Virgin Customer Support...opinions please

[Rik]

Hello people.....was going to sign up with Virgin BB, but am now having second thoughts.

I emailed them a week ago to find what the "lead time" was for signing up...ie, I didn't want them to take money from my account until just after pay day, like most other bills....but I've not received a reply yet. Sounds like they don't want my business.

Anyone else had trouble?

 

[lighterboy]

Virgin.net use DataStream so you wont be able to move to a different ISP if Virgin are crap... Be careful in your choice of ISP (choose IPStream for an easy life).

Cheap doesnt not equal good.

 

[Rik]

Virgin.net use DataStream so you wont be able to move to a different ISP if Virgin are crap... Be careful in your choice of ISP (choose IPStream for an easy life).

Cheap doesnt not equal good.

thanks for that tip...they are off my shortlist now then....I guess NTL BB must be the same as Virgin is "powered" by NTL...am i correct?

 

[Pimpernel]

I am on their £17.99 BB package.
The service (speed/reliability) are second to none.
e.g. ADSLguide says speed today 480 down/245 up. Never less than 477/245.
Email customer support is crap. Uses 'Standard' stock letters to reply. Unless THEY want something!
I have never needed to phone in (see speed/reliability above), so can't give an opinion.

HTH

 

[rollinstone]

Email customer support is crap. Uses 'Standard' stock letters to reply. Unless THEY want something!
I have never needed to phone in (see speed/reliability above), so can't give an opinion.

HTH

Same here, only time I had speedy email service was when I changed payment option to Direct Debit because of late delivery of debit card. :crap:
One would imagine prospect of new customer would make them move.
Also good to know about that broadband stuff.

 

[Chuckie]

I joined their £17.99 service four weeks ago. I've had no problems with speed or connection. A shame they didn't manage to send the modem before my line was activated. It took over a week to travel 10 miles. They didn't reply to any of the emails I sent either.

I joined them because it looked easy to move to another ISP. Lighterboy, can you please explain why I got this wrong. Does this mean I can't transfer to someone like Metronet or NDO?

 

[Pimpernel]

I think you'll find he is wrong. As far as I know it is IPstream, and migrations have taken place.

 

[Rik]

I think you'll find he is wrong. As far as I know it is IPstream, and migrations have taken place.

if he is wrong, then they'll go back on my shortlist

 

[stormuk]

What customer support!

Poor support but yes you can migrate

Only real reason I left was they wouldnt go faster than .5M!

At Zen now thinking about Pipex

 

[mape]

Rik, I would think twice if I were you.

You will NOT know whether you're IPstream (migrations possible now) or Datastream (not possible at the moment) until AFTER you've registered. Most new customers ARE on Datastream, and this means you may have to wait for up to 6 months before you can migrate away, or go through a "cease and reprovide" break in your connection

You will NOT get anyone from their customer support to tell you this.
In fact you will NOT get anyone from their customer support team at all - emails go unanswered for days (1 week is the minimum for a non-standard reply), and premium rate number is expensive and staff at the other end untrained (I had one serious problem with my connection, I ended up telling THEM how I resolved it (packet size set on my router...).

Yes, speed is OK and connections reliable, but 18 quid get you a lot more these days. There's talk of a Virgin 1Mbit connection around April, but the pricing for this is still unclear. It's your decision in the end, but if I were you, I would take them off my shortlist now. Also have a look here for more on Virgin and other ISPs

 

[Rik]

Well, thanks for your comments guys.

I have unfortunately for Virgin, taken them off my shortlist. Due to the comments here, and the fact that they took 2 weeks to respnd to my email. Seems as though they don't want my custom if it takes them THAT long.

To be honest, if they had replied within 2 or 3 days, i may well have signed up...but i guess their slow response helped me make up my mind.

The search continues....