Now I don't actually have 10 reasons, but I know that blog entries that start 10 reasons ... tend to get picked up more by different search and registration engines. Don't let this stop you reading, because Virgin Media really do suck.

First they take over two reasonably crap companies (NTL and Telewest) to form one rather over trendy and under competent entity. That sucks a bit, but hey - cheaper is better right?

So, here in the UK we have several different ways of getting the same TV channels. There are a few channels that are especially good (since they play the popular shows first) - these are only available by paying. So, I sign up for V+ - an equivalent service Sky+ (the main vendor of the channels).

1) It's damn expensive for what you get. V+ is slow and clunky. The menu system feels like it was written by a first year student and responds like it's running on a ZX spectrum.

Next, a month into my contract, Virgin have some legal wrangle with Sky - essentially Virgin don't want to pay as much for the channels they're reselling. This means Virgin stop offering customers the channels they're paying for.

2) They don't have the right channels. Worse they don't have the channels they originally advertised.

Virgin also offer a phone service, it's a good deal if you're getting the other services like TV anyway. The quality of this phone service is terrible. Calls drop. Audio quality is crap, calls outside of the expected are really really expensive.

3) Their phone service is shockingly bad. Especially given that it's meant to be over cable.

4) They can't work out how caller-id works. I pay for caller ID each month. As yet it's hasn't actually worked. I've tried to cancel it several times but the people who work the call center don't seem to be able cope with the concept (more on them later). They have attempted to indicate that it must be the phone at fault, however the phone has supported caller ID on several other vendors system quite happily.

Virgin Media also offer an internet service. It's very good - it's cable. Thats great. However, it's no where near as fast as it's advertised to be. It's cable - it's meant to be what it says on the tin. It's not.

5) The internet service is slow. Not to mention they try to install a bunch of crap on your machine. Not to mention their technical support don't know anything. Not even their own names it seems. "NTL can I help you...".

Customer service is terrible. Virgin (as in all virgin services) appear to think that playing recorded messages by some faintly sexy sounding northern chick is good enough to solve all problems.

6) They use recorded messages for everything. Even when the message tells you you're about to be put "straight through" to an operator, don't expect to be.

7) When you finally do get through to an operator, most days they're in India. They have no idea what they're talking about and have no power to do anything.

Organization - they don't have any. I'm about to move house, which is what spawned this rant, so I've attempted to cancel my services. I've given them plenty of notice, 2 months. I've only been in my 12 months contract 6 months, so I'll have to pay the rest of the contract off - a whopping 180 quid. Even though Virgin have failed to deliver their contractual agreement, I'll honor mine.

8) Even given Virgin haven't given me the TV channels I'm paying for, or a reliable phone service they are still going to charge me for 6 months contract that I don't want. Can't complain too much about this one, it was part of the contract but I still think it's a bit off.

Anyway, so I eventually arrange for contract to be canceled at the end of this month (July). Surprising, they can calculate instantly how much I'll have to pay off my contract - 6 months - 180 quid!. Well, ok. Fair enough. Business is Business. So we're agreed, service ends at the end of July. You'll send me a bill.

I wake up this morning to find both my TV and Phone not working. I ring up to determine the fault, and after listening to the northern chick for a 15 minutes I get through the guy in India. He asks me some "security questions" - as always things that I could read off my bill and then tells me that all my services have been canceled and hence disconnected. Well, theres a surprise.

9) They're money grabbing bastards. Where the money is concerned they can get it right straight off, however where the practical side is concerned they can't organize shit. Even better *all* my services have been disconnected - yet I seem to be using the internet just fine.

So, he tells me I need to talk to the sales/customer department. I've been through this loop before so I preempt him "let me guess, the customer department isn't open on a Sunday - so there's absolutely nothing I can do". The reply "The customer department is open 9-4 Monday to Friday" - wanker.

10) Customer Focus - they have none. The goal seems to be to screw customers out of every penny, provide sub-standard or non-existent services, when questioned or held accountable send out the under trained under paid brain dead tossers to act dumb and misdirect.

So, I get my hair off, tell the guy he can stick his company, thank him very much and put the phone down.

Now I'm here, expecting my internet connection to drop any moment, trying to relax and vent my anger. It's not working. I want a physical form of virgin media I can take it out on. I might just destroy their set top box.

Heh! It turns out I do have 10 reasons, how convenient. I would strongly advise anyone to steer clear of Virgin-Media. Their service is poor, their customer care is useless and they're low quality for high cost.

Virgin Media is a useless

Virgin Media is a useless crap!! RUN AND DON`T LOOK BACK IF YOU SEE THEIR LOGO!! Useless shit!

Dont tell them the net is

Dont tell them the net is still on!

They're so SHIT you could end upwith it free - they may fuck up in your favour

I'm preparing a pre-legal on them as I'm paying for 20mb & getting 179k due to "traffic shaping" (i.e. throttling!) software.

Gotta say, I'm going to the top now & bypassing the brain-dead CSRs (used to be one, but they'd haveta pay me £150k to go back to that - I know the system like the back off my hand) and unless they fix my friends & familys hassles - BIG day in court!

C*n*s!

All the best mate,

Dx

virgin media is bull sh*t.

virgin media is bull sh*t. its expensive, the company has no common sence i mean why the hell are you going to pay so much when you can get better.
customers services pisses me off the hook nearly broke my own computer.... i really need to do something bad to their company like p*ss on their wall or something.

