{"id":1540,"date":"2017-07-15T16:18:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T15:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidwithington.com\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2017-07-18T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T12:38:16","slug":"virgin-media-broadband-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidwithington.com\/virgin-media-broadband-complaint\/","title":{"rendered":"What Went Wrong, Virgin Media?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"customer<\/a><\/p>\n

How to Get a Customer to Like You<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Marketing experts tell us to provide excellent customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why? <\/span><\/p>\n

Because you want your customers to like you, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virgin used to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

They provided exceptional customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I liked them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Great Customer Service<\/span><\/h2>\n

I remember the phone call many years ago – to Richard Branson’s new Virgin Energy company who were supplying gas and electricity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our previous energy company had really messed things up: incorrect billing, unhelpful customer service, apathy…<\/span><\/p>\n

So I contacted some other energy companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

I telephoned each one to see if I could speak to a real human.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I sent an email to see how long they took to respond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"email\"<\/a>
I sent them all an email and waited for a response<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How refreshing it was to receive a reply from Virgin Energy within an hour – well ahead of a certain large company who thought one week was acceptable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virgin’s email read something like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

We might not be the cheapest, but if you want quality and exceptional customer service, then we may be what you’re looking for.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, that was exactly what we were looking for!<\/span><\/p>\n

So I rang up, and signed up.<\/span><\/p>\n

And we were completely satisfied customers…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Until Virgin Energy sold out to EDF, who resorted to doubling the direct debit every six months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, I got sick of ringing EDF twice a year, trying to persuade them not to double the price.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not good customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n

So we took our custom elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
We got fed up of ringing the call centre every 6 months<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How Virgin Media Let Us Down<\/span><\/h2>\n

Roll on many years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, we left our stable Talk Talk broadband service, because Virgin Media had a good deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Virgin Media was offering a faster broadband speed for a lower price.<\/span><\/p>\n

100Mb\/s. Not bad, eh?<\/span><\/p>\n

All went well…<\/span><\/p>\n

Until week one.<\/span><\/p>\n

The speed was nothing like 100Mb\/s.<\/span><\/p>\n

More like 1Mb\/s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Virgin<\/a>
Nothing like the advertised 100Mb\/s speed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But no problem…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within a couple of months, Virgin Media carried out the promised planned works and fixed the speed problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, over the following months, outages and router restarts became common.<\/span><\/p>\n

No Broadband<\/span><\/h2>\n

One morning, nearly two weeks ago, we awoke to discover we had no broadband…<\/span><\/p>\n

For the whole day!<\/span><\/p>\n

I made five phone calls…<\/span><\/p>\n

Press 1, press 3, press 5…<\/span><\/p>\n

Press a button corresponding to letter 1 of your password… letter 5… letter 4…<\/span><\/p>\n