Virgin Media – Another one of Sir Richard Branson’s companies which was supposed to give great customer service, great value telecoms and award winning TV to the great British public all with the added backup of the powerful Virgin brand.
Virgin, like Apple is one of the few companies which people will pay a slight premium for as they have faith in the brand and its values, they expect great service and for problems to be fixed quickly and efficiently by professionally trained experts.
I am in no way claiming to be a Virgin fanboy but this week I have used Virgin trains twice, have 2 Virgin mobile phones and when possible will choose a Virgin product over others as I believe in the brands value, or I did until this weekend.
It all started on Thursday when I decided to get another broadband package and naturally I choose Virgin as I already had other services with the company.
I called up sales and went over all my details expecting an installation date etc. During the call I had walked from my house to a shop and forgot my debit card which was required to finalise the sign up so the sales chap suggested he would call me back early the next morning to take thing to completion.
On Friday morning I did indeed get a call from a number which belongs to the Virgin sales team, unfortunately I was onboard a Virgin Pendolino train which was suffering from poor telephone reception due to the location of the train.
On my return to Glasgow I called the same sales number and explained the situation and the chap told me he would sort it all out and not to worry about anything. I did enquire if I would be credit checked again and he said no as it was already done and on the system.
During the call the sales agent told me his system crashed and he would need to call me back, true to his word he called about 15 minutes later and we started again until he had yet another issue and he would need to move over to his managers system to get thing fixed. He also told me about a flow in the system and that it may take a little time to fix but I would be called back later in the day once everything had been fixed and my account activated. By the end of business last night I had no call back.
This morning I called the sales department again and asked them to confirm my new account information. The sales girl in question called Laura Johnston told me that it would not be a problem and she would have me set up in no time.
After the usual questions, half of which she already had answered on her screen she politely informed me that I failed a credit check. I did point out to her that I had already been credit checked on day one and that the second sales man said that I would not be credit checked again as they already had the first one completed. She then told me that each application is credit checked and that It was my fault for not telling he I never wanted credit checked.
After explaining how multiple credit checks over a few days can be damaging to your credit file she decided to transfer me around 3 times until I got Virgin Media national customer service.
I explained to the customer service lady that I had been accepted first time and the problems I had since experienced. I explained that the second sales man had told me I would not be credit checked again and even told me I had an old account which was in CREDIT!.
Explaining that I had no idea if I had been credit checked 3 times +, unsure how much money had been taken off my debit card if any and wanting conformation If I would ever get the line I was told simply that I must go back to sales who deal with it. Voicing my concerns that clearly someone in Virgin Media Sales was telling lies and that I had no faith in the department I asked to be escalated to someone who could fix my problem and hopefuly get me up and running.
The agent spoke to her team leader Emma Cooper who was to busy to talk with me and told her once again to refer me back to sales. I asked her to reconsider and take into the account my credit score could be damaged, money may have been taken and I am a little unhappy and could she please have a quick chat only to be told go and do a credit search on myself!
I was then told Emma Cooper from Virgin Media Customer Services would call me back but as yet it has not happened. I have no phone line, no new broadband, a damaged credit file and hours of wasted time on the phone.
What have I learned?
- Virgin Media do NOT care about customers, they clearly have a poorly trained telesales team which is so hungry for commission that they lie and cheat to make bank.
- Virgin Customer Service is poorly operated and have no ability to fix simple problems. A common sense approach to this situation could have resulted in a happy user
What can I do about it?
Virgin Media have made it very clear they do not care about my problem, they have left me with no choice but to warn other people about the way they treat customers. I will continue to
- Inform as many people about the horrific service using this blog post, syndicated news articles and extensive republishing across my entire network, partner networks and social media channels.
- Inform every affiliate partner about the pathetic service offered and the harm it could do to sales conversions
- Send an email highlighting points made in this email subscription list of over 300 thousand UK consumers.
I wish I never had to take they actions but I can’t help worry that other people will be affected. I also hope that Sir Richard, wherever he is in the world today would be as appalled at the abuse of his brand and everything it stands for.
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