h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

VirginMedia

March: Broadband and telly go down. VirginMedia give me a dial-up connection in the meantime. I'm told the 3p a minute will be refunded.

April: After four visits by engineers who have been given the wrong job VM finally send a supervisor to take a look who orders the correct bit of work. Engineers turn up a few days later and do it wrong again. VM say that I should have been on FREE dial-up, and arrange this until the broadband is fixed.

Late April: Sixth engineer visit finally sorts the problem. I receive a bill for £650 dial-up charges. VM assure me this will be cancelled.

Monday 05/05/08: I go to withdraw money from bank. VM have taken £650, leaving me skint and seriously putting a spanner in the Edinburgh meet works.

Wednesday 07/05/08, AM: Back in London and my TV services are heavily restricted (minimal channels, no TV on demand). I mention this while trying to sort out the bill that shouldn't have been. Services have been restricted because my *current* bill is rather high: they are charging another £450 for dial-up.

I ask them to cancel this (which they agree to) and transfer the £650 back to my account by BACS. They can't do the BACS. Er, pardon? VirginMedia can't do a BACS transfer? WHAT?

At VM's suggestion I call bank to arrange an indemnity claim (claim? something like that.) Bank are surprised by this but will do it. It won't work until Friday at the earliest, probably Monday. Bye, bye Edinburgh meet.

Wednesday 07/05/08, PM: TV services go down again. VM say the £450 was cancelled but has been put back again. They will cancel it again. Nice lady tells me to keep an eye in a week's time to make sure the bill hasn't been reinstated. TV services come back to normal. Then they go down again. I call again. Manager says bill has been reinstated and he will look into it and call back. He doesn't.

Thursday 08/05/08: Still no services. Call VM. Chap says services are reduced due to high usage. Direct debit has been cancelled (it hasn't) and they still want the £450. I speak to manager who concurs that I am due a credit of £1k+ which will be arranged ASAP but could take a few days.

So, thanks VirginMedia for taking two months to fix the broadband and telly, taking £650 from my bank thereby ing up my weekend and stopping most of my TV services until I've paid a bill which you concede I shouldn't have.

On top of this they have the cheek to apply traffic shaping to people that have the audacity to heavily use the broadband connections they've paid for.

Gittery. Pure gittery.

Oh dear

You sound well justified in wanting to crush a grape with annoyance.

If it's any consolation - which I doubt it will be, but anyway, a couple of other people I know are having much the same sort of hassles with Virgin, as well.

You're not alone; but even so, what a brass off not being able to get to the Scotland Meet through no fault of your own.

Did you manage to get any of this in writing Roymondo? I suppose if your connection was 'mank' you would have had difficulty with e-mail!

I think the lesson to be learned here is: don't use Virgin Media.

I haven't got much option. Broadband needs cable, satellite or a BT phone. I ain't paying £150 to have a BT phone line put in a rented studio flat (else I'd be with Be) and absolutely will not give any money to Murdoch, so VM are pretty much the only option.

Alas, I have nothing in writing, but their system notes seem quite accurate judging by the gasps at the other end of the phone when people read what's happened!

I'd go to Scotland with a credit card advance but really don't want to get into that: the chances of me paying it back timeously are minimal.

I use Virgin Media and have absolutely no complaints. A far, far better service than BT - cheaper, faster, more reliable and more comprehensive.

Apart fro the traffic shaping they were fine until all this started. The first engineer came round, identified the problem and ordered a redraw (or repull, not sure which) up the building. They did one in the street (like a new installation) instead. The correct work was being ordered but by the time it got to the engineers it had been changed.

All this bill stuff has really pissed me off though.

