Better...

Virgin Media managed to slightly redeem themselves last night by providing a man on the telephone who:

a) Was not Liverpudlian, so I could understand him.
b) Was competent and identified the issue.
c) Said he'd solve it and call me back in a couple of minutes
d) Actually did solve it and called me back in a couple of minutes.

So an improvement, and my email and internet work again now.