My telephone failed on 4th July and after 36 days Virgin Media engineers have failed to repair it and can not or will not give a time as to when repairs will be made. Earlier rewiring (pull through) work was considered incompetently performed after their first attempt back on 14 July. I have so far probably expended nearly 80 pounds on mobile phone charges just dealing with their customer service department alone.

I urge those thinking of changing to virgin media telecommunications not to transfer as the service if anything goes wrong is absolutely dreadful.

This is a company that does not know the meaning of customer care.

I have had truly appalling service from Virgin Media following installation of TV, broadband and phone package on 16 July. I wrote to formally notify them that I would like to avail the 30 day money back guarantee and cancel the service with Virgin media. I have tried on numerous occasions to communicate via phone but have either been cut off or have been left waiting on the phone for over 30 mins.

no contracts have been signed so I have the right to get out.

As mentioned in the many phone calls to the Virgin media team, after waiting for 6 hours, the engineer finally turned up at 7pm. He hurriedly installed the connection after complaining bitterly about Virgin Media on a corporate level. We had agreed that our BT no. would be transferred but this was not arranged and we have been connected to a completely different area code. We live in Ash vale and the code we have been connected to is that of Frimley. We were also rather intimidated by the rudeness of the engineer and if I was in the house on my own I would have felt rather unsafe. He also left all his litter behind. To think that there was a £25 installation charge for the pleasure of this awful experience is simply mortifying.

After speaking to the customer dept on 17 July, they arranged for an engineer to visit the following week on 24 July. I took the day off work and spent 6 hrs waiting. No one turned up and there was no apology from Virgin Media.

It has also emerged that our monthly bill is rather more than was agreed. I was expecting to pay £57 for XL package, broadband and phone line but have now been told that this is going to be £69. This is £25 per month in excess of what we were paying for a like for like package from Sky. I also received more channels from Sky for the same price for example all the Asian channels. Once again, Customer services assured me that the problem was fixed and that my bill/month would be for £57 but I have this week received an invoice for £67.

In view of the above, I have now decided to cancel my direct debit at the bank but have not heard a thing from Virgin media.

About 3 months ago, I requested for the downgrading on my Internet service from 4mb to 2 mb, but when I received my bill, I noticed that I was charged the 4mb's price which is £25.

I rang up the customer service right away 2 months ago to reconfirm, even have spoken to the manager about it. I was told that this matter would be sorted right away, and would have £15 refund, as I would get a £10/month deal for the 2mb internet service.

Sadly, the bill in the following months I've been charged for £25 each month AGAIN! I called up every month to alter this mistake and requested the FULL refund, the Virgin Media is just giving me empty promises.

Yesterday (1st Aug 2007), I rang up again, and the customer service told me that the manager would keep in touch with me today. I have waited for whole day but negative... However I called up again, and spoken to 3 different customer services individual, now they give me a deal which is £10/ month for the next 6 months, and £20 refund.

I am totally disagree with it! As I suppose to get this £10/month 3 months ago, but I was being charged £15 extra for 3 months, this is totally so WRONG!

Even though I have always paid my monthly subscription to virgin media through direct debt, I have received two letters through a debt collecting company working on behalf of Virgin. I have sent letters to Virgin which are not responded to, I have spoke to operators who promise to deal with my complaint, and get back to me, who never do. I e-mail and I am told I will be contacted which I am not. I am now left in a constant worry to these debt collectors turning up or blacklisting me, even though I have always paid my bills. And I have all the statements to prove so. I am afraid to disconnect as Virgin will then charge to do so, even though I have done nothing wrong other than to pay by direct debt.

Virgin Media have the worst customer service and help lines I have ever experienced in my entire life! I only went with them because I used to have NTL and their service was far from great but

I signed up for broadband and TV @ £27.00 per month. OK. So I was told that the direct debit would be taken as £25.00 broadband and £2.00 for TV - strange but OK. This is because their TV payments are on a different system apparently.

I called them on the day of installation as I was disappointed with the amount of TV channels - I was told by the girl on the phone that I could have a free upgrade to XL for 6 months; cool right?! WRONG!!

Over the next couple of months they charged me double; when I contacted customer services and after nearly 1 hour and 15 minutes on the phone; was told things such as "why would we upgrade you free of charge?" and "we would never have said that". I did explain to them that what they're doing is completely illegal - consumers have rights, but still they refuse to refund me.

The bills from Virgin are still incorrect and they are still charging me wrongly – I have now canceled all the direct debits and my services have been revoked; which is an inconvenience but they won’t cancel my contract either – f**k them, see you in court!

As consumers we are covered by the law and I’m sure that must include:-
The Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended)
The Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982
The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000

I am now going to write to the CEO of Virgin Media and ask for an explanation and refund to sort this out once and for all; failing this I will contact Ofcom (http://www.ofcom.com), after that the bank as they may have breached the direct debit guarantee (but I need to check this first) and maybe BBC watchdog. If every disgruntled customer does the same we have more of a fighting chance against them. This company cannot get away with the mistreatment of its customers and someone needs to be accountable and resolve these issues and stop selling services on the say-so of false information.

Joey

PS. In case anyone wants it the address for the CEO of Virgin Media it is:

Steve Burch
Chief Executive Officer
Virgin Media Ltd.
Media House
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
RG27 9XA