Had a problem with my Web +

Had a problem with my Web + e-mail connection recently, so I called 150. After the self-congratulatory "This call is ABSOLUTELY FREE!", I got the usual "If you want this, press 1; if you want that, press 2 shite". At no stage in this robotic crap did anyone say "If you want to talk to a real person, press...". At the end, they mention "If you have a problem with broadband internet services, you'll need to 'phone India at 25p per minute". I just re-dialled the 150 number and spoke to the "other options" person, asking to be transferred to their Tech. Support department. Oh, fuck! Couldn't do that! I asked why a telecommunications company had so much bother transferring a call from one line to the other and was told that the Tech. Support line was Premium rate. To which I replied "My point exactly. I'm not paying it to tell you you've got a problem". I was told that I should call it and if the fault wasn't fixed, the call charge would be credited on my next bill. The bill came in today. Guess what? Call charged. Not credited. It was a complete waste of time, anyway. The boy in India or wherever went through his flowchart and told me I didn't have a problem. "Why do you think that grinning bastard Branson keeps you on the subcontinent and won't pay you decent wages? If you and your pals were anywhere near your customers, a mob would invade your call centre and rip your fucking tonsils out". "Please do not use that language", he says. "I'll use whatever language I like, pal. I pay your fucking wages". "Please do not..." "Aw, stick yer heid up yer arse. Oh, it's there already".

By that time I realised that Permagrin actually PREFERS disgruntled customers to satisfied ones, since they'll probably get fooled into staying on the 25p/minute line for longer.

My advice to anyone who gets ripped off by the bastards is just to cancel their bank direct debit and get tv, telephone and Internet somewhere else. I'll be doing that very soon. Well, since Branson did so well out of the capitalist system, he can't very well complain when it bites him in the arse.

They've changed my email

They've changed my email address and/or password without telling me, now i can't even log into my fcuking account and cancel my subscription!!!!!
wake up mr branston you're in a pickle.

Customer Service providers

Customer Service providers are ineffective Bullsh*t!

Customer service is part of the service of your contract. weather it is with a mobile phone or utilites to name but a few. Us the customer`s are supposed to be able to turn too our service provider to resolve any problems you may have about our service, afterall thats what portion of the bill is made up off. this service however, only works if and only if, you query is compliant of the service provider i.e . you are looking to pay them money, tell them how wonderful the service you recieve is, are a new customer, want to increase the content etc..
HOWEVER!! should you have a problem as i had myself with 02 mobile phone provider, i was messed around by the nice people at there call center in Leeds, lied to and decieved. (pretty much like modern relationships in this self indulgent society we dwell in.) when i signed to my contract way back in 2000 i had a lovely lock of blonde hair on my head, these days it would be fare to say there you can find more gray in my head, than you would in a badgers set. I didn`t bank on that added bonuse when i entered in a relationship/contract with them. All this came about from the problems i encountered about my Service provider and the undelightful form of communicatin at there customer service center. the fuckers(customer service operatives and management team) there are not interested in the consumer or our needs, they hate there jobs, dont know if you noticed but customer services have a "Us and Them" mentality (your already on a loser) and if you dare to challenge the bill they concoct lies, even when presented with proof.
The latest endevour was a charge i noticed for a landline call, made from my mobile at the end of last months bill. my minutes available from the last month carried onto the next month were solid proof that i had not encounterd or should encounter any extra financial cost to that months bill. i rang 02 spoke to decent sounding chap (for a change, usually theres attitude and they are trained to word beat you into submission and on this occassin adopted persuasion as there choice of weapon) and he managed to convince me that black was white, i.e. in this case that the evidence was in front of my eyes was wrong and it was a legitimate charge. so far i have not recieved an amended bill. now the cost of the extra charge i noticed was only 5pence this may not seem like alot in old money and it isnt, but its a principle. ask yourself how many people are been hit with these stealth costs in there bills and do not challenge this?.. i imagine if you hit a few million customers with the odd 5pence extra on your bill every month, for twelve months, thats gonna add up to some healthy profit for the 02network if it mainly goes unchallenged and unproved in my case( now i can produce documented evidence to support my case this is not an unprovoked slandour should any beady 02 representive come across this text)..anyway as i was saying theft=extra profit for shareholders =fat bonuses for the company executives at the service providers... now do you see where i am coming from? well let me explain further, the executives are under pressure each and every year to justify there fat pay cheques and earn big bonuses. in order to exploit there ill equipped work force,in this case, the network providers sales and customer service teams and ignorant/gulliable consumers.. bring back nationalisation and before you say it dont work ask yourself why it didnt work and the solution to the problem may present itsself before your very eyes, it has to be a better alternative to what we have now, doesnt it? ..clarence shoehorn (copyright)

Your totally Right about

Your totally Right about Virgin. They do Suck

I got a Virgin Mobile Simcard and got it all registerd to my phone.

they Registered my Email with them and i chose a PassWord

they say its finished and you can now login to your account at Virginmobile.com/shitheadsareconedintoshit/
but when i did try to login it kept coming up with No such email or password has been found! WTF

they sent me a letter with my email and PW just to say its all registered. WTF i still cant login.

Kevin,

Kevin,

I totally agree with your 10 reasons, and can add a couple more on them.
They are certainly bull-sh**ters. I hate calling the call centre abroad, so patronising and they know f-all. The Uk call centre if you do get thru is no better. Waited 62 mins to call a direct line, and then the dude picks up and says its approaching 5.30pm and they will be closing. So not only do they rub you up the wrong way, they also charge you.

I wanted a virgin phone line and bb and was told - no lines were available unless someone moved and gave up their line or 'someone in the street died, freeing up the line' .. their words. So got my line from BT.

After numerous complaints they then resorted to charging me £25 pm for just BB. They say they are rolling out 10mb. Bollocks to that, as i know get 3mb. Thieving ass holes.

If someone stood on my nuts with high heels that would be painful. My experience with virgin/ntl is just as painful. In fact if someone stood on ur nuts it would ache and mind me ok after a few weeks, but with ntl - the pain is ever lasting.
£25 for 3Mb BB...

