‘I was cut off four times’: Virgin Media customers say it’s too hard to
cancel costly contracts

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-four-times-virgin-media-customers-say-its-too-hard-to-cancel-costly-contracts

"Many users tried to switch after they faced price rises of more than
50% at the end of their broadband deal

Broadband customers claim they are trapped in costly contracts with
Virgin Media five months after the telecoms regulator launched an
investigation into the company’s cancellation procedures."

Yes, that sounds familiar ...

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
> ‘I was cut off four times’: Virgin Media customers say it’s too hard to
> cancel costly contracts
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-four-times-virgin-media-customers-say-its-too-hard-to-cancel-costly-contracts
>
> "Many users tried to switch after they faced price rises of more than
> 50% at the end of their broadband deal
>
> Broadband customers claim they are trapped in costly contracts with
> Virgin Media five months after the telecoms regulator launched an
> investigation into the company’s cancellation procedures."
>
> Yes, that sounds familiar ...
>

I’ve cancelled mine with no difficulty. Took a while to navigate the phone
menus, but once I got a real person it was straightforward. The trick was
to tell them I already had an alternative service installed (which was
true). That stops attempts to send you off to retentions. I moved to IDNET
supplied via CityFibre. Twice the download speed, 25 times the upload speed
for 60% of the cost, and much lower latency.

On 20/12/2023 11:03, Java Jive wrote:
> ‘I was cut off four times’: Virgin Media customers say it’s too hard to
> cancel costly contracts
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-four-times-virgin-media-customers-say-its-too-hard-to-cancel-costly-contracts
>
> "Many users tried to switch after they faced price rises of more than
> 50% at the end of their broadband deal
>
> Broadband customers claim they are trapped in costly contracts with
> Virgin Media five months after the telecoms regulator launched an
> investigation into the company’s cancellation procedures."
>
> Yes, that sounds familiar ...
>
Yep, Virgin are, C*NTS, simple as that. A friend of mine had an 18 month
battle with them, regarding leaving, but they insisted he was still in
contract with them, and threatened court action, and he had his credit
rating downgraded. It's a hell of a story, took him over an hour to
recount the whole saga to me in the pub.

They are complete muppets. Anyway, thanks to the ombudsman, he got
everything resolved, got them to admit they had fucked up (and not him).
He got to see their evidence they submitted, which actually showed they
were in the wrong from day one. He wishes he'd taken them to court (He's
actually a civvy in the police force, and spends his time presenting
evidence in court anyway !)

Appalling shower of shite. I would never have touched them with a barge
pole, because of their fibres that only sit 50mm below the road surface,
and their bacofoil street cabs.

On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 11:24:42 UTC, Mark Carver wrote:
> On 20/12/2023 11:03, Java Jive wrote:
> > ‘I was cut off four times’: Virgin Media customers say it’s too hard to
> > cancel costly contracts
> >
> > https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-four-times-virgin-media-customers-say-its-too-hard-to-cancel-costly-contracts
> >
> > "Many users tried to switch after they faced price rises of more than
> > 50% at the end of their broadband deal
> >
> > Broadband customers claim they are trapped in costly contracts with
> > Virgin Media five months after the telecoms regulator launched an
> > investigation into the company’s cancellation procedures."
> >
> > Yes, that sounds familiar ...
> >
> Yep, Virgin are, C*NTS, simple as that. A friend of mine had an 18 month
> battle with them, regarding leaving, but they insisted he was still in
> contract with them, and threatened court action, and he had his credit
> rating downgraded. It's a hell of a story, took him over an hour to
> recount the whole saga to me in the pub.
>
> They are complete muppets. Anyway, thanks to the ombudsman, he got
> everything resolved, got them to admit they had fucked up (and not him).
> He got to see their evidence they submitted, which actually showed they
> were in the wrong from day one. He wishes he'd taken them to court (He's
> actually a civvy in the police force, and spends his time presenting
> evidence in court anyway !)
>
> Appalling shower of shite. I would never have touched them with a barge
> pole, because of their fibres that only sit 50mm below the road surface,
> and their bacofoil street cabs.

Virgin took over NTHell, and sadly some of their customer hostility.

notya...@gmail.com <notyalckram@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 11:24:42 UTC, Mark Carver wrote:
> > They are complete muppets. Anyway, thanks to the ombudsman, he got
> > everything resolved, got them to admit they had fucked up (and not him).
> > He got to see their evidence they submitted, which actually showed they
> > were in the wrong from day one. He wishes he'd taken them to court (He's
> > actually a civvy in the police force, and spends his time presenting
> > evidence in court anyway !)
> >
> > Appalling shower of shite. I would never have touched them with a barge
> > pole, because of their fibres that only sit 50mm below the road surface,
> > and their bacofoil street cabs.
>
> Virgin took over NTHell, and sadly some of their customer hostility.

They've been owned by Liberty Global since 2013, who presumably decided to
milk their monopoly position. However their network isn't a monopoly any
more in many places, and people have a lot more options.

