Virgin Media to be investigated after customers report difficulties cancelling contracts

[Oliver]

I think I posted about my difficulties leaving VM. Looks like I'm not
the only one.

<https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/07/virgin-media-under-review-after-customers-experience-difficultie/>

[Brian Gaff]

Yes this hit national news when offcom got involved. The problem is not one
of deliberate blocking but incompetence.
Brian
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I think I posted about my difficulties leaving VM. Looks like I'm not the
only one.
<https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/07/virgin-media-under-review-after-customers-experience-difficultie/>
--
Oliver

[Philip Hole]

Post by Brian Gaff
Yes this hit national news when offcom got involved. The problem is not one
of deliberate blocking but incompetence.
Brian

This is a circular argument.

If you employ incompetent staff (for CS and their script writers) you
can expect that customers will not achieve a satisfactory conclusion to
their requests.

If this includes those who want to leave,
they will become exasperated. And the dialogue will just decay. At some
point the customer has to give up.

Senior management MUST be aware and condone it. (Or even encourage it).

Contracts over three/six months should be banned. It would ease leaving
an ISP and shake up most suppliers.

ps Why do ISPs in common have poor CS? It does not occur in other
industries. There are few exceptions - one being not to use telephone
access but only email. My experience of this is that they respond (by
email) within two hours from the hands-on knowledgeable engineer.
Flop

[Brian Gaff]

You cannot half the time find a way to communicate with many companies via
email. Its normally some web form that vanishes into the wide blue yonder
with a carbon copy reply with a no reply address.

It all seemed to go wrong when it became O2 Virgin Media. Cost cutting
again, new brooms and all that. Now we hear the only reason they are keeping
email going is for existing customers. Does not bode well for its future or
its priority either. Only this morning it was not accepting emails to
groups.io then all of a sudden it was. Its mixed up dates on emails that
I've never seen before, but the sender said it had actually been sent in
May, and looking at the header its been running around inside Virgin for
over a month, and then having the dates changed to make them look new. As I
say, incompetent. My guess is that they have put many people on short term
contracts and got rid of the people who used to know all the systems
backwards. A classic problem when they cut costs by removing the people with
the knowledge as they cost too much.
Brian
--
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This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
***@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!

Post by Philip Hole

Post by Brian Gaff
Yes this hit national news when offcom got involved. The problem is not one
of deliberate blocking but incompetence.
Brian

This is a circular argument.
If you employ incompetent staff (for CS and their script writers) you can
expect that customers will not achieve a satisfactory conclusion to their
requests.
If this includes those who want to leave,
they will become exasperated. And the dialogue will just decay. At some
point the customer has to give up.
Senior management MUST be aware and condone it. (Or even encourage it).
Contracts over three/six months should be banned. It would ease leaving an
ISP and shake up most suppliers.
ps Why do ISPs in common have poor CS? It does not occur in other
industries. There are few exceptions - one being not to use telephone
access but only email. My experience of this is that they respond (by
email) within two hours from the hands-on knowledgeable engineer.
Flop

[Brian Gaff]

Further, email is weird again. On one of my accounts anything coming in from
a particular groups.io list is being sent to spam claiming the client did
not present a certificate, but other groups.io lists on the same accound
have no issues Also some emails are just going into limbo or not to the
groups I send them to or the persons either, occasionally it tells me the
message is too long to send then about half an hour later sends it.
Brian
--
--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
***@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!

Post by Brian Gaff
You cannot half the time find a way to communicate with many companies via
email. Its normally some web form that vanishes into the wide blue yonder
with a carbon copy reply with a no reply address.
It all seemed to go wrong when it became O2 Virgin Media. Cost cutting
again, new brooms and all that. Now we hear the only reason they are
keeping email going is for existing customers. Does not bode well for its
future or its priority either. Only this morning it was not accepting
emails to groups.io then all of a sudden it was. Its mixed up dates on
emails that I've never seen before, but the sender said it had actually
been sent in May, and looking at the header its been running around inside
Virgin for over a month, and then having the dates changed to make them
look new. As I say, incompetent. My guess is that they have put many
people on short term contracts and got rid of the people who used to know
all the systems backwards. A classic problem when they cut costs by
removing the people with the knowledge as they cost too much.
Brian
--
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!

Post by Philip Hole

Post by Brian Gaff
Yes this hit national news when offcom got involved. The problem is not one
of deliberate blocking but incompetence.
Brian

This is a circular argument.
If you employ incompetent staff (for CS and their script writers) you can
expect that customers will not achieve a satisfactory conclusion to their
requests.
If this includes those who want to leave,
they will become exasperated. And the dialogue will just decay. At some
point the customer has to give up.
Senior management MUST be aware and condone it. (Or even encourage it).
Contracts over three/six months should be banned. It would ease leaving
an ISP and shake up most suppliers.
ps Why do ISPs in common have poor CS? It does not occur in other
industries. There are few exceptions - one being not to use telephone
access but only email. My experience of this is that they respond (by
email) within two hours from the hands-on knowledgeable engineer.
Flop