Feel my wrath, Virgin Media
Seriously, do big companies exist purely to piss me off?
This time, as the title suggests, it's the work of Virgin Media, or Telewest as they used to be known.
Yesterday I got my bill. It was higher than usual. A quick comparison to an older bill revealed they were charging me about £12 more for the same services. I called their Customer Services and actually got through to someone in England! Well, Liverpool, so it's still hard to understand them, but better than India. They explained it was because I was on a special discount rate and it had ended. I asked them to put it back again but she gave me another number to call. I rang this, and it turned out to be their "if you are thinking about leaving" number. Fair enough, so I spoke to a nicer-sounding woman who offered me the same stuff for £61. This is better than the £71 they want to charge, but still more than the £59 I was paying. Only £2 more, but that's not the point. I've lost Sky One, which is the best channel, so I'm getting less for my money. Not to mention the "traffic management" on their "unlimtited" broadband. So I don't want to pay more than I was.
She wasn't having it, so I said I was going to investigate Sky and might cancel. She explained that all I had to do is give 30 days notice. I was rather hoping she'd beg and plead for me to stay, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. I mean, I've only been a customer for 6 years, why would they want to keep me? She offered to put the £61 price on anyway but I said don't bother for the time being and went off to investigate Sky and BT prices.
Then, later on in the evening, my broadband and TV went dead, after the power flickered for a second. I rang Customer Services again and spoke to another Liverpudlian. He said he couldn't help with the broadband, because they want to charge you 25p/minute to call them, but could help with the TV. His "help" with the TV consisted of "can you please unplug the box from the wall and plug it back in again.... ok, is it working now?".
It wasn't, and I said it was probably an area fault, as it's pretty unlikely both the broadband and TV would go at the same time. He said that as nothing was showing on his system it couldn't be, and arranged for an engineer to visit on the... wait for it... 4th of August. 4th of August! 11 days away! I asked him if he thought that'd make me not cancel; he didn't have much of an answer, but did agree to give me a month's free TV.
Anyway I called Ele's dad over the road, and his had gone off as well. So obviously an area fault anyway. Good news is that's likely to be fixed quickly, without needing a visit to me, and I might still get my free TV for a month. Come the morning, it was fixed.
And then today I try to go into my Webmail from work, and discover that it won't let me in. I tried their "selfcare" page and this does let me in, but says my email account is suspended. I try emailing myself and it bounces back immediately. I call the number on the website (which puts me through to the wrong deparment), before finally getting through to the right one. He has a look and can't do anything so tells me to ring broadband Technical Support on an 0906 number. Now, this is obviously a fault at their end, so I object to paying 25p per minute (even on my employer's phone bill) to contact them. They say they refund the charges for the calls if it's their fault, but I have no confidence in their competence to do this. In the end I emailed them via their website.
But I think I'm going to be forced into staying with them. Getting a BT line installed will cost £125, and a SkyHD box is £300 (although it can probably be bought elsewhere for about £180), then there's the Sky installation costs and it probably won't be that much cheaper and I'll be stuck on ADSL rather than cable, which means I'll also have to buy a new router. And I'm still annoyed with Sky for their stunt with Sky One.
Bastards, the lot of them.
This time, as the title suggests, it's the work of Virgin Media, or Telewest as they used to be known.
Yesterday I got my bill. It was higher than usual. A quick comparison to an older bill revealed they were charging me about £12 more for the same services. I called their Customer Services and actually got through to someone in England! Well, Liverpool, so it's still hard to understand them, but better than India. They explained it was because I was on a special discount rate and it had ended. I asked them to put it back again but she gave me another number to call. I rang this, and it turned out to be their "if you are thinking about leaving" number. Fair enough, so I spoke to a nicer-sounding woman who offered me the same stuff for £61. This is better than the £71 they want to charge, but still more than the £59 I was paying. Only £2 more, but that's not the point. I've lost Sky One, which is the best channel, so I'm getting less for my money. Not to mention the "traffic management" on their "unlimtited" broadband. So I don't want to pay more than I was.
She wasn't having it, so I said I was going to investigate Sky and might cancel. She explained that all I had to do is give 30 days notice. I was rather hoping she'd beg and plead for me to stay, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. I mean, I've only been a customer for 6 years, why would they want to keep me? She offered to put the £61 price on anyway but I said don't bother for the time being and went off to investigate Sky and BT prices.
Then, later on in the evening, my broadband and TV went dead, after the power flickered for a second. I rang Customer Services again and spoke to another Liverpudlian. He said he couldn't help with the broadband, because they want to charge you 25p/minute to call them, but could help with the TV. His "help" with the TV consisted of "can you please unplug the box from the wall and plug it back in again.... ok, is it working now?".
It wasn't, and I said it was probably an area fault, as it's pretty unlikely both the broadband and TV would go at the same time. He said that as nothing was showing on his system it couldn't be, and arranged for an engineer to visit on the... wait for it... 4th of August. 4th of August! 11 days away! I asked him if he thought that'd make me not cancel; he didn't have much of an answer, but did agree to give me a month's free TV.
Anyway I called Ele's dad over the road, and his had gone off as well. So obviously an area fault anyway. Good news is that's likely to be fixed quickly, without needing a visit to me, and I might still get my free TV for a month. Come the morning, it was fixed.
And then today I try to go into my Webmail from work, and discover that it won't let me in. I tried their "selfcare" page and this does let me in, but says my email account is suspended. I try emailing myself and it bounces back immediately. I call the number on the website (which puts me through to the wrong deparment), before finally getting through to the right one. He has a look and can't do anything so tells me to ring broadband Technical Support on an 0906 number. Now, this is obviously a fault at their end, so I object to paying 25p per minute (even on my employer's phone bill) to contact them. They say they refund the charges for the calls if it's their fault, but I have no confidence in their competence to do this. In the end I emailed them via their website.
But I think I'm going to be forced into staying with them. Getting a BT line installed will cost £125, and a SkyHD box is £300 (although it can probably be bought elsewhere for about £180), then there's the Sky installation costs and it probably won't be that much cheaper and I'll be stuck on ADSL rather than cable, which means I'll also have to buy a new router. And I'm still annoyed with Sky for their stunt with Sky One.
Bastards, the lot of them.
posted by Nej at
1:18 pm
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