What pisses me off more is we keep getting letters saying pay £20 for BB and phone. But they dont have a phone line for us, so it seems i'm penalised.

If you speak toa call center member who is just winding u up, chances are his name is Jonathon or Chris (real name krisnathinatwatcuntaa).

Go to O2 broadband and stick two fingers to Virgin.

V I R G I N are C H E A T S!!!

virgin is the biggest load

virgin is the biggest load of fuckin shite i have ever had the misfortune to be involved with, i lose the will to live with their shit pages that dont come up, their shite paypal shite that does not let you pay a fuckin bill without fifteen tries at a user id which they keep telling you is wrong, ive had enough you bastards, stick your virgin media up your fuckin arse.

I pay Virgin Media for the

I pay Virgin Media for the 20mb internet and can't watch a short video on youtube without it stopping every 5 seconds so I trid it at 2 in the morning because they say no one is online so your internet will be faster, it aint. My computer is falling apart now because i've kicked it so many times waiting for a site to load (have to take my anger out on something). My modem started to stop working at night for no reason so I ring the dickheads to find out why so they do the only thing they no what to do and reset the connection and say "we dont see a problem your modem is connected" when it aint because the lights and on. So they decide to come and have a look but I have to wait a week for someone to come out so when they do he says quite quickly "your cable is really old and needs to be changed" so I thought sorted that won't take long "i can't change it i only find out whats wrong someone can come on monday" (6 days away). So i wait and on the monday he comes out and changes all the cable round the house i told him where to put it but no he gets that wrong and makes a mess of it. When he finishes and tries everything the modem doesn't work at all now and he says "i can't sort it i have other jobs" and fucks off leaving me without the internet and another week to wait. The next week they come they changed the cable in the road and it actually worked so i have now got new cable from the modem to the green box out in the road but my internet is still slow as fuck.

New customers avoid them you will take out a contract find out the service is shit and be stook until your contract ends.

Oh god this doesn't seem

Oh god this doesn't seem good. I've long thought about cancelling my tv package with Virgin, as the american garbage on most of the channels is rotting my three year olds brain, and the channel software is certainly up there with the zx spectrum. I did ring once and I simply could not understand the indian woman on the end of the phone. I live in Smethwick incidentally, so I'm quite used to broad indian accents that most of you would consider indecipherable. Anyway I gave up on the call. Shite customer service = customers who can't be bothered with the hassle and so they don't change.

In addition I have just taken them up on the virgin mobile offer, which is a seperate company. The coverage is pathetic, it has to be said. However the cute little thai lady who I spoke to on the phone when I ordered it had me wrapped around her little finger. I'd have probably married her if she'd asked.

Virgin Media cheat you out

Virgin Media cheat you out of your internet speed at night.
When you are on in the day i get about 500k when i'm meant to be getting 20MB, at night time i get about 250k. they cut your speed at night because they think you won't use it and they send your good speed elsewhere.
Also their internet keeps crashing, i have lost count how many times i've had to call the punjabi line and get charged for the shit.
If your modem breaks and you call for a replacement they say, we'll be with you in 7 days. 7 days!!!!!!!!!!!!! you call that service, how the fuck can it take 7 days to come 2 miles down the road and put in a new modem????
Also Virgin PC guard smells worse than the equivilent of shit taking a shit. It makes your computer sooooooooooooooooooo slow. It's almost as bad as windows defender.
The TV channels suck as well, they took away all the sky channels and replace it with their own shitty channel which is much worse.
The only good thing about it for me is that we get free land line calls.

I might ring again tomorrow and ask them y they suck so bad.

STAY AWAY!

i have been with vm for 3

i have been with vm for 3 years and just tried to cancel my contract, and was informed that as i had changed my package 6 months ago i had agreed to a new 12 month contact - which i tried to assure them i hadn't but would they listen - would they shite. the bastards want to charge me £100 to leave, which means i may as well stay until the end of my so called contract. so i put virgin media are shit into google and found this page which has made me at least chuckle again after reading some of the comments. so in february i shall have the pleasure of cancelling my service and i will tell them they are a useless bunch of fuckers and make sure i cancel my dd straight after!

My search was for "virgin

My search was for "virgin media useless fuckers" on Google and I ended up here. Been with them five years on what is meant to be the 20mbit servise (never recieved even a quarter of that speed... interesting). Yesterday I recieved an e-mail from them:

Hello there,

We’ve noticed recently that you’ve been using your Virgin Media Broadband connection to upload and download a lot more than we’d expect.

How this affects you
We’ll be moderating the internet use on your account during peak times for the rest of this week (until Sunday night).
This means that from 4pm to midnight from Monday to Friday, and 10am to midnight on Saturday and Sunday your broadband service will be reduced from up to 8Mb to 80kbps (that’s just faster than a dial-up connection).

Ok... So I'm paying 25 quid a month for 80kbps (thats a bit of a lie too... can't even load webpages without having enough time to make a cup of tea). Anyway, I'll put up with them a little longer then bail out as soon as I can find an ISP that doesn't want me to pay for a full 12 months. I could swear that Virgin never used to be quite so crappy.

I have also had some

I have also had some unbelievably bad experiences with Virgin!

1st off I wanted to upgrade to sentanta to watch some football, this would have cost me £9.99 per month. WHen I called to do this the person at the other end advised me to upgrade to the Large TV package as this included Sentanta but also the extra channels in the large package and was actually cheaper at £8.99 extra. I went for this - two months later I receive a letter saying that I have been paying the wrong amount and that my bill will be adjusted accordingly next time around. I received my new bill and it was put up an extra £12 per month - so thats £20.99 extra per month to upgrade to the large TV channel when all I wanted to do was get sentanta sports!!!!

