Calling a 0800 number is ONLY FREE from a landline - NOT from a mobile.  If you don't have a landline & you need to call a 0800 number, call it from a payphone!

check out my post unter virgin media - phone them for free. If you have a mobile then find the 0800 number in there and phone them from your mobile. please tell me if this dosn't work and I will try and find another way.

Many thanks for this. I have sought advice from a friend who has had a very similar situation. I have gone on to the Consumer Direct website (www.comsumerdirect.gov.uk) and there are a number of useful letters on there and advice on how to aproach this. I will be writing to Virgin to register my complaine as well as cancelling my direct debit until this matter is resolved (however I will pay for any services I use) and will ensure that once this is resolved, I move to another services provider.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks

 

The Shark is back! (and he is a daddy as well!)

Sarah, you, like so many innocents in this world, are the victim of corporate greed and service that has finally achieved the "Zenith of Crapdom" Award for 2007. Virgin Media have managed to score a massive 9.9 on my sphincter irritation scale as they have managed to slip slightly ahead of Pipex in the "I don't care about anything now I've got your money" attitude.

Mr Branson - who we are all led to believe is quite a nice chap - has obviously dropped the ball with this service and his staff (wherever they are in outer Delhi) need basic lessons in:

English language, English Comprehension, Customer Service Skills, Basic Legal interpretation, Good Manners

Bottom line stuff now to help:

a) If you believe that you signed up for a deal that you are not getting, AND you are not being served by the company, go to the Citizens Advice Beureau and seek legal advice

b) You should also contact the Office of Fair Trading and your local Standards Office and register a formal complaint.

c) Remember the GOLDEN RULE OF BROADBAND. The only companies worth singing up to MUST own the cable from the hole in the wall in your house to the local exchange. 9 times out of 10 this will be BT. If your 'phone and Internet is that important to you, saving a couple of quid a month for the useless and third rate service that these suppliers provide is simply not worth it.

d) In 80 years time who will worry about it anyway?

Daddy SHARK!

Oh my good God - I am losing the will to live! I have just sat on hold to Orange for 45 minutes to find out why my bill was so high ( I have recently moved over to them and don't have an itemised bill - they explained I had been calling 09062121111 and various 0845 numbers). It turns out my bill had shot up due to my umpteen calls made to Virgin Media.... either their customer services teams or their broadband team in India (who, I have to say, are awful).

So, naturally, when I then had to wait on hold to Virgin Media for a further 50 minutes (bearing in mind this is a Saturday and I actually have other things I would like to do with my weekend), I was infuriated to hear the following: Firstly, I was told that the phone and broadband package deal that I had been offered originally and dually I agreed to sign up to, was a discounted rate under NTL and was for a limited period of time only (I signed up to Virgin and have never been with NTL in my life - apart from working for them - however the previous occupiers had NTL but  they momved out over a year ago).  Not only was this not explained to me at the time of purchase, but it was also not communicated to me when this discounted rate had ended. I still don't know when it ended!

Secondly, I was told that my phone line had been disconnected as this was what was causing my issues with the internet. I was astounded at this comment as I really had thought that given the Virgin Media were offering to provide a service of phone, internet and TV, that surely the 3 products would work in conjunction with each other without any problems??? Surely you would think so!! In fact, NO - the reason I was having problems with my internet was apparently due to the phone line. (Incidentaly, I reported the fault with my internet some months ago but I was informed this morning on 25th August that the phone had been disconnected only 2 weeks ago). I really don't see how that adds up!

