Gragh!

[lnr]

Why I hate Virgin Media right now:

Dear sales team,

I recently arranged to have broadband and phone services from Virgin
Media installed, and was told to expect a technican today between 8am
and 1pm.  In fact I received a reminder phone call yesterday afternoon
to check this was still convenient.

As 1pm came and went I called your freephone number and asked what the
problem was, expecting to be told there was a delay and that theywould
arrive this afternoon.  However instead it seems that a mysterious
"construction team" has logged a problem with lines ending 20 metres
short of my house, and this means I can't have a line installed at
this time.  The woman I spoke to took my phone number and promised to
speak to them and find out what was happening and call back in 5
minutes.

2 hours later I called again, and was cut off after 10 minutes on
hold.  I tried again, and the man I spoke to tried to put me through
to the construction team.  He left me listening to another hold
message (better music, no interrupts to remind me I'm in a queue)
which was eventually answered by another woman who was not in fact
part of the construction team.

She tells me that she has no information on why I wasn't called to
tell me the installation had been cancelled, and that she can't find
out, although she will put a note on my account asking the
construction team to tell me.  Apparently the construction team will
contact me soon to rearrange installation, but she has no way of
knowing when this will be.  As I'm on holiday next week it is now
impossible for you to install my line before the date BT were going to
terminate my services, and at any rate you cannot promise to do so
even if I could arrange to be available, so I'm now going to have to
call them and ask them not to disconnect me in a week's time.

To be honest I'm extremely unhappy.  I've read the terms and
conditions and am aware that if cables are available then you could
simply cancel our agreement, and I've currently no way of knowing if
this is what you intend to do or if I should expect your team to start
digging up our road.  I've worked from home this morning, at great
inconvenience, in order to be here and I'm frustrated that you didn't
even have the decency to tell me that no-one was going to turn up.
And I'm quite simply annoyed that people can't call back when they say
they will.

In the light of all this I would really appreciate it if you could let
me know as soon as possible what on earth is actually going on, and
whether I can expect to have your services installed in the near
future or not.  I'd also hope that under the circumstances you'd be
willing to waive some if not all of the £30 installation fee as a
goodwill gesture.  I understand that these may not necessarily be in
your power, but if not I'd appreciate it if you could pass my requests
on to appropriate colleagues.

Yours,

Eleanor Blair, account number 773152801

I would say I hate everyone, or everyone selling anything on the web, but John Lewis just delivered me a bookcase when they said they would, and even rang in advance to let me know they'd be here in 30-45 minutes. Somehow I'm not in the mood for building flat-pack furniture right now.

It turns out the construction team noted the problem on the 8th, but didn't bother like telling the people who rang me yesterday to check today was still OK, never mind telling me. BT tell me I have to get Virgin to cancel the number transfer and then call them back on the 19th to double-check. Virgin tell me that the number transfer has been cancelled because the installation was cancelled. They still tell me someone will be in touch to re-arrange a date but that it might not be soon. I am *not* happy. (but telling me I'm a fool for having anything to do with them is not going to help)

Comments

[lnr]

I wasn't getting TV, I was getting internet and phone. Which I currently get down a bloody awful BT line very slowly with some help from AOL who are at least cheap. If the phone breaks the internet breaks, just like with Virgin. And I cannot get any faster than 1Mb per second. Tell me than 10Mb for pretty much the same price wouldn't tempt *you* under those circumstances.