Red's Ramblings v.2

I’m not completely blameless in the story I’m about to relay, that should be said, but this is a tale of poor customer care and inability to reach a compromise. As to who should be making the most concessions I’ll let you decide.

Our tale starts at the back end of last year. Work was very short and cash was even shorter. I had previously had a number of direct debits that I cancelled so that I could have more control with manual payments thus avoiding bank charges through unpaid returns.

Enter the villain in this piece, Virgin Media. I had fallen behind with them and had only been making token gestures but I had been making payments none the less. Earlier this year my services were inevitably suspended and in a “he who shouts loudest” scenario my attentions turned to them. After all I was so reliant on my Internet for my job hunting activities. Having made contact I was told that I had to pay the full balance to get my services back on (well into 3 figures).. ouch! After all it was money that I didn’t really have. It was then that the problems started. The girl on the phone came back to me and said that she’d made a mistake and that the figure she had given my (and that had brought tears to my eyes) was for the phone alone (I could do without that, its the Internet i need) and that the broadband was a separate account on their systems. The figure she gave me was bigger than the previous (even further into 3 figures).. Double Whammy!! I was committed at this stage and made the payment. With my account clear I went back to getting on with things happy that I was up to date and when the next bill came in it was paid by cheque along with the ‘penalty’ charge for not having it on direct debit.

Some weeks later Virgin Media came back to haunt me when my broadband was again turned off. Having contacted them again I was told that they could only bill phone services on invoice and that broadband could only be paid by direct debit. This being the case I had not been billed for broadband and owed them another sizeable payment to restore services. They came up with a plan of sending me a letter with a barcode where I could make a cash payment at a pay point onto my phone bill at which point they would transfer the money onto the broadband account. They also claimed that this was a one off as they were combining telephone services and broadband so it was on the same bill. When I got the letter I made the payment and services were restored.

at this point, and having made so many calls and having been transferred between so many departments, I was left very confused. I had made a number of large payments and due to the convoluted way that they were billing me i couldn’t track it. In my mind I should have been on a £52 all in package for unlimited calls (excluding mobiles and premium rates) and 20MB broadband. Ok so I was paying an additional service charge on top so lets make that £59. I just wanted it to be simple so I could budget for it.

So, I’d made my last payment via the pay point and had my broadband restored… for a week. Yes, it was off yet again and i found myself yet again dialling the very familiar 150 number. Despite me calling them to confirm that last payment, being told that they had it and having my Internet turned back on they had failed to do their internal transfer and that the money had been paying my phone bill while leaving my broadband in even greater arrears. I was seriously losing track of what they were doing by now but they shoved one tile to the left and one tile to the right metaphorically speaking and services were restored.

Not long after my next bill arrived again. Was it the magical £59, my all inclusive Nirvana? No, it was close to £70. Maybe next month, eh? Things surely had to settle down soon. This time however I decided to sign up for e-billing. It made sense to me, payments on the internet, easily trackable billing that hit my inbox, sounds great. All this and I felt I had finally got up to date.

So we are nearly at present day. I got an email on the 9th May that my e-bill was ready but not having the time to look at it I left it for a few days, just long enough for a message to be relayed to me that Virgin Media were after me and long enough for a letter to arrive the following day saying that my bill was abnormally high and that I should call them. Enter villain number 2, and one all together closer to home.

Now I started this piece saying that there blame on a number of parties and while the activities of villain number 2 are inexcusable and are undoubtedly a factor in the final chapter they should not detract from the problems that Virgin Media were causing me. The second villain was in fact my son and his crime was making a ridiculous amount of calls to mobiles without my knowledge. The call and letter had prompted me to take a look at my e-bill where the extent of his calls were outlined in all their itemised glory. The exchange between my son and myself shall remain private needless to say that he was left in no doubt as to my opinion.

Back to the bill, I accept that I am liable for these calls but something else looked wrong. I could see that there were my inclusive charges that I had been wanting for so long and I could see my sons calls which altogether totalled over £100, but my bill was £180!? Picking through the figures on the bill, of which it should be said none added up, I found reference to a £74 charge. This was the very same figure that had been paid at the paypoint and had been pinging itself around Virgin’s mess of a system. Time for a call to 150 to find out what was going on.

I hope you are still with me as everything that had happened up to now was largely a back story. Things were about to get ugly.