Thirdly, my phoneline was disconnected 2 weeks ago without any notification or warning or communication from Virgin either before or afterwards. Now, admittedly, I do not use my landline phone and it has remained unused since signing up to Virgin. That is purely a question of preference - I use my mobile for most things as it's just easier and I get lots of fre minutes with Orange ( I signed up to Orange after signing up to Virgin). However, I signed up for phone AND internet and pay  and have alsways paid for phone AND internet. I was then told today that as I had not been using my landline at all, it was felt that it would not cause me any inconvenience if they disconnected it!!!! VERY NICE OF THEM TO DECIDE THAT THEMSELVES WITHOUT TELLING ME!!! I am livid. The fact of the matter is this: I signed up to a 12 month contract with Virgin Media. We agreed the rates I was to pay. We agreed the services I was to receive. We agreed the process for payment going forward. The actual situation is that I have had nothing but bother since I signed up (really slow internet and faulty modem resulting in huge phone bills on my mobile), I now have no phone line (whereas before I could have had the option to put a phone in as I was paying for it anyway and surely this was my choice as the consumer?), Virgin are now telling me that if I want to reinstate my phone line, I will need to pay a much higher rate (plus no doubt some sort of recommection engineer visit that will cost £25 pounds - time to do so I do not have) and the best they can do is give me a reduced rate for my brpoadband because the rate the originally offered me no longer exists and my phone line was sey up as a dummy account! Would anyone in their right mind sign up for a "DUMMY ACCOUNT" without finding out exactly what this means or what charges would apply? No I believe is the answer, and had I know any of this, I would most certainly have gone with either BT or SKY!

I am absolutely livid - and apologise for my rant - but I would really just like to know what my consumer rights are. I signed up to a 12 month deal for phone and internet at a certain price. Virgin have cancelled my phone line, increased my bill and are now refusing to adhere to the pricing we agreed when I signed up to join the service. They are also telling me that if I wanted to cancel my contract, I have to pay £60 as I still have that topay on my contract. I am absolutely furious and would really like some advice on this matter if possible!!

Many thanks

Sarah

Update.

After 6 months I received an email from Customer Concern, again apologising and promising to re-issue the payments. These arrived by post a few days ago.

Perseverance pays but upbeat autoresponses to the effect that your complaint is being dealt with in short order are no substitute for effective action. I'm a bit surprised to have heard from Virgin Media.

Will I buy from them in the future.?........may be. 

Well, since my post in March, Virgin told me to dial 1280 before my telephone numbers to enable me to make outgoing calls. (This routed me back through BT so I was again paying for calls). I e-mailed Virgin asking them to sort out my bundle so that I could make calls without having to dial 1280 first. I received a reply saying that this had been done. Which it had. Great. I could now make outgoing calls without dialling 1280. Having received 2 BT bills for my line rental, I know I am not being billed by them. I am paying Virgin by direct debit - £9.99 a month for my bundle of Broadband with free evening and week end calls .... but what about my daytime calls? Well, I have phoned Virgin and they say they haven't activated my calls yet. I have phoned NTL who say they have cancelled my old account.  I phoned Virgin again who told me to keep my mouth shut and make the most of having free calls ! So apart from the few calls I routed through BT, I have paid for none of my phone calls at all this year, as no one wants to take responsibility for me.

I was reading another thread on here where someone had more or less the same thing happen, then Virgin told them that their PC or line or BT package or whatever wasn't compatible with the Bundles, so they had to go from a bundle package at £9.99 a month, to a Broadband only package at £14.99 a month. So, I will continue to keep my gob shut until my 12 month contract has ended, then I will try to sort out the calls I have to pay for. I don't really want to end up with a phone bill in 10 years time for call charges plus interest.

Very good point Martin349!

A most interesting post. In a way, I'm glad I'm not alone, otherwise I'd be quite paranoid.

 I am afraid it seems fairly typical of customer service levels these days. I do not consider myself to be particularly litgious or an activist, but currently I have 4 on going complaints with service providers. The classic, a bank that refused to acknowledge my change of address and reverted correspondence to the address I had left.

Virgin? I am still  'unhappy etc'  but they are 'on the case'.  I used to work for a company involved in supplying part of the life support equipment associated with Branson's  trans-Atlantic balloon flight. Had the equipment failed, I'm sure he'd be relieved to know that someone was 'on the case' or whatever.

