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Today was the one day I needed to work from home. Before opening my laptop, I checked the post. In it was a bill from Virgin Media. A rather large bill. This was partly due to my having my moved house recently and Virgin Media’s consequent requirement to bundle up two months of bills into one. It was also due to an incorrect charge of £75 for installing a V+ Box I already had. So I phoned up Customer Care who agreed the charge was wrong and arranged to credit next month’s bill with the £75.
So I opened my laptop and found I had no internet connection. After rebooting everything as per Virgin Media’s instructions I was still without broadband, so back on the phone I went. Technical Support told me my account has been suspended due to lack of payment. Not pleasant. I was passed to Customer Care who passed me to Accounts who passed me to Credit Control. Finally someone managed to explain to me that my services had been suspended because my account had gone over its credit limit. Which was more than Customer Care did the first time I phoned – no mention of a suspended account then.
I explained that the reason my account had gone over its credit limit (note I had not been made aware such a limit existed) was due entirely to an incorrect charge and Virgin Media’s inflexible billing system. But of course it is me the customer who suffers the inconvenience of having my broadband suspended and the indignity of being told I hadn’t paid for my service.
One would think a courteous phone call to arrange payment before suspending my services might have saved everyone a lot of time and hassle.
I have been a loyal cable customer since before Virgin Media existed – before NTL even, happily paying for a raft of services by direct debit every single month. I’ve had plenty of bad experiences with both companies over the years, but the way I have been treated this time is particularly ridiculous and insulting. Can someone give me one good reason why I shouldn’t head straight to Sky (apart from Rupert Murdoch).
