Direct Debit Instruction Cancelled: Virgin Media

Account Number: 234927701 KMM61522320I15977L0KM

Dear Mr Steve Atkinson (Head of Payment Processing, Virgin Media Payments Ltd),

Thank you for your email of 15th February in which you correctly advise me that I have cancelled my Direct Debit in the name of Virgin Media.

Please note that I shall not be taking up your offer to make payment to Virgin Media (to pay off any balance, in order to ensure an uninterrupted service). The reasons for my decision are:

1. On 10th Februrary, as arranged earlier in the month, I was due to switch telephone and broadband service from BT to Virgin Media, on my existing telephone line
2. On 11th February, when I queried the utter lack of broadband service from Virgin Media, I was told by Virgin Media customer service that someone within the organisation had ordered the wrong service with the contractor
3. As a result of this incorrect ordering being placed, I could expect a shiny new telephone line to be installed within an additional week or so
4. I then communicated to Virgin Media customer service that I had not ordered and did not require a new telephone line
5. I just wanted the existing telephone line to be switched to Virgin Media and expected to receive a telephone and broadband service from Virgin Media, instead of BT, on my existing telephone line
6. The person I was speaking to checked their details and, eventually, their supervisor came back on the line to confirm, as previously discovered, that someone within Virgin Media had raised an incorrect order
7. The customer service supervisor then told me that he would get the incorrect order cancelled immediately and would get a correct order raised and placed with the contractor that very afternoon, but
8. That it would take an additional two weeks to have the (correct) order completed
9. My immediate thought was ‘Two weeks? Are you totally mad?’
10. I told the Virgin Media customer service supervisior that, as clearly demonstrated by this total [paraphrase] fuck-up, that Virgin Media could [paraphrase] stick its corporate head up a dead bear’s bum if Virgin Media thought that any of this was acceptable
11. I was told, by the Virgin Media customer service supervisor, that timings were out of his hands
12. It was an additional two-week wait to have service switched over to my existing phone line, or nothing
13. It wasn’t a difficult decision
14. I chose nothing
15. I told the Virgin Media customer service supervisor that Virgin Media had successfully screwed up the relationship between themselves and a potential customer – before the customer had even started receiving a service
16. This must, surely, be some kind of a record?
17. Virgin Media customer service said, somewhat sheepishly, that they saw my point and would cancel the order completely
18. As the order was cancelled, I cancelled the Direct Debit shortly thereafter
19. I called PlusNet immediately and I’m happy to report that,
20. PlusNet are taking up the service on my existing phone line within a week
21. This is something that Virgin Media apparently need a fortnight to do
22. Therefore, as explained previously, I shall not be making any payment to Virgin Media because,
23. I have no balance to pay off with Virgin Media, and
24. On all of the evidence before me to date, I wouldn’t believe that Virgin Media are capable of delivering an uninterrupted service, for all the tea in China.
25. By sending me your email, you have gone one step further to demonstrate the almost exalted level of ineffectiveness and buffoonery that the internal lines of communication within Virgin Media operate at.
26. I shall, of course, be publishing both your email and this reponse, on the internet (https://brennigjones.com/blog/?p=4597). For just as I am a champion of good customer service and am passionate that prime examples should be praised and rewarded, I also believe that fucking atrocious examples of customer service, even when delivered by a partially-trained group of highly-disinterested koala beears, it should be held up for a worldwide audience to google and ridicule.

You tick the latter box, obviously.

Regards,

Brennig Jones.

___________________________

 
Dear Mr Brennig Jones

Account Number 234927701

We’ve just received news from your bank that your Direct Debit with us
has been cancelled.

In order to enjoy uninterrupted service, you’ll need to make sure that
you pay off any balance that you may have owing on your account. You can
do this by visiting our website at: virgin.net/customers/my_account and
following the links.

You can also use this site to re-set your Direct Debit instruction.

To talk through any of this or if you are having trouble paying your
bill, you can e-mail us at credit@virgin.net with your query and a
member of our team will get back to you. Or, if you’d prefer, call our
team on 0845 454 2222*.

If you have already contacted us in the last few days, please ignore
this message

Yours sincerely,

Steve Atkinson
Head of Payment Processing
Virgin Media Payments Ltd

*If you are a Virgin Media Talk customer call costs are detailed on our
website www.virgin.net/allyours/talk/callcosts/ Call costs from mobile
phones and other networks may vary.

——————————————————————–
Save Paper – Do you really need to print this e-mail?

Visit www.virginmedia.com for more information, and more fun.

This email and any attachments are or may be confidential and legally privileged
and are sent solely for the attention of the addressee(s). If you have received this
email in error, please delete it from your system: its use, disclosure or copying is
unauthorised. Statements and opinions expressed in this email may not represent
those of Virgin Media. Any representations or commitments in this email are
subject to contract.

Registered office: 160 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QA.
Registered in England and Wales with number 2591237