 

Curiously Sorry you're unhappy was a letter sent to me  in response to some ongoing (2006) intermittent Slow Browsing and Not Responding issues that still have not been resolved, as you indicated Virgin/NTL said that they would respond in 10-15 days, never heard a word from them. Telephoned them on many occasions which is just a total waste of money and my time. Last time I hung on for 25 minutes then was advised to contact technical support an engineer? right, told me my computer had a WALRUS inside it, well imagine my concern I did'nt know whether to hang up and call the RSPCA, a Walrus sounded a bit fishy to me, or was some You've Been Framed freak spying on me pretending to be an engineer undeterred I hung on and it quickly became apparent that this so called engineer had perhaps escaped from some institution somewhere in India because he kept insisting I look for this Walrus, I know it's there he said, you must eradicate it, eradicate the Walrus and your problems will be gone? Is that a line from Harry Potter?  Yes I know that(eventually) he meant virus, I do honest but, you have to wonder.   I emailed them recently they responded Were on the case now you may well be wondering why on earth are you still giving them money? reason  I migrated to BT in 2005 and to be honest I cannot remember whether it was worse than Virgin/NTL it was certainly no better so there you go Any suggestions?  Aside from keep feeding the Walrus yes I know.

Well, I am probably in a minority of former ntl customers who had a high satisfaction rating.

 

I moved out of a cabled area last December and, to truncate the story, ended up with Sky for my TV and telecomms. As bills relating to my old house were settled, including telephone services provided by ntl, I cancelled redundant direct debits.

This prompted (automated) letters from ntl to my new address asking why I had done this. I explained and received an email reply (Feb 2007) saying that 2 of my ntl accounts were in credit and that the amounts would be refunded to me by cheque. Good news, especially with all the expenses involved when moving house.

Nothing further happened. This is now Virgin Media and the occasional reminder has prompted irritating responses - 'thank you, we are on the case...'

I thought I'd revert to the old fashioned method of sending a letter by post rather than electronically. On 8th July thier bold reply starts 'WE'RE SORRY YOU'RE  UNHAPPY...'. Their letter continues to a further 'sorry' and an indication that they expect to resolve the issue in 10-15 days.

 As you might expect, nothing has happened.  

Well, Sharky, at least we have that fab turn-of-phrase of yours to cheer everyone up!

Have you seen the profile thread on Anything and Everything? You should update your profile - I can't wait to see how you phrase your bio!!!!

Screenwipe - good luck.

Cat

NTL was a pile of crap and now it appears that Virgin are being sucked into the incident pit of crapdom as a result of their ill-advised take-over.

NTL couldn't find their ar5e with an atlas which was self-evident by the lousy software they peddled to their broadband users and the totally useless cable modems that they would never swap out for wireless kit that they promised. Marginally faster than a slug on steroids, NTL's broadband offering left me incandescent with rage for my pensioner father who was left paying a monthly bill for a sub-standard service. He has now been 'migrated' to Virgin which means he now has no idea who to talk to or how to get this service sorted out.

I've been in this game for over 25 years and apart from Pipex (and you know what I think of them) NTL were truly THE definitive pile of cable-crap-pushers it was my misfortune to ever come across. Unfortunately my father was sucked into this service by a smooth-talking salesman who has long sinced retired to one of the outskirts of Delhi leaving this tale of woe behind him.

You have my sympathy and for what it's worth, my support.

Branson - get on top of this thing and we'll applaud you - do nothing and you're no better than Sky - and we know what YOU think of them!

Well. Where do I start.
Back in 2000 I had a little NTL box on the wall to divert my telephone calls through them. After a year BT dropped their prices so I cancelled my NTL account ...... or so I thought.
Since then, NTL have taken over Virgin and created Virgin Media.
In Jan of this year I signed up for Virgin Media Broadband bundle 3. (Broadband and free evening/weekend calls for £9.99 per month. Bargain!!)
Except Virgin and NTL don't seem to be talking. NTL re activated my old account and charged me for all of my calls and sent me a bill. When I phoned Virgin Media they told me they had no record of this bill and that I must be mistaken. Eventually I got transferred to the NTL department who admitted that for some reason my old account had been re-activated in error. He cancelled my bill and said it was going to all be transferred over to Virgin Media....
Now my bloomin' phone has been cut off !!! (or put to incoming calls only). I can't even phone them to complain. I have e-mailed them but do you think I have had a reply? No of course I haven't.
So, if you have ever had an NTL/TELEWEST/FREEDOM Package and you are getting a broadband/phone bundle from Virgin Media, BEWARE.