Problems With VM

Problems with Virgin - Show your dissatisfaction with Virgin Media! http://www.problemswithvirgin.co.
uk/
Greetings! This site is not intended to be somewhere you can get help - it's a site where you can bitch about the problems you're
having or have had with Virgin.
This site will only ever consist of one page - a single testament to dissatisfaction with Virgin Media! Please share your story - any
problems contact info@problemswithvirgin.co.uk.
Any ideas on how we can make this site better? Let us know!
Needless to say, this site has NO affiliation with any Virgin company!
Thanks to everyone who has left their story and those especially to those who follow up and continue to help the site grow!
Why could I be bothered to make this site? Problems from Twitter...
Virgin media cable Internet. What a

click here to leave your story pile of shit. Anyone else with
problems?
I run a very similar site at http://www.avoidvirginmedia.co.uk/virgin-media-review/8/
6 April 2010, 1:19 pm
Good job with the site. Good to see the positive frustration! @LeeMcKenzieF1 virgin media for
the win, the red bull of broadband
» Story by Avoid Virgin Media, UK on 07th April 2010 without the reliability problems.
5 April 2010, 5:41 am

Virgin Media, where do i begin with these fucktards? internet goes off at least 50 times a day so i have to
RT @weirdshanghai:
keep running downstairs (3 story house, i’m on the top floor, internets on the bottom floor) and its pissing
CarPhoneWareHouse&Virgin Media
me off quite frank, we phoned up and they say ‘sorry mr. robson but the fair use policy gives everyone fair sourced HTC DESIRES have data
usage’ and i’m like right, but you got to understand were a propper family, theres 5 kids and 2 adults all of problems.Can't connect
us kids have a laptop and i like to use my ps3 online and my mother and her boyfriend like to use the 3G/EDGE/GPRS data. Reflash to
internet on the wii for iPlayer and whatnot. and they still use the fair use for the excuse. they are ridiculous, generic firmware fixes all
tiscali’s no good either to be fair. from what ive heard, O2 has to be the best, apparently they couldnt give 4 April 2010, 7:21 pm
2 flying fucks if we download or use loads of internet in mass attacks. Virgin Media are a bunch of tossers,
CarPhoneWareHouse&Virgin Media
waiting for customers to phone up so they cna sell you a higher broadband package so you dont keep sourced HTC DESIRES have data
cutting off. i thought i was the only one, turns out i’m joined by alot of other people. the customer service on problems.Can't connect
the page should be called customer hate, they are ridiculous. 3G/EDGE/GPRS data. Reflash to
generic firmware fixes all
» Story by JR, UK, Sunderland on 06th April 2010
4 April 2010, 7:04 pm
Anybody else having problems with

Virgin media really the worse customer service, not at all reliabale. They are all liers. I just wonder why a slow Internet or is it just down to
noone has taken any legal action against these leeches yet? Apasrt from all the problems mentioned being stuck with cuntish Virgin
above, Virgin media charges premium rates for customer service, that too for their unhelpful answers.Why Media? And yes, I made up that word
Why Why Why Virgin? It’s the most rubbish crap I have ever seen. 1 April 2010, 2:28 pm
1 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Problems with Virgin - Show your dissatisfaction with Virgin Media! http://www.problemswithvirgin.co.uk/
» Story by Kalpana, Dudley on 31st March 2010
Since the very first day I switched to o2 (and my broadband speed shot up the line maximum instantly), the
few small problems I’ve experienced with o2 have been rectified with the least fuss I’ve ever had from any
company. However, I do not suggest for a second O2 have no dissatisfied customers. I am sure there
are numerous examples of people equally irritated by O2, as I am by Virgin. Nevertheless you seem to
slightly disillusioned as to how much these businesses ‘care’, when you suggest they should not receive full
throated lambasting of their brand.
The reality is public scrutiny and extreme shouts of dissatisfaction and disapproval are the only ‘right’ way
to bring about change. I’ve worked in telecomms customer service myself and am fully well aware of the
limitations placed on staff. Staff are asked to divert and deflect legitimate complaints about a genuinely
poor service. The fact is these businesses exist to satisfy shareholders and nothing more. If we do nothing
we give rise to monopolies and organisations such as the BBC who stand beyond reproach guarded by a
Governmental shield.
I completely agree that there are steps that can ease the misery and indeed there is no excuse for ill
manners but there are occasions in life, every now and then, when extreme blunt ignorance and stupidity
must be met with a tirade of abuse - if for no other reason than therapy. These people are professionals,
they are paid and if they don’t care for what they are doing the ‘democracy’ to which you refer, allows them
the right to choose alternative employment.
Furthermore, if indeed this small minority of people is causing horrific damage to Virgin’s brand, as you
suggest it might, then I welcome any discussion with Virgin for which they are entirely welcome to contact
each person on the list and resolve the various problems. Have they done this? No. Ergo, do Virgin care
about this website or indeed these customers? No.
My answer about O2 is entirely honest and I would recommend, heartily, anybody who has experienced the
incompetence of Virgin to try them.
» Story by Administrator, UK on 30th March 2010
In response to Admin. Yes, I agree, a 6 month battle with a company is very exhausting to say the least, but
as the saying goes, “Two wrongs don’t make a right”
I have been through battles with other companies, so I do know how you must have been feeling, but I am
not holding grudges towards them. As mentioned I am from a customer service background, and the
deleted post was hopefully to be used in order to reduce much negativity to all concerned.
Your point with having called 3 times to speak to a different person each time, being given conflicting
information is very unfortunate and this was one of the points in my post, get the name and location of the
person whom you are speaking with. I make a point of giving my name and number to any of my
customers who may need to get back to me regarding the raised issue, now it may not be possible for
Virgin Media to give a direct number, this is why obtaining their location is paramount.
I honestly do not feel ignored, this is your site, which you pay for, therefore are entitled to have on it what
you wish, I assumed that living in a democracy a post with some helpful information would be welcomed.
You had your issues back in 2007, have you (please answer honestly) had any issues with O2 (if you’re still
with them)
» Story by ITK, on 30th March 2010
In response to a removed post by ITK (InTheKnow)…
Civility can be somewhat eroded after 6 months of problems as I’m sure you’ll agree. One of the real
issues I had was phoning 3 times in a row and being given completely conflicting information. One ends up
feeling ignored. Which is possibly how you might feel having your very well written and informative post
removed for no good reason, as has happened.
» Story by Administrator, UK on 29th March 2010
I was suppose to be connected on 9th March 2010. They got the tv working but I had no broadband until
today (25th March). It lasted all of 2 hours before broadband and tv went down. The service has been
worse than I ever could have expected. Absolute crap so far!
» Story by Mick Dean, South London on 25th March 2010
Signed with Virgin a week ago. TV worked ok in the afternoon. Continuously fighting with random remote
and pop-up messages in the evening. It is just too infuriating when you try to focus on the programme.
Called the customer care and threatened to terminate the contract. They came rather quickly and installed
2 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
another TV box that has the same random pattern. Reminds the quality of awful Virgin trains. We all should
terminate our contracts with immediate effect.
» Story by Kirill Horoshenkov, Ilkley on 24th March 2010
In a word virgin are the most useless excuse for a company u can get.
» Story by p, birmingham on 23rd March 2010
My complaint is about the poor customer service and more particularly, the far better value offers that are
being made to new customers, with no attempt to reward existing customers. It pales into insignicance
against the many complaints I have read on this post , so I won’t expand further, other than to say : I
admired Sir Richard Branson and how he challenged the vision of grey haired men , wearing suits, ties and
bowler hats. I am really dissapointed to discovered that ( like myself) so many people have become so
frustrated by their dealings with Virgin’s customer service personnel, that they feel compelled to vent their
frustration on this blog. I would much rather be a ‘happy Virgin customer’ & I had thought that Richard’s
business vision would have included the management practices needed to keep his customers happy. Its
not rocket science! Ps. Im sure somebody from Virgin will be monitoring this site , please pass the
message to Sir Richard
» Story by Lesley, Lancashire on 23rd March 2010
I’ve been with Virgin/NTL for over 10 years and have never had the service I pay for. Their staff are rude,
unhelpful and trained in just wearing the customer down. My complaints are numerous but the last straw has
been discovering that I have been paying for 10 mb broadband and not received it. After hours of being put
on hold on the phone (seriously, hours) my husband succeed in getting a refund agreed - 2 months ago.
Still no refund (nearly £200) then no service last week - they disconnected and would not say why!!!!! Not
even barely legal! And THEY owe ME money!
This week the internet is mega slow - still no 10mb - I think this is deliberate so they can avoid paying the
money owed and I’m not wishing to seem paranoid but I believe they want me to take my service
elsewhere. And the crazy part is we are paying them to be rude, dishonest, illegal, distressing and crap.
anyway we are switching to BT.
» Story by Sheila, Bournemouth on 18th March 2010
Had Virgin TV, Broadband, Landline for 6 years and 2 x mobile phones for over a year and the service
hasn’t been that bad until about 6 months ago. Virgin on demand stopped working ages ago - in order to
watch it I have to turn tv and virgin box on and then unplug box - not a major pain in the arse but frustrating.
It also has a tendancy to keep turning your programme over and not let you turn it back for ages which
annoys the shit out of me when you have just got really interested in a programme and are fighting with an
unresponsive remote! I also hate the fact that many of us work stupid hours and rely on catch up tv to
watch our fave programmes - then out of the blue they decide to piss us off and not record episode
number 9 when you have watched the first 8 on catch up - WTF is that all about? Broadbands crap also
and keeps booting me out of various sites but can’t diagnose a problem. Mobile phones are cookies for
my sons and maybe not the best of choice but both are knackered and can’t be replaced lol! All in all I
haven’t got a clue why I am paying for any of this, never mind recommending virgin to any of my mates or
family - all of us with virgin have a problem. Maybe Mr Branson could email me from Neckar Island and
give me a £10 discount off a £1,000 flight with virgin airways - but then, probably not, might hurt his bank
balance!
» Story by Lisa, Middlesbrough on 17th March 2010
I have been with Virgin Media for 6 months. I opted for them as my father had been a customer for years
and had no problems (unitl he recently found they had reduced their package prices by 50% and this had
not been passed onto him and he has been paying DOUBLE for 4 months!).
I on the other hand in the 6 months I have been with them have had to have a new set top box as the first
broke within 6 weeks, 3 different landline numbers due to the first one resulting in myself and my partner
receiving up to 10 phonecalls per day from social services, courts and child service agencies for other
people, the second up to 3 calls a day from debt collecting agencies, all for people who had previously had
the number.
