Customers of Virgin Media UK Suffering Account Update Bug
The web development team at broadband ISP, pay TV and phone provider Virgin Media UK (VMO2) must be seriously overworked because it appears as if they’ve been unable to resolve a small but annoying bug for well over a year, which prevents some customers from being able to update their contact phone number online.
Normally it should be possible for a customer of the service to login via their online account pages (MyVM) – either via the app or a web browser – and select to edit (update) their contact number. But this appeared to be disrupted after Virgin Media made some “changes” to the system back in late May 2022 (here), which is roughly around when the first reports of the aforementioned bug also started (example mega thread).
Customers who experience this issue tend to find that, upon trying to ‘save‘ a change to their contact number, the system simply outputs a generic error message: “Sorry the changes you made were not saved, please try again.” Customers have now been ‘trying again’ for the best part of well over a year, and yet the issue persists.
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The way around this is to ask Virgin Media’s support staff to manually update the entry on your behalf, but that’s far from ideal. A spokesperson for VMO2 told ISPreview: “We’re aware that a very small number of customers may have experienced difficulty changing their contact phone number on their account, due to a technical issue. We have been able to resolve these on a case-by-case basis and our teams are working on fixing the underlying cause.”
Hopefully it won’t take another year before it’s resolved.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Thanks for looking into this Mark.
I have an old landline number on my account, attempted to update with my mobile number but it just won’t stick. Seems like a BIG waste of customer support time to keep updating manually rather than fixing the root cause.
I have not been able to get into my email account since June,I have reported it to various people, used the forum waste of time and effort,
I have been a Virgin Customer for years when it was taken over from NTL in fact !
I have to call Virgin every single month that has been for the the last 8months as I am being billed for £15.99 Netflix every month that I don’t have ???
My bill should be £83 but no it can be anything from £106 and upwards.
Nobody answers the phone or is capable of correcting the issue
Kind Regards
BRiddle
Hi Bernadette. Likewise I am the account holder and have been ever since for probably 30 years or more. I have forgotten my password which you cannot change neither will Virgin Media. Also it is about time VM should not be scared of using email or take phone calls as at present you cannot contact a human nor send an email. Even their website and app do NOT have all answers to customer queries as they say they do. Terrible customer service.
I have had the very same problem since March 2023 after they issued me a 360 controller since then I have been charged £15.99 every month for Netflix. I call them every month they promised they have sorted it but they still charge me the following month, this month they gave me another refund of £147 to cover the over charging for Netflix.
Mark – there is more to the Netflix thing than meets the eye.
Maybe that’s worth digging into 😉
I started getting billed for Netflix from Virgin 3 months after I left them! Had to ring up and wait on hold for ages to get them to cancel bill. They insisted I had signed up to Netflix from their TV box in the 3 months after the service had been cancelled – how that is possible I don’t know.
Aware of this and investigating.
It’s a big problem internally and a year on still people are being billed for Netflix erroneously, even on accounts that don’t have TV services so couldn’t have even added it themselves.
Customer service agents have been told many different ways of fixing it but now advised just fill in a form and hope it might get fixed but you know the customer will just call back because it won’t be. Often just get an auto email back saying the person the form goes to is on annual leave etc. We can’t believe issue still going on ourselves and feel bad for the customers when nothing can be done to fix it.
If Mark can actually get answers that vmo2 staff can’t then would be good to hear!
This has been like this for many years for me. I’ve tried a month or so before each contract is due to expire, yet each time it fails. Even when you give VM your number over the phone it doesn’t change. Although virgin do use the number I gave them when phoning back with “a new deal”.
Im with virgin media one of their people who knocked my door 2yrs ago lived up my street and it’s the worst thing I have ever done i was with TALKTALK and whenever there was something I went onto and it would say refresh to see what you wanted to see or do with TALKTALK I’d press the refresh button and it was there no problem but since I’d been with virgin I’d press the refresh button and never ever has it ever worked and I only have it for broadband for my son’s gaming console and the price is ridiculous I’m thinking of changing my broadband after Christmas.
You might want to try using a full stop occasionally to make “sentences” so that you can be understood. I’d also recommend reading what you have written to see if it makes sense before hitting “post”.