Next my TV channels disappeared and I received various messages saying my smart card was invalid, not inserted properly, or I haven't subscribed to these channels. I called the helpline - they asked me the message I was seeing on the box at that point in time so they could go and look it up in their book!! They just did not listen when I tried to explain that I could get the channels back by just waiting, or a combination of rebooting and re-inserting the card etc.. They sent 'signals to the TV and the channels appearded.. Next day the issue happens again!! I call again (go through the 7 options) and get answered after about 10mins... Again I tried to explain what had happened - they didn't listen again just asking me for the message on the screen at that exact moment... This time they told me that I will need to reboot after they have sent the signals. I done this and the TV was good for about 2 days....

I found a workaround to get the channels back by resetting, re-inserting and then rebooting. Again I called the helpdesk - got switched to 3 different people and then eventually they agreed to send an engineer! They said I would get a refund for the 10 days that I had been without the TV which was about £2 per day as my bill is £62.50 per month! The engineer arrived and he said immediately that the card is faulty and that they get this problem all the time!! He switched the card and it has been working for a couple of weeks now..

Yesterday I received my bill expecting there to be the refund. What do I find?? My bill has gone UP!! by £1 I was charged £63.50!!!
I reviewed by bill and could see that they have charged me for sky sports 1 and sky sports 2 separately!!! I subscribed to the bundle (which includes 2 extra channels) that is £18 per month , however, because they had F*cked up again and were actually giving me less but charging me more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I pay for 20mb and get 1mb

I pay for 20mb and get 1mb they are TOTAL SHIT SHIT SHIT AND MORE SHIT. I want to watch a 5min clip on youtube and it keeps stopping every few secs they are so shitttttttt

Where to start. Had one of

Where to start. Had one of their door to door salesmen appear on my door and was looking for home phone and broad band package. They had a deal on so I went for it, worst decision of my life.
Engineer came to fit it, and then promptly said he needed two people for it, buggered off and never came back. Had to rebook them to come out and install it, which they did about a week later. Unfortunately at the junction box the chap crossed the lines and so I could not use the phone for 5 days due to sharing the line with someone else whom was extremely annoyed about it.
End of that month received a bill for over £200 pounds due to calls to Africa, even toughing I know absolutely no one in Africa. Ended up getting the bill scrubbed as it was the guy who I was crossed with whom had been calling relatives in Africa.
Broadband wise, this is going back a bit and I had the 2meg broadband deal which for the whole duration I had it ran at anywhere between 350-550K which is extremely slow. Phoned them up about it and engineer came and took a look in box, and replaced router. Still had the problem. Spent the next 3 weeks on and off their support team to try and find the cause of this problem, which half the time involved talking to people who did not even know what to do or suggest a tracert or ping test. Finally got told its because of a heavy user in the area, which I was under the impression would have had his service cut for such an act, and that they were in the middle of upgrading their servers for their new internet speed service they were bringing out and I had to wait for them to do Birmingham, which was about 2 months away.
Two months passed same problem, was told that it had not been done yet. Another month and still the problem persisted, had a support person on the phone in a heavy Indian accent saying that "I am agreeing with you sir, I am agreeing with you that your internet is very slow", and that’s about it.
Phoned up there customer services to cancel my contract as they were not providing me anywhere near the service I had signed up for and was told that I would have to pay the remaing months costs on my account as I was breaking the contract, when I pointed out it was them in breach of contract and not me I was told that they could not disconnect me without charging me as the system would not let them do it as I was still in contract. So I decided to wait for the contract to expire and went elsewhere for my internet.
Started to receive phone calls on my mobile of virgin asking for my opinions on their service and whenever I told them of my troubles they would hang up and a few days letter get another phone call of them. This persisted for about 1 and a half months until I blocked the phone number they were using.
Finally came to the point where I could cancel my service, Spoke to a disinterested women about cancelling my account, never received a confirmation letter or bill for the next two months except for what I presumed would be my final bill which I paid. I did not pay by direct debit but used to phone up and use my debit card. About two months later get a phone call of them saying that I owe them 80+ pounds for unpaid bills and when I pointed out that I had cancelled my service was told that there was no records of this or me phoning them up in that time frame on their system and that I would have to pay these bills and late payment charges to cancel my contract again.
Now with Sky and could not be happier, had excellent service from the start.

Virgin media is just one con

Virgin media is just one con after another.

they sold me 20mg broadband, which is actually 20 mg until they reach a limit then its 5mg.

the sold me talk unlimited, which is actually talk for 1 hour.

I have never met such a useless company in all my life.

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT THEY SELL WHICH IS TRUE?

I bet none of them are virgins either?

Look at this! Virgin has a

Look at this! Virgin has a support email address and you are explicitly asked to contact them there when you encounter the error message (see below) on their support form pages. But when you try to inform them about the error an automated reply is sent in which you are told to contact Virgin through the support forms. Yep, through the one that's not working.

Nice work Virgin, now you don't have to worry about those stupid customers, ever, right?

"Dear Virgin Media,

I get this error message when I try to use the general enquiry form at https://help2.virginmedia.com/assets/customer_zone/genenqformCZ.html

Software error:

Can't locate Crypt/Blowfish.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib/sun4-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/sun4-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4 /usr/perl5/site_perl /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4/sun4-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4 /usr/perl5/vendor_perl .) at /opt/htdocs/help2.virginmedia.com/cgi-bin/formactions/new_kanamail.pl line 10.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /opt/htdocs/help2.virginmedia.com/cgi-bin/formactions/new_kanamail.pl line 10.

For help, please send mail to the webmaster (support@virginmedia.com), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.