By month 3 I had also had to get a new modem. Both the set top box and the modem are on a unit that
does not get touched therefore not going to have been damaged by ourselves! As compensation we were
given 2 months free tv package upgrade which they failed to stop and billed us for and the person on
customer services was the most rude insolent individual I have had the misfortune to speak with, basically
said was my own fault for not saying I didnt want to continue with it! It turns out I should have received a
phonecall but unfortunately this didnt happen.
I just hope someone reads this and it stops them from having all the problems I have. I can honestly say in
3 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
the 6 months that I have had Virgin, I have only had all my services up and running at the same time for only
4 of these months. I think it is a disgrace. I am currently attempting to cancel my contract which in itself is a
nightmare. I feel I should not have to give full 28 days notice or pay a leaving fee as I have had such a bad
experience.
» Story by naomi, widnes on 17th March 2010
If Virgin can’t organise a decent broadband service on Earth, what happens when they get into space?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C_IAZBqY9I
» Story by Micheal, Buckinghamshire on 16th March 2010
Well i’m a little mad to say the least.... I ordered the VIP package thinking im going to get it all and ive got
nothing. The order went though fine took my payment ect ect setup direct debit all the normal thing. then put
on a 2 week waiting list for installation. i wasnt to happy about the wait but hay they must be busy right? So
Todays the day of the install, ive got my phone line, my broadband and my V+. phone and BB work brill but
the V+ box is playing up (less than 4 hours) so i rang customer services very helpful person told me the box
is faulty (i am a very accepting person) and need to be replace on monday the 15th march 2010. well thats
fine with me i said, out of 4000 V+ box’s made theres bound to be a duff brand new one out there… i must
of got it. Now we’re at 6 hours after install and my Broadband has stopped working and i now have no TV
channel. so i rang customer service’s a 2rd time only to tell me ive been cut off because i havent paid my
bill...... i said to “Agent” how can i miss my bill payment.... it’s only been installed 6 hours ago. i was then put
on hold whilst “agent” checked. i was then informed that because i am a new customer my credit limit is
£150 and that the only way to restore my services is to pay the £220 i owe them over the phone today, if
not my account will remain without service.... im now looking for them to remove there equipment from my
house and cancel under the distance selling act 2000.
» Story by Hilly, Portsmouth on 12th March 2010
Before moving house 3 weeks ago, I call virgin to advise them and request they do a “moving house”
install. Gave them my new address and was told it shouldn’t be a problem, however they would only be able
to book an engineer 3 weeks from the time. I advised as an IT Consultant, this would make things very
difficult and I would need it done asap. I found this strange as a new install only had a 3-5 day wait. The
customer nonservice advisor, said my account would be placed on priorty. Needless to say, this never
happen. Engineer arrived today, walked around a little said he couldn’t do the install due to virgin never
been used on the house and that I would need to book a “construction install”, which at best would be a
further 2 weeks! I advised this would be impossible, and he would need to make it happen today. He then
called his supervisor, told me the supervisor would be in touch and then left. Afew minutes later, the
supervisor arrive at my door. Told me the same thing, construction install. At best, he advised he could run
a cable from the nextdoor properties “virgin key”. However I would need to ask them first and call virgin to
come in tomorrow. He then left.
I called Virgins (House Moved department), relayed the above and was put on hold. Only to be pushed
back in the q. After 10-15min wait, someone answered(technical support). I replayed the above again. Was
told to hold. Again being pushed back in the q for a further 20 mins. Again a voice answered(Sales),
relayed the above. Put on hold for a further 25mins. Girl returned telling me this isn’t her issue. Advised she
need to find someone who could help me. I asked for a manager. Put on hold for 5mins. A make
voice(Sales Supervisor). He told me that this wasn’t his department, however he will sort this mess and call
me @ 8pm. 8:35pm, still no call. I called Virgin - House Moves Closed, Complaints Closed and Support
Closed. I press for new Sales. Relay the above yet again, Customer NoService advisor says he can’t help,
as it’s not a customer service issue!!!!! Give me a number to call first thing in the morning.
I have since found the UK complaints line, where u can speak to an English person 01256 752000. I shall
be using this first thing in the morning!
» Story by JFerreira, London on 12th March 2010
Used to be with Virgin previously but picture quality was poor and the system constantly froze or crashed
so I moved from Virgin to Sky HD last year but after experiencing problems with Sky (TV kept cutting out to
a blue screen, menu was slow, I hate the box office system and I’m restricted to slow internet through Sky
using BT infrastructure) I decided to move back to Virgin in the hope that things had improved.
Ordered up the V+ HD box, 20MB Broadband and Telephone and the engineer arrived four days ago as
scheduled and all was well....then it happened....
Firstly, they didn’t keep my same telephone as requested - this is used for business (fortunately, my SKY
contract isn’t finished yet so I can keep it plugged in there until it’s sorted).
Secondly, my internet was showing speeds of 19MB until today when it has now dropped to a regular 4MB
4 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
from 5pm right through until now at midnight.
Thirdly, worst of all my box won’t record anymore and we lost all our recordings and scheduled recordings.
My gf is raging as we’ve missed all our programs. Nothing will record, the remote constantly refuses to
work, the box freezes, the channel information decides to pop up and remain for about 10 mins covering
half the screen, the on-demand seems to be down about 50% of the time and then the bloody Virgin box
mute activate despite the volume controls not being useable accordingly to the engineer. You can’t turn the
mute off because those buttons don’t work with my TV!!!
I have rebooted about 20 times tonight and after many attempts of trying to contact their customer service
(waited 15 mins each time before giving up) I was hung up on. Have now been told the first engineer that
can come out will be on Saturday (in four days!!!) despite there being at least two engineers who live
around the corner from me as I can see their vans parked at night. So we’ve got sod all tv for four more
days now and all this within three days! What a total disgrace.
Funny how the installations number gets you through straight away yet the technical help takes forever to
connect. Absolutely disgusting service.
My Sky dish and cables are still where they are posied to be reactived and I can still reverse my
cancellation...oh yeah, I haven’t sent my Virgin contract in yet. If it wasn’t for slow internet of Sky I’d have
never moved. I do like the movies on demand but then Blockbusters is a 5 min drive away.
I really would have thought things would have improved since two years ago. To be fair the picture quality is
definitely better, you can operate three channels with Virgin instead of two with Sky and the menu (when it
works) is far more responsive than my Sky although my mate’s Sky is just as responsive and the technical
help manager was actually very considerate so it’s not all bad. Maybe it’s just teething problems but it still
rings alarm bells from my previous time with them.
Fingers crossed everything gets fixed up because this time round the gloves are off and I’ve got no
problem with getting an engineer out every weekend on time and a half at their expense.
» Story by Graham, Glasgow on 10th March 2010
I’m plagued by unwanted calls from India trying to sell me stuff. It’s been particularly bad this year but
today I got eight calls in four hours. The last one was aggressive, the caller did not appreciate I put down
the phone on her and rang back immediately. I know once it’s midday these calls start. The TPS doesn’t
cover this and after today I wonder in Virgin is selling our telephone numbers in India?
» Story by A Jones, Swansea on 08th March 2010
i came in at around midniught put the tv on and all i could get was a movie i already own on dvd when i tried
to change the channel i couldnt i`ve tried several times to reboot the godamm box to9 no avail its a bag of
crap all i can suggest is you find a freeview box that gives you a good selection of channels then fuck virgin
right off for the corporate money grabbing wankers they are
» Story by dave, nottingham on 06th March 2010
I’ve just moved up to the 20mb service after being on 10mb for donkeys years and since then whenever i’m
on the internet every so often my browser hangs (as in i click on a page and nowt happens) then if i wait 20
seconds or so and try again it miraculous loads no problem, even does it with google however its not my
actual internet browser thats hanging because when the internet stops responding i can still access my
router settings through the browser. Its as if my actual connection is lost for 10-20 seconds. this happens
very frequently. Another thing that really annoys me is the fact that they are blatantly ripping every single
one of us off. We pay them a certain amount of money a month for say 20mb broadband and from such a
time in the morning to such a time in the evening they cap the download speeds to maybe a quarter of what
we should be getting to help with the traffic. Now correct me if i’m wrong but if you went into a pub and paid
for a pint of lager but only received half a pint and was told its to help make the lager last longer for the rest
of the customers would you be happy and accept that.....If you want to cancel your contract withing the 12
month period then surely we could say to the customer service i want to cancel my contract because i’m
paying you so much money a month for 20mb broadband and 50% of the month your only giving me half
that speed due to throttling so therefore you are not providing me with the service i’m paying you for...not
providing the service your paying for is a breach of contract therefore you have every right to cancel a
contract without any penalties.
» Story by Alan, Liverpool on 04th March 2010
To Brian at Preston: you have my full sympathy mate. What a shocking story, especially the way they’ve
treated you after putting you at risk.
5 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Good luck with pursuing them, I hope you win. I’d suggest contacting Branson direct - but of course part of
the way he operates is to be uncontactable to mere humans like us. The bloke thinks he’s special. All I can
find online is:
Sir Richard Branson’s Office,

Virgin Management Ltd,
120, Campden Hill Road,
London, W8 7AR.
Once again, good luck.
Also - to everyone else, let’s print out this entire website and post it to Branson at the above address. He
might stumble across a sheet and bother to read it.
» Story by Dave, London on 03rd March 2010
Yay, had Sky+ HD installed this morning, and up to now the box appears to be perfectly compatible with
our light bulbs (see my message below)
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 23rd February 2010
What have i done, joined virgin in Jan to get away from talk talk,virgin promised to cancel my talk talk and
keep my number, 6 weeks later and im now paying virgin and talk talk. I have phoned 6 times and e mailed
virgin but no joy, they dont know why i have no phone line with them?? My latest conversation with them
yesterday actually brought on chest pain i was that worked up, surely u can stop payments to them if they
are not fullfilling their part of the deal? I am seriously thinking of having no phone, broadband or tv, after talk
talk and now virgin it seems they are all crap.
» Story by glen, manchester on 20th February 2010
Moved into a flat in Leicester. Was told virgin media was the cable provider. Its rubbish, constant
breakdowns, limited choices, and virtualy impossible to get rid of because of the location and my limited
budget. Not only that I resent contributing money to Richard Branson as he seems such a twerp.
