Room For Improvement
"Big companies should be seen to be squeaky clean and above board. Unfortunately so many of them just can't resist trying it on"
A Kind Of Fraud! One would think Richard Branson has enough money already and that companies operating under the auspices of the Virgin banner would be fair and morally decent! However, even though very helpful in some areas, it has become quite clear that Virgin Media have at least some policies in place that take advantage of their customers trust, robbing them of pennies here and pounds there, using a variety of devious ploys.
Unlimited Not Unlimited! For example, the unlimited calls that Virgin offer are not unlimited at all, in fact there is a limit of 60 minutes to each call and if you don't redial, after your 60 minutes you start getting charged quite substantially. The correct advertising phraseology should read along the lines of 'unlimited calls (up to 60 minutes at a time)'. But somewhat conveniently Virgin have consistently failed to come clean about this. I wonder how much this 'oversight' and 'omission' in their advertising has made them over the years.
Moving the Goalposts! Virgin say they "reserve the right to vary the inclusive minutes and/or the countries included within the Talk International packages" and put the onus on the customer to regularly check the Virgin Media website where they will condescend to publish the changes. No doubt you will have to dig for them and of course most of us have got nothing better to do than to be on the Virgin Media website 'checking' every five minutes. This means they can have you over at any time they like and customers are completely unaware until they see the anomaly in the bills (if they do). Of course they're not the only ones that like to put the onus on the customer. Other companies, such as Santander and Virgin Mobile also like to use this ploy, knowing that customers are usually preoccupied with other things in life and can be less than vigilant as a result.
By Chance: I only found out about the excessive charges, taken without my knowledge, permission or agreement, by chance, when they tried to stitch me up on the installation of a replacement box, informing me it would be one price and then charging me substantially more. Despite three previous phone calls from me, to make sure this didn't happen (where I was assured it wouldn't), it still did! On phoning for a fourth time to sort it out (of course I've got nothing better to do) I queried my bill breakdown and was then informed that the price I had been paying per minute with my Talk International plan had doubled and in some instances had gone up to a pound a minute. I was basically told 'tough', that's how it is! And so they helped themselves to quite a few additional pounds on that occasion too. If I hadn't phoned about the other issue, I wouldn't have found out when I did and it could have been substantially worse for sure. A few pounds here and few pounds there from all customers thay have, must give someone a nice little Christmas bonus.
How Rude! After enquiring as to who was responsible for this underhanded behaviour, the 'extremely hard to understand' customer services rep, probably located somewhere like Timbuktu, told me she would report my feedback. I was very patient with her during the laboured exchange of communications, but asked her repeatedly who was responsible. However, when she realised I wasn't going to be fobbed off with her limp response, her patience certainly ran out and she just hung up on me! Nice!
Not All Bad! On a good note, Virgin Mobile's customer services have been exceptionally helpful in the past. They gave me a free package top-up when I was in hospital and had used my call allowance and have helped my daughter on two occasions with data top-up, where she had used her 1GB data allowance whilst being away. So ten out of ten there. These gestures of good will were appreciated, however, such gestures don't exactly 'cost' them anything, it's just that they don't actually earn them anything extra. However, they have certainly had extra money over and above what I agreed to in a number of dubious and underhanded instances.
Still Limited: I was caught out with the call divert from my landline to my mobile, which although it's advertised as unlimited Virgin to Virgin, is still limited to 60 minutes at a time. A friend of mine phoned me for a chat and it diverted to my mobile. Taking Virgin at their word and thinking the call was unlimited (big mistake) we talked for some considerable time. I then find out on examining my bill that I'm getting charged an additinal £27.00, due to being billed at 45p a minute for every minute over the hour. I was not impressed.
Serious Money: I complained to Virgin Mobile pointing out the falsehood, and asked why the advertised unlimited Virgin to Virgin was actually limited after all. More to the point, why was this not properly made known? Of course, I was given no satisfactory answer. I was, however, rebated, but only half the amount. I wonder how many people get caught like this and how many just pay up and suffer it. I now have an auto cutoff on my mobile to prevent a repeat, but at 45p a minute, they still managed to squeeze some serious additional money out me.
Terms and Conditions: Customer services will normally tell you all of the information is tucked away in the terms and conditions, if anyone ever reads them, but key points should be clearly advertised up front, and that should not be too much to ask of any company that wants to be seen to be respectable, decent and above board. It shouldn't be up to the customers to point out the need for honesty and transparency to companies like Virgin Media. After all, we all like to know where we stand!
Taking Advantage! Like any relationship, once you've been in bed with Virgin Media for a while you start find out about the undesirable elements. Of course, they tell you want you want to hear, but it's what they don't tell you that's more the point. Once you've had some experience with them, you find out where the catches are, however, Virgin Media currently seem to have a deliberate upper management policy that says it is quite appropriate and acceptable to spin you a yarn and take advantage of you. You won't be a virgin for long!