i had to sign up for line rental with bt for 12 months, it was the only way to get the phone line disabled. virgin could have helped if they had wanted to, i would not have minded changing to virgin line rental rather than the precarrier direct calls service thingy i had with virgin. but they didnt help until i had took the issue up with ISPA and ofcom. at least they went from trying to charge 23 quid for not giving them 30 days notice when it was them that cut me off not me leaving them to they sent me a cheque for £22. 67 not the best result it couldve been as i now have 3g mobile for 2 years and plus net as well for home internet so a bit expensive.

Alison333

The Virgin media line is totally independent of any normal telephone line. If you don't want Virgin anymore, just phone to cancel the service from X date or write to them if no joy by phone, the arrange for BT to install line. Once BT connect or restore the line, you can use any non-cable Broadband supplier to provide the services you require.Ask BT about line rental charges or whether you can just pay reconnection fee, so you can choose which telephone/Broadband supplier to use. There is a site called broadband.co.uk with all the information. This is the question re cable internet and MAC code in regard to changing company.

I have cable broadband, do I need a MAC Code?
No, you just need to get a BT Line installed and then sign up with a new supplier without the need of a MAC code.

Don't forget the minimum contract period with Virgin is 12 months, so if cancelled before then, there will be an early cancellation charge. They will no doubt inform you of this.

huckster

James F. Mooney

Chairman

Neil Berkett

Chief Executive Officer

April 29, 2009

From the annual report (found on their site)

http://investors.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=135485&p=irol-reportsAnnualVirginMedia

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDA3N3xDaGlsZElEPS0xfFR5cGU9Mw==&t=1

Also in the content of the report:

Fixed Line Telephone
We provide local, national and international telephone services to our residential customers who
are within reach of our access network by direct connection to our network. We enhance our basic
telephone service by offering additional services...

...
We also provide phone service via BT’s local access network to customers not connected to our
network. As of December 31, 2008, we provided this type of telephone service to approximately 105,500
subscribers.

Sparky

Hi Alison,

As I understand it Virgin is a 'cable/fibre' provider for telephone and broadband and BT use copper based technology and do not overlap, where as the majority of other providers piggyback on the BT infrastructure - So I don't think BT will be able to clear anything.

Have you been keeping track of all your attempts at contact and getting this resolved?

Date and Time

No. Phoned (or email sent)

Person spoke to

Discussion / instructions

Time spent

This should help you build you case for poor customer service.

You should be able to look into this online also via the

https://my.virginmedia.com/dashboard/start

Have you found their complaints procedure?

http://www.virginmedia.com/myvirginmedia/contact/complaint-feedback.php

We aim to resolve all written complaints within 28 days and to respond to all e-mails within 48 hours.

As calls from a virgin phone are free could one of your friendly neighbours who have the service let you call from their phone?

Don't rush into signing up for BT as you'll end up with two parallel services (costs).

Good luck

Sparky.

unfortunately i dont have any virgin equipment to be able to do that with. i just have a broadband and calls package. unfortunately the only way out it seems is to get BT to retake over the line they should be able to sort out the tags or whatever on the line but i am then stuck in a year long contract with BT for line rental but i guess its the only way it can be sorted so i will have to do it. virgin have just ignored all my pleas to them so obviously they wont do anything to help me and it will take bt to sort it. bt have said they will sort any problems with the line if i take out a contract with them for line rental for a year.

Ak

I am a virginmedia customer. I had a couple of problems and an engineer was sent out the next day on each occasion. The engineers sorted out the problem, but had to contact an internal technical team used by the engineers to sort out account issues. Unfortunately the customer service line at VM is rubbish, the VM team in India I once spoke to were much more helpful than their english colleagues. I have remembered the VM engineer commented at the time, the often the only way to resolve an issue is to request an engineer to visit, by saying there is a problem with the equipment e.g. box won't switch on. When they arrive you can then advise the issues and the engineer will sort out with the technical team.

huckster

ofcom dont help individuals to sort out individual disputes for them. they just advise how you get help yourself such as contacting the arbratory people but you have to leave it months for some reason before you can do that.i dont know why you cant contact them sooner if the company just ignores you when you try to sort it out with them. but i have told ofcom the story anyway to hope they may do something. a lot of the time it seems the big companies can do what they like to you and get away with it.

Suggest you contact OFCOM, but obviously using a someone elses phone. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/contactus/

hi husker. i dont have a mobile. i just have 3 mobile broadband. if i had an emergency id knock at the neighbours. i dont know why virgin have done this i wish i did. it is a mystery. i pay by direct debit they took the last payment 2 weeks ago but cut the service on sunday. i have emailed them and written by post to them i would be happy and relieved just to be let free to get service with someone else. the mobile broadband is ok but slow and hard to connect so i really want to set up a landline service again.

Ak

Why don't you try phoning your home number with your mobile to see if it rings. What if you needed to make a 999 call and did not have a mobile? Have Virgin sent you any communications by post or by e-mail ? I don't think Virgin would stop your service unless either you were in arrears with payments or you have exceeded reasonable use of the service. See your terms and conditions. I believe Virgin will suspend the broadband service if there are issues regarding the usage, but they do send letters and/or e-mails before they disconnect.

Huckster

please advise what i can do. i have a calls and broadband with virgin media but without warning or reason they have put an all outgoing calls barred thing on my line. this has killed my internet and phone. they ignore me when i ask them why they have done it and if they will fix it or even just give me a MAC code to get service with a different provider so i dont know what to do. i know you have to wait months before you can tell the abratory dispute people about it. in the meantime all i have is a very slow very hard to connect mobile service which i had to buy espically just so i could keep doing stuff online.