A new nadir of incompetence from Virgin Media

Everlong1

After months of frustration with a litany of malfunctions with my UPC/Virgin Media service, I finally demanded a new set top box which arrived last week. I set it up this morning. Two hours later it still hasn't finalised. I rang the helpline and of course endured the usual barely comprehensible rigmarole from their Filipino call centre...eventually to be told "we can't help you because the call centre is experiencing technical difficulties. Ring back in two hours".

It has to be only a matter of time before this farrago of a business eventually collapses. I think I'll start contacting the business/consumer affairs editors of all the major newspapers and tell them that there might be an interesting story here. If the newspapers start publishing tales of Virgin Ireland's impending demise, hopefully their share prices will start dropping. Which would be some small measure of revenge and compensation to me for the months of appallingly bad service I've had to endure. I have made enquires about going to Sky but haven't had the time to follow up on it so temporarily at least I'm stuck with the Virgin clown act.

donal.hunt

Also contact your TDs. Between the price increases (~ 10% year-on-year) and the reliance on broadband these days, TDs seem to be taking an interest (I might be lucky in the sense that 3 out of 4 TDs in my area got elected on austerity mandates)...

coylemj

You only have to look at the threads in the 'Talk to .... Virgin Media' forum to see how many of their customers have had similar experiences and I went through a similar exercise recently. The people in the call centre are poorly trained and it's completely unrealistic to expect two people each of whom has a different first language to have a discussion which involves loads of technical terms.

In my case they started talking about an 'MRV' and I hadn't a clue what they were talking about, I eventually got her to explain that it stood for 'multi-room viewing' and it's the name they have for the small Pace box you get for the bedroom! I searched the VM website for 'MRV' - zero hits! So they literally speak a different language to their customers.

colm_mcm

Don't where you're getting 10% year on year from tbh. A TD will do nothing in this situation.

OP, The best thing to do if you're not happy with a company is to find another and vote with your feet. There are at least 3 other paid tv providers out there. Or just call back and get they box working.

Everlong1

colm_mcm wrote: »

Don't where you're getting 10% year on year from tbh.

OP, The best thing to do if you're not happy with a company is to find another and vote with your feet. There are at least 3 other paid tv providers out there. Or just call back and get they box working.

I've already made enquiries with Sky and was all set to cancel my Virgin subscription, but the Sky rep I spoke to seemed to think that there might be an issue around coverage for my area (Inchicore!) and that an engineer would have to come out and assess. Having a busy life, I simply haven't had the time to follow this up, otherwise, believe me, I would have cancelled my subscription to Virgin by now. I still plan on moving to Sky at some stage if the coverage issue can be resolved.

Wabbit Ears

what problem were you having that's not been fixed yet?

colm_mcm

You could lo at Vodafone and eir too, but tbh I think their tv offering isn't as good as what you have now (when working!)
Odd that sky think you mightn't be able to get service, are you in an apartment or something?

icdg

OP, this is NOT the place to dump rants.

If you want assistance regarding a particular problem, feel free to try again. I see no evidence in your post that is your aim, in fact apart from a slight reference to your problem with your STB you fail to mention it again.

that's without even addressing the racist overtones in the opening paragraph, for which you can take a warning