Auto-reply from support@virginmedia.com
to me

Hi there,

Thanks for your email. You'll find plenty of helpful support information at virginmedia.com or alternatively e-mail us directly using the online support forms (sorry, we don't take queries via this e-mail address). Just go to virginmedia.com and click on "contact us" (the link is right at the bottom of the screen). It will only take a couple of minutes to fill out - and once we know more, we can get on the case and sort out your problem.

You'll also find a list of useful telephone numbers if you really need to talk to the team.

Kind regards,
The Virgin Media Team"

When I first had my

When I first had my TV/Internet/BB package installed it was meant to be in November last year, but the engineer never came. when calling them they said, well you should have received a phone call saying that the engineer never came, it's not our fault that we never called and you took a day off work to wait about for someone that we told you would come, but then never told you wouldn't come.

and yes, the connection dropping.
it drops all the time, I'll admit that switching it off and back on again at the power to the router fixes the problem. but THIS IS NOT A FIX, this is a work around. a fix would be a new modem/new cables, (we had the service put in the house about a year ago so I doubt it's the cables that should still be shiny and new). something, as I say switching off and on again works, but it isn't a solution.

and the connection speed, really how difficult can it be,
I'm the first to admit that I saved a little money on the package deal by only getting the medium broadband package, should be 2mb, but it's just not. it's closer to 2kb than 2mb (often running at around 100kb (not the promised and paid for 2000kb).

evening capping, jesus don't even get me started on this, I appreciate that there is a finite amount of capacity, and therefore, though the cable can provide 20MB that's not to say that everyone can use 20MB, but that's why there is a pricing structure, I for instance pay for 2MB, this means that they can have nine other customers using the rest of what would have been 20MB, but no. Virgin doesn't seem to understand the concept of finite capacity and how to sell that...

imagine if you will an all you can eat buffet, (unlimited download).
virgins all you can eat buffet seems to consist of a single chicken wing that you can all share, or at least you can eat all that you feel that you;re able to provided that you're willing to accept your morsels of food one crumb at a time...

Just to correct your original article.
They can't even get the billing right.

I received a bill last month saying that I hadn't paid for my service in October, thus I'd have to pay the bill from October in November, and pay a £10 late charge...

Of course I could handle this, I used to pay monthly by logging on and paying by credit card, now though, I pay by direct debit...

So, a half hour conversion later, I finally convince the woman at the end of the line that I pay by direct debit, and thus can't pay late, and I won't be paying a late charge of £10 to virgin because they failed to collect a monthly direct debit from an account that they are authorised to collect from...

And that's sorted now...
except I'm still going to have to pay £7.50 for a half hour phone call to their idiot call centres...

so I saved £2.50 and destroyed a part of my house whilst waiting for them to realise and admit their mistakes.

As for switching... well, I *would* switch service providers, if it weren't for the fact that as my BT line has been disconnected for a long time in favour of a cable connection I'd have to pay £125 to BT to have the line reconnected before I started paying £9 a month to keep the line connected and then another fee to Sky for the TV and another fee to a service provider for the internet...

I don't think there's a

I don't think there's a single word in the dictionary which can describe how poor Virgin Media really is. When I hear the words "Virgin Media" I am immediately greeted with the darkest of dark clouds as it hovers above me.

If you are looking to join Virgin then here are some reasons not to, although they've probably been mentioned already:

1. Their V+ Box is really truly atrocious. It's very slow, non-responsive and fault-riddled. Their selection of High Definition programmes is limited to just one channel and their on-demand service, when it eventually loads, is full of the same programmes which were there years ago. The red button rarely works on the channels it advertises and the alternative Sky1 channel called "Virgin" is laughable. And if that isn't enough the V+ box has an ethernet and USB port on the back which isn't enabled. According to Virgin this is 'future proofing'...erm... which considering Ethernet and USB have been around for longer than 10 years is quite comical.

2. Their telephone line just isn't very good at all really. It crackles, hisses, echoes and manages to transmit every noise imagineable.Their customer service automated system is awful.

3. Their internet connection has never been so poor. Virgin posted a leaflet a year ago saying "Congratulations you are about to be upgraded to 10MB for free, yes... that's right... free". Not only did I have to wait until August for this upgrade, but to my complete horror my Internet connection speed has dramatically reduced. Forget watching a simple 2 minute clip on Youtube unless you enjoy buffering. Normally it takes 10 seconds to just load Google. Google Maps is a waste of time because half of the UK is covered by a big grey block because their internet connection isn't even up to the job of loading the rest of the map.

So if you're looking for a good service provider then you should look further and further ahead until Virgin is totally and utterly out of sight. I've cancelled my subscription and actually looking forward to paying £180 just to offload them. Good riddance to bad rubbish!!!

Virgin is shit!!!!!!!! I

Virgin is shit!!!!!!!! I applied for the internet and it took them a month to get someone around to install it and that's after two different people did a credit check on me, and two weeks after I get the net I get cut off so I ring them and they say I've exceeded my credit limit. I mean lmao as if I don't have a credit limit, I get unlimited downloads. So I have to pay £35 there and then to get back online.
And let me say when they come to fix your net they have to stay until it is fixed, they can't leave. It's in their contract!!!!!!

I am getting off Virgin and NEVER coming back as soon as I can. Never had a problem when I was on AOL a few years ago.

Agree with pretty much all

Agree with pretty much all comments on this site, my connections slower than advertised, bloody Indian call centres etc etc. However possibly the worst thing they do is throttling, whilst unlimited has never meant that with fair play policies etc Virgin take the biscuit. If youtube, iplayer used "excessively" then you will find it running like a tortoise on valium until the end of the month. Keep posting people and telling all you know, it'll hit them in the end.

I used to be with NTL from

I used to be with NTL from 1999 to 2002. I left them very bitter and angry for exactely the same problems.