» Story by sid, leicester on 19th February 2010
I would like to add to my last message that I was not at home when the engineer called around, I was at
work. If I was at home I would not have accepted this excuse, and I will be phoning them after work to
arrange for my TV package to be cancelled. I’ll stick with them for the broadband until BT can offer a better
service in our area, but will go to Sky for the TV I think. Maybe their boxes will work with our super-
radioactive lightbulbs
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 19th February 2010
Hmmm, problems with our V+ box now to add to all the previous issues. It’s very unresponsive, press the
left and right buttons to scroll through channels, then sit back for about 10-20 seconds whilst it thinks about
it, before flicking through about 20 channels at once. On Demand keeps crashing. Also we get this
annoying box popup every night saying something on the lines of “your remote is being updated, please
don’t use the remote. Press ok to close this message”. How do we press ok without using the remote? And
if we try it doesn’t work, we have to wait 20 seconds with this box obscuring the screen.
The only reason I’ve stuck with them after all the previous problems is because I found out BT can only
supply up to 2.4mb broadband in our area. But I called them last night about this problem asking how much
it would be for just broadband and telephone, they asked me to be patient whilst they looked into the
issues, and sent an engineer out today.
So (to my surprise) the engineer came out as promised, and the reason for our problems - our lightbulbs.
That’s right, our lightbulbs are interfering with the signal from our remote control. Nevermind the fact that
the signal is obviously getting to the box as the commands are being queued up (they’re not going to be
queued up on the remote are they!!). So what they are basically saying is either don’t use your tv when it’s
dark outside, or don’t switch your lights on when you want to watch the TV.
Superb! Well worth the £100+ we pay them every month for XL TV, + sports and movies, + telephone, +
XL Broadband.
I have been seperated from my wife since early 2009 and following the discovery that she had fleeced over
£1000 from my bank account I closed the account and transferred all the direct debits to my new girlfriends
account into which I had my wages paid.
6 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
We contacted Virgin and explained the whole story and asked for advice on continuing the payments from
that account. We then requested that they change the billing address to that of my parents so that I could
monitor how much each monthly bill was and how many phone calls were being used. Yes I was still paying
the bills!!!
Virgin guaranteed that the address had been changed and that all correspondence would go to my parent’s
address. I have received bills there however they also sent a letter to my ex-wifes address containing my
new girlfriend’s bank account details. A clear breach of the Data Protection Act. This caused massive
problems for us both with threatening phone calls and texts and threats that I would not be able to see my
child.
We contacted Virgin and spoke to a department manager who advised us that one of the staff had failed to
adhere to all the processes and procedures put in place to prevent this and fully admitted that they had
indeed committed the offence. She then tried to fob us off with a free month! We obviously refused this.
After numerous calls to Virgin, trying to speak to the Complaints Department, We managed to speak to
someone. Again, we had to explain the whole story and they said that they would call back.
I then received another abusive, irate call from my ex-wife, saying that she had been contacted by Virgin
and spoken to about the complaint! Again, this caused further reprocussions. This was in November. She
tried to stop me from seeing my child at Christmas.
After more calls and e-mails in an attempt to speak with someone from the Complaints Department at
Head Office, a manager contacted us and wanted to know the full story. Again, I had to relay the tail to him
to which he replied that the problem was far too severe for him to deal with and that it was necessarry to
escalate it to Virgin’s Legal Department.
The manager also advised us that we should never have been allowed to set up a direct debit from another
account in the first place and that we had been wrongly advised by the advisor. He went onto say that we
should change the password to the account and that he was cancelling the direct debit at their end and that
we should cancel it at the bank and carry on paying each month by debit card over the phone. His reason
for this was that if my ex-wife contacted them and didn’t know the password or how the bill was payed, she
would not be able to speak to anyone about the account. He then assured us that this would prevent any
more problems.
A few weeks later, after he had failed to re-contact us as he had said he would, we contacted Virgin again,
only to be told that the case had been closed.
Obviously we were not being fobbed off again as there had clearly been a blatent breach of tha Data
Protection Act.
We managed to contact him again some weeks later and again after numerous calls. At this point I must
say that we were paying on time every month. He advised us that the case had not been closed and that it
was still being escalated to the Legal Department and that we should expect a call soon.
On 16th February 2010, I received another abusive text from my ex-wife stating that she had just been
contacted by Virgin Media and had discussed mine and my girlfriend’s complaint and had told them what
she actually thought of us. (Not very nice but incredibly colourful!!!)
I went to speak to my girlfriend and found her in a distressed state and speaking to Virgin Media. I could
hear the male on the other end of the phone saying that Virgin had done nothing wrong in passing on the
bank details and speaking to my ex-wife about the complaint!
I was then made aware that the call had been taken over by a woman who started to shout at my girlfriend,
saying that it had nothing to do with her and that she didn’t even know why she was speaking to her.
At this point I took over the call and she introduced herself as Sandra Hillan, Customer Service Manager. I
tried to get a word in edgeways but, every time I spoke, she talked over me. She said that i was the one at
fault and that I had no right paying for a service to a house in which I wasn’t living. I tried to explain that I
had a responsibility to my child and that was why I was still paying to which she replied that I had been
advised in November that I had no right. When I said that this was not the case she shouted down the
phone “Don’t you dare call me a liar!”
As you can probably imagine, after being spoken to like something that she had stood in, I said to her that
her attitude and that of her organisation was disgusting and that she had no right to speak about my
complaint, which incidentally wasn’t with my ex-wife, with her. To this she admitted that it was her who had
spoken to my ex and then stated that, and I quote; “My company are not interested in your tooing and
froing!”
I said to her “I beg you’re pardon. How dare you try and comment about my private life!” to which she
stated that she was not prepared to discuss the account with me any further and hung up.
This nasty, self opinionated bitch was speaking to me like dirt and was actually shouting down the phone at
me. She and Virgin Media have committed a criminal offence in the breach and have caused and fuelled
massive problems for both me and my girlfriend.
I am absolutely disgusted in the way we have been treated and I am now pursuing alternative avenues in
my fight for justice.
I’m sorry that this has been a bit long winded but I need to get it off my chest.
Virgin Media are SHIT and they stink.
Thank you.
» Story by Brian, Preston on 18th February 2010
My virgin media system insists on hanging at key points any show......
7 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Very annoying.....
And how come all the programmes show the the same adverts at the same time????? Swop channels and
all you get are the same adverts at the same time!
Your playing me!!!!!!! virgin and not very well...........
Sky looks more attractive every day!!!
Come on give me more Bang for my buck a 60 min show = 40 min + 20 adverts
Don’t give me a break! its taking the P.....
» Story by Bob Hoy, South Tyneside on 18th February 2010
An IT engineer with over 15 years experience. Got fibre optics connection with an old blue box ntl modem.
Wanted wireless. They sent a D-link wireless modem. Question old technology but was told nothing had
changed. Plugged in the new wireless modem.
Crap connection with first laptop.
Sat on modem but still crap connection.
Changed channels but still crap.
Tried 3 other laptops. Changed channels.
Sitting next to wireless modem, and poor performance!!...this is a fibre optic connection, 10mb, yet
wirelesly it performs like a 56k dial up!!
Have rebuilt one laptop to test and still shite conn!!
Not happy!
» Story by disgruntled with VM wifi, Folkestone on 17th February 2010
You’ve got to laugh haven’t you - they offer very, very, very, very poor customer services, have broadband
that keeps falling over, yet today I get a letter saying they are increasing their prices!! But they somehow in
their letter manage to try and make it feel like good news.
How about freeze ALL of your prices until you’ve sorted out your problems.
I have a Virgin Active Gym membership. I can get Virgin Vouchers through an offer I have but they have
recently stopped accepting them. Not completely though, I can use them to purchase other things that I
don’t already pay for i.e. anything but my membership.
I was putting them towards my membership subs but even though Virgin still have the money because it is a
Virgin Voucher however Virgin Active must have decided they are loosing a couple of pounds by doing
this.
I can understand this as Virgin are on a tight budget being backed by one of the richest men in the world an
all that, so they need to inconvenience and bleed their customers dry for every penny they can.
» Story by CK, Manchester on 03rd February 2010
Thankyou thankyou guys..I was nearly seduced into signing up to a Virgin package..having read all your
problems Im making a run for the hills! x
» Story by Beth, croxley green on 30th January 2010
for three nights running now my 50 meg broadband goes between 430pm and 5pm and doesnt come back
on untill 11pm,when i have got through to them its someone in india no offence the guy doing a job but the
line is crap and i dont understand what he says and there is bugger all they can do,37 quid a month for this
bb great when working but coming to unreliable now,might go for the bt option only 10meg but i bet it
works,just totally fed up now with porr customer services take our money and sod you mate!!!!!
» Story by dave, plymouth on 28th January 2010
My internet is 20mb, it was all fine no problems, perfect connection pretty good ping, very nice
downloading speed until one night when i was talkin on skype with my bro suddenly, i got 7 second voice
delay i was like wtf.... thought it was his internet but nooooo. Checked my ping. Went from 34 to 2800 i was
like what the fu*k?!?! i mean seriously what the hell am i paying for. if it would happen once but nooo, so far
it happened like 4 times and the ping stayed over 2000 for few hours each time. any game i try to play, i
can try but i either get kicked cuz of too high ping or i just leave because its pointless. my friend that lives
about 300 meters away from me has 2mb broadband (i have 20) he’s fine and my ping goes crazy. WHAT
THE HELL
8 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
» Story by Cloud, Nottinghamshire on 27th January 2010
So where to begin…
I have 50mb broadband and some other phone and tv packages which i rarely use. I only got the phone line
as it made the broadband cheaper and I may get one in future.
For 2-3 months speeds were great. Good ping, downloads, internet, gaming all lovely.
8th January 2010 - Broadband cuts off - Ring virgin. All will be well tomorrow. Do some modem resets
11th Jan -Broadband slow, cuts off, fluctuating speed - I’ll set it for you....wait...ok sorted. Do a reset and it
will be fixed. Offered £10 credit.
13th Jan - Same issue - More resetting of modem/router...Virgin admit issue their end. Resolution date
16th Jan. Offerd £15 credit.
16th Jan - problem persists - Given ticket number for fault. Told resolution 21st Jan.
21st Jan - advisor informs me ticket was fixed 15thJan(day before they gave me ticket number). Will be
resolved 22nd Jan. New ticket number issued.
21st Jan - Problem still persists - Speed fluctuating (usually 50k or so...sure they said 50mb maybe i read it
wrong). Offered £30 credit.
22nd Jan - Bill arrives for full price of service. Ring again. Given new resolution date of 22nd March due to
‘over utilisation etc’. HEAD EXPLODES! I GO MAD...threaten to cancel. Passe dto customer relations
guy. Promises call back on Tuesday 26th Jan.