Finding myself once again talking to a Virgin Media representative, they once again tried to explain why I was being charged £74. Needless to say it was so complicated that there was no way I could follow it. The bottom line was that it was something to do with broadband and I was so sick of the situation I just wanted to pay it and get to my magic all inclusive deal. To get to that stage I was going to have to enlist the services of a call block to stop these mobile calls. This I was assured would guarantee that my next bill would be no more than £59. Finally the representative asked if i wanted to make a payment and I confirmed that my due date was the 29th of he month so I’d make a payment by then online on the e-billing system. Still sore by my sons calls and the re-appearence of the £74 I was happy in the knowledge that it was sorted.. finally.

or was it?

The next day I woke to all my services being off, phone and broadband. At this stage I was feeling drained and the situation was affecting me physically. I needed the Internet for work and despite all his mobile related sins my son was home on study leave needing the Internet for revision with his final exams the following week. I called Virgin Media again and tried to explain my previous calls, not easy when its over six months of history. Once again the representative tried to explain things and then demanded a payment, but now the £180 had become £220 over night. Not only that I hadn’t been told that the cal barring service was also chargeable monthly. I was speechless, literally. My brain short circuited and all I could do was mumble random words trying in desperation to say that I’m sick of Virgin, I’m sick of being disconnected, I’m sick of paying huge gobs of money, I’m sick of the service, I’m sick of my treatment… I want to cancel everything. I felt sick I was so stressed and I hung up.

How can a company have such poor customer service that they can make you physically unwell?

I took some time out to calm down and remembered that I had received a text from O2 offering broadband. I gave them a call. It was like a breath of fresh air. They were so professional and friendly it was a complete contrast. They offered me 16MB broadband for £10/month. I accepted.

Feeling better about things I rang Virgin to officially cancel and got passed to the disconnection team. They took some details and asked why i wanted to cancel so I tried to give them a taste of what had happened. The girl was very apologetic and appreciated that I wanted a fixed payment. She also took note that I hadn’t been informed of the call barring charge and that people would be notified internally to deal with the poor service as they took such errors seriously. She then went on to ask is she could in some way compensate me, but first lets get my services on. I glanced down and noted that the cable modems lights were once again flickering. The offer was to give me everything I had perviously including the call barring and give this to me for £41, I’d have this price for the next 12 months, not just the next bill. I said I’d consider it and I was told that was fine and that If i decided not to take the offer then I should call back but if I wanted to take the £41 offer I need take no further action. I finished the call and with services back on I left my son revising and went out.

I came back around two hours later to be told that the Internet had once again gone off around 20 minutes ago. It was beyond a joke at this time. I called up and went through all the same departments. In the conversations that ensued it also emerged that the offer of £41 was in their eyes accepted and that I was locked into a 12 month contract. I told them I wanted to cancel all services. They refused to let me cancel until I had paid my bill. I was finally transferred to some female Hitler in a customer service department who’s task was to MAKE me understand what the previous operator had told me and that I was wrong, they were right and they wouldn’t budge. The two sides went like this. Virgin said that since my bill was now £220 I was on a credit block. The extra £40 had been added this morning and was for an amount of calls (more mobiles unfortunately) that had not yet appeared on my bill. Pay up or no service. My stance was that I had a bill that was due to be paid, and would be paid, by the end of the month. The additional calls would be on my next bill and would be paid then. One factor leading the high bill was my sons calls, but also that the other factor was that they had just added £74 on my bill. This got me nowhere as they said that the £74 was very late arrears to which I responded that I have made every effort to clear my account numerous times and if it wasn’t for their errors I wouldn’t have this problem. The jobs worth on the other end wouldn’t listen, she criminalised me and demanded payment or no service or cancellation of services. I tried to state my case again and in a weakest link style she said ‘good bye’ and hung up on me. Virgin Media customer service at its best.

I conceded defeat. I called them and made a payment. I then called again and initiated my 30 day notice of cancellation. I was asked why I wanted to cancel. I lied, I said that work were installing free broadband for me. I just couldn’t face being pressurised into staying with them based on packages that would only lead to broken promises and more frustration.

So there we have it. I said I’d let you decide who was at fault and I’m happy to hear your opinion. The main thing for me is that I can finally walk away from it. As I said it was making me ill. It may sound trivial and ridiculous that dealing with an account problem and a number of service disconnects can cause such a reaction but the stress and frustration caused can be immense especially with a company that shows such contempt to its clients. I wanted to make this tale public domain as i felt that it would do more good in doing so that a complaint through the official channels. I just don’t want to have to deal with Virgin Media ever again.