Everything you describe shows that despite the re-branding to Virgin Media, this company hasn't changed. Well actually, I didn't think it would be possible but they are now worse since they have to lie in order to trap customers in their "legally binding contracts" which only works one way, their way.

Last year, I changed mobile phone and made the mistake of going with Virgin Mobile... the internet service was worse than the connection I had with my first V.90 analog modem in 1998.
I was so pissed off that I ordered a mobile from O2, 3 months before my Virgin contract was due to stop.

Virgin, NTL and anything that uses their network --> never ever again

3 Mobile (Hutchinson) are

3 Mobile (Hutchinson) are the same as far as customer service are concerned.

it's really suprising to

it's really suprising to hear how everyone is getting royally fucked by a virgin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE VIRGIN....I have had

I HATE VIRGIN....I have had no end of problems with them. Ranging from the worst BB connection speed(all my fault they tell!) to a debt collecting firm contacting me for an unpaid bill!!. That took me 3 days to sort out. I had to do all the phone calls etc cause you got it "NOT OUR(Virgins)FAULT"!!. I f**king hate them. They told me that they had sent a letter to me...I asked to which address....guess whats coming folks....my old address. Even though they provide their service at my new address!!!.
I going to contact OFCOM & make a complaint!!. They are breaching their contract,because, they are not providing the service in the contract.!! I`m sure at the end of the day it will alllll be my fault some how!!

Hey i just wasted 2 hours

Hey

i just wasted 2 hours of my life, trying to sort my virgin broadband so you may want to hear the story.

My internet was not working for the whole day , so i called virgin for some technical help. after travelling all the way to india for 20min , i eventually get throgh an explained the problem. They agreed the fault was theirs, and offered to send someone out to fix the problem in 1 week. Saying this was not good enough, and explaining i work from home, he offered me £5 refund for the problem ,but it would still be 1 week for a service engineer to visit me. At this point i didnt want to tell him to shove his £5 up his arsehole , so i asked to speak to a member of management. Once again i sit swearing on the phone for another 20min, unitl i get through to another customer service clueless twat, and not management as requesed. I explain my problems again, so puts me on hold for mmmmm another 20min. Now at this point, i wanted to rip someones face off and shit down their neck, but i sit again in hope someone may be able to help me. eventually someone picks up again after 20 min and ask him to get up from his desk, walk over and get me a member of management. do not put me on hold. he agrees then suprise suprise ! puts me on hold. I hang up raging with anger... and think fuck it, im cancelling my account. Call up customer service and press all the right buttons to get through to the cancellations departement only to be they are closed !! .

I guess i just wanted to post this, to let every body know that virgin are a bunch of complete wankers !! do not waste your time and money on them. Peole are losing their jobs every day in the uk, yet they choose to employe no british citizens half way across the world ,who provide a complete pile of shit service !! and dont care !. Sir richard Branson... shove this up your arse !

It took me 2 months to get

It took me 2 months to get my Virgin Media (non-cable) service set up, after waiting that length I was just desperate to log on and use proper internet. It was set up, and our documentation said to expect speed fluctations for the first 10 days whilst they tested the line.

10 days pass with massive fluctuations (18Mbit right down to 5Kb), and the speed levels out for a day or two around 12Mbps before the fluctuations continue this time between 15Mbit and 50Kbit... It really is so, so bad! Other people in my building with other suppliers experience good internet with other suppliers... I have used 4 different computers on 2 routers and it is still shocking!

Today, my patience has reached breaking point when it took 9 minutes to download FireFox on my MacBook Pro... Pathetic!

I am a massive fan of the Virgin Group (Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains, Virgin Active etc.) but I will never go with Virgin Media ever again!

The (PACE) VBox is about as

The (PACE) VBox is about as much use as a windscreen wiper on a submarine. Honestly, it has to be the most useless piece of electrical equipment I have ever come across. At the end of my contract it's bye bye Virgin. Seems to me that SIr Richard Branson has missed one of the most vital rules in business with VirginMedia... "Give the customer what they want". I mean, describing FilmFlex OnDemand movies in the following ways is hardly going to encourage viewers to make a purchase:

"Jack Nicholson plays a dysfunctional man who falls in love." ...Sounds thrilling!

"Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this vigilante drama" ...He's about 98 years old!

"Michelle Williams faces hardship as she looks for her dog." ZZZZzzzzzzz

In fact, just about every evening I sit down to watch a film I spend about an hour trying to decide what to watch based on these pointless descriptions. Most of the time I opt for the 10 O'clock news because that's the time it is once I've finished waiting for the VBox to catch up with the remote!

Sir Richard - sell this one or make it better 'cos it's not making you look too cool right now m'lord.

--------
2012 - The truth or the biggest lie since Noah?