(even my former residence which to this day has only 11Mbps ADSL plus
Virgin, has now gained Cityfibre. I can picture the piles of defunct cable
modems in the street when that was installed)

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> notya...@gmail.com <notyalckram@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 11:24:42 UTC, Mark Carver wrote:
>>> They are complete muppets. Anyway, thanks to the ombudsman, he got
>>> everything resolved, got them to admit they had fucked up (and not him).
>>> He got to see their evidence they submitted, which actually showed they
>>> were in the wrong from day one. He wishes he'd taken them to court (He's
>>> actually a civvy in the police force, and spends his time presenting
>>> evidence in court anyway !)
>>>
>>> Appalling shower of shite. I would never have touched them with a barge
>>> pole, because of their fibres that only sit 50mm below the road surface,
>>> and their bacofoil street cabs.
>>
>> Virgin took over NTHell, and sadly some of their customer hostility.
>
> They've been owned by Liberty Global since 2013, who presumably decided to
> milk their monopoly position. However their network isn't a monopoly any
> more in many places, and people have a lot more options.
>
> (even my former residence which to this day has only 11Mbps ADSL plus
> Virgin, has now gained Cityfibre. I can picture the piles of defunct cable
> modems in the street when that was installed)
>
> Theo
>

We were in a similar position re slow VDSL or Virgin Media. I went to City
Fibre as soon as the service became live a couple of months ago. It is
better in all respects. However CF don’t seem to be making much effort to
sell the service. I think they hope their ISPs will do it, but I’ve not
seen much evidence of that just yet.

On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 18:33:01 UTC, Tweed wrote:
> Theo <theom...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > notya...@gmail.com <notya...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 11:24:42 UTC, Mark Carver wrote:
> >>> They are complete muppets. Anyway, thanks to the ombudsman, he got
> >>> everything resolved, got them to admit they had fucked up (and not him).
> >>> He got to see their evidence they submitted, which actually showed they
> >>> were in the wrong from day one. He wishes he'd taken them to court (He's
> >>> actually a civvy in the police force, and spends his time presenting
> >>> evidence in court anyway !)
> >>>
> >>> Appalling shower of shite. I would never have touched them with a barge
> >>> pole, because of their fibres that only sit 50mm below the road surface,
> >>> and their bacofoil street cabs.
> >>
> >> Virgin took over NTHell, and sadly some of their customer hostility.
> >
> > They've been owned by Liberty Global since 2013, who presumably decided to
> > milk their monopoly position. However their network isn't a monopoly any
> > more in many places, and people have a lot more options.
> >
> > (even my former residence which to this day has only 11Mbps ADSL plus
> > Virgin, has now gained Cityfibre. I can picture the piles of defunct cable
> > modems in the street when that was installed)
> >
> > Theo
> >
> We were in a similar position re slow VDSL or Virgin Media. I went to City
> Fibre as soon as the service became live a couple of months ago. It is
> better in all respects. However CF don’t seem to be making much effort to
> sell the service. I think they hope their ISPs will do it, but I’ve not
> seen much evidence of that just yet.

Probably making sure that they don't over expand and overstretch their back haul network.

Tweed wrote:

[snip]

>
> We were in a similar position re slow VDSL or Virgin Media. I went to City
> Fibre as soon as the service became live a couple of months ago. It is
> better in all respects. However CF don’t seem to be making much effort to
> sell the service. I think they hope their ISPs will do it, but I’ve not
> seen much evidence of that just yet.

Cityfibre may know that they don't have the staff to take on lots of new
customers all at once. If they can service those they do have really
well, then there will be spare staff in the future, because customers
won't be bothering them with problems!

Satisfied customers will also evangelise for them, saving them the costs
of advertising.

--
Graham J

On Wednesday 20 December 2023 at 21:25:43 UTC, Graham J wrote:
> Tweed wrote:
>
> [snip]
> >
> > We were in a similar position re slow VDSL or Virgin Media. I went to City
> > Fibre as soon as the service became live a couple of months ago. It is
> > better in all respects. However CF don’t seem to be making much effort to
> > sell the service. I think they hope their ISPs will do it, but I’ve not
> > seen much evidence of that just yet.
> Cityfibre may know that they don't have the staff to take on lots of new
> customers all at once. If they can service those they do have really
> well, then there will be spare staff in the future, because customers
> won't be bothering them with problems!
>
> Satisfied customers will also evangelise for them, saving them the costs
> of advertising.
>
> --
> Graham J

Particularly if they were previous Virgin, TalkTalk, Tiscali or Plusnet customers and are able both to inform others of their standard of service compared to that of their previous provider. Indeed the main message I picked up from this is not so much that City Fibre are good, but to never deal with Virgin.

Sadly Richard Branson established Virgin as an honourable brand offering exceptional service, but then effectively sold the rights to companies that traded on Virgin's good name while offering the opposite.