26th Jan - Speak to customer relations specialist. Tells me network over utilized in area. People taking
advantage of service. I reply i’its unlimited, arent they just using what their paying for?’, NO. we will sort
them out. In the meantime im sorry. 22nd March resolution date. Gone to ‘EDGE PLANNING’ team.
(SERIOUSLY!?!?! where do they go to learn to make this stuff up???) In the meantime have a nice day.
Ring back in a week and we may have more information. New ticket issued.
Can you ring me back i have no landline? - reply - No i won’t be here, I will try and get the guy to ring you.
Currently - Looking for a different provider and then will tell Virgin to shove their 12mth contract up their
asses and cut off my Direct debit.
I am utterly astounded by the varied and colourful excuses for the terrible service. One person tells u ‘over-
utilization’, the next says he shoudnt of said that its wrong.
So I am now left in the position of having a shit service for minimum of 2 and half months. No streaming no
downloads, no online gaming and a skint proffesional poker playing housemate who really aint happy.
KEEP AWAY!! Terrible terrible terrible service. My old 4mb BT line kicked its asse, 3 yrs on that service
with no problems. ( in the same town about 500 yards away)
» Story by Stuart, Loughborough on 26th January 2010
I moved into a flat in November 2009, I had no BT line and could not afford the £120 Sky/BT charge to get
a line put in, So i contacted Virgin media, They gave me my installation date and i went ahead with it,
I waited in allday, Nobody turned up, So i rang them loads of time and finally got through to an English
person, The Indian’s advice was please turn the equipment off for 2 minutes? I have told her several times
the i have no equipment, it didnt turn up!!
It finally arrives a week later? But no engineer to set it up for me? Rang them again they tell me i need to
install it myself, Ok so i empty, The self title “box of trick’s” and the leads are about 50cms long? I rang
them wanting a longer lead, but get told it will cost me? forget it i hung up,
Got it all set up and surprise it didnt work? rang them again, We need to send an engineer out to switch it
on by the green box across the street, Good God, How long will this take, about 5 days, Mandeep replied,
FFS was my reply.
Finally i did get it working, On demand wasnt working and no program information could be displayed, I
turned it off and on several times, Had to ring them again, They send a bloke out a week later the V-box
was faulty?
Right, Thank God it all works now,
Here’s the best bit, a week before Christmas i get my first bill, £169?
For 10mb broadband, Phone and sports TV package,
Rang them again, We charge you 2 months in advance? I complained, As a good will gesture we will
discount you £5 off this bill?
Forget it, I am getting BT put in tomorrow but am tied with Virgin for the next 10 months, I’ll see them in
court, I aint paying for this garbage, No way Pedro, I someone from Virgin who called me today.
My advice is dont ever go to Virgin avoid it like the plague, Ive asked them to wxplain the bill and they cant,
They are terrible, Keep away!!!!
» Story by Matt, Darlington, Co Durham. on 25th January 2010
omg,we really thought we were being clever switching to virgin for the 50 mb, we had sky and regularly got
12mb for a tenner a month, we never got 50mb so dropped to 20mb we never get it and (its usually 2mb)
and we pay 35 quid a month for it,also my phone never stops ringing and its never for us,and tonite weve
had three calls from people saying we rang them,and we havent touched the phone,virgin lie lie and lie
9 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
again and then bill you for it,
stay with sky!!!!!

virgin lie!!!!.
» Story by becky, castleford on 23rd January 2010
My word where do I start! I’ve always had problems from day one with Virgin media (formerly known as
NTL), but desperate customer service tactics and a lack of genuine will to leave always persuaded me to
stay, until now. Since November 2009 my 10mb internet has basically become worse than my old dial-up,
as in my local area the Virgin server can’t cope with the demand of so many customers using it at once.
During the day my internet is decent, but in the evening it dies a quick death because the local server is
unable to provide a decent bandwidth. Now I have phoned Virgin TWENTY odd times regarding this since
November, only for some stroppy customer agents from India to not understand what I’ve said, then to go
on and annoy me further by going through pointless connection routines even though the notes on the
system blatantly says it’s an internal Virgin media fault! But the ultimate mick take happened over
Christmas, a manager promised me the issue would be fixed before the Christmas holidays as in his
words: ‘Our Engineers are days away from solving the problem’. It’s now January the 22nd, and since then
I’ve had lie after lie from their pointless call center in India. This week I threatened to leave, then suddenly
an engineer arrived at my door with a new cable modem. I thought this was the end of my internet suffering,
but alas he tested my equipment and told me what I’ve already known: It’s a Virgin media server problem in
my local area! To make matters even far worse, when he phoned his operations department, NO JOB
WAS EVER RAISED for my broadband! They only started work on it today, even though I have
complained about it from November last year! Lastly I phoned Virgin today in uncontrollable rage saying I
want either my money back or to cut my services immediately, what happened? Yes you guessed it,
another pointless call agent from India telling me six times to hold on for two minutes, only then to be
passed on to a manager called Victor who insulted me because I was shouting at him! I logged a complaint
against him and the company, and now am in the process of looking for another provider!
» Story by Joe, London on 22nd January 2010
A letter to Branson’s acolytes:
Dear Virgin Media,

It was with great regret that we first were forced to accept your broadband due to there being no B.T.
telephone line in our residence – we had heard tales of the uselessness of your company’s customer
service, unexplained Internet outages and installation issues. However we swallowed our disappointment
and signed up for the advertised “XL” package for £25 per month.
We arranged delivery for the 2nd October however on the previous day we received a text message
apprising us that it was not to be delivered that week. After calling the helpline (from a mobile as of course
we have no landline) for twenty minutes and having our first experience of the robotic Scottish woman and
her stroke-inducing cheeriness after one has endured varying lengths of hold ‘music’ we were told that there
was nothing on our account to suggest delivery was delayed. Thus with bated breath we made time from
our busy lecture schedules to make sure someone was in all day to await the arrival of the package.
Needless to say, nothing arrived. Finally at 6 p.m. we were informed by another grammatically flawed text
message that nothing was to be forthcoming that day. Delivery was rescheduled for Monday 5th. Again we
stayed in during the requisite hours and were pleased to have a box appear. Thinking our travails were over
we rejoiced fulvidly. However in the box was no letter informing us of our contractual obligations or the
need to “activate” our connection. Also it referred unhelpfully to our “Netgear product” when everything in
the box was prominently labelled “D-Link”. This resulted in three days of the wrong lights appearing on the
modem and router; when nothing else worked we were forced to call the helpline quoted on the letter.
This was for “our friends at Netgear” and resulted in an hour on hold and then the call was dropped from
Netgear’s end. The next day we called Netgear again and was passed through numerous subcontinent call
centres until it was finally understood that we owned no Netgear product and wanted to find the Virgin help
number. We were put through to D-Link’s helpline, who eventually gave us the Virgin number.
After a long recuperation period, we called the Virgin number. Three times. On each occasion we endured
the husky robotic woman’s vacuous “O.K.! Installation it is! I’ll put you through...” only to find our call
dropped after ten minutes each time. We hasten to add on each occasion the call was from a mobile that
had full signal reception at the top of the house, so the fault was not at our end. We finally got through after
another twenty minutes on Wednesday 7th and found someone who not only spoke English but informed us
we had to activate our modem, the fact of which we were totally oblivious to because of the paucity of
introductory documentation. He was able to give us a “temporary” connection that he said would require
another call to a different number to gain a full and permanent connection.
Pleased though we were at finding someone with a modicum of sense and ability, we made it known we
were dissatisfied with the service we had so far received. ‘Rob’ thus passed us on to Mark Martin who was
10 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
immensely helpful, providing a welcome element of cheerfulness in the swamp of Virgin Media’s failures.
He noted down all our complaints to that point and said he would pass us through to “Quickstart” (a more
glaring misnomer we have rarely come across). He registered us, providing the administrative information
that should have been in our package or an accompanying letter. We had until that point somehow survived
without an account number; account or any record on ‘the system’. He said there was a long call queue and
it would take up to twenty minutes for us to be seen. He recommended to call later in the evening when they
would be less busy. We can understand why there are so many calls to this joke of a customer service
system, but not why it took us (after another “twenty minute” warning from robo-Scot, who by this time was
becoming decidedly too husky for us to cope with – is there a limit on the post-coital Branson cigarettes
she can smoke?) AN HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to not get through. Thinking of the monster
mobile bill we had to hang up.
Since it was by now 11.30 p.m. we can only imagine what personal hells others were going through on that
night, forced to listen to the same FOUR songs down a ‘phone line whether one chose “classical”, “dance”,
“indie”, “rock”, “grunge” and no option for NONE OF THE ABOVE. Is there anyone who enjoys listening to
‘grunge’ on their mobile telephone for above twenty seconds? Why is there some joker at Virgin
Headquarters who in some taxonomy accident decided Lady GaGa was suitable for the “classical”
channel? Could we not opt for silence? Exhausted we tried again in the early morning to get some sense
out of someone and finally succeeded. With surprisingly little fuss we were connected and had this
confirmed by some tests. Unfortunately we could see no difference in our connection speed.
Having paid for a 20Mb line we expected to see some drop in speed at certain times of the day or if all five
of us in our house were online at the same time. However we were unprepared for having less than 1Mb of
download speed verified with numerous tests when only one of us was online at half past nine at night.
We feel it is not unjust of us to say that we should only be paying for 1/20 of our current bill if that is all that
is going to be given to just one of us, during off-peak hours. If the infrastructure cannot cope with this the
service should not be offered until certain upgrades have been made. Speeds since then have been wildly
fluctuating; one of us took half an hour to load the hotmail webpage at 8.30 a.m while at 4 a.m. there have
been speeds upwards of 25Mb/s.
This is frankly appalling and our displeasure has been exacerbated by the baffling nature of our first bill
which says we owe £40. This includes £25 ‘advance payment’ which we were given no intimation would
occur. Not even in the small print of the website agreement was it made clear we would have to pay more
than the £25 per month charge for the broadband.
We are expectant of both an apology and a substantial rebate for our time, money and effort spent
telephoning numerous companies from a mobile ‘phone from which 0800 numbers are not toll-free, purely
because of the incompetence of your staff in packing boxes; and had to acquaint ourselves with the inner
workings of the account system to make sure we had all the numbers we were entitled to. None of this was
our responsibility and it was all done so we could give your company money for a service that now seems
patchy at best. We hope this letter makes clear our displeasure with the service and ‘customer service’ we
were forced to undergo, with the notable exceptions of Mark Martin and Rob.