well ive looked at this

well ive looked at this fourum and chuckled to myself how very true of this shite company i ditched the pricks months ago sky + and bt bb for me know if you have there services dump em there fking shit!!! best thing was i did a right number on the dumb cunts i orginally had the samsung 2110c box which is in itself looks quite good but lets be honest its fucking wank lol after around to months of having this box it kept crashing everytime my missus was trying to watch corrie or eastenders now hey fucking with a womens tv veiwing not good right i rang up 150 usual load of shit send a signal etc it would work then fk up again in the end i used to fix it myself it was simple ld40 on the lcd on the box uplug wait 5 mins plug back in the it would stick on ld20 okay no probs heres the fix slam your hand on top of box as hard as you can and hey presto full reboot tv back on there you go you to can be a virgin tech in the end they did come and replace it and it worked fine they my missus said hey them v+ boxes look good hmm i said sky + looks better but as we were in contract i got us one and kept the samsung box as a multi room option upgraded tv package also to the all singing and dancing vip package with twenty mb braodband also fk me ive seen a faster pre pay on three than virgins bbroadband and guess what there hd box what a total bag of fucking wank he came installed it i said why are you putting a scart lead in a hd box engineers reply oh you have to request a hdmi lead well hang on if im having a hd box installed shouldnt you get it like hd box needs a hdmi lead you thick cunts oh well bought my own hdmi lead fucked about with it got my tv in hd finally hmm wheres the sound could not get sound out of my tv with hdmi lead or v plus box at all ever anyway few months pass crashing boxes fked up red button service all in all a total bag of fking shit and the prices fk me so i ring up india thanking you for calling virgin media etc etc blah blah i want to reduce my package so i opt to go down to one box now heres the good bit at the time my samsung box was disconnected they take various info off me from back of box etc shouldnt they have this on file dumb fks they then tell me samsung boxes thy dont collect so i can keep it fk do i want it for its no use switched off right neway little bit more time passes boxs fucks up internet the lot and no refund well kiss my scrotum sack virgin i stop paying them threatning letters ensue suspension of service etc fk em in the end they cut me off so i dont have fk all they get in touch pay us and we will switch up back on nahhh im not fking paying you your shite sky+ hd is already ordered and so is bt neway you daft cunts but heres the classic i get the sammy box outta the draw and hook it up as i kinda work out when they cut you off they send a hit down the cable to the box and smartcard well samsung box never got a hit as it was disconnected completely and i know somebody who works for these dumb fks and he confirms theory i connect it and hey presto it works so i have free tv from virgin full package till my sky arrives in the end they threatend my with total disconnection etc i rang em said ill save you the job i ripped the fucking lot outta my house even the box off the wall and there wank wire outta my garden and there boxes for tv well the lot went in the fucking bin fuck them love sky and bt bb even though expensive better service from both companys fk you vm oh and btw there threatning to send baliffs and shit now for there money send who u want ya pricks never had cable here dont know what ya talking about

i know nowt bout pcs but i

i know nowt bout pcs but i know those twats need to sort it out. it is utter shite 3 weeks without internet 2 modems 2 boxes 3 routers guess wat,its my fault,under contract cant get out.need internet to find work.they dont understand cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuntsssssssssssssssssssssss

Virgin HTC HD2 Is pish! I

Virgin HTC HD2 Is pish!

I cancelled the phone within my cancellation period due to bad network cover and a number of faults. I have been messed around and also told that I would received a cancellation pack through the door soon, yet I receive an unpaid bill notice threatening to destroy my credit rating.

Away fuck yourself virgin you bunch of CUNTS!

Hi , ive had VM now for the

Hi , ive had VM now for the past 6 months or so , i signed up for the 50mb broadband service, M tv package & XL phone package ...initial teething problems on installation , but i can honestly say that i constantly recieve over 40mb connection daily tested , never had a problem uploading or downloading files at fast speeds , TV service well what can i say i have a M package so what do you expect , phone no problems at all ... so not all bad VM

Have been with Virgin Media

Have been with Virgin Media for a bit over 2 years and confirm that they are absolute RUBBISH.

If you value your sanity then just sign up with a different ISP

My Interent is mostly fine, untill peak hours then its well slow, i dont download much so its not the fair usage policy, just there RUBBISH interent, the telephone line is also crackly

I dont use direct debit, yet they still keep taking money out of my account and its always more than i owe, i get charged for tv i dont have and again somehow via direct debit even though my bank tells me its canceleld, by the looks of things virgin media just hold on to your credit card details and help them selfs when they see fit

Trying to get that money back for over a year now, have wrote two letters snail mail to there address in wales, both have been ignored then today on the phone they act like they dont know what im talking about and basicly call me a liar !

I would say the customer service is the most disgusting i have ever seen, but they have no customer service and wouldnt know what it was or meant if it beat them around the face

Avoid like the plauge, even shitty old BT is better than them.

haha just thought people

haha just thought people would like to know that im sitting in work (virgin media national tech support) with this page on full view.

1-0 you (y)

Virgin are at the top of the

Virgin are at the top of the most pathetic useless companies on the planet, they sell substandard things with their packages that arent worth paying for.

I mean this stupid virgin netgear routers the biggest pile of crap I have ever had to fricking buy, as soon as my contracts up, or when I can afford the cancellation fee and a new BT line I am switching as soon as possible.

I cant even be bothered to contact this inadequate company so there's no point in getting frustrated with their sub standard customer service that couldnt even tell me whats going on with an install, why should I bother?

DONT EVER GO FOR THIS CRAP COMPANY IN MY OPINION YOU SHOULDNT BE MADE TO PAY FOR THIS SHYTE!

Like a

Like a Virgin..............

I have had Virgin V+ HD, Telephone and 20mb FO broadband service plus multi room for just over a year, sorry that should have been just had on the TV and telephone as I am now back with Sky. So as you can I was paying pretty much top dollar.

In this year I feel I have been a victim of the worst service I have had or ever want to receive. A quick run through of my problems....
2 x New V+ boxes
2 x New modems
1 x telephone engineer
1 x Re-pull of telephone line
Damaged trucking in toilet
Loss of all services
Booking days off and them not showing up

My first problems started when I had booked the day off as the installation was taking place, no engineer turned up. When I called them they even knew about it as well... Didn't think about calling me then? I should have known from there this was going to be bad..

Shortly after this I thought I'd watch the boxing on pay per view at a cost of £15.99. When I woke up on Saturday morning I went to put Sky Sports on and a message said "If you would like to upgrade to this channel please contact us". When I called in I was redirected to a call center (not in the UK) where I was told I would need to pay my entire next months bill upfront as I had exceeded my credit limit. After explaining I paid by direct debit and I wasn't willing to pay the amount they told me there was nothing they could do and I could wait until Monday to sort it out and that no one worked in the UK at weekends. The person I spoke to was very unhelpful and very rude, telling me I shouldn't have watch the boxing.... Surely this means more money for them!? After speaking to them Monday and them explaining the situation the increased my credit limit. Easy..

