a big fuss of letting me know that they weren't going to charge me an exit fee they seemed to have forgotten that they were actually in breach of contract and has ABSOLUTELY misrepresented themselves in terms of the quality of their service.
But what I think is my favourite part is that they're now trying to get another $75 out of me for the month of December 2008 (At the time of writing it's February 2009) that they'd forgotten to bill me for at the time. It was during this time that it was running at dialup speed, if I was lucky, and I'd have to have it download client files overnight instead of in a Flash. It was also the time that I ended up spending a lot of time and money at my local Internet cafe.
Before ending my time with Virgin Broadband I had to get a landline installed at additional expense - I won't mention the company that I have my landline with but I haven't had a problem with it in the slightest in any way from day 1.
When the courier came around to pick up the Virgin Broadband modem that I had to send back he told me that he was picking up between 30 and 35 a day (even if I heard wrong and it was 30 - 35 a week, that's still a LOT!). I didn't believe him at first until I looked in the back of his Econovan when he open the door and there were heaps of them!
My big mistake (apart from actually signing up with them in the first place) was using the modem when all I could get was dialup speed as this has pretty much squashed my case with the Telecommunications Ombudsman.
I've had dodgy service from companies in the past but I think the thing that really got up my goat was the lies, lies and more lies from their support people about how there was nothing wrong with their service (in my area). To be fair I'm well aware that all but the actual supervisors are just reading what they're told to and don't really have a clue about their service apart from what comes out of their training manual.
Now I'm not saying that somewhere out there people might be getting reliable connection and decent customer service - It just wasn't my experience.
Want more details? (cause there's more!) - email me or tell me about your bad virgin broadband experience. - wanderingstar@eml.cc
Scam
For me speeds vary from poor to abysmal (files recently downloaded at around 25kbps, poor, to 4 (yes 4!) kbps - slower than dial-up, abysmal). Many contacts on-line and via e-mail, but were all completely unhelpful I feel. They just kept sending me a standard reply telling me to check my wiring, filters, system etc, even though I told them time and time again that I'd done this. Anyway, I've just canceled (30 days notice) and asked for a MAC code. When I canceled they didn't even ask me why. E-mail has just been down for 3 days... No proper apology and no mention of 3 days refund yet. My advice is do not use Virgin Media.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Covert capping!
I was with Telewest from the conception of broadband. I never had any trouble to write about... until Virgin took over. They have without consent changed my contract from uncapped to capped. It is no use complaining they will not listen. It has become their company policy, instigated before Branson left. They did it covertly from their advertising. They are in breach of contract with me and you. Complain to Ofcom. (their site have so many complaint building up against Virgin they even have shortcuts for us now). Next thing to do is leave and join Sky. At least their max is £15 per month cheaper and although they do eventually cap some say 250gb per month on the Max option, at least you know where you stand.
Beware other cheap isp's Talk Talk, TOUCAN, BT etc they all operate severe capping and have little or no customer service.
They will all have to change this eventually, to fall in line with EU directives. The best UK speeds are only a fraction of Europes and YES like always the British ARE BEING RIPPED OFF AS ALWAYS. But not for long. It will change, these robbers know that.
They are just making as much money as they can for as long as they can.
I signed up to broadband over the phone,i was led to believe i was getting 3 for £30 and would be billed monthly for all 3 services, 3 months on and virgin took £34 from my account, they set up a direct debit without my permission. I called to complain and was told, we email customers instead of sending out a bill, i received no email as they did not have my email or ask for it. As soon as my contract is up i will be leaving virgin and would never advise anyone to go with them.
Dear Sir/ Madam
I am a customer of virgin broadband.I took $60 home phone plan with broadband with Virgin broadband in Last February'08. First 2 months the service of phone line was OK but broadband was. problematic but manageable. last 4 months I am noticing that my phone line service is becoming worst and worst by day to day .very often Line is disconnecting with in middle of conversation. To connect with Internet is another drama. Hardly I can log on to Internet as the modem is unable to connect me to the internet. While sending this mail I have reset the modem atleast 7 times. I send couple of emails regarding this to Virgin Broadband and so far no reply. I try to call their hot line but unable to talk to a customer service officer even after waiting long time on phone.
I really need your help to solve this phone and internet problem.
My Phone no is 02-[protected].
I am stick with 24 months contact with virgin broadband.
Can u pls help me so that if they can't improve their service I can be out of contact with them without paying any fine.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Kind Regards
Khan Rabbi
I live in Kolkata. I have a BSNL Landline connection (033) [protected]. My phone is Out of Order for approx. 15 days. I had launched a Complaint regarding this and the Docket No. was V5257. Since then I have been lodging complaint every day but no action has been taken so far to rectify the problem. I am a Senior Citizen and I am facing lots of problem due to the non-working of my phone for so many days. Yesterday when I again lodged a Complaint for the rectification, I found out that my previous Complaint was removed and I was given a fresh Complaint Docket No. ie. V8834 dated 21.10.08. It is surprising that without rectifing my Phone how can they remove my previous Complaint Docket Number. I am really very tired of lodging complaints every day. For about 15 days, my phone is Out of Order. Will BSNL lessen/charge me half of my Monthly Rental for not providing the service for half of the month? When will BSNL take action for rectification of my phone? I am really very dissatisfied by the poor service of BSNL. Request you to kindly help me in this matter as soon as possible.
Thanking you.
Sunil Kumar Saha
[protected]
Kolkata
I HAVE NOT HAD VIRGIN BROADBAND SINCE NOVEMBER LAST YEAR WHEN I WAS ON NTL THEY HAVE SUDDENLY DECIDED TO SEND ME BILLS, AND AFTER HAVING RANG UP AND COMPLAINED
THEY SAID THEY WOULD SORT IT OUT FOR ME AND I WOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY ANOTHER BILL OR THE LAST ONE, NOT SO ANOTHER LARGER BILL FELL THOUGH THE LETTER BOX I DO NOT HAVE VIRGIN I HAVE BT SO THE PHONE CALL COSTS ME MONEY WHY DO CONSUMERS HAVE TO PUT UP WITH NEGLIGENCE FROM COMPANIES WHEN WILL THEY LEARN THERE STAFF HOW TO PRESS THE RIGHT BUTTONS
Why cant I view my bill online ? Come on virgin... it isn't rocket science to log in and check, why cant we customers do this ? "NOBODY " I KNOW WHO RECEIVES YOUR BROADBAND CAN DO IT.
Totally useless company!
I have never in my life found a company as useless as Virgin Media. They make every single thing as complicated as they possibly can. Contacting them is a complete nightmare. I know as soon as my contract is up with them I'm leaving and I would not recommend them to anyone.
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