The deal is duly done (it’s really a very simple matter).
“Your connection will be made on Wednesday…” (that’s 19 April)
“Oh, sorry, we’ve had to change our plans… make that Thursday…”
“Sorry, another change… make that Monday…”
“Your service is ready to go…” (Monday 24th)
“Your Home Tech Expert’s visit is tomorrow…” (referring to Tuesday)
Tuesday: Home Tech Expert (HTE) duly arrives… (we’d booked one, because we’re useless at technology stuff)
There’s something wrong: the connection isn’t working…
HTE reckons the engineer who ‘connected’ us, remotely, on Monday failed to carry out the necessary checks…
HTE departs telling us that, when the lights on our new hub turn to blue, it means our connection has been completed…
“It’s a good job you’ve still got your Virgin Media link…” (he really said this!)
“How long will it take before everything is sorted?” (we ask HTE)…
“Don’t know… perhaps a couple of days?” (says HTE)… HTE departs.
The following day (our hub lights still aren’t blue!)…
We check our emails for updates (none)…
We check online (there appears to be no way for us to actually SPEAK to anyone)…
There isn’t even a way of us getting specific online help (or even know that someone’s dealing with it)(which they weren’t)…
Cutting a long story short… (choose option 1 blah blah etc etc).
We end up being asked to text the word ‘fault’ to a particular number…
“We will then run some tests to see how your service is performing…” (it’s NOT!!).
“We got your (fault) message and will get back in touch shortly, usually within 15mins…”
“We’ve passed your case on to one of our agents to call you back within 20 mins (calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes)…”
We hear nothing… 4 hours later, I reply to their text: “still waiting”.
“We’ve passed your case on to one of our agents to call you back within 20 mins (calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes)…”
“Your service should now be back up and running. But if you’re still having problems simply reply ‘1’… (it obviously WASN’T!).
But hey, we then DO receive a call from one of their agents (and actually she was very helpful)… she undertakes remote checks and eventually confirms that they’ve booked an engineer appointment for us on Friday 28th… (phew!).
Having listened to our frustrations, she asks if I’d like to register a complaint…
Yes, I would (because the process has been something of a nightmare)… she makes notes.
Within a couple of hours, we receive this text: “Based on your recent interaction, how likely are you to recommend XX to friends or family?...” You couldn’t make it up!!
“Your bill is ready…” (Wednesday evening email). Really? We haven’t even been connected yet!!
“We’ve closed your complaint… thanks for getting in touch with us recently” (Wednesday evening email) Really?… hang on, it’s not yet sorted!!
“Our engineer will be visiting you shortly, he won’t need to come into your home, but might need to get into the main building…” (Friday)
Engineer Jake duly arrived and immediately apologised that he DID need to get into our flat (one of the outlets apparently wasn’t working - and he also detected a fault in the street service cabinet “210 metres away”). Actually, Jake was brilliant and sorted out the fault and connected our system (Friday).
I actually managed to SPEAK to someone at XX (Sunday) – in response to a text reply I’d sent to one of their previous messages – and, amazingly, they’ve set up by their Home Tech Expert to come on Wednesday (3rd)!
He came. He was freelance, he explained (he didn’t work for XX). He asked if he could park his car in our parking space (fine, but such things have not previously happened with plumbers, electricians and the like that we'd booked at other times... seemed strange).
Personable and clearly had good engineering knowledge but, strangely, wasn’t really able to answer some of my specific queries… and I found it frustrating that he always seemed to answer my questions while typing on his phone at the same time.
Anyway, it happened… we’re now connected (even if I don’t yet really know how the system works).
I duly contacted Virgin Media (via chat line) and cancelled our account. This took an hour (but Roberto was very helpful)… and I now know about when (and how much) our final bill will be(!)… and that we’ll also receive a refund within 45 days(!) and that we’ll be sent an “equipment returns package” for us to deal with.
I then contacted (again via chat line) XX (Sougadip was incredibly helpful) to ask some very basic/naïve questions about retaining our current email address (answer: I think we can… but only time will tell). At the end, I thanked him for his patience and help and received this rather amusing (but lovely) reply: “It was lovely chatting with you, you were very co-operative throughout the chat. Trust me you are the most co-operative person we have ever come across. I am sure your friends and family are happy to get you in their life as we are glad to get you as our customer”. If I was going to have a gravestone (which I’m not!), these words would take pride of place on it!!
It’s only taken 14 days, but we think we’re there (although there’ll no doubt be teething problems - or worse - ahead!).
No comments:
Post a Comment