I could go on and on but feel like a broken record.... For my sins I have kept with their broadband, even though I have to keep unplugging the router when connection drops about every 2 days, however there is no provider out there that can offer these speeds. (Please someone else do Fibre)

My experience with Virgin Media has been terrible, they haven't really moved on from NTL/Telewest. They are under resourced, outsourcing their call centers to India. The equipment is also poor as the 2 V+ boxes I had, one over heated and the other one died (the technical term they used) Poor components!

I best bit was calling in to cancel, it's been the most helpful they have been as you can imagine. I guess this is due to the high rate of cancellations. Apart from coming round my house and begging me to stay it was a long winded process and they know all the problems with Sky and that they would eventually get Sport and movies in HD. I also believe the more you spend the worse the problems are, and I was told this by them "Well sir you have more things that can go wrong" I did laugh. I reckon over a year I have probably, and no joke spent around 48 hours on the phone to them, also 2 written complaints which I heard nothing back from apart from being asked to fill in an online form which again came to nothing.

Virgin is an appropriate name as I think the fore play is good but when it comes down to it they don't know what they are doing!

Virgin media suck

Virgin media suck eggs
supposed to be superfast broadband, the speed of light to be precise
more close to the speed of shite coming out of there arse
and the fact they throttle any consoles connecting (ps3 etc.) jst makes it more annoying.
Not sure if they throttle pc but i did notice downloading an update it went from 512kb/s to 58kb/s for about an hour...
used to have this free loyalty bullshit net upgrade to 10 meg ages ago
phoned up and changed package on tv because it was total pish and they also changed my net to small for some fucking reason thus disabling my loyalty shit thing and being never able to get it back
well so the indian cyborg on the line said
well good to get that out and richard branson and any other virgin fatcat prik can catch aids!

Took out broadband XL TV and

Took out broadband XL TV and phone in April this year. Now back with sky and BT. They are a complete shambles.................

virgin media broadband is

virgin media broadband is well how can i put it SHIT SHIT SHIT 50meg my arse its the biggest pile of piss and dihorea garbage the world has ever known try playing xbox online with the shyte lose is what you do they couldnt organise a pissup in a brewery and the ugly bearded bastard dicky branston piccles still owes me 15 quid kiss my most wonderfull left bollock

Okay, now I am only

Okay, now I am only concerned about the internet because it's all I ever use, I can not complain much about TV and Phone but I do have something to say about the Phone and the TV packages.

Internet is slow you canna play on a game when your sister is spamming video calls to fucking divvy yanks they are fucked up in the head by a OD of coffee. I play on a game which take around 30KB/s upload leaving us with like what? 20 KB/s? I DID host a Teamspeak server untill VICTOR (Sister) start complaining she can't call the fucked up yank had to ditch that. Same when I was running a website for my clan at home, I can only upload basic crap so my websites are never any use to anyone, 60 KB/s IS NOT ENOUGH UPLOAD! We need more!!!

TV all I can say about that is that it is Slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow and Crashhhhhhh *BSoD*

Phone -"60 minutes free" Sure is free. Only have to pay about £10 to call another Virgin Media customer for about 50 minutes -.-

Customer Service "Hello this the customer erm service in erm ENGLAND! How can I erm not help you! YOU CAN NOT UNDERSTAND A WORD THE BASTARDS ARE SAYING! Why don't they bring the call centers over in England and give us a job, they've snatched enough off us. Just ask to speak to an English representative, I do it all the time the internet gets slow than slow which is mostly all the time.

That's pretty much all I can say, but I can not even play a game at the moment! We're on a 20 MegaShit package and it's slow. I do not recommend these bastards to anyone. If you want fast internet get a BT phone line and sign up for Fast.co.uk get the FTCP or something, 40 MBit download 10 MBit upload, same price as virgin media's 20 MBit.

Fin.
Scriptr.

Virgin Media sucks. I agree

Virgin Media sucks.
I agree with all those points except the one about the Phone. For me the phone works great.

Also, the on demand feature keeps going.
Every couple of months the service goes completely.

i paid £100 for the v+ box

i paid £100 for the v+ box and sky sports 1 which is £13.50 a month which i thought was a little expencive but i was willing to pay, but a week went on and still no sky sports 1 4 days after they said it was meant to come on. And i rang up and it turns out they will install sky sports 1 when they install my V+ box, but no its not a v+ box its a ragular so the adverts lied go to sky!!

Virgin broadband is the

Virgin broadband is the worst Internet service I have ever encountered in ten years of being a computer tech. The speed of the 'broadband' connection would remind me of my old 28k dial modem, but virgin BB has more drop outs.

I rang them 1 month before I

I rang them 1 month before I was due to move house.. letting them know the new address, etc. So they could transfer the internet over, ready for when I move in.

So I move in. Guess what? The internet doesn't work. Hurray.

Since I don't have a landline phone, I have to use my mobile to call some idiots in India. Please wait in this queue, what your account number and password.. oh sorry I can't deal with that, let my transfer you to this department.

By the time it was fixed it ended up costing me £7 in phone calls. Oh and btw.. the 'problem' was they just needed to activate the modem. This takes 35 mins of calls to achieve apparently..

Then I found out on their website I am now in a new 12 month contract because I moved house. Even though no one mentioned this AT ALL!

So pissed off. Won't be using them after this contract runs out.

Pitty the government can't force them to lease the lines to other companies like they do with BT lines.