I had a virgin account then I stopped using virgin, then 1months later got virgin but can’t use app because of old account virgin have been useless and no customer service. I wouldn’t recommend them
If you mean that you can’t re-use the email address you had as your last username, that sounds irritating
You can re-register with a different email address
Or go to the VM forum for some advice
If your issue gets picked up by staff, they should be able to get you sorted
Is anyone else having problems not being able to make outgoing calls from their land line? Any number I use is calling Virgin Media, not the person I am actually trying to phone??
There are 2 potential reasons for this:
1) You have an overdue balance
2) You are in an area where copper phone services are being moved to VOIP – if you have had letters regarding the switchover and haven’t responded, you will be set to call VM if you pick up the phone
How about this one 4th August spoke to virgin representative and said ok ill change to virgin on the 5th August changed my mind because i couldn’t keep old phone number filled in there cancellation form signed it and posted in the mail received text from virgin stating would receive kit on the 8th August and it did using there return label posted back on the 9th August have tracking number too been on chat line explaining that I have cancelled and returned kit and they are still billing me sofar £241 also sent registered letter no agnolagement from them atall now in the hands of omnibusmen half my pension gone
I like “omnibusmen”. Presumably a driver on an omnibus.
The government needs to tackle VM. How are they allowed to operate like this? They should be forced to operate a fully functioning customer service with a proper, fit for use customer service centre!
Why should government get involved? It’s a competitive market, and if people don’t like Virgin Media’s awful customer service they can take their business elsewhere. VM is a business run commercially by adults, they choose to have persistently crap customer service and that is not illegal (well, sometimes crashes into Ofcom’s General Conditions, but that’s for Ofcom and Ombudsman Services to consider).
I was with VM for a long time, and resented their poor customer service, since I’ve changes suppliers it’s ceased to be a problem.
I been with out Internet phone line and emergency box for my disabled daughter know for 2 day and still nothing Hooe this not going t last much longer
I have the same issue
I have this issue but the thought of contacting Virgin and navigating their terrible customer service makes me want to just ignore the problem.
Pretty much my position, they might change something in addition to the phone number, for the worse.
It will never be fixed, its like the titanic, nobody knows who’s in charge of anything but everyone you chat with will tell you they’ll fix it, but nothing ever gets sorted, just excuse and more excuse. And those Indians in that call centre… my god, they know nothing but talk a good talk, if not rude when questioned about thinks.
I’m glad openreach is giving them the final nail to their coffin…
Do not, under any circumstances use Virgin – you will regret it – unless you want a nervous breakdown.
I have been with Virgin for about 30 years. Their system went wrong this year and their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced.
I bought a new Macbook Air on 9.10 23 at an Apple shop. The assistant was unable to transfer all data from my old one because of “a problem with Virgin.” Not the fault of Apple. It was a problem with Virgin. This problem has been reported widely.
I have been unable to access emails and cannot change my password. I have called Virgin numerous times (more than 20) over the last 2 months and they cannot change my password and will not fix their problem.
One person did actually confirm that it is a Virgin problem – not mine – and they will fix it. They haven’t fixed it and it is clear they do not want to. All they want to do is get rid of whoever is on the phone to them.
I have spent hours on the phone, usually to people who speak with such a strong accent that I can barely understand what they are saying. They say they will call back, they don’t. They said they would send an engineer who didn’t come. They are rude, they talk over me, they leave me on hold for ever (a standard tactic hoping customers will hang up I think).
One person gave me a temporary password, it never worked. One person told me to set up a 3rd party Gmail email account, which I did. Each person I spoke to after that said they didn’t know why.
It seemed the only solution was to set up a contract with another provider. I chose BT/EE. It was easy, cheap and quick. Their call centre is in the UK and the people I spoke to couldn’t be more helpful.
I called Virgin again today – for the entire afternoon to multiple people – having to repeat everything to every new person. Eventually they put me through to Gadget Rescue Team. I was transferred so many times I didn’t know who I was talking to. One of the recorded messages was that I would be charged for Gadget Rescue – to sort out Virgin’s problem!
They said they are now unable to give me a password because I am with BT/EE – so they can’t solve their problem – and I can’t use my new Apple computer.
The last person said he cannot provide any help because I am with BT/EE and I don’t have Virgin broadband. I said I was still receiving emails on my old computer addressed to my Virgin email address and I am still paying Virgin by Direct Debit so I must still have Virgin broadband. He wouldn’t listen and kept talking over me. I was so exasperated that my hands started to shake and I thought I was having an attack of some sort. I could no longer speak so I had to hang up.
Be warned.