I've had a bit of a battle with Virgin Media over the last month, I noted I was suddenly, and for no reason, on a very slow connection (at least slow to my liking) it was showing up in tests as between 46 and 52 mbit... STRANGE! Since I thought I was on 100Mbit and was trying at the time to get onto the new Vivid200 mbit.
Anyway, after doing some calling around, and basically being given the run around by sales, I got through to a chap in the right department, who was able to sell me things AND look at my account; they seem very able to sell stuff to you, and take your money, but you ask for something and you get stone walled.
So, this chap checked my account, 50M sir, you're on our 50M service?... I thought I was on the Big Bundle thing, on the tele?.. 100Mbit etc... Oh You were sir, but your contract ended in 2016...
So, did they continue charging me?.. Oh yes.. Full whack, but they slowly eroded both the channels on the TV package and the speed of the internet, I guess hoping they could provide less and charge the same, or even more!
I set about trying to rectify this, and got exactly nowhere, online chat, telephone calls, even twitter didn't budge them into action, they didn't give a hoot!
Therefore, I set about getting what I wanted the underhanded way...
What I wanted was to jump from 50mbit to 200mbit, leaving the TV and landline telephone as was, the problem?... No human operator on any channel, in any department, nowhere could give me this, I was even told you could not order this combination! That my kit didn't support it! That the wires were wrong!!?!?!
When I pointed out that the wires and kit are theirs, sort it, they basically hung up on me.
Online in my account however, I could see an upgrade offer... For a free I could upgrade to some new cables.. DOCSIS or some such thing... So, I ordered that...
A week later, I checked again, the new offer was for a free upgrade from 50mbit to 70mbit. Are you still with me here?... So I chose that.
A week yet further on and I had 70mbit, and the option to pay £1.50 more per month to upgrade to 100mbit! So I ordered that.
And yet another week on, I finally have the option to order 200mbit for an additional £5.50 a month, with 6 months at £2.50...
I have this arriving, through the ether as we read this...
So why the delay? Why did the humans say they could not leave my TV and landline alone to just uprade the speed?... Well, seems they could, they could all along, they were lying, or their training didn't expose them to the workings of their own systems. Whichever it was, I was very very frustrated by the whole affair, and I've made it known.