» Story by Sheff, Sheffield on 21st January 2010
Also having this incredibly annoying internet outages at completely random times for the past two days.
Been with Virgin since the Blueyonder days bad enough they shaft old customers on their pricing schemes
(I pay nearly double a new customer would in their first year for the same package) but to screw with the net
aswell? god it really does take the piss.
» Story by Stefan Bancroft, Bristol on 21st January 2010
My internet connection has gone back to the old trick of going off regularly for no apparent reason. I have
just the sync light flashing on the modem. So, I unplug the modem, including the coaxial cable, leave it for
30 seconds and plug it back in. Do the same with the wireless router, and reboot my laptop. Nothing. So I
phone them up, a few seconds after I give them my password the lights start flashing, EVERY TIME! What
exactly are they doing their end to get it working - they are obviously disconnecting me for some reason
and then having to click a button to get me back online. They claim they do nothing, so it’s just coincidence
then that as soon as you get into my account it starts working again?
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 20th January 2010
Ok started with virgin in sept 2009. was told install would be sep 10th took day off work noone turned up.
prev told on 9th that this was all arranged between 8-1pm next day. sat came 1.10pm no virgin geezer. rang
virgin. “sorry sir your virgin is not due to be installed till 27th sept”...after speaking to 5 diff people managed
to get £200 credit. Next decided to upgrade to VIP as was paying 95 pound for current package with lots
of boxes. Virgin said fine we can install straight upgrade. They did not explain i would need to pay another
month upfront again.....another complaint was made still pending no upgrade done....
11 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Today virgin service goes down as fault in area. 3 phone calls. first you have exceeded your credit limit
“pay £40 to get reconnected” this was not poss as paid my bill...got cut off...second phone call “you have
exceeded your credit limit pay £5” got cut off next call “sorry mr rowe a fault in your area your have not
been cut off its a fault” ok so it takes 3 phone calls to find that out and 1 hour of my life on the phone to
unskilled and un knowledeable people....to say the least a third complaint will be made...virgin are a
complete joke!!!!!!!!!!
» Story by Matt, Bristol on 20th January 2010
Yep… would be quicker and less frustrating to travel to the homes of the people who have been making
websites (and view them on their screens) than trying to access them via Virgin broadband this week. It’s
just dire. In five years with ntl, I never had this problem. After Virgin took over, direness is the new standard.
» Story by Mike, London on 20th January 2010
Have been a loyal virgin.net account holder for 3 years and after all those months of paying through the
nose for rubbish speed broadband they dont even have the decency to cancel my account. Transferred to
Sky on 30th OCTOBER LAST year and i’m still being charged!!!!!! I cant cancel the payment as I used my
card and cannot get into “my virgin.net” account area to stop it. The customer services people told me i’m
liable for payments until line is taken over but Sky definately used the MAC code as they were able to set
up my broadband (which has been fantastic btw). Virgin said they have’t used the code as when its used it
automatically cancels the account but DUH! of course Sky must have used it - I HAVE A CONNECTION!!!
AAAAAGH! Sky have been fabby about the whole thing and have sent as much info as they could to
forward to virgin. Still waiting for my refund though...................
» Story by Ann, Kilmarnock on 19th January 2010
virgin are shit. im on a 10mg line and most of the time get a connection of 0.5 - 1 mg.
The thing is im at work full time so only get to use the internet during these “peak hours” and find this very
frustrating. From what ive read the customer service is really bad so im not going to waste my time with
them. im seriously considering cancelling my contract, they are ripping us off!!
» Story by john, croydon on 19th January 2010
I just need to get this off my chest.
Broadband has been down all this weekend. Television service has become so bad it’s almost hysterically
funny. No interactive Saturday or Sunday until this evening. We foolishly settled down to watch “Wallender”
via the BBC iPlayer. After a VERY slow startup, we got into the programme, only to be thrown off with an “
on demand currently unavailable” message after 49 minutes. So we restarted and fast forwarded to watch
the remaining 40 minutes. At 1hour 14minutes, the picture froze solid and wouldn’t respond to the
controller. So we re-started and fast forwarded again to this point - but the bloody thing just kept fast
forwarding to 1hour 18minutes, when of course, it crashed again. It’s a good job I’ve just read the book,
otherwise I’d never know who the murderer was.
So - on the Virgin Media website to suggest a few improvements to the service. But guess what? Every
single feedback screen is just a plain, blank, white space.
I’m not even going to attempt a phone call to India. That way madness lies.
I shall go the bed now and have a good cry.
» Story by John M, Northampton East on 18th January 2010
“High Utilisation”, “Rebuilding the network” the two phrases I constantly hear from the phone support and it
has been bad for quite a while.
Come the evenings or weekends (when most are at home), a 50Mb service can drop to speeds of 1-2Mb
with latency as high as 154ms!
Why do they lock us in a contract if they know full well we are in a high utilisation area? During the day the
connection is incredible and I praise the network; however the frustration that comes when the sun goes
down in unbearable.
If you live in the Surbiton/Kingston area - I would stay away from Virgin until they finally do “rebuild the
network”
» Story by Gareth, Surbiton, Surrey on 18th January 2010
Northampton broadband down most of Sunday 17th Jan 2010.
12 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Today speed very slow, unusable. Technican cannot get access to tools to see if there is a problem. Does
that mean there’s a problem? who knows.
» Story by SJP, Northampton on 18th January 2010
Bit annoyed today - internet not worked all day - I turned modem off and left it for several housr and made
no difference. Now at 9.15pm I have internet but now my tele unit for virgin box having no effect on box
atall. no station changing and no sound adjusting also stuck on interactive !!!!!!! etting qite cross now!!!!!
» Story by Jan Healy, Northamptonshire on 17th January 2010
Completely agree with Voidy! Excact same problem, 50mb internet cuts out 10-15 times a day! Had the
engineers over twice and the first one said, and i quote “I think there just was a loose cable” im not a self
proclaimed master of internet/PC but i ive been around PC my whole life and i KNOW a loose cable wasnt
the problem. The other engineer was nice and told me that Virgin have major problems with their relays in
Cardiff. So unless they sort their shit out. Its NOT worth it.
» Story by Student, Swansea on 08th January 2010
Been checking the internet connection speeds I’m getting. When I connect, Windows messanger comes up
with a little speach bubble that tells me what I’m getting: 1.4 Mbs or whatever. It used to always state the
same speed but this changed about a year ago after the goverment said it was going to put pressure on
service providers to supply the connection speeds people were paying for.
OK, so then it started coming up with faster speeds and everything looked good. But those lying Virgin
fuckers are pulling a fast one: press Control/Alt/Delete, click on the Networking tab and then click on the
Virgin Net adaptor name at the bottom. I’ve checked mine and it doesn’t matter what connection speed
Virgin boast via the speach bubble, the Network Utilisation percentage is always low enough to ensure that
the connection speed is never more than 280 Mbs - which is unusable. Sometimes the percentage is lower,
sometimes higher - but it always multiplies out to give the same, rip-off-low, connection speed
That speach bubble statement when I connect is a downright cynical lie - no doubt thought up by smug
Virgin bastards having a good snigger at the thought of conning the public who they figure won’t know any
better.
» Story by Steve, Leicester on 07th January 2010
@ Matt, Hampshire - same happened to me. After constant problems with the standard tv boxes, they
finally agreed to send me a FREE V+ box. Then I got told I had to pay, kept being billed for it, then found
out they’d extended my contract by between 12 and 24 months (they couldn’t make up their minds which).
I complained, saying I didn’t sign anything to say I wanted a new contract, and wasn’t even advised I’d have
a new contract, so I was told I wouldn’t be held to this, and that a note would be put onto the system to
confirm this. I then phoned to cancel and was told I couldn’t as I was still in contract (for 24 months). Finally
they found the note to say I wouldn’t be held to the contract and told me the guy who did this was facing
serious disciplinary action as he shouldn’t have told me that, but that because I’d been told this then I
wouldn’t be held to it.
After a load more billing problems I finally spoke to someone in the Chief Executives Office who agreed to
let me out of my contract with immediate affect and no penalties (current contract isn’t actually up until the
end of this month, and all this happened around October/November).
Unfortunately the maximum speed I can get on non-cable broadband around here is 2.6mb, as oppose to
the 20mb I get now, and therefore I’m kind of stuck with the rubbish service. Strange thing is I decided to
get Sky Sports and Movies added to my package (I wasn’t thinking straight that day), but it didn’t do
anything to my contract, I can still leave immediately if I wish, so will see how it goes over the next couple
of months. Any more problems and I’ll probably have to accept a reduction in broadband speed and go
elsewhere.
This really is the problem though - with regards to broadband speeds there really isn’t anyone who can
compete with Virgin Media. If other providers could offer similar speeds (20mb+) (which I know some do
advertise this, but it’s not available in many places), then Virgin Media would have to improve their
customer services to keep customers.
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 02nd January 2010
Ok Ive just spoken to Virgin and now they are saying they will only wave the tv cancellation charge???.
This is a joke! I have to pay £120 to cancel a joint service that isnt fully working. May I suggest to anyone
reading this that they do not make any changes to their contract as it will refresh to another 12 months!
(apparently) I have ask them to prove where I agreed to this new contract as I didnt sign anything and they
have no recording of the phone call.
13 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Please, please do not use this provider.
» Story by Matt, Hampshire on 30th December 2009
I have just ordered SKY after Virgin failing to provide ANY tv service for another month. The funny part is
i’m going to have the same Broadband speed but now with HD tv at a much lower cost. Not even sure why
I didnt do this sooner. This isn’t credit to SKY; this just goes to show what happens when a company cant
provide the basic service they offer.
Oh and they are waving the cancellation cost, damn right they are :D
» Story by Matt, Hampshire on 30th December 2009
Had problems since Boxing Day with TV breaking up and Broadband cutting out .
Rang the so called help line and was fobbed off with yes they are aware of a problem and are currently
working on it !! Rang about 5 times now and have being offered £6 compensation so far .
Will seriously think about switching to Sky !!
» Story by Honestmarkov, Birmingham Cotteridge on 27th December 2009
yet again i have lost tv and broadband, broadband back on but the tv continues to break up. Second time
this month, and everytime it rains the phone fails. sky plus has some good offers for the tV so have
changed to them and gone to bT for broadband and fone, all done within 20 minutes on line today, sky
installed thisd Thursday and broadban shortly after total saving £40 a month.Dont tolerate it!
» Story by Mis Sold, northfield on 27th December 2009
Been with Virgin for about a decade; joined them when they were still NTL. Their broadband (cable, not
ADSL) is virtually unusable. It stays connected all day - if it’s not in use. But try to use it for ANYTHING,
just viewing any ordinary website, BBC News, eBay, or whatever, it will get as far as a few kilobytes and
then drop the connection with only half the page downloaded. Then you must wait a couple of minutes for it
to reconnect. It has been this way for at least TWELVE (12) MONTHS!
@Stephen Buckley: I like your idea of a mass cancellation day, choose a day and organise all disgruntled
customers to cancel their contracts on that day. Or just phone the BBC’s Watchdog; several Virgin
employees have walked out, too, saying the company is completely dysfunctional. And they still advertise
speeds that they know won’t be attained and woo unsuspecting new customers with bald faced lies about
how good their service is.
» Story by Mat, Wokingham on 23rd December 2009
Have been with virgin media for around four months now on their 10mb pacackage,all was fine until the
crash on dec 3rd, since then we can only get tv and broadband between 11am and 5pm when we lose
everything apart from telephone,151 is a waste of time...we have had two engineers out to ‘fix’ the problem
only for it to go down again around 5pm,numerous calls to customer services explaining what time it go’s
down only to be told they can only give me a 12-4 callout,what good is that to me when i have been told by
both engineers that they need to see the problem before the can sort it? I should never have left
sky....................
» Story by stacey, tipton,dudley on 22nd December 2009
just had a bill come through with £106 worth of on demand in 10 days. this is an absolute joke as we have
never even used the on demand!!!my girlfriend rang them up from her mothers house with me present(so
nobody was at my house) and asked for an explaination for the bill. the reply was we will get back to you in
24h? plus they said that at that present time somebody was watching alan carr on our subscription! has
anybody else had this problem?
» Story by ash, npton on 15th December 2009
I swear to god, if i reset that modem one more f****ng time im going to kill a man. My network in my house
is simple. 4 people using the internet for communications and 1 user for online gaming. noone uses P2P
software, noone does too much downloading. Virgin media is driving me mad.
50 meg is balls… and we will be getting our money back due to a breach of contract on virgins side.
Thanks virgin for wasting my time, my flat mates time, and everyone else in Swansea and other citites who
are having a horrible time trying to connect using your shite 50 meg connection. absolute w***ers.
~~~Voidy~~~
» Story by Voidy, Swansea on 13th December 2009
14 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Hi Me and my fiance and mate moved into our flat in july 2009 we phoned virgin media up 3 days before
moving into our new place at 1st i was going to put it in my name because my fiance had it at her old place
and they messed her around well i went threw the registration part then they see if i can get it well it took
them 10 mins to figure out and then the person came back on the phone and said you can recieve virgin
media but you have to pay 130 deposit!!!! thats the 1st bit of bull i had then we we got it installed the
enginers came out about 10.30am which is good in a way because it was ealry well anyway they look
around the place looking for some box or wire they need to install it well what the problem was, was that the
wire they needed was hanging out the wall and we live on the second floor of a block of masonettes its not
that high i could of done it myself they both come bk in and say we have a problem we need to ring our
manager to see if its safe to climb the ladder to put the wire threw the wall i was a bit peed because we
waiting 2 weeks for it to get installed to be told we might have to wait longer because they had to climb a
ladder well cut the story short my fiance went outside and asked them where the wire was it was reaching
distance all they needed was a broom and someone to connect whatever they needed to put threw the wall
and job done but they couldn’t be botherd so they sent there area manager out who did it in 3 mins with my
help then he had to go and get another 2 people out to finish the install what a mess!!!!
Anyway got it done we had the small package at 1st then we decided to ring up and see what other
packages they had and we decided to go meduim yep fine be done 24 hours i then ask how much the bill
will be this month the woman on the phone went 90.00 i was confused and asked why they didn’t tell us that
we had to pay a month and a month in advance for the service plus a month for the meduim package so i
said no thats not right so i got put threw to someone else who was helpful and said they havent added the
30.00 discount for being new customers still the bill is 60.00 what a load of bull
I have plenty of complaints about virgin media we might go sky once the contract runs out hope virgin
media goes out of business money grabbing bastards!!!!!.
» Story by Ashley, Shoeburyness southend on 11th December 2009
Is VM still using the old cable ? erm, i think they are,It’s defo not fiber optic lol, Erskine is behind the times
as it is, i too am paying for 20mb, but have never got over 4mb. Been and old NTL customer for
over25years, and ever since VM took over, we’ve been getting nowhere. So! when will they actually do the
upgrade and give us what we are paying for? Richard Brandsons doing well with our money, he’s the one
breaking contracts here, not the customers.
» Story by Molly, Erskine on 10th December 2009
Inconstant broadband service delivering far below expectations, seems to be affecting a lot of users right
now due to high “utilisation”. Called and was lied to by the staff claiming “no problems at virgins end” Called
again a few days later to be told it was a fault at their end and a fix wasn’t expected until the other side of
Christmas. Luckily been with them for over a year so I’ve given my 30 days notice and moving to sky.
I can accept problems, but not being lied to!
This is only the most recent chapter in my virgin bad memories book, promised engineers not turning up
etc etc
I will discourage anyone from using a Virgin Media service for years to come!
» Story by Reza, Plymouth on 09th December 2009
Feed up with no phone,is it a miracle to provide one in these modern times.

No phone since 3/12/09
» Story by steve, solihull on 09th December 2009
I am getting fed up with paying £37 for 20mb broadband but when i do bandwidth test i am only getting upto
5mb i think they are conning us all i have never had 20mb. I think they are **** i have to get rid of them.
» Story by Me, Somwhere in Britain on 06th December 2009
Hi, Before i start sorry about the spelling mistakes from earlier. Any way we have just had the tecy turn up
and by amazement he has fixed the issues. After checking the box he discovered that the cable which was
changed was wired up back to front so the signal wasn’t getting through. He has fixed this and we now have
all our channels and our broad band speed has doubled. So we are back to normal for abit, however im
sure it will break down quite soon.
» Story by simon radnedge, Bristol on 06th December 2009
Its been weeks since we lost over half our channels. Today i sit in wait for yet another tec who proberly
wont do anything just like the one last week. He told me that we need a new cable however when i told him
15 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
we had a new cable just a couple of months ago he started to argue saying no we didn’t. It didn’t seem to
matter to hm that i was presant when the cable was laid he insisted that we have a new cable. He couldn’t
do it as it wasn’t his job, so he told me that he would arrange everything. I went away on bisness on Friday
to find it had noot been done. I phoned the customer service number agian wiated for 50 mins until they
answered to find out that the tec guy had informed them that he had fixed our problem by changing the card
which he did not. Yet agian the arguement started because the virgin person insisted that he did. The tec
had not bothered to inform them of the cable.
» Story by simon radnedge, Bristol on 06th December 2009
fed up with virgin bband as i keep losing my virgin home page… it keeps saying bad error. whenever i click
on a seperate virgin site to try and fix the problem, this also gives out the bad error message.
have phoned them several times and only once did someone solve it. now i phone and if i can understand
the “assistance” they tell me its another local problem and an engineer will fix it within a few days.........
rubbish!!!
I want another supplier that will give me free landline calls, broadband and digi tv for £60 or less. any ideas
folks
» Story by shaun, swindon on 04th December 2009
Well here we go again 4/12/09 at 11.37. At 11.15 we have lost our vigin tv again. This is not good enough
only been with virgin 2 months after switching from BT I am begining to wonder if I made the right choice
» Story by ruthlou, solihull on 04th December 2009
I finally got through to Customer support this afternoon and they told me that many people have no power
whatsoever to their digi boxes and they dont know why.. Technician needs to see the box and first chance
is Monday 7th !!
» Story by LT, Walsall on 03rd December 2009
Just got through to the 151 tech support number and was told anybody in Birmingham, London, Midlands
and anyone with a TS postcode; they have identified the fault, their engineers are working on the problem
now and usual service should be resumed by 8pm tonight, 03/12.
On the other side of the coin though, my mate (from Acocks Green) phoned them up this morning and they
told him then that service would be restored by Midday!
I’ve always been pleased with the service I’ve received from Virgin (Been a customer for 12 months+ now)
but this is really starting to grate. Same problems yesterday and it took them over 3 hours just to get a
recorded message on the helpline to inform that they were aware of the problem. Scoured the virginmedia
website too and not one iota of information. Incredibly poor customer service.
Give me my money back Branson!
» Story by Phat Harris, Selly Oak, B'ham on 03rd December 2009
I hear you all!! Their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced, they cannot continue to act like
this surely??? Poor technical service, insulting customer service, but happy enough to take your money and
laugh!!!
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!!!
» Story by Jeff, Cheshire on 03rd December 2009
Picture froze 2nd Dec around 5.30pm, then a few channels available. Couple hours later no channels and
then all power went out on digi box.
Cant access service status on VM site as there is a fault!
Tried ringing but unusual high volume of calls and taking approx 20 mins to answer so have e mailed.
Anyone else lost all power to the digi box ?
» Story by LT, Walsall on 03rd December 2009
Virgin Media Broadband went down at approx 5.45pm. Tried to call the help line but it was impossible as
they were extremely busy. The upshot is that at 8.45 3rd December 2009 we are still without our virgin
media broadband therefore have no TV.
Could someone confirm what the fault is and when the problem will be rectified.
» Story by Mr & Mrs T Helm, Kings Heath, birmingham on 03rd December 2009
16 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Looks as though it’s a midlands problem, although my internet is still on.

Last time I remember this happening, they adjusted the bill for each day it was down. Hardly compensation
though is it ?
‘’We’re not charging you for the service you haven’t received’’
» Story by George, Brum on 03rd December 2009
my tv only is off but my mom has lost tv n internet since yesterday n cant get thru to virgin at all
» Story by sue, bham on 03rd December 2009
Moved to virgin from sky on promise of fast broadband and better TV package. Bugger me, why did I
bother. Only had the bloody set up for a month and am on first name terms with half the call center staff.
Iceing on the cake last night. No TV all night. Trying to work from home this morning. No TV still and now
no phone or broadband either. Had to come into office. Worst of all, no information from Virgin. I am
running back to sky as fast as I can.
Virgin. What a bunch a cowboys…
» Story by Tez, Birmingham on 03rd December 2009
No TV in Wolves either, went off last night, still not working.
» Story by J, Wolverhampton on 03rd December 2009
My virgin has been off since yesterday and the problem has not been resolved, that’s both the tv and
internet. Everytime I phone they say they have a technician in the area but have yet to see him as I live
opposite the exchabge box.
» Story by T, Middlesbrough on 02nd December 2009
i also have no tv service today. will be contacting virgin as soon as they want to take calls again and not
have a high volume of calls and asking for compensation. when i have had sevice down in the past they
have refunded me for the time i was without service.
» Story by Jenny, Birmingham on 02nd December 2009
I must admit this is the first time I’ve had problems with Virgin tonight (02.12.09) totally no channels at all. I
was hoping to watch the football tonight.... How come there is no mention @ Virgin media & when you call
them there’s a recordered message. I hope we get compensation but I bet we won’t.
Maybe it’s time for SKY HD?
» Story by Jack The Biscuit, Birmingham on 02nd December 2009
We must all decide as a nation whether to allow this company to keep messing us about like this. Cant get
service tonight, try to call and told by recording that there is a high demand so call back later( now theres a
suprise ). Web site gives no apology or info about the outage. Poor communication skills of the customer
service reps on the phone.
The goverment must now step in and sort this poor excuse for a company out. Richard branson needs to
hang his head in shame and sort his house out, but guess what, he dont care, he has got your money and
the monopoly on the media scene. He is making a mockery of us all who subscribe to his service. Please
bbc watchdog do a feature on virginmedia, there are many of us who can tell you our horror stories, it
would make good television ( provided they have sorted the problems out ).
So people the answer is Email watchdog at the BBC and let them know, we have nothing to lose and if
enough of us do it, then who knows Mr Branson may take a broom to his house, sweep it clean and blow
away the crud thats affecting us.
» Story by Anon, dudley on 02nd December 2009
Final update (I hope) on my most recent issues with Virgin Media.
This issue has now been resolved after an admin from an internet forum sent my details through to
someone in the Chief Executives Office at Virgin Media. I got a call the next day from someone quite
senior, who at first argued that I did owe the money, but finally admitted defeat due to them being unable to
provide the information to show I owed the money. I’ve now got written confirmation that the (none
existent) outstanding amounts from 2005/06 have now been cleared from the system, and I will no longer
be chased for them.
It took longer than it should have done to resolve the issues, which should never have arisen in the first
17 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
place. but at least they’ve done the right thing in the end.
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 30th November 2009
A warning to those who have Cable systems form Virgin, Their telephone calls are easily monitored by
radio within a half mile radius.
Any crook who wants to can monitor and record conversations , and therby obtain credit card details when
goods are being odred by phone, also any holiday arrangements will inform crooks when properties are
unattended!!!
BE WARNED
» Story by Dave, Hayling Island on 27th November 2009
Im a keen Halo 3 player and i rely on my connection to make sure i dont get BS’d all the time. Now recently
i have been dropping red bar (which means that i cant connect to people or my connection is failing) and i
cant play what so ever for like 5 mins in a game :(
Then i ring them and they are all tools they say everything i already know. i really do hate virgin media with
a passion
» Story by Stephen, Newcastle on 26th November 2009
Having billing problems with Virgin - complain to BBC Watchdog here --> http://www.bbc.co.uk
/watchdog. I’ve just sent a complaint regarding my ongoing billing issues, the more the merrier.
» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 22nd November 2009
I had been with diamond cable then ntl and finally Virgin (Shite) Media.
I consider myself a loyal customer until I rung up one day like a twat, for a simple request ‘enable caller
display’, then was talked into upgrading my broadband as well. At no point did they tell you you’re locked in
for another year contract.
Shortly after my phone line became terrible and was hardly able to hear anything. Engineer came out totally
uninterested “might be bit of damp in the cable” then said “don’t use the phone in the rain and if you ring up
for another callout you will be charged”, said engineer then pissed off without doing anything apart from
wiggle the outside box about.
Absolute bollocks, so now wanting to leave I found myself stuck with a shitty company I no longer wanted
to be with.
Virgin DONT look after existing customers, not bothering to upgrade equipment as the years go by(old NTl
kit),quite happy taking your £60 month. Well finally my contract ran out and I was chomping at the bit to
leave and I did.
Went to Bt for land line and got half price broadband with O2 as I use their mobile, TV I went for a humax
9300 freeview tuner, a fantastic bit of kit. So am now paying £21 month rather than £60 month with virgin
for a truly shite service.
Ah I feel better now thanks for listening J
P.s
AVOID VIRGIN MEDIA
» Story by Richard, UK on 22nd November 2009
Biggest pile of shite I’ve ever subscribed to. Funnily enough, made worse because the company I work for
pays my BB connection which for too long made me too lazy to get angry enough to change to someone
else.
But change I will because the connection is so crap it barely works anymore. And it gets worse and worse
with each passing month. Constantly dropping connections (in fact I’m going to have to copy this text
before posting, because the bastard connection will probably drop out as I post and lose what I’ve written)
and a speed that is now unusable for any normal internet use.
Virgin’s BB has made me associate the virgin name with crap. If there was a Virgin toilet paper out there I
might use it because shite is what I associate with the name Virgin.
I’ll now avoid everything Virgin and tell everyone I know to do the same. If they can pass off this shit as a
BB service then who knows what the state of their trains’ and planes’ maintenance must be, As a company
they obviously have no quality control or audit process.
I’m definitely not short of money so I didn’t sign up to Virgin to get the cheapest; I just thought they might
be the most straightforward and honest. Well, looks like I was wrong!
My advice to anyone considering anything with the Virgin name on it is don’t go anywhere near it. The
18 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
owner seems to have no interest in how he makes his money and whether or not he makes it honestly. He
just wants to spend it on adventure stunts. What a pity Steve Fosset’s final flight had an empty spare seat.
His good friend Richard should’ve been with him.
» Story by Dave, Leicester on 21st November 2009
I know some people have said they cannot get out of contracts. I would say if you want ,then keep good
records of the problems, dates times etc and then terminate by formal letter ,alleging that they have
breached their side of the contract. I doubt they could win in court if you have good cause and good
evidence that they failed to fulfil their side of contract.
» Story by Kia, Woking, Surrey on 19th November 2009
Ive been using VirginMedia cable internet (10mb) and phone for around 7 months now and am mostly
happy ,excepting that on occassions they have had outages of the phone a few times only the internet.
The problem I had with them in the beginning was some foreign call centre sales person selling me the
package at extremely good price and then I was getting billed for a higher rate, Eventually I got that back.
Now I pay £28 a month for 10mb Internet, phone and free national and local calls 24/7 . Not bad really.
Score out of 10 I would say maybe an 7 or 8.
» Story by Kia, Woking, Surrey on 19th November 2009
Another update to my issues.
I sent an email to Virgin Media a couple of days ago asking why they keep trying to extort money out of me
that they are not owed. I got a phone call today from a guy at Virgin Media to talk to me about it.
He insists the cost of the V+ box has now been properly credited back to me, so I won’t be billed for it
again. I won’t hold my breath. I asked him if I could get out of my contract before January, he said I
couldn’t. I therefore told him I’ll be leaving at the end of January to go to Sky. He then asked whether it was
just due to the billing issues, to which I responded with a list of issues going back to when I joined them.
One of these issues was that in 2008, they set debt collectors on me for an outstanding balance at my
previous address from 2005. However, I cleared this balance in November 2005 so that I could get the
services installed at my new address (they actually cancelled the engineer due to the outstanding balance,
but didn’t tell me). I paid it, and got it installed. All sorted, or so I thought.
After a few arguments over this balance, I told them if they kept chasing me for it then I’d cancel all my
current services. That was the last I heard of it, until today. When I mentioned this issue to the guy who
phoned me, he investigated and called me back to say it is still outstanding and I have to pay. However,
they can’t provide bills from that time, and have only given me a basic list of payments due and payments
made, and an itemised list of a few calls. The payments made to not match my bank statements, which
show I’ve paid a lot more than they claim.
Come January I’ll be off to Sky. This guy was trying to get me to stay after this - insisting I pay £100 from
2005 is hardly a good way of doing this!! Epic fail on his part.
I have had it with Virgin. We are constantly having problems with loss of broadband and phone. The latest
problem is no tv for over a week. And are they bothered ? no not a bit. I have rung everyday for the last
week, and they say it will be up again within four hours. All they are willing to refund is £10 out of my
subscription which is for XL . I cant take anymore of this and am off to a different company, but to add
insult to injury, it will cost me £90 for the pleasure of leaving Virgin. Customer service is appalling, and I
intend to make it widely known that Virgin Media sucks
» Story by Yellowpenguin, Surrey on 18th November 2009
Just to leave an update on my previous bitch about Virgin, the tech who promised to call me with an
update, didn’t. Surprise, surprise. However, he did fix the problem, or so we thought for the one day we had
Virgin broadband.
I called again the following day after speaking to Virgin the last time I described. They had me configure the
router (very complicated and time consuming) and to my joy and relief, we finally had broadband!
Only it was slow and intermittent. My husband kept getting booted off of World of Warcraft due to a dip in
connection and his character died several times due to lag (if you’re a gamer, or know a gamer, you will
know that this is like the worst thing that can happen to them). We knew that we were not getting 50mg
broadband. In fact the free broadband that we were getting from Sky was actually faster and more reliable!
(although our Sky broadband cuts off when someone calls us or we call someone, but that’s a separate
19 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
issue).
It is now the 18th of November and I wasted another 20 mins of my life on the phone to Virgin this morning
only for them to hang up on me. My husband came home from work this evening and decided that he
would give them a ring. He too spent 20 mins listening to the same three songs over and over again only
for the phone to go dead as the people at Virgin terminated the call. He was very irate after this and
phoned again with the intention of telling Virgin where they could shove their broadband service. He got
through to someone eventually who, after asking him to look at the lights on the router, said he couldn’t
believe that someone hadn’t previously noticed that the router was not giving out a broadband signal.
Apparently they can tell if your router is not working from their end, if someone had bothered to look. They
promise to send out a new router within the next 3-5 days. (again, I won’t hold my breath). Only time will tell
if this will fix the problem forever or we will again be on the phone to the dreaded Virgin Media customer
services in the near future.
» Story by Adele, Andover, Hampshire on 18th November 2009
As an update to my previous post in September, I got so fed up with the TV box not working I finally
managed to talk them into giving me a “free” V+ box and installation by threatening to cancel all my
services (I’m on XL for everything, so pay them a lot of money). They installed it, everything seemed fine
for a change.