Hi roy, sorry to hear about these issues. Re the bank, I don't know who you bank with but my recent experience with BT was similar where they took mega bucks without warning. However I contacted my bank and literally, in the time it's taken for me to type and post this, was how long it took for the bank to re-imburse my a/c. You just invoke the direct debit guarenttee, the bank pay you then they take it up with whoever, in your case, Virgin.
As for Virgin, have to say since I switched a few months ago I've had no issues at all. There's no limits on the broadband, it's fast, reliable, TV selection is ok for what I wanted, the phone deals are great as well.
Hope it all sorts for you soon anyway.

I'm with Virgin Media here too, not by choice, I signed up with NTL.... Since they changed from NTL to VM our speed has gone down; the price remains the same. and in the evenings it is wrose speed wise. call me a selfish git, but if I'm paying the best part of £50 per month I think its a bit rich of em to then openly tell us they're taking the top whatever percent of our broadband to give to those who won't fork out the cash.
They've clearly combined a few groups of broadband users when they took over NTL but added on no extra pipe.
But, what will really finally force me to move from them, is that they don't agree with net neutrality... Are there any other companys who will give phone/broadband through a cable/NTL/wahtever it is type connection?; I'm a bit reluctant to pay out the cash just to get a BT line put in

I switched to Murdoch's lot after VM felled up big time with me. They (VM) arranged a date to pick up their equipment which they failed to keep on several occasions. A bloke arrived out of the blue to collect the equipment some three months later. A few days after that I received a letter demanding that I return it or be charged in excess of £100.00 (the box was three years old for the love of BoB).

When Mil died a few weeks ago, my brother in law was asked for her box too. As the house is now empty (and they obviously can't keep their promises) he arranged for them to pick it up at his house. Guess what? They didn't come and still haven't. Burgers the lot of 'em.

From all I've heard now, it seems you don't have a single, reliable company in England, and none which doesn't rob your money, too.

Probably not a lot of use to you now Roy, but for future reference.

One of the terms of the "Direct Debit Guarantee" is:-

If an error is made by *SERVICE PROVIDER* or Your Bank or Building society, then you will be entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid.

Put simply your bank are obliged to give you the money then sort it out with the provider. Be prepared for a row, but they will have to give in.

That's about the size of it

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

I give my money to Murdoch (I know the shame)... but the truth is Sky is a really good product for both TV and Interweb.

Gosh, I really should know about the DD guarantee! I issue enough DD forms in my working life. I might get onto the bank on the morrow (a little too frazzled at the minute.)

As I say, I had no problem with VM apart from the traffic management (which, as 2legs says, means that those of us paying for the top whack service get throttled because we're using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. OF COURSE WE BLOODY ARE. THAT'S WHY WE PAY £50 A BLOODY MONTH!) but this situation has just been a complete shambles.

All of the providers I've seen get really good consistant reviews from user's though are BT necessitating as you ahve to have a bluddy BT line Its a pity I don't want the TV/sky portion of the service, as a lot of these guys now do good deals when you've got phone/internet/TV with em, but you don't get anywhere as near a good deal when you just want Braodband/phone.... heck do we even need the phone line now?; I've a mobile and skype... Dont' think ther eis anyone who'll just do a broadband connection
Sad thing is that NTL were so bluddy good; in about six or seven years of NTL braodband I think we had oo maybe three days no connection?; thats better than most bluddy commercial services

Really sorry to hear that hun Before we moved to the sticks and had to get a Bloody 'orrible Telecom line in for broadband I was with Telewest/VM for years and never had a problem with them. Sounds like you were just unfortunate enough to get a complete eejit when you first called, because if your broadband goes down they normally tell you what the free dialup number is (149 I think). Have you been to the bank yet? They'll try playing at silly buggers but you have the law on your side - and if you make it to Edinburgh did you get my text saying you can kip at ours?

I haven't been onto the back: I figure things are messy enough as it is without potentially getting the money back today then the wotsit happening on Monday leaving me owing VM again.

I am increasingly of a mind to come up. Didn't get the text (new number: I'll forward it in a minute. Old phone fried) but cheers!

I'm back at work on Monday so could do with a blow out.

Hmmm. Ticket's £102.40.