It turns out Virgin Media queries are a lot like the soon-to-be-disappeared 46A – nothing for ages and then two come along at once.
First up we have Gabrielle, who moved house last month – a stressful enough experience, as anyone who has ever done it will readily testify. The experience was, however, made infinitely more stressful by Virgin Media, the operator she relies on for broadband.
Gabrielle seems like an organised sort: a full six weeks before the move she went on to the Virgin website to see what she needed to do “in advance of the move to minimise the interruption in service”.
She is a medical professional and when she is on call at weekends and overnight there are elements of her job that she can do remotely, but she needs high quality and reliable broadband to do that. Without it she can end up unnecessarily sleep deprived, travelling across a hospital network to do things that she could otherwise do from home.
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In short, the broadband she has matters. “It is not just about Netflix and downloading books on my Kindle,” she says although we are not downplaying the importance of that stuff.
According to Virgin, people should give it four days’ notice of a house move, but Gabrielle gave a full five weeks’ notice to be on the safe side.
“The confirmation email advised they would be in touch but had current delays in responding due to high volumes, etc (which seems to be the standard for any Virgin query on anything),” she says. “When I heard nothing more I submitted it again two weeks later – still in plenty time. Or so I thought.”
She heard nothing back.
“So the week before the move I rang, waited 47 minutes to speak to an operator, to be told I had only booked a move not an engineer. I responded that there was no option online to book an engineer, only to book a move, and that the form said I would be contacted to discuss the move and I had reasonably assumed that all this would be sorted in that contact,” she writes.
[ Virgin Media customers hit by broadband problemsOpens in new window ]
“He agreed that, yes, that was a reasonable assumption and, yes, you can’t book an engineer online and, no, they don’t say on the house form if you need an engineer contact us,” her mail continues.
“I found this particularly frustrating as they push you to use the self-service options on the website but then don’t make it clear what you need to call them for – and they put you off calling by having phone lines that are understaffed, so the long wait times are a barrier too.”
Eventually Gabrielle was connected with “the lead in technical services, who was very nice, understood my situation and said in the circumstances they would ensure I had an appointment last Tuesday, November 19th, so I could do my call without issue two days later. I was to get a text with the engineer number and time slot.”
On the day before the engineer was due to arrive there was no text, so she called and waited again. The appointment was confirmed and she was told that there was no need to worry and that it would definitely happen.
The appointed day came.
“The 0800-1200 slot came and went. No show.”
She rang Virgin at 1.30pm and was told not to worry, someone was definitely coming.
But 6pm came and went. “No call, no text, nothing. The following morning I rang Virgin. I was told that appointment was cancelled and rescheduled for November 29th. I said no, cancellation involves contacting me. It was a no-show.
“The staff member had no empathy for my situation, did not once apologise for the stress/inconvenience and kept trying to say it was cancelled and rescheduled, which was not what happened. I asked to speak to a manager, was told they could do nothing, next available date 29th.”
She rang back an hour later, got someone more helpful and got an appointment for Friday the 22nd. “Same again. 8-12 slot. Came and went. No-show. Rang them. Told next slot Dec 2nd.”
“I’m at my wits’ end,” she says.
When she was on call the night before, she had to go on a two-hour round trip for something she could just as easily have done from home in no more than 20 minutes – if she’d had broadband.
“Next weekend I do Friday to Tuesday on call and as it stands I don’t have another appointment until the Monday, but so far I’m two for two no-shows so no faith it will be sorted then.”
The story gets even worse.
She also has children and as “we juggle unpacking the house while working full time the lack of broadband is actually having a massive impact on them. I can’t put into words the stress and frustration this is causing me and my family. Have I any rights at all or can they keep just not showing up (while charging me for a service I’m now not getting for the past 9 days)?”
We contacted the company to find out what was going on and how it could resolve the issue for our reader.
We also heard back from our reader, who said that after we made contact with Virgin Media, “We got a call from a senior who was very helpful and sorted everything out. I’d a busy weekend on call but got some sleep because of the home workstation overnight. I am 100 per cent sure we’d not be sorted yet if not for your intervention.”
We also heard a considerably less serious but quite ridiculous story about Virgin from someone called Liam.
Not long ago Liam decided to switch his mobile provider and moved from Virgin Media to another company. As all had gone well, he thought no more about it until he received a bill from Virgin looking for the princely sum of – wait for it now – 2 cent.
And how had he accrued such a debt with the company he had left?
He had absolutely no idea.
The letter he received simply said, “Your Virgin Mobile bill is now available in your My Virgin Media Account. Your balance is €.02 and is due by December 5th 2024. If your direct debit is active you won’t need to do a thing. If you’ve not signed up for direct debit you can find out more about your payment options by visiting [the website] and selecting mobile.
“If you’d like to take a closer look at your bill, print a copy for your records, or manage your account, simply log into My Virgin Media,” the not entirely helpful email said, before adding that he could “swing by our mobile support page where there’s loads of tips and helpful FAQs at your fingertips if you’ve got any questions”.
He did have one question, which he sent to us.
Why was Virgin billing him 2 cent for a service it did not provide?
We contacted Virgin Media, after which the company contacted Liam to say the 2 cent charge had beenapplied in error. “I can confirm that the account was closed on the 19th October 2024 and that credit has now been applied to cover this charge,” the email he received said.
We then heard back from Virgin. In a statement the company said: “We sincerely apologise to the customers affected by the recent issues and regret any inconvenience caused. We are pleased to confirm that these matters have been addressed directly with those impacted and are now fully resolved. At Virgin Media Ireland, our priority is to deliver the best possible experience for all our customers. We remain committed to continuously enhancing our services and ensuring reliability and satisfaction across our network.”