Then a couple of weeks later I get a letter detailing charges for the box. I phoned and complained, and they
insisted I wouldn’t be charged, it was just a standard letter.
Then I got my bill, including a charge for the V+ box. I complained again, and they removed the charge
from the bill.
I then got a letter welcoming me to the extended 12 month contract. I didn’t sign any contract, or agree to
any contract, and wasn’t advised of a new contract. Complained yet again, and got a note put on the
system to say I should not be held to the extended 12 months.
£69 went out of my account by direct debit as usual on 2nd November. All seemed great, until this morning
I get my next bill. £134, including £59 carried over from last month, plus a £10 late payment fee. But the
direct debit went out on time? What’s this late payment fee?
I’ve just cancelled my direct debit to stop them extorting any more money out of me, and have emailed
them to advise them of this and request that they reduce all of my services to the lowest packages with
immediate affect.
Tomorrow I’ll be speaking to a supervisor to get my current bill completely written off as compensation for
their incompetence, and to have a note put on my account to say that I will not be held to my current
contract that runs until January. I’ll then be contacting Sky to accept their very competitive offer (not much
more than VM, but with many more channels), and will then be cancelling my VM services from the date
that Sky install.
I’ll also be contacting BBC Watchdog and all the newspapers.
It’s Saturday today, and my Virgin Pace box went off on Thursday, I have not had the time to sort it out
until today. So today after calling them a lot of times, I finally got through to someone who was less than
helpful and told me they would send someone out on Wednesday. I was in absolute dis-belief.
‘Wednesday!?!?!?’ I said. Unbelieveable. Not only that, but I’m going on holiday on Wednesday, so I can’t
even have them come that day, so they’re coming next sunday. And I’m only getting 4 days
compensation!!! A disgrace!
» Story by Rachael, Newcastle on 14th November 2009
Have tried twice online via Virgin Media and twice on the phone but still no delivery of the router. They have
acknowledged the order online and customer services promised to resolve the issue. Its not like im not
paying for the bloody thing - what is wrong with the company . I suppose i will take custom elsewhere.
» Story by Steve, bristol on 13th November 2009
Very simple....I am in credit with my account.....but cannot connect to the internet.....I find out 15 calls, over
3 hours of total hold time & 5 weeks later that there is a problem with my wireless network which they didn’t
bother to tell me! It took me to have to complain 4 times for me to eventually get through to someone
english who basically said “sorry Mr.Flanagan, it’s our fault, you’re part of a select number of people who
we are trying to fix, it will take a further 10 working days to fix”
20 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
& I’m paying them £15 & mobile phone fees for this? insane
» Story by Jason Flanagan, York on 12th November 2009
I am currently trying to get virgin internet, I asked for it on the 5th September 2009, today its 11th
November 2009. I first went to a sales person at my university and they said I could get internet using my
telephone line, to change the phone line would take one week and the internet would be up a week after the
phone lines swapped over. But still I have no internet. Firstly we got a letter saying the internet will be
activated on the 28th October and we should get the router delivered to us around this time. The 28th
October came and went with yet no router (no surprise here). Me and my flatmate have currently taken 2
days off work to wait around for a router which hasn’t turned up. We have been phoning and phoning them,
asking why it hasn’t turned up. Many people at the help centres have no clue what is going on and you get
transferred to many different departments. Basically we found out that they couldn’t find our flat (even
though its in the centre of a town). Oh and they didn’t have our number so they couldn’t phone us for
directions, even though we keep giving out our damn mobile numbers to every person we phone. And even
one of them told us he couldn’t give the delivery people our number due to data protection act! Finally the
router came on Monday (9/11/09) and the delivery man said I found the flat fine. Ok so now technically the
internet should work. WRONG. They somehow in the last week have turned off our phone line and they
said they would fix it within a week. So last night (10/11/09) we found out it had been fixed (pretty quickley!)
We were all excited, plugged everything in and yet still the laptop does not find the internet...2hours later on
the phone to them (yet another evening wasted) and finally establishing turning the router on and off doesn’t
make it work, they are going to do “intrusive checks” on the phone line and it should be working within a
week. I won’t hold my breath…
» Story by Liz Dodd, London on 11th November 2009
Virgin Media charged me £20 to install their 50mg service and an engineer was supposed to come out to
me on the 29th of October. At 8pm the evening before, a lady from Virgin called me and said they were at
of 50 mg routers and she cancelled my installation. She promised that someone would call me with in the
week to rebook the installation.
After a week I heard nothing so I called them. Wait times to speak to an adviser were always 20 mins or
over so I decided to e-mail them through their website which stated that e-mails would be responded to
within 48 hours. Three days after sending the first e-mail I sent another one telling them that their 48 hours
was long since up and I wanted a response. They e-mailed back saying that they didn’t know who I was
and couldn’t help me. (I included my name and complete address but no account number as I hadn’t
received one at that point)
I decided to call despite calls being charged at 6.85 pence a minute. I finally got through to someone and
he told me I had cancelled my installation, I said I had done no such thing and I had already paid for it so
why would I cancel it? He eventually apologised and arranged for Virgin to be installed on the 5/11/09.
They came, they installed. Only it doesn’t work. My husband spent the whole of Saturday on the phone to
them and great expense to our phone bill. My husband is a computer geek and so got quickly frustrated
with the Indian call centre people telling him to switch the router on and off for the 100th time, like he hadn’t
tried that!
The 50 mg broadband team on his 3rd call revealed that this was a known problem with them sending data
out to the exchange. They said they would call back with an update. They never did. He called again. This
time he tried to tell them about what the technician beforehand told him. They wouldn’t listen. They wanted
him to try turning it off and on again. He was fuming!
Today 10/11/09 I called them. After being hung up on once and having a 25 minute wait, I got through to a
person who could not help me because she does not deal with the 50 mg service. She put me on hold for
another 5 minutes until a member of the 50 mg team answered.
He was very apologetic, apparently the same problem still exists and has not been fixed. He promises to
look into it and call me back, some how I doubt I shall be holding my breathe!!
All in all a very poor service.
» Story by Adele, Andover, Hampshire on 10th November 2009
Some basic research into Virgin Media reveals that they seem to have bigger things to worry about than
thousands of disgruntled customers complaining on a few websites. Check out the ‘controversy’ section in
the Virgin Media Wikipedia entry for starters. That page will also show you that Richard Branson in only a
shareholder in Virgin Media - he does not own the company. I have to question his integrity when he rents
out his Virgin brand on a 30-year deal and then does nothing when that brand is so badly tarnished, and
thoughts like this make me personally want to boycott ALL Virgin branded products in protest.
Complaining here will help you let of steam, but don’t be under the illusion that the big cheeses of Virgin
21 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22
Media read this page and immediately set into motion grand schemes to resolve our issues. They don’t,
and they couldn’t care less.
The only way YOU are going to get any satisfaction is to immediately cancel your Virgin Media accounts
and decide to NEVER deal with this company again. This company is charging us all for services they do
not provide, and do not listen to us when we complain.
Let’s bring this company down.

Let’s do it the simple way - by having nothing to do with it.
Tell your friends about the problems you’ve had.
Spread the word.
Let their poor service be the very thing that destroys them.
» Story by Steve Roach, Worcester on 09th November 2009
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displayed, your email is only used if you choose to be notified of future stories.
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22 of 22 08/04/2010 13:22

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Problems with Virgin - Show your dissatisfaction with Virgin Media! http://www.problemswithvirgin.co.

Why could I be bothered to make this site? Problems from Twitter...

Virgin media cable Internet. What a

5 April 2010, 5:41 am

Anybody else having problems with

» Story by Kalpana, Dudley on 31st March 2010

» Story by Administrator, UK on 30th March 2010

» Story by ITK, on 30th March 2010

In response to a removed post by ITK (InTheKnow)…

» Story by Administrator, UK on 29th March 2010

» Story by Mick Dean, South London on 25th March 2010

» Story by Kirill Horoshenkov, Ilkley on 24th March 2010

» Story by p, birmingham on 23rd March 2010

» Story by Lesley, Lancashire on 23rd March 2010

» Story by Sheila, Bournemouth on 18th March 2010

» Story by Lisa, Middlesbrough on 17th March 2010

» Story by naomi, widnes on 17th March 2010

» Story by Micheal, Buckinghamshire on 16th March 2010

» Story by Hilly, Portsmouth on 12th March 2010

» Story by JFerreira, London on 12th March 2010

from 5pm right through until now at midnight.

» Story by Graham, Glasgow on 10th March 2010

» Story by A Jones, Swansea on 08th March 2010

» Story by dave, nottingham on 06th March 2010

» Story by Alan, Liverpool on 04th March 2010

Sir Richard Branson’s Office,

Once again, good luck.

» Story by Dave, London on 03rd March 2010

» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 23rd February 2010

» Story by glen, manchester on 20th February 2010

» Story by sid, leicester on 19th February 2010

» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 19th February 2010

» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 19th February 2010

» Story by Brian, Preston on 18th February 2010

My virgin media system insists on hanging at key points any show......

Your playing me!!!!!!! virgin and not very well...........

Sky looks more attractive every day!!!

Don’t give me a break! its taking the P.....

» Story by Bob Hoy, South Tyneside on 18th February 2010

» Story by disgruntled with VM wifi, Folkestone on 17th February 2010

» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 08th February 2010

» Story by CK, Manchester on 03rd February 2010

» Story by Beth, croxley green on 30th January 2010

» Story by dave, plymouth on 28th January 2010

» Story by Cloud, Nottinghamshire on 27th January 2010

» Story by Stuart, Loughborough on 26th January 2010

» Story by Matt, Darlington, Co Durham. on 25th January 2010

again and then bill you for it,

stay with sky!!!!!

» Story by becky, castleford on 23rd January 2010

» Story by Joe, London on 22nd January 2010

A letter to Branson’s acolytes:

Dear Virgin Media,

» Story by Sheff, Sheffield on 21st January 2010

» Story by Stefan Bancroft, Bristol on 21st January 2010

» Story by Damian, Nottingham on 20th January 2010

» Story by Matt, Bristol on 20th January 2010

» Story by Mike, London on 20th January 2010

» Story by Ann, Kilmarnock on 19th January 2010

» Story by john, croydon on 19th January 2010

I just need to get this off my chest.

I shall go the bed now and have a good cry.

» Story by John M, Northampton East on 18th January 2010

» Story by Gareth, Surbiton, Surrey